The goals of this presentation are to: Redefine the term "path"; Introduce four value selection paradigms; Discuss strengths & weaknesses of each; Examine how value selection relates to automated test design capability; and Examine how test requirements identification relates to each paradigm.

Use cases are a great way to organize and document a software system's functionality from the user's perspective. However, they have limited uses for testers. They are great vehicles to accomplish some tasks, and not so great for others. Understand what you're trying to accomplish by testing before deciding if use cases can help-and be cognizant of the challenges they present. They are useful to testers, but not for every situation.

Software testing demands the use of some model to guide such test tasks as selecting test inputs, validating
the adequacy of tests, and gaining insight into test effectiveness. Most testers gradually build a mental
model of the system under test, which would enable them to further understand and better test its many
functions. Explicit models, being formal and precise representations of a tester’s perception of a program,
are excellent shareable, reusable vehicles of communication between and among testers and other teams
and of automation for many tasks that are normally tedious and labor-intensive.

There's a need for standardized, organized hardware and software infrastructure, and for a common framework, in a complex test environment. Gerhard Strobel focuses on the experience of testing diverse products on many different platforms (UNIX, Windows, OS2, z/OS, OS400)-how they differ and how much they have in common. He explains how to configure and profile test machines, then highlights the technical areas where test efficiency can be increased. He also covers methods of execution control.