Test Design

Better Software Magazine Articles

An Arsenal of Answers

Be ready with an answer the next time you're asked, "How long will it take to test this product?" Dive beneath the surface of the question to understand what your manager really wants to know.

Michael Bolton's picture Michael Bolton
The Ins and Outs of Integration Testing

Software integration is never an easy task, and a good integration testing process is the key to success. This introduction to integration testing will help you identify what to test, typical faults to look out for, and effective means to uncover these faults.

Hans Schaefer
One Step Back ... Two Steps Forward

A change to code that previously was working may introduce new failures. Testing for regression can catch these failures, find new problems, and identify opportunities to improve your test design.

Michael Bolton's picture Michael Bolton
The Ajax Balancing Act

The path to Ajax has its pitfalls, but using it carefully can put you ahead of the game. Tod Golding offers some tips to help you investigate the world of Ajax solutions, technologies, frameworks, and patterns and find a balance between an enhanced user experience and a robust application.

Tod Golding's picture Tod Golding
Rock, Paper, Scissors: How Testers Uncover Hidden Requirements

The requirements process is not a linear one. In this article, Michael Bolton helps you get in the game by showing how the elements of the requirements process–reference, inference, and conference–interact and influence each other.

Michael Bolton's picture Michael Bolton
Risky Business: A Safe Approach to Risk-Based Testing

When you’ve got more tests than time, you prioritize based on risks. But risk-based testing has risks of its own. Randall Rice offers some advice on balancing risks with contingencies to take some of the bite out of risk-based testing.

Randy Rice
Blink . . . or You'll Miss It

Michael Bolton takes some tips from Malcolm Gladwell's hit book "Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking" to change his perspective, remove extra information, and look for hidden patterns in using the aptly named "blink testing."

Michael Bolton's picture Michael Bolton
Tapping into Testing Nirvana

As the initial, positive vibes of unit testing begin to fade, Tod Golding goes in search of whatever it is that sends some developers into a seemingly ongoing state of unit-testing nirvana. Respect your unit tests, Grasshopper, and find your testing center.

Tod Golding's picture Tod Golding
All Models are Wrong

From the Copernican solar system to an engineer’s scale replica of a bridge, the world is full of models that answer our questions and help us solve problems. Lee Copeland tells us that a model doesn't have to be correct to be useful.

Lee Copeland's picture Lee Copeland
Test Patterns: Nine Techniques to Help Test for a Greater Variety of Bugs.

Building on his earlier columns covering James Bach's Heuristic Test Strategy Model, Michael Bolton delivers nine techniques--each of which affords a different way of modeling the product--to help you test your systems for a greater variety of bugs.

Michael Bolton's picture Michael Bolton

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