Remember comic book and cartoon heroes who scaled tall buildings, had x-ray vision, and could turn back time? Software test expert James Bach sees some parallels in what testers need to do to root out bugs. In this week's column James shares some "secret tools" that will extend your testing powers!

Creating effective management control instead of bureaucratic procedural "hoops" saves time and cuts development costs. But well-defined procedures are necessary to keep documentation in sync with the rest of the pieces of the project. In this article, Gill discusses specific documentation-process elements that will help improve the overall development lifecycle.

Testers are often on the critical path for getting a software release out. They must plan carefully in order to minimize the critical path, while still doing a complete job of testing. This schedule pressure is taken to an extreme when a production server must be taken offline in order to deploy the software, and everyone is waiting for the final test results before the system can go live again. Karen Johnson describes her company's carefully planned and orchestrated method for doing a final check of an installed system. Her story is relevant to e-commerce companies as well as IT shops that are under pressure to keep systems updated while minimizing downtime.

A user manual forms the first point of reference for a software customer. Here are some pointers on gauging the effectiveness and usability of a digital manual.