Software Test & Performance Collaborative

[Members-only] Article Don't Leave Security for Last

By Carson Sweet

At the peak of the dot-com boom, my firm consulted extensively for large organizations concerned about the risks of Internet-based applications. My experience with one client in particular—we’ll call it Company X to protect its identity—remains the most palpable argument for integrating security throughout the software lifecycle.

[Members-only] Article Measuring Confidence Along the Dimensions of Test Coverage

By Rex Black

When I talk to senior project and product stakeholders outside of test teams, confidence in the system—especially, confidence that the system will have a sufficient level of quality—is one benefit they want from a test team involved in system and system integration testing. Another key benefit such stakeholders commonly mention is providing timely, credible information about quality, including our level of confidence in system quality.

Reporting their level of confidence in system quality often proves difficult to many testers. Some testers resort to reporting confidence in terms of their gut feel. They may draw smiley faces and frowny faces on a whiteboard next to major functional areas, and say things like, “I’ve got a bad feeling about function XYZ.” When management decides to release the product anyway, the hapless testers either suffer the Curse of Cassandra if function XYZ fails in production, or watch their credibility evaporate if there are no problems with function XYZ in production.
If you’ve been through unpleasant experiences like these a few times, you’re probably looking for a better option…

Article Examining the Software Development Lifecycle

By Rich Hand

I was recently in a meeting to discuss the software development lifecycle. Being new to the profession of software testing, I wondered where testing fits into the lifecycle. Having spent many years in the IT Service Management space…

[Members-only] Article 10 Key Lessons Learned in Outsourced Testing - A Test Service Provider’s Perspective

By Andrew Soundranayagam, Ashish Usman

This article is based on the authors’ 25 years of collective experience in the field of outsourced IT services. While it is not an exhaustive list, these 10 lessons represent some of the major pain points we have encountered over the years. Taking them into consideration is critical to a successful engagement.

[Members-only] Article Out of the Box

By Joel Shore

Hot tools and updates from uTest, dynaTrace and more…