Test Design

Articles

Keeping Secrets

Test data has long been a challenge for testing; privacy legislation, identify theft, and the continued trend towards outsourcing has made it even worse. Just establishing and maintaining a comprehensive test environment can take half or more of all testing time and effort. In this column, Linda Hayes adds in the new and expanding privacy laws that inevitably limit your testing options. Yet from the quagmire of laws and company standards, better testing can emerge.

Linda Hayes's picture Linda Hayes
Bumper Stickers for Testers

Why is software testing perceived as dull? How many other jobs can list "crash," "hang," and "death march" in their daily vocabularies? In this week's column, Harry Robinson encourages testers to embrace a little pride and excitement in what they do, and Harry has just the mottos for bumper stickers that announce Tester Pride. Author's note: Feel free to add your own favorite slogan in the comment section at the end!

Harry Robinson's picture Harry Robinson
Tips and Hints for Developing Automated Test Scripts

Jose Fajardo delineates techniques for building more maintainable and robust automated test scripts. The author provides valuable insights for testers working with automated test tools and building a repository of automated test scripts for future testing efforts. A myriad of suggestions for documenting test scripts, debugging test scripts, performing peer-reviews on test scripts, and synchronizing test scripts are offered.

Jose Fajardo
This Way, Mr. Roboto

Have you ever felt like you were going in circles trying to explain programming to nontechnical people? Simply telling them what programmers do just isn't enough. In this column, Naomi Karten demystifies the programming world by showing nontechnical people how to think like programmers?on a basic level. This seemingly intricate journey starts with a few simple directions.

Naomi Karten's picture Naomi Karten
Testing Testability

Recently I overheard a conversation between a test analyst and a business analyst about how a function should be tested. The response from the business analyst was, "If it is not breaking the application, it must be working fine!" Testing staff comes across such scenarios where a part or functionality of the application under test is not "testable." The tests they carry out are not conclusive enough to say that the functionality is working as specified. In this week's article, Ipsita Chatterjee defines testability and looks at the benefits of incorporating it in the products. Also discussed are simple ways to monitor the incorporation of this non-functional requirement in the software development life cycle and a few industry myths about testability.

Ipsita Chatterjee
Sample Test Case Document (template)

This template is a sample test case document. 

Sarang Kulkarni's picture Sarang Kulkarni
audition interview Watching Testers in Action

Why wait to see your candidate work? Implement an audition into the interviewing process and add dimension to your candidate's resume. In this column, Johanna Rothman discusses how you can increase the effectiveness of an interview by implementing a well-planned audition. Whether this audition takes place over the phone or in person, you'll gather a richer perspective of the candidate's capabilities and how easily the applicant can adapt to your working environment. Put your candidate's words to the test; the results of an audition may break the tie between two superb applicants.

Johanna Rothman's picture Johanna Rothman
By the Dashboard Light: Providing Information, Not Data

Your test group has an abundance of data but what does it mean to developers, project managers, or senior managers? In this column, Johanna offers a solution for delivering information to all of your customers in one place, that will be as handy as your car's dashboard.

Johanna Rothman's picture Johanna Rothman
So Many Tests, So Little Time

In this corner—A harried project manager whose testing time has just been cut in half. And in this corner—A time-honored management tool to scale back project scope and make testing tasks do-able. Johanna Rothman shows us the ropes of timeboxing and explains why time constraints don't have to be a TKO.

Johanna Rothman's picture Johanna Rothman
Thinking outside the Boxes

We've all heard the terms "black box" and "white box" thrown around in a variety of contexts, but what do they really mean? Industry expert Bret Pettichord explains some of the fundamental problems with using these terms as shorthand labels for techniques and how they can lead to confusion.

Bret Pettichord's picture Bret Pettichord

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