While discussing the benefits of using Rational testing tools in their software delivery the customer popped the question: “Maybe a bit off-line, but what kind of tester do we need?” I want to share the answer I gave to him. Formerly “the test expert” was a employee who could talk to the customer, analyze the inputs, define approaches, document the test. This last one was probably done in a tool like Excel. Maybe he was also responsible for executing and reporting on it. Things have changed. Agile is mainstream, new... [More]

Tags:  organization tester people

Perhaps at some conferences the last day of sessions may be the "What do we do with this one?" type of session scheduling, but not in the Quality Management and Testing track at Innovate 2013. Thursday promises a level of quality sessions equal to those already delivered across the week.     The 4th day starts off with two sessions on Service Virtualization. The Service Virtualization for Dummies® session will net out the content from our new book . Definitely a must attend for all service virtualization newbies.... [More]

Tags:  continuous-testing quality-management service-virtualization test-automation innovate2013

Wow time certainly does fly - 10 days until approx. 4000 people will arrive in Orlando for a week of enablement, fellowship and fun at Innovate 2013.  And for those interested in what's happening in the Quality Management and Testing track, read on as I share a brief overview and "tips" for Day 3.     Starting things off with a "Shift Left" in Room 1, this session shares insight on how to begin performance testing earlier simulating "real world" scenarios to improve the quality of today's... [More]

Tags:  continuous-testing software-quality quality-management service-virtualization innovate2013 test-automation servicevirtualization

Are you thinking about what to do about mobile testing?  Everyone is talking about device fragmentation, but how do you manage to test and keep track of what’s different on each device type? We’re going to talk about ways to increase your reuse of manual or automated test scripts by leveraging a single multichannel approach to your automation on Tuesday, June 4 th at 1:45 PM in my Innovate 2013 called “Multichannel Testing - From Web to Mobile and Beyond.”  If you haven’t signed up for Innovate,... [More]

Tags:  test automation agile quality innovate2013 mobile-testing test-automation

I’m putting the finishing touches on my presentation for Innovate 2013 called " What’s the Real Deal with Testing? "  My session will be Wednesday, June 5 th at 11:15 am. We’re going to have 90 minutes to talk about the real problems facing testers. Like what is this “continuous testing” thing? How much time do you spend setting up test environments and what’s the hardest part? Are you doing unattended testing? Do you want to?   Join me for these topics and much, much more! If you... [More]

Tags:  test qualitymanagement test-automation automation quality quality-management agile innovate2013 continuous-testing continuous-delivery

  First off and as I am Canadian eh, I have to apologize for my tardiness between posts. Don't really know why I am apologizing - it is just something we Canadians seem to do. However, I know many are probably wondering what is going on at Innovate so here is a little insight  aboot  day 2 in the Quality Management and Testing track. First off, let's talk a little about Service Virtualization. For those who don't know what this means,  "Service Virtualization is the ability to simulate the behavior of select... [More]

Tags:  service-virtualization servicevirtualization quality-management mobile-testing test-automation continuous-testing innovate2013 multichannel-testing

I’m still thinking about what the right content should be for continuous testing. My previous blog was about thinking about what test content matters. But there’s also the consideration of how much content and considering avoiding waste of building too much automation.   I’ve had the experience several times of too much success (amazing, right?) in building automation.  In those days, it was actually great to have a robust test automation suite that took 12-18 hours to run. We actually measured our success at... [More]

Tags:  continuous-delivery alm test-automation continuous-testing automation qualitymanagement agile test quality mobile-testing quality-management

The Agile Manifesto guiding principles says, “Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.”  (emphasis mine) So as teams have adopted agile development practices, we have rapidly hit the delivery wall. The current conventional wisdom says to reduce risk, deliver more frequently and to make sure you’re not changing very much. I mean really, how much can you screw up in a day (or even a week)? So, if you can’t really screw much up AND even if you do, you... [More]

Tags:  continuous-testing agile quality-management continuous-delivery automation test mobile-testing test-automation qualitymanagement alm quality

Hopefully you have already read the first TheRationalTester blog posting sharing what is going on in the quality management and testing (QM&T) track across the entire week at Innovate 2013.  If you haven't, you can read about it here.  This time let's dive a little deeper into Day 1.    Kicking things off is a pre-game or tailgate session. For the football fans in the US, I am sure you are very aware of what tailgating is all about. We occasionally do something similar in... [More]