Release Management

Conference Presentations

The Complete Developer

With the global availability of talented development people there is a growing trend toward the commoditization of software development. No longer is it enough to simply be a developer with knowledge of specific languages or algorithms in order to maintain your competitive edge in the marketplace. To compete, you must become a complete developer-someone who can, for example, write some code in the morning and in the afternoon update the requirements Wiki with the results of the latest customer review meeting with your marketing team. This talk explores what it takes to be a genuinely valuable complete developer in today’s world of agile development, outsourcing, globalization, and an increasingly complex business environment.

Luke Hohmann, Enthiosys, Inc.
Patterns, Influence Strategies, and Stone Age Legacies

Struggling to help your team or organization become more innovative? Have great ideas but can't seem to get them off the ground? We all try to influence others, whether we want to move our department to a better development method or suggest a Friday night movie for the family. We discover new ideas to take back to our workplace but then struggle to make something happen. How can we successfully influence change? From her latest book Fearless Change:

Linda Rising, Specialist
Agile Productivity Metrics

Enough of the stories ... Where is the quantitative proof that Agile methods like Extreme Programming (XP) deliver higher productivity and quality? Such data has been missing for years, perhaps because agile practitioners and metrics experts have never fully cooperated to crack this difficult problem. Whatever the reason, the wait is now over. Metrics expert Michael Mah will discuss how he successfully applied productivity benchmarking techniques on numerous real-world XP projects and how a company's development approach was transformed using agile methods. He'll give an overview of the projects, explain an approach to gathering "Agile Productivity Metrics," review how the data was interpreted, and show what was revealed in the time-to-market and quality numbers. Michael concludes with a glimpse of the kind of agile management and measurement that is possible-when you collect the right information.

Michael Mah, QSM Associates, Inc.
Testing and the Flow of Value in Software Development

High quality software should be measured by the value it delivers to customers, and high quality software process should be measured by the continual flow of customer value. Modern processes have taught us that managing flow is all about the constraints restricting that flow. Testing, rather than being thought of as a conduit in that flow, is often perceived as an obstacle. It doesn't help that most testers struggle to answer the questions that their managers ask: What has and hasn't been tested? What do we need to test next? Where do we need to shift resources? If it works in the lab, why isn’t it working on those production machines? Where do we need to fix the performance or security? The ability-or inability- to answer these questions can determine the success and budget of a test team as well as how it is valued by its organization.

Sam Guckenheimer, Microsoft
Code Coverage: Where Does it Fit?

Many organizations use code coverage almost religiously in their testing. Just as many or more organizations do not use code coverage or have tried it and stopped. If you want to begin using code coverage for the first time or improve its value and usage within your team, come hear what Dale Brenneman has to share. Using real-life examples, Dale explains the value of code coverage analysis as part of a comprehensive test plan and the potential side effects when you do not use code coverage. Find out about the many levels of code coverage and ways to enhance the value of code coverage analysis with other analysis techniques. Take away a step-by-step approach for integrating code coverage analysis into your organization's test process and fitting it into your functional test automation program.

  • The levels of module code coverage: entry, line, statement, branch, Boolean, cyclomatic path, all paths
Dale Brenneman, McCabe Software
STAREAST 2006: Apprenticeships: A Forgotten Concept in Testing

The system of apprenticeship was first developed in the late Middle Ages. The uneducated and inexperienced were employed by a master craftsman in exchange for formal training in a particular craft. So why does apprenticeship seldom happen within software testing? Do we subconsciously believe that just about anyone can test software? Join Lloyd Roden and discover what apprenticeship training is and-even more importantly-what it is not. Learn how this practice can be easily adapted to suit software testing. Find out about the advantages and disadvantages of several apprenticeship models: Chief Tester, Hierarchical, Buddy, and Coterie. With personal experiences to share, Lloyd shows how projects will benefit immediately with the rebirth of the apprenticeship system in your test team.

  • Four apprenticeship models that can apply to software testers
  • Measures of the benefits and return on investment of apprenticeships
Lloyd Roden, Grove Consultants
STAREAST 2006: Testing Dialogues - Technical Issues

Is there an important technical test issue bothering you? Or, as a test engineer, are you looking for some career advice? If so, join experienced facilitators Esther Derby and Johanna Rothman for "Testing Dialogues-Technical Issues." Practice the power of group problem solving and develop novel approaches to solving your big problem. This double-track session takes on technical issues, such as automation challenges, model-based testing, testing immature technologies, open source test tools, testing Web services, and career development. You name it! Share your expertise and experiences, learn from the challenges and successes of others, and generate new topics in real-time. Discussions are structured in a framework so that participants receive a summary of their work product after the conference.

Facilitated by Esther Derby and Johanna Rothman
Testing Windows Registry Entries

Warning: Registry keys may be hazardous to your program's health! Registry key entries in Windows applications-visible or hidden-are often neglected by testers. A registry key entry is a program feature just like any other application function and as such needs to be validated. Michael Stahl describes why registry keys should be accorded special attention during testing and proposes a strategy for mitigating risks posed by incorrect registry key entries. He suggests a test strategy, as well as coding standards for input value and type validation, default values, regeneration, and naming rules. Michael demonstrates the use of correct and incorrect registry keys in common commercial applications.

Michael Stahl, Intel Corporation
Open SourceTest Automation Frameworks

Open source software has come a long way in the past few years. However, for automated testing there still are not many ready-made solutions. Testers often must spend their time working on test cases rather than working on a test automation framework. Allen Hutchison describes the elements of an automated test framework and demonstrates a framework that you can quickly assemble from several open source software tools. He then explains how to put the pieces together with a scripting language such as Perl. Once you build the framework, you can improve and reuse it in future test projects. At the end of the presentation, Google will release the described framework as a new open source project that you can begin using immediately.

Allen Hutchison, Google
Test Driven Development - It's Not Just for Unit Testing

Test-driven development (TDD) is a new approach for software construction in which developers write automated unit tests before writing the code. These automated tests are always rerun after any codes changes. Proponents assert that TDD delivers software that is easier to maintain and of higher quality than using traditional development approaches. Based on experiences gained from real-world projects employing TDD, Peter Zimmerer shares his view of TDD's advantages and disadvantages and how the TDD concept can be extended to all levels of testing. Learn how to use TDD practices that support preventive testing throughout development and result in new levels of cooperation between developers and testers. Take away practical approaches and hints for introducing and practicing test-driven development in your organization.

Peter Zimmerer, Siemens

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