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Rex Black Consulting Services | software testing experts
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This page includes some of the most recent published articles and commentary from RBCS experts regarding the software testing industry and other topics. To view the full article, click on the provided link. How Outsourcing Affects Testing This article is excerpted from Chapter 10 of Rex Black's upcoming book Managing the Testing Process, 3e. Over the last twenty years, outsource development of one or more key components in the system has come to dominate software and hardware systems engineering. The trend started in hardware in the 1990s. RBCS clients like Dell, Hitachi, Hewlett Packard, and other computer systems vendors took advantage of cheap yet educated labor overseas to compete effectively in an increasingly commoditized market. By the end of 2002, three years into a spectacular IT downturn that saw computer science enrollments in the United States fall to less than half of their 1999 levels, price had become the primary determinant in most IT project decisions. Mass outsourcing of software projects took hold, and it continues unabated to this day... Intelligent Use of Testing Service Providers In this article, Rex Black analyzes the use of outsourcing in testing, based on some twenty years of experience with outsourcing of testing in one form or another. First, Mr. Black enumerates the key differences between in-house and outsourced test teams. Next, driven by these key differences, he analyzes which tasks fit better with outsourced testing service providers, followed by a similar analysis for in-house test teams. Then, Mr Black lists some of the technical, managerial, and political challenges that confront a company trying to make effective use of outsourced testing. Finally, he addresses some of the processes needed to use testing service providers effectively and with the least amount of trouble.
A Case
Study in Successful Risk-Based Testing at CA
This article presents a case study of a risk-based testing pilot project at CA,
the world's leading independent IT management software company. The development
team chosen for this pilot is responsible for a widely-used mainframe software product
called CA SYSVIEWR Performance Management, an intuitive tool for proactive management
and real-time monitoring of z/OS environments. By analysing a vast array of performance
metrics, CA SYSVIEW can help organisations identify and resolve problems quickly.
Four Ideas for Improving Software Test Efficiency "Do more with less. Work smarter not harder. Same coverage, fewer testers." If you're like a lot of testers and test managers, you'll be hearing statements like those a lot in 2009, since we appear headed for another tight economic period. If you need a way to demonstrate quick, measurable efficiency gains in your test operation, this short article has four great ideas that will help you do just that.
A Simplified Automation Solution Using WATIJ One of our customers, CA, has continued to impress us with innovative ways to go about their testing. An upcoming article will discuss how we are helping them institute risk-based testing. This article discusses how one of their teams is using a leading-edge open source testing tool, WATIJ, to help contain regression risk.
A Story about User Stories and Test-Driven Development
Test-Driven Development, or TDD, is a term used for a popular collection of development techniques in wide use in the Agile community. While testing is part of its name, and though it includes tests, and though it fits in that part of the life cycle usually ascribed to unit testing activity, TDD pundits universally insist that it is not a testing technique, but rather a technique that helps one focus one’s design thinking. The idea is that you write your tests first, and your code second. In this article, we explore some subtle pitfalls of TDD that have come out of our experience, our consultancy on real projects (all of the conjectured problems are things we have actually seen in practice), and a bit of that rare commodity called common sense. The original two-part version of this article was published in Better Software Testing. Click here to read the first part and click here for the second part.
The ISTQB Advanced Syllabus: Guiding the Way to Better Software Testing
The International Software Testing Qualification Board (ISTQB) has already effected profound change in the software testing field, with over 100,000 people having attained Foundation certification. But a Foundation certification is just that: only a Foundation. With the release of the new Advanced syllabus in October 2007, the ISTQB has expanded and improved the next rung on the ladder of test professionalism. In the slides from this tutorial, Rex Black, past-President of the ISTQB, shows how the ISTQB Advanced syllabus can guide you, your testing colleagues, and your organization toward better testing, reduced risk, and higher quality.
The IT Professional on the Outsourced Project
More and more IT professionals work on projects where some or all of the development is done by third-parties, often overseas. While cost savings make such arrangements attractive to executives, individual contributors and managers on such projects face some significant challenges. What does outsource mean for IT professionals? In this talk, Rex Black offers insights from his extensive involvement in outsource projects both successful and not-so-successful. Rex will illustrate his points with case studies, and share humorous and scary anecdotes along the way.
The Right Stuff: Four Small Steps for Testers, one Giant leap for Risk Mitigation
Recently, we worked on a high-risk, high-visibility system where performance testing ("Let's just make sure it handles the load") was the last item on the agenda. As luck would have it, the system didn't handle the load, and very long days and nights ensued. Why it does have to be this way...
Empirix's QAZone with Rex Black
From certification to automation, expert thoughts on where the testing industry is and where it's headed.
Quality Risk Analysis: Which Quality Risks Should We Worry About?
Since it is not possible to test everything, it is necessary to pick a subset of the overall set of tests to be run. Quality risks analysis can help one focus the test effort.
Component Outsourcing, Quality Risks, and Testing: Factors
and Strategies for Project Managers More and more projects involve more integration of custom developed or commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components, rather than in-house development or enhancement of software. In effect, these two approaches constitute direct or indirect outsourcing of some or all of the development work for a system, respectively. While some project managers see such outsourcing of development as reducing the overall risk, each integrated component can bring with it significantly increased risks to system quality. This article will explain the factors that lead to these risks and then strategies you can use to manage them. |