SQuAD Conference 2007- Day One Tutorials

Dorothy Graham

Test Automation

In this half-day tutorial, we will look at test automation in its most popular form – the use of commercial tools to automate test execution. It will help you to assess your own automation efforts, and give you ideas for moving forward in automation, avoiding common pitfalls and learning from other people.

This session will help you answer questions such as:

  • Do we have the balance right between our testing and automation?
  • How mature is our current automation regime? (self-assessment test supplied)
  • Do we have the right objectives for testing, or are we attempting the impossible?
  • How can we measure the benefit of automated testing?
  • Do we have the right scripting levels or are we stuck in our current ways?
  • What is the difference between six different scripting techniques, including data-reading, data-driven and keyword-driven?
  • What can we learn from those who have done well in automation?

Outline of contents

Testing and automation
- Where do tools fit with the testing process
Automation maturity
- Levels of automation maturity are defined with a self-assessment quiz to evaluate your own maturity
Objectives and measurement
- Identifying realistic and unrealistic objectives for test automation
- Measuring the benefit of automation
Scripting and verification
- Six levels of scripting are defined, and the differences between data reading, data driven and keyword driven are described
- Other factors affecting automation, including comparison issues
Recommendations for automation
- Advice from the front-runners
- What to automate and what not to automate

Software Testing birds-eye view: techniques and management

This half-day tutorial takes a high-level view of the most important aspects of testing: how to do it, and how to manage it.
We will look at what testing techniques are, the benefits of using techniques, how the different techniques are complementary to each other, and how to increase the effectives of testing while at the same time making it more efficient. We will look at exploratory testing in particular, as it is new and popular (though not a panacea).

Managing testing sometimes seems like an oxymoron – an impossible task. In particular test estimation is a difficult area. We will look at how estimating testing is both the same and different from estimating other activities, and give you some ideas to make your estimation more accurate. We will look at what can be monitoring during testing, and how to keep track of the most important things, using examples of a number of useful metrics and techniques.
We conclude by describing a very simple but extremely useful technique for measuring how good the testing has been: DDP (Defect Detection Percentage).

Outline of contents: Testing techniques

What is a testing technique?
- Purpose and benefits
- What is a test?
Applying different techniques
- How techniques can make testing more effective and more efficient
Exploratory testing
- How it is different, when to use it

Managing testing

Estimating testing
- How it is the same and how different from estimating other work
Monitoring testing
- Including the use of S-curves
Measuring the value of testing
- Defect Detection Percentage (DDP) as a measure of the testing process

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