SQuAD Conference 2007- Day One Tutorials

Randy Rice

How to Build an Environment for Test Team Success

When people think about test environments they usually think about hardware and software. This tutorial describes how to build the human environment for testing and how to use that environment to build a successful test team that adds value to your organization.

Many test teams would like to improve, but they lack the environment for success. Test team success depends on a variety of factors, such as culture, training and skill building, processes, tools, and having a framework for continuous improvement.

In this tutorial you will be exposed to effective ways to build such an environment for your test team's success. You will also be exposed to new ideas and what other test team leaders are doing to be successful.

Test Case Optimization using Orthogonal Arrays Case Scenarios

This presentation explores the use of two effective testing techniques, orthogonal arrays and use case scenarios, to design tests that provide a high level of test coverage while minimizing the total number of tests. This optimized scenario-based approach is useful for establishing a strong baseline of tests for activities such as regression testing that are compact and achievable in most project schedules. This presentation will also address prioritization of test scenarios by risk level.

Attendees will learn how to:

  • Derive test scenarios from use cases
  • Apply orthogonal arrays to achieve an efficient set of test cases based on pairwise testing concepts
  • Prioritize tests based on risk
  • Document tests for review by stakeholders

Leading Change in Your Organization

Cordell Vail

Cordell Vail, cste, csbs – Cordell brings to the presentation a test engineer’s perspective. He is a Certified Software Test Engineer and Certified School Business Specialist and author, with 12 years experience in manual and automated testing. He now lives in the Seattle Washington area, where he was a Software Test Engineer at Weyerhaeuser for 8 years, and for the past 4 years has been a Quality Assurance Analyst with the Washington School Information Processing Cooperative.

The Social Psychology of Improving Software Testing Processes Where You Work

In this tutorial you will learn how to have the influence to get yourself into a position to help change, improve, and add quality to testing processes where you work. This tutorial has broad appeal to Test Engineers, Developers, Configuration Management, Project Managers and System's Engineers as well as Test Leads, and Managers. Anyone who is involved in working with other people on a daily basis, especially on a team, where building relationships is important, will find the concepts of this seminar invaluable in adding quality to your current testing process.

When there is an adversarial work environment, the quality of the testing always suffers. It is not uncommon for developers and managers to view the testers as a necessary evil or even have an adversarial relationship with them. A key skill that all testers must learn to be true experts in the field is how to develop relationships with the developers and management so you are seen as an invaluable resource, not a hindrance to progress towards release dates. But where have you ever seen this skill set being taught? It will be taught in this tutorial!

Return to the main conference page.