Software Quality Matters Blog
It’s alwys amazing how every year the month of January sparks the desire in many people to reflect on past promises, challenges and successes. Once the moment has gone, a sense of clarity and a surge of determination takes root, and a new list of promises kick-starts a change and a passion to do well for the new year ahead.
Although this helps set about many good changes, trying to stick to these promises can sometimes prove quite a challenge! How many of you can relate to the the goal of, “I shall join the gym and get fit and healthy”? Unfortunately for some, by February this ambitious goal is broken and by March the very idea of keeping it is mere wishful thinking!
Although harmless if broken, what would happen if the promises you made effect your business? What if your company was sold promises such as:
- Provide a code-free testing tool for QA.
- Offer good customer support.
- Ease the burden of application testing.
Now imagine what would happen if these promises were broken! The impact to your business would be quite damaging.
As a software vendor in the Application Quality Management space, we prefer to keep the promises we make to our customers. So on that note, Original Software would like to lay down a few promises this year that the testing community should also consider following.
2012 New Year’s Resolutions
- I will focus on testing rather than scripting – why should a tester require programming skills. We believe that empowering your subject matter experts to define and execute sophisticated tests without the need to use any kind of code is the kind of promise that is worth keeping. So we promise to continue innovating our code-free solution in order to remove the burden of code-based script maintenance.
- I will stop being the drag on Agile development teams – traditional test tools struggle to work in an Agile environment. This is mainly due to the fact that they were designed to work in a ‘test last’ environment whereas the agile model is more a ‘test first, test continuously’ model. Our promise is to support the Agile community with a solution that will provide a dynamic and efficient testing solution for your Agile projects.
- I will not forget about the test data – regulatory compliance and data protection laws continue to have an ever greater impact upon the ways that companies do business. We want to make testing on live data a thing of the past and help you create subsets of data that retain their referential integrity, and provide a perfect miniature copy of your live environment.
- I will stop insisting that BAs and end users should test manually – the UAT phase of your application delivery requires business process expertise in order to check that the application meets business expectations. This means relying on business users to test the new or upgraded system. We promise to supply a solution that is able to capture the business process knowledge from the lines of business.
- I will stop pretending I can run a professional quality organisation on spread sheets and scraps of paper – it’s amazing how many companies still reply on spreadsheets and paper to manage the QA process. We promise to show you a way that enables you to unite all aspects of your quality lifecycle, across all stakeholders, from one central point.
If you have any Software Testing Resolutions for 2012 that you would like to share, we would love to hear them! Please feel free to comment back or tweet your resolution to @Origsoft.
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We came across an interesting blog this week. Its content gives the folks at Original Software a multiple number of examples that make it to our “Software Testing Hall of Shame” as 2011 draws to a close.
Phil Codd, Managing Director at SQS, lists ten software failures, as voted by Consultants. We think it’s great as it highlights the damaging effects of inadequate software testing and the ramifications on the company at fault.
So go on folks, have a read and make sure you make application quality a number 1 priority for your application delivery team in 2012! “Top Ten Software Failures of 2011″
Have a happy holiday season everyone and may 2012 be risk free and healthy for both you and your software.
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Every Tester in Testville liked testing a lot.
But the Grinch, who sat north of Development – did not.
The Grinch was a Tester and he hated the whole damn lot!
Now, please don’t ask why; no one quite knows the reason.
It could be, perhaps, that his shoes were too tight.
Or it could be that his head wasn’t screwed on just right.
But I think that the most likely reason of all,
May have been that he sat alone near the wall,
Testing all night!
He looked such a fright!
Throwing quality away as the changes came again.
And there it sat on the shelf collecting dust.
Test Automation, “Oh what a fuss!”
How it failed to deliver him from his testing damnation.
So he finished his email with a large exclamation: “No not another software release!”
Staring down at his desk in QA with a sour grinchy frown,
He observed busy Testville and its Testers in town.
For he knew that every Software Tester was busy right now, testing the winter release.
Would there ever be peace!
With a focus on test automation software, we have published a seasonal Original Insight, aimed primarily at QA Management, that borrows the story of the Grinch* and highlights the challenges of software testing and the damage that can be done if the business gambles with software quality. It attempts to outline the main benefits of test automation in conjunction with pragmatic advice on software testing, whilst illustrating the negative impact that current dominating testing tools have had in the application quality lifecycle.
If you have a good sense of humour and believe that software testing does not need to be dull, this Original Insight is one for you to read! 
The paper can be downloded as a PDF at: http://www.origsoft.com/grinch
I hope you enjoy reading this paper and let us know your thoughts!
*Originally from the children’s story by author Dr. Seuss, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”.
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Agile testing can be a challenging process for anyone who is either new or experienced with agile methodologies. Our research shows that some companies are true Agile (with a big ‘A’) and some have chosen to adopt a hybrid approach of agile and waterfall. There are even some that have given up on agile all together due to the challenges faced. We say: “Don’t give up on agile!”
Join Original Software for a quick webinar, just before the holiday season begins in earnest, where you will learn how to get the most from your software testing in an agile environment. George Wilson will give pragmatic advice to ensure that application quality isn’t compromised in agile. He will also offer ways to make sure that your manual agile testing is effective and actually assists in your ultimate move to agile test automation utopia!
Register today to secure your place. Even if you can’t make it, it is still worth registering so you can view the webinar recording at your leisure.
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Would you like to join us for breakfast and enjoy an informative look at software testing?
Keeping up with the latest trends in software testing can be time consuming, especially when you’re trying to get a new release out the door! So why not join your fellow QA professionals for breakfast, where you’ll have the opportunity to discuss the following and more:
• Is there a smarter way to test manually?
• Is there a need to have disposable test assets?
• Should we throw away test automation?
If you happen to be in Chicago, why not join us for breakfast?
Please join Original Software at our breakfast briefing on November 30th, at 8am for an alternative look at manual testing and test automation.
Register today to secure your place: http://www.origsoft.com/about/events/breakfast-briefing.php
I do hope you can join us?
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The EuroSTAR 2011 software testing conference has just kicked off today and so far it looks to be a great event!
We have been followng all the great conference feedback via the conference twitter handle #esconfs.
If you aren’t familiar with EuroSTAR, here is a little bit about the event:
For over a decade now, the EuroSTAR Software Testing Conference has been the most successful and widely acknowledged gathering of European Software Testing Professionals. In December 2010, EuroSTAR took place in Copenhagen, Denmark. With over 850 attendees participating it proved to be a highly informative and innovative event for software testers in Europe and beyond.
EuroSTAR 2011 is taking place during 21st – 24th November in Manchester, UK. It’s not too late to register for the exhibition. Just visit: the EuroSTAR 2011 website here.
We are exhibiting and can be found on Stand 33. So if you are a follower of Original Software and are at the event, come and say hi!
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During our daily interaction with the global testing community, we hear a similar theme on the challenges and issues faced by the testing and QA teams of companies, both large and small. Some of these include:
- How can we deliver quality applications within the budgetary constraints we face?
- How can we meet the growing demands of the business in a pragmatic and achievable way?
- What alternatives are there to reduce the business risk of poorly rolled out applications?
- Can I really ensure that my quality strategy helps my business gain a competitive advantage?
So with the above in mind, and if you are based in Chicago, would you like to join us for breakfast and enjoy an informative look at software testing? Join your fellow QA professionals at this briefing where you’ll have the opportunity to discuss all of these topics and more.
Find out more and register here!
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The sun was shining for the Bupa Great South Run last weekend, as runners battled the 10 mile road to success having each raised money for the Diabetes UK charity.
Jonathan Pearson, Solutions Consultant, Original Software, set his own original pace and ran a fantastic time of 1 hour 40 minutes and came 9335th, which just shows how many people ran to support the charity that day.
So far the Bupa Great South Run has raised nearly £300,000 and smaller events in support of the cause are still doing their stuff to help increase this amazing amaount!
The World 10km and 15km record holder, Leonard Komon, won a time of 46:18 ahead of fellow Kenyan and World marathon record holder Abel Kirui by 22 seconds. Ireland’s Alistair Cragg came third with a time of 47:14.
Komon had planned to attack Haile Gebrselassie’s World 10 miles best performance at the Bupa Great South Run but saw his attempt fall well short of his target of 44 minutes 23 seconds after slowing rapidly in the second half of the race.
Congratulations to everyone who took part in the Bupa Great South Run and a special well done to our Jonathan Pearson, for completing the race and for his efforts to support Diabetes UK.
If you would like to show your support for Diabetes UK, you can still donate online on Jonathan Pearson’s Great Run page here: http://www.diabeteschallenge.org.uk/challenge/jonathanpearson-bupagreatsouthrun
If you would like to take on the challenge yourself, the Bupa Great South Run 2012 is now open for entry and will be taking place on Sunday 28 October 2012. For more information visit: http://www.diabetes.org.uk/
Jonathan Pearson at the end!
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Sliding Mind, a new technology provider, who delivers inspired, innovative solutions for IT help desks, announced TrackPath, a new solution that eliminates the guess work involved in recreating the application problem when a user contacts the IT Help Desk. TrackPath continuously monitors the activity on each PC so that in the event of any issue, a fully documented audit trail is instantly available for transmission to the IT help/service desk.
According to Gartner: “There continues to be an erroneous belief that the IT service desk tool represents the greatest cost for IT service support… 86% of the cost of an IT service desk is staffing related…” *
TrackPath continuously tracks all user activity on a PC irrelevant of whether the application is deployed through the cloud, browser or desktop. A user friendly audit trail is available in the event of operating system or application problems. TrackPath is the perfect solution for large user communities supported by a central help desk. Help desk staff are no longer reliant on the ability of a user to recall or reproduce the steps that led to their problem. Instead, the user can send a fully documented audit trail within two mouse clicks.
This core detailed reporting of user activity is reinforced with screen by screen tracking of memory and CPU usage, a detailed timeline, hardware configuration and operating system information plus information on the application stack being used. TrackPath also removes the need for remote PC access after an issue has occurred, an approach which impacts both the help desk professional and end user.
TrackPath is available now for download and free trial from the Sliding Mind website at: http://slidingmind.com/cms/trackpath/downloads/
* “IT Key Metrics Data 2009: Key Infrastructure Measures: Help Desk Analysis: Multi Year” – 15 December 2008, Linda Tracy, Jamie K. Guevara, Eric Stegman
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The Software Testing Club (STC), has now gone stateside with its very first software testing meetup hosted in Chicago! The “STC Meetups” have taken the software testing community by storm, and we are very pleased to be hosting the first US meetup in Illinois’ Windy City.
The Software Testing Club is a very successful and widely acknowledged community of software testing professionals, which has now grown to 10,000 active members.
The meetup will be held on the evening of November 10th from 5:30pm, and will be a relaxed social event for Chicago-based testers to gather, chat and have a drink, while discussing the finer points of software testing.
So if you are local to Chicago, enjoy a bit of testing talk and you are free that evening, why not come along?
To register for this event, simply visit the registration page here!
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