Conference Presentations

Model-Based Security Testing

Preventing the release of exploitable software defects is critical for all applications. Traditional software testing approaches are insufficient, and generic tools are incapable of properly targeting your code. We need to detect these defects before going live, and we need a methodology for detection that is cost-efficient and practical. A model-based testing strategy can be applied directly to the security testing problem. Starting with very simple models, you can generate millions of relevant tests that can be executed in a matter of hours. Learn how to build and refine models to focus quickly on the defects that matter. Kyle Larsen shows you how to create a test oracle that can detect application-specific security defects: buffer overflows, uninitialized memory references, denial of service attacks, assertion failures, and memory leaks.

Kyle Larsen, Microsoft Corporation
Don't Whine - Build Your Own Test Tools

The highly customized hardware-software system making up the new flight operations system for the world's largest airline did not lend itself to off-the-shelf tools for test automation. With a convergence of on-demand, highly available technologies and the requirement to make the new system compatible with hundreds of legacy applications, the test team was forced to build their own test software. Written in Java, these tools have helped increase test coverage and improved the efficiency of the test team. One tool compares the thirty-one year old legacy system with its new equivalent for undocumented differences. Clay Bailey will demonstrate these tools, including one that implements predictive randomization methods and another that decodes and manipulates hexadecimal bit string representations.

  • Custom test tools for a unique systems environment
  • Innovative ways to develop and use Java for writing test tools
Clay Bailey, IBM
Patterns for Reusable Test Cases

You can think of Q-Patterns as a structured set of questions (tests) about the different aspects of a software application under test. They are questions about the system that are categorized, grouped, sorted, and saved for reuse. These Q-Pattern questions can be written ahead of time and stored in a repository of test case templates, developed for requirements and design reviews or built in real-time as a way to both guide and document exploratory testing sessions. See examples of Q-Patterns that Vipul Kocher has developed for error messages, combo boxes, login screens, and list handling. Learn how to associate related Q-Patterns and aggregate them into hierarchical and Web models. Take back the beginnings of Q-Patterns for your test team and organization.

  • Sharable and reusable test case designs
  • Templates to organize requirements and design reviews
Vipul Kocher, PureTesting
Acceptance Testing: What It is and How To Do It Better - in Context

When test engineers use the term "acceptance testing," they might be saying and thinking profoundly different things. Acceptance testing can mean one of at least a dozen approaches to the testing of a product and serve one or more of at least thirty different customer roles in a project. Tests and testing approaches that are appropriate in one context can be unacceptable-even disastrous-in another. When someone asks you to do user acceptance testing, what should you do? When should you do it? How do you determine success? Michael Bolton outlines the ways in which testers and test managers use context-driven thinking to better serve the mission of acceptance testing and develop skills to handle dramatically different testing situations. Apply your context in this interactive session to discover ways to improve your acceptance testing, and learn to use context-driven thinking in other areas, too.

Michael Bolton, DevelopSense
Security Testing: Are You a Deer in the Headlights?

With frequent reports in the news of successful hacker attacks on Web sites, application security is no longer an afterthought. More than ever, organizations realize that security has to be a priority while applications are being developed-not after. Developers and QA professionals are learning that Web application security vulnerabilities must be treated like any other software defect. Organizations can save time and money by identifying and correcting these security defects early in the development process. Ryan English helps you overcome the “deer in the headlights” look when you are asked to begin testing applications for security issues. See real world examples of company Web sites that have been hacked because of vulnerable applications and see how the attacks could have been avoided.

  • Security defect categories and responsibility areas
Ryan English, SPI Dynamics Inc
STAREAST 2006: Testing Outside the Bachs

Simply put, exploratory testing means designing your tests as you perform them. When it's done well, it's a fantastically productive and rewarding approach to testing. However, to do it well requires training, practice, and discipline. Lecture presentations about exploratory testing are a poor substitute for seeing it and doing it. So . . . plan to bring your laptop to this session and test along with James Bach and Jon Bach as they demonstrate exploratory testing in a live testing workshop. Participate or just observe as exploratory testing is performed in real time with play-by-play and color commentary. Learn how to bring structure to this apparently unstructured testing method. See if you can find bugs that they do not find as you test "outside the Bachs"!

James Bach, Satisfice, Inc. and Jon Bach, Quardev Laboratories
Automated Setup and Tear Down of Complex, Multi-tier Test Configurations

Many software test and development teams struggle to test systems with complex set-up steps and multiple configurations. With these interdependent software systems, testers must iterate through very large, multi-dimensional test matrixes (for example, permuting front-, middle-, and back-tier platforms) to complete the test requirements. Testers have the difficult and sometimes seemingly impossible task of duplicating failures and saving the system’s state for later analysis and debugging. With several emerging commercial software tools, software development organizations can successfully implement live-state software test configuration provisioning and capture systems.

James Phillips, Akimbi Systems
Code Coverage: Where Does it Fit?

Many organizations use code coverage almost religiously in their testing. Just as many or more organizations do not use code coverage or have tried it and stopped. If you want to begin using code coverage for the first time or improve its value and usage within your team, come hear what Dale Brenneman has to share. Using real-life examples, Dale explains the value of code coverage analysis as part of a comprehensive test plan and the potential side effects when you do not use code coverage. Find out about the many levels of code coverage and ways to enhance the value of code coverage analysis with other analysis techniques. Take away a step-by-step approach for integrating code coverage analysis into your organization's test process and fitting it into your functional test automation program.

  • The levels of module code coverage: entry, line, statement, branch, Boolean, cyclomatic path, all paths
Dale Brenneman, McCabe Software
A Balanced Scorecard Approach for Assessing Test Value and Success

Internal test metrics--test progress, defect density, and TPI/TMM measures on process improvement-do not reveal the complete picture of test value and success. By comparing common test metrics with those found in the Balanced Business Scorecard--financial, customer, internal, and learning/innovation metrics-we see the need to also report financial and customer measures. Some of these measures are quantitative (such as profits), and others are more qualitative (for example, customer satisfaction). Learn to measure the financial impact of testing through productivity metrics and measures of how testing affects the total cost of quality. Include in your reporting qualitative assessments such as the customers' perception of the usefulness of testing, the visibility of testing on projects, acceptability measures, and estimation accuracy.

  • Set measures for all viewpoints of testing's value and success
Isabel Evans, Testing Solutions Group Ltd
CMMI Level 5: How Our Test Organization Got There

Achieving CMMI® Level 5 Capability as an independent test organization takes a tremendous effort. However, achieving CMMI® Level 5 or a lower level compliance is not out of your reach. Join Kristen Bevans as she describes how the IBM Global Test Organization team successfully completed a formal SEI CMMI® Level 5 SCAMPI Class A appraisal as an independent test organization. The appraisal used the Continuous Representation of the SEI CMMI-SE/SW/IPPD/SS V1.1 Model achieving CMMI® Level 5 in the project planning, project monitoring and control, risk management, and verification process areas. Discover how to develop your CMMI® core team, establish the scope, plan the effort, prepare for an appraisal, and conduct the appraisal with SCAMPI methods. Kristen shares her thoughts on what they would do differently-and what they would do the same-if they had it to do over again.

Kristen Bevans, IBM - Global Testing Organization

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