UK Tester Forums

Thanks to all who attended my session at the TMF on Wednesday. The immediate action that came out of the discussion was to run a one day workshop to define the scope and objectives for such a framework. We have a great team of six folk to work with me on that. I'll publish the date for this soon and the results will be put onto an open forum so that all TMF members can be kept in touch and contribute accordingly. Thanks again for the support and lets get something useful in place to support our industry's career growth.

James Lyndsay is offering free places on this course:
Good testers need to be able to go beyond simply logging a problem. To give value to their stakeholders and integrate with their development teams, testers need to be able to investigate the problems that they find. Diagnostic skills will help a tester to isolate genuine problems from a rash of symptoms, to work out what lies behind field reports, and to communicate her bugs effectively by describing plausible models.

During a presentation at the TMF on 30/04/2008 this boldly provocative statement appeared on a slide: "Testing Equals Quality".

Many thanks to Colin Robb of HP for your hospitality yesterday evening, which furthered a good discussion at the end of the TMF.
Martin Jamieson.

The TPI model would have us believe that an understanding of test techniques is more important and valuable than subject matter knowledge. Is this true? Well, yes it is, but only if a structured approach is followed in system analysis and design. I think that one of the most valuable concepts I have come across in the field of software testing is the concept of equivalence classes. That is, of course, that if certain classes of data are equivalent then we can justify one test case per class, thus drastically reducing the number of test cases.

During a discussion on tester skill sets at the TMF on 30/04/2008 it struck me that there was a cord with Becker's theory on specific and general training: In his seminal article on investment in human capital, Becker (1962) defined completely general training as a human capital investment that raises a worker's productivity at other employers to the same extent as at the employer that provides the training. Similarly, completely specific training is defined as a human capital investment that increases productivity only at the employer that provides the training.

Insight Test Services will host a special open half-day event in London on Thursday, 15th May 2008, themed “The Business Value of Test”.

The event is particularly suitable for managers and senior IT professionals who have responsibility for software quality and need to demonstrate the value of test to the organisation and will explore how to develop a business plan for test or a business case for investment in any aspect of test.

In this context, a bug is a defect. Or rather I think so... Just it is easier to explain to end clients (who understand bugs) rather then defects, which are still a new term for them. (They have never had any formal testing take place before).

The software in test had a 'loose' spec. Ok. A few pages, but no more. With key features only documented. The rest... well, you work out what it does!