Better Software - July/August 2008 - (Page SW17) keynOte SeSSiOnS MONDAY, MAY 16, 8:30-5:00 TESTing EXPErTS SharE inSighT tHUrSDay, october 2, 8:30 a.m. Branch Out Using Classification trees Julie Gardiner, Grove Consultants Julie Gardiner Classification trees are a structured, visual approach to identify and categorize equivalence class partitions for test objects. They enable testers to create better test cases faster. Classification trees visually document test requirements to make them easy to create and comprehend. Julie Gardiner explains this powerful technique and how it helps all stakeholders understand exactly what is involved in testing and offers an easier way to validate test designs. Using examples, Julie shows you how to create classification trees, how to construct test cases from them, and how they complement other testing techniques in every stage of testing. Julie demonstrates a free classification tree editing tool that helps you build, maintain, display, and use classification trees. Using the classification tree technique and tool, you keep test documentation to a minimum, more easily create and maintain regression tests, and drastically reduce test case bloat to make your test suites more usable. With more than eighteen years of experience in the IT industry, Julie Gardiner has spent time as an analyst programmer, Oracle DBA, and project manager. She has first-hand experience as a test analyst, test team leader, test consultant, and test manager. At Grove Consultants, Julie provides consultancy and training in all aspects of testing, specializing in risk-based testing, agile testing, test management, and people issues. She is a certified ScrumMaster. Julie won best presentation at STAReAsT 2007 and 2005; best presentation at BCS SIGiST 2005; and best tutorial at EuroSTAR 2006. tHUrSDay, october 2, 4:15 p.m. Has the time for the adversarial Organization Passed? Gerard Meszaros, Independent Consultant Gerard Meszaros The concept of an independent test organization is considered a “best practice” by many experts in the industry. is this degree of autonomy actually a good thing in the real world today? in such a structure, some testers can only play “Battleship” with the delivered software, shouting gleefully when they find a defect. On their first tours of Toyota’s factories, American automakers were astonished to find no “rework area.” Toyota engineers didn’t subscribe to the approach of inserting defects on the production line only to remove them later in the quality control and rework area. yet this is exactly what the independent test group excels at! is it time to discard this organizational model and focus on working together with developers to prevent defects in the first place? Gerard Meszaros examines the sacred concept of independent test teams based on experiences from the agile software movement and lean production systems. Both have shown that it is possible to replace the often dysfunctional, blaming relationship between the builders and the customers with one of mutual respect and cooperation. By applying the same “whole team” model within the technology organization, Gerard proposes to build quality in from the beginning rather than trying to test it in after the fact. A Calgary, Canada-based consultant and trainer, Gerard Meszaros specializes in agile development processes. He has more than twentyfive years of experience building and testing software intensive systems in both product development and IT environments with technologies ranging from Java and .NET to Ruby and SAP’s ABAP. Gerard coaches cross-functional teams as they learn how to better envision, specify, develop, and test software systems using agile methods. He is a frequent speaker at major international software conferences and is the author of xUnit Test Patterns–Refactoring Test Code. friDay, october 3, 8:30 a.m. testing Microsoft Office®: experiences you Can Leverage to Drive Quality Upstream Tara Roth, Microsoft Tara Roth Have you experienced those weeks when the new features being added to builds just flat out don’t work? Do you strive to have a testable build throughout the full product development cycle? Are you tired of the mountain of bugs crushing you just before time to ship? experienced test manager Tara Roth discusses how the Microsoft Office team is working to drive the level of test coverage up during the earlier phases of product development to improve build quality later in development. Tara describes two approaches, adopted by Microsoft Office, that improved efficiency and quality—Feature Crews and Big Button. Feature Crews is a tight-knit partnership of the developer, tester, and program manager who work together on a private release of new code prior to checking it in to the main build. Big Button is an approach to having the team kick off an automated suite of tests prior to checking in to the main build. Tara explains their successes and describes how you can apply these concepts in your organization. in addition to sharing her Microsoft Office experience, Tara describes how other Microsoft projects apply these techniques and how you can do the same. The director of test for Microsoft Office, Tara Roth has sixteen years of professional experience in the software industry. Prior to her current role, she worked on Windows SharePoint Services®, Microsoft Project®, and Microsoft FrontPage®. In 2005, Tara and a few other test leaders at Microsoft, together with countless volunteers, pulled together “Test Day”—a day filled with engaging speakers and a tradeshow-style event—which has continued as an annual tradition at Microsoft. Tara is very passionate about testing and the important role we all play in software quality. Call 888.268.8770 or 904.278.0524 to register • www.sqe.Com/swreg 17 http://www.sqe.com/swreg
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