Better Software Magazine Articles

Injecting Testability into Your Test Designs

The term dependency injection has attained buzzword status within the programming community. Follow Agile developer J.B. Rainsberger as he goes beyond the buzz and breaks down a specific example of how injecting a dependency can improve the testability of your design.

J.B. Rainsberger
Grow Your Test Harness Naturally

Spring is in the air. It’s the time of year when plants wake from their winter dormancy and start growing out of control. Kind of like building a test harness. Take a tip from the Agile field this season and build your harness one test at a time. No fertilizer required.

Kevin Lawrence
Combined Strengths

One school of thought says each should do what he's best at and no more. But one company has graduated to a new way of life. Instead of isolating testers and business analysts, the two teams are melded into one—resulting in a more robust product created in less time at a reduced cost. Could this hybrid approach work for you?

TechWell Contributor's picture TechWell Contributor
Testing Without a Map

When faced with the task of testing an unfamiliar application, it's sometimes difficult to know where to begin. Discover how exploring with heuristics in mind can help you uncover bugs—even when you don't know what the system specifications are.

Michael Bolton's picture Michael Bolton
What NOT to Test

When the schedule is tight, testing often gets squeezed. You could gnash your teeth and rail against the unfairness of it all. You could doggedly test until you run out of time. But maybe it would be better to plan for change up front with a flexible, prioritized test plan. Find out how to decide what to leave in and what to leave out.

Robert Sabourin's picture Robert Sabourin
A Killer Bug for the New Millenium

We're pleased to bring you technical editors who are well respected in their fields. Get their take on everything that relates to the industry, technically speaking. In this issue, find out why our guest editor thinks he's found the bug that will once again bring testers to the forefront—a bug that dwarfs Y2K and could put big, rich software companies out of business.

James Whittaker's picture James Whittaker
Is Your Haystack Missing a Needle?

Using manual testing to determine if your application is missing any files is worse than looking for a needle in a haystack: it's like trying to determine if your haystack is missing any needles! One tester tells the story of how some clever coding saved his project a good deal of time and quite a few headaches.

Chris McMahon's picture Chris McMahon
Walk into My Parlor

Just as a spider spins a web to capture her prey, testers weave an intricate net of ambiguity and conflict to catch program bugs. Find out how to use complex tests to expose program weaknesses and errors.

David Holmgren
Don't Just Break Software. Make Software

What if, instead of using tests to try to break software, we used tests to make software? That's the vision of storytest-driven development. We spoke to people who spend each day turning wishful thinking into working products. Find out how they do it.

Tracy Reppert's picture Tracy Reppert
I Take It (Almost) All Back

Turn to The Last Word, where software professionals who care about quality give you their opinions on hot topics. This month, an industry expert explains why he changed his mind about the value of exploratory testing—well, mostly.

Rex Black's picture Rex Black

Pages

CMCrossroads is a TechWell community.

Through conferences, training, consulting, and online resources, TechWell helps you develop and deliver great software every day.