Chris McMahon

In May 2010, the first Writing About Testing conference brought some of the top minds in the field together to discuss the current state of public discourse on software testing and areas where testing is evolving within the realm of software development. In this column, Chris McMahon, who designed and launched the conference, continues his mission to advance the discussion by sharing ten of the most interesting frontiers for software testing.

We can measure, study, and understand the interactions between software and individual users, but what tools exist to understand the interaction among software creators, the software itself, and millions of users? Chris McMahon says we can't look to computer science, engineering, or manufacturing for tools to understand the experience of a large audience. Instead we should look to the performing arts for help understanding the audience experience.

In this article, Chris McMahon offers an approach to implementing automated tests at the user interface level in a way that is visually simple and should save a lot of work when analyzing and maintaining tests down the road.

Sometimes, it's helpful to explore how people in other occupations create their products in order for us to better our own. In addition to being an experienced software tester, Chris McMahon has spent time on the road and in the studio as a professional musician. In this article, Chris takes a look at some of the things that make for a successful live concert and compares them to what it takes for an agile team to build software successfully.