STARWEST 2007 - Software Testing Conference

PRESENTATIONS

50 Ways to ...Improve Test Automation

Although this session is not about Paul Simon's famous song, "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover", it will be most entertaining nonetheless. In this fast-paced presentation, Mark Fewster shares fifty ways for you to consider, adopt, or adapt to meet your organization's needs-management, metrics, organizational structure, scripting methods, comparison techniques, testware architecture, and many more.

Mark Fewster, Grove Consultants

A "Framework for Test" for Repeatable Success

Do you have defined and documented processes that describe all the activities and deliverables for testing? Do you have a documented road map for repeating test project successes? The test group at Kaiser found themselves overwhelmed with too many projects, understaffed on most projects, lacking repeatable procedures, and without testing tools. Randy Slade describes how they identified the needed test processes and tools, set priorities, developed new procedures, and implemented them.

Randy Slade, Kaiser Permanente
A Christmas Carol: The Software Tester's Version

Grab some hot cocoa, sit back, and watch this software tester's take on A Christmas Carol by the Grove Players.

The Grove Players
A Pair of Stories about All-Pairs Testing

What do you do when you're faced with testing a million or more possible combinations, all manually? Easy-just declare the problem so big and the time so short that testing is impossible. But what if there were an analytic method that could drastically reduce the number of combinations to test while reducing risks at the same time? All-pairs testing, the pairing up of testable elements, is one way to create a reasonable number of test cases while reducing the risk of missing important defects.

Jon Bach, Quardev, Inc.

Apodora: An Open Source Framework for Web Testing

Are you frustrated with automated test scripts that require constant maintenance and don't seem to be worth the effort? Seth Southern introduces Apodora, a new open source framework for automating functional testing of Web applications. Apodora was released under the GNU General Public License to the open source community with the goal of collaboratively creating a superior, free, automated Web testing tool. The key benefit of Apodora is to help you reduce the maintenance and overhead of test automation scripts.

Seth Southern, ACULIS - Software Development Services
Beyond the Rock and the Hard Place

One stakeholder says "Zig." The other says "Zag." No compromise is in sight, and the project deadline looms nearer. The rock and the hard place-welcome to the test manager’s world! How do you deal with an overly emotional stakeholder or a developer who is ignoring your requests? Few of us like conflict, but our ability to navigate conflict goes a long way toward determining how successfully we can deliver quality projects.

Andy Kaufman, Institute for Leadership Excellence and Development

Bringing Shrek to Life: Software Testing at DreamWorks

Want to take a behind the scenes look at DreamWorks Animation testing? Learn what happens when you have a tiny QA team, release deadlines that cannot slip even a day, and a crew of crazy animators using software in ways most developers never imagined. You just make it work! Anna Newman discusses how to leverage your development team to create and even execute tests on your behalf and ways to best prioritize testing areas.

Anna Newman, DreamWorks Animation
Bugs Bunny on Bugs! Hidden Testing Lessons from the Looney Tunes Gang

Bugs Bunny, Road Runner, Foghorn Leghorn, Porky Pig, Daffy Duck, and Michigan J. Frog provide wonderful metaphors for the challenges of testing. From Bugs Bunny we learn about personas and the risks of taking the wrong turn in Albuquerque. Michigan J. Frog teaches valuable lessons about defect isolation. Is it duck season or rabbit season?-and how ambiguous pronouns can dramatically change the meaning of our requirements.

Robert Sabourin, AmiBug.com Inc

Challenges and Benefits of Test Process Assessments

When you need to make improvements in your test practices, a formal test process assessment can help you understand your current situation and direct you toward better testing. One assessment model is Test Process Improvement (TPI®). Gopinath Mandala reports that the TPI® model was successfully used to achieve distinct benefits for his customers. He explains the difference between a model and a methodology.

Gopinath Mandala, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd.
Client Verficiation Sessions: A Low Cost, High Payback Approach

Want to improve the quality of your products? Of course you do. But how? Mette Bruhn-Pedersen uses a simple, but effective method that includes both clients and users in the development process. His company organizes and conducts verification sessions early in the development process.

Mette Bruhn-Pedersen, XponCard Service Systems

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