Articles

"Hello" in different languages Linguistic Testing: Setting Up Your Software for Global Quality

Globalization is an important step in ensuring your product is ready for worldwide markets, and linguistic testing is a crucial piece of the puzzle. This article looks at what linguistic testing is, product examples, and how locale-specific cultures play an important part in enabling linguistic support. Here’s how to design the best strategy for implementing a linguistic test effort.

Mukesh Sharma's picture Mukesh Sharma
Keyboard buttons depicting accessibility concerns Accessibility Testing 101: Getting Started and Catching Up

As with any other quality attribute, it is ideal for accessibility to be incorporated in the early stages of design and engineering. But organizations that didn’t initially take accessibility into account can still address it now—it’s better late than never. Here are the main attributes you should consider from the design, development, and testing angles, whether you're building accessibility in from the beginning or adding it now.

Rajini  Padmanaban's picture Rajini Padmanaban
notification icon Considering User Experience when Testing Push Notifications in Messaging Apps

The functionality of a messenger app's push notifications is expected to be the same regardless of the device or OS being used. This article discusses how testing these notifications involves keeping in mind the different states of the device and the app, and why the functional configuration audit is just as important as the physical.

Ritinder Kaur's picture Ritinder Kaur
Help keyboard button Overcoming Cognitive Friction to Engineer Better Software

The problems customers face are difficult to anticipate while developing software. However, looking at support issues can give a clearer idea about how to look for defects in the future. Sometimes users don’t know how to find certain information; other times, software doesn’t work as expected. In both cases, cognitive friction is at play.

Nilanjan Bhattacharya's picture Nilanjan Bhattacharya

Better Software Magazine Articles

Cross Platform Development 10 Lessons Learned in Cross-Platform Development

Building an app for a single platform is difficult, but designing, implementing, and testing an app targeting multiple operating system platforms can be next to impossible. The secret balances upfront design with customer feedback.

Dewey Hou's picture Dewey Hou
Failed system update Reducing the Risk of Failed System Updates

As software applications become more powerful and complex, users are demanding seamless and automatic updates. There is nothing worse than a “bricked system” after a failed update. The selection of a reliable file system is a vital component of the software update process.

Thom Denholm's picture Thom Denholm
Seven Guidelines for a Great Web API

Web APIs have opened up a brave new world for app collaboration. James Higginbotham presents a series of guidelines that every programmer should consider in the design and implementation of a great API developer experience.

James Higginbotham's picture James Higginbotham
Incorporating User Experience into Early Agile Cycles

Chris Nodder explores the emerging need to focus on a software app's user experience. It doesn’t have to cost a fortune to perform some basic user experience analysis as long as it is done early and tested throughout a project’s lifecycle.

Chris Nodder's picture Chris Nodder

Interviews

Don’t Panic—the Internet of Things Isn’t Going to Change Your World: An Interview with Jonathon Wright

In this on-site interview from STARWEST 2016, Jonathon Wright, the director of software engineering at CA Technologies and a speaker at the conference, joins Josiah Renaudin to discuss the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, scaling for load, and virtual reality.

Josiah Renaudin's picture Josiah Renaudin
STAREAST Speaker Discovering the Value of Your Data: An Interview with Shauna Ayers and Catherine Cruz Agosto
Video

In this interview, two STAREAST speakers explain how organizations are discovering the value in their data. Catherine Cruz Agosto and Shauna Ayers define data profiling and its importance, delve into different strategies you can use, and discuss how to get the most out of your data.

Jennifer Bonine's picture Jennifer Bonine
Jason Arbon What Mobile and IoT Mean for Your Career: An Interview with Jason Arbon
Podcast

In this interview, Mobile Dev + Test keynote speaker Jason Arbon explains how mobile has claimed victory over PCs and tablets. He also discusses the future of IoT, why it's currently a bit overstated, and what the next big technological revolution might be. 

Josiah Renaudin's picture Josiah Renaudin
Kevin Rohling discusses the Internet of Things The First Wave of IoT—Blood in the Water: An Interview with Kevin Rohling
Podcast

In this interview, Mobile Dev + Test keynote speaker Kevin Rohling digs deeply into the Internet of Things. He explains how companies need to improve their UX, the security risks with becoming connected, and what devices he's excited to see in the future.

Josiah Renaudin's picture Josiah Renaudin

Conference Presentations

Using Design Thinking to Create Better Test Cases
Slideshow

Designing good test cases can be described as an art. With test cases being written with a focus on business, testers should be part of the discovery and design phase of the project, and the business drivers should dictate test case design. But how can we ensure we are focusing on the user and bringing the biggest value possible in this phase? Larissa Rosochansky will describe what design thinking is, how it relates to the testing methodology, and how to use it in the design phase of your project. She will also show you how to better frame the business drivers and select the persona and most important exercises from a wide range of possibilities. After this introduction, Larissa will demonstrate how to apply the exercises, create the agenda for a design thinking workshop, select the team to ensure you have a diverse and multidisciplinary group, and document the results.

Larissa Rosochansky
STARCANADA Devices and Desires: As Humans How Do We Experience Software?
Slideshow

We consume and still we desire more. More devices, more apps, more data, more bandwidth, more connectivity. The more we have, the more we want …. We assume that to be true – those of us who work in the software industry. But is that true? To understand what is really required of our...

Isabel Evans
STARWEST 2018 Testing Imprecise Requirements
Slideshow

Articles on abc.net and elsewhere reported that Volvo has recently discovered a non-traditional requirement: Any self-driving vehicle approved for use outside Australian cities must recognize kangaroos on or near the roadway and take proper actions. The kangaroo’s bounce confused the large animal detector! In this session, industry expert David Gelperin shares a new perspective on the value of imprecise requirements and explores the nature of testing them. Excess precision may hamper the development of optimal solutions by excluding effective designs. Imprecise statements reduce the risk of excess precision and signal the need for analysis to understand their deeper meaning. Intentionally imprecise requirements entail a mixture of research and development and are a valuable supplement to traditional requirements.

David Gelperin
STARWEST 2018 What's an API and How Do I Test It?
Slideshow

API-based applications have become ubiquitous in the past few years. Yet many of us still really don't know what an API is from the inside out. Moreover, many of us don't know much about how to comprehensively test them! Join Paul Merrill to learn what everyone is doing and talking about, related to APIs: microservices, REST, endpoints, requests, request methods, and responses. Paul demonstrates four free tools you can use to directly interact with a simple API: curl, the browser, Postman, and Java (with Rest Assured). Learn techniques for testing APIs at the service level and how to test APIs faster with greater coverage and quicker test automation. Walk away with an understanding of what JSON is, how APIs use JSON, and how to go about verifying that it is correct. With new knowledge and skills, you’ll do a better testing job and give more valuable feedback to the API designers and developers.

Paul Merrill

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