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Automating Test Case Generation in a Pattern-Based Development Environment

"With deadlines tightening and workloads increasing, software engineers are constantly looking for ways to improve the process of software development. They are streamlining their customers' processes, so why not maximize their own efficiency? One way to do so is with automatic test case generation."

Tim Van Tongeren
Cem Kaner's Bug Advocacy Slides

Time is in short supply. If you want to convince the programmer to spend her time fixing your bug, you may have to sell her on it. (Your bug? How can it be your bug? The programmer made it, not you, right? It's the programmer's bug. Well, yes, but you found it so now it's yours too.) Sales revolves around two fundamental objectives: motivate the buyer (make her WANT to fix the bug); and overcome objections (get past her excuses and reasons for not fixing the bug). This presentation shows you how. (This presentation is available in PowerPoint and PDF format. Please read the usage and licensing information that precedes the content.)

Cem Kaner
A Fable about Developer/Tester Relationships

Does trying to get developers to test their code feel like trying to get your children to clean their rooms? Some say yes. In this column, the author spins a tongue-in-cheek fable about room cleaning strategies. Your comments are invited.

Lee Copeland's picture Lee Copeland
Software Release Cycle Checklist (template)

This is a list of important things to review before and verify during a software release cycle. You may use it as-is or customize it for your situation.

George Hamblen
Installer Software Risk Catalog and Checklist (template)

This template lists potential risks that are common with software that automates the installation of software applications. 

James Bach's picture James Bach
Risk Management: A practical toolkit for identifying, analyzing, and coping with project risks

Risk management must be fully integrated into all the development and maintenance processes for systems. It involves more than applying risk assessment methods to identify and evaluate system risks. To explain this broad approach to risk management, this paper discusses the way in which Requirements Driven Management (RDM) methods contribute to handling risks.

 

TechWell Contributor's picture TechWell Contributor
Testing and Quality?

Software testing and quality are vitally important topics--but they are also deadly dull, real yawners the way most people talk about them. In this column, the author explains why that is so, and offers some suggestions on how to overcome the problem. Basically, he says, people are trying to make a managerial sow's ear out of a technical silk purse.

TechWell Contributor's picture TechWell Contributor
Counting Defects

Defect counts are often considered as measurements of product quality. However, the most important defect count in that respect is by definition unknown; the number of undiscovered errors. Defect counts can be used as indicators of process quality. In doing so, one should avoid assuming simple causal relations. Defect counts can provide useful information but have to be presented with care.

Bert Wijgers's picture Bert Wijgers
The Open Source Test Tool Paradigm

Testing is often seen as an effort to determine the quality of the product at the end of a project, so it needs to be executed when development has finished instead of being a means to deal with risks at the earliest stage possible. Therefore, project budget, is in most cases spent on the processes that actually produce tangible products, at the expense of the testing budget. Whatever budget is left for testing will be spent on people rather than on test tools, especially since most of the mainstream tools are often perceived to be too expensive. A solution to this may be found in the use of open source test tools. With no license fees, the use of open source tools can provide a customer some of the benefits of test automation, without the costs.

Reinder Otter's picture Reinder Otter
Software Development Lifecycle: Defect and Test Case Measurement

This article focuses on how to manage the defect and test case measurement during the software development lifecycle. This should be a practical resource for software developers and project managers.

Steve Miller

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