Clearing the Testing Minefield

Summary:

As testers, we constantly have to dodge all sorts of obstacles that get in our way. Our challenge is to ease our way through this minefield, so that we can maximize the time we spend adding value to the project, and reduce the time we spend responding to non-productive diversions. This paper provides strategies for meeting this challenge and achieving real value-added testing.

About the author

Donna O’Neill

Donna O’Neill is the Managing Director of IV&V Australia, an independent software testing and independent verification and validation (IV&V) consultancy based in Sydney, Australia. Ms O’Neill has over sixteen years experience in software testing and software IV&V in a wide range of application areas, including e-commerce, telecommunications, biomedical, banking, client/server, and embedded systems for both commercial and defense customers. Her technical interests include developing testing strategies, test process improvement, and training software testers in risk-based testing strategies. She spends much of her consulting time evaluating clients’ current testing strategies, recommending improvements, and providing training and management to project teams. Ms O’Neill is a regular speaker at international conferences on software testing. She is the Program Chair of the AsiaSTAR software testing conference (2001-2003), a judge of the Standards Australia Design Awards (2000-2003), and the Chairman of the National Association of Testing Authorities (NATA) Accreditation Advisory Committee. She can be contacted at [email protected].