Increasing complexity and functionality of digital systems--coupled with time-to-market constraints--pose quality challenges. Strategies often include a mix of new development with the integration of pre-existing components from multiple sources. Ann Miller presents some of the software engineering and software management lessons learned from eight years on a large commercial satellite program, as well as several years on military satellite programs. This presentation focuses on the planned evolution of large-scale systems from the design and build of smaller components based on an end-to-end system backbone.

In testing utopia, all software products submitted for testing have thorough and comprehensive documentation describing how every program function should work. On planet Earth, however, test engineers usually have to make do under less-than-ideal circumstances. It's not uncommon for test engineers to be asked to verify the functionality of a critical legacy system which has no documented requirements whatsoever. While there are many reasons this can happen, the result is the same: You assume the role of an archeologist sifting through the layers of clues to reconstruct the specifications. Patricia Ensworth gives you instructions and tools so you'll be ready to roll up your sleeves and dig.

Building an environment to successfully test wireless intelligent network peripherals presents an array of complex problems to resolve. The target environment integrates various SS7 protocols, a proprietary protocol, and voice recognition subsystem--and requires a controlled and synchronized test environment. Learn how a test automation approach allows the software engineer control over the peripheral interfaces and provides for the testing of the entire call flow sequence, its initiation and consequential message traffic. Discover how this approach provides for function testing as well as scalability for automated performance, load, and stress testing.

This presentation relates a software test lab's real-world experiences performing load testing for scalability on three Web sites. Besides methodology, it also covers the tools employed, client expectations before launch, and how the findings from the testing were applied to help clients correctly scale their sites. Learn why this type of testing is the most effective way to validate design and hardware architecture, plus identify potholes before they end up on the information superhighway.