Get Testers Involved!

One of the biggest mistakes in any project is to keep testers away till late stages of the development. One reason for this is the way people look to testing. Actually, testing is a constructive activity and not a destructive one as many think. This can be seen obviously by looking to the goals of testing which are to provide objective input to facilitate business decisions and to keep stakeholders aware of all issues or concerns that relate to shipping a product*.

Testers role is growing and no longer limited to finding issues only. The role of testing starts directly from the requirements stage of the project. Testers can also have a beneficial contribution in the design stage and coding where they can sit with the programmers to help them ensure the quality of their work.

Testers can also help customers know what they really want. This gives an advantage of clearer requirements to be delivered to development team. Also, ensuring that features are developed as per customer expectations. This is done also through the collaboration between testers, project manager and the development team in order to get the job done in the right way.

Finally, one of the advantages of such involvement is reduction of cost, time and effort of finding and fixing issues in the project. The later the issues are found in project phases the higher cost, time and effort to fix them.

* Purpose of testing – Robert Sabourin

Conflict Management

Conflict is inevitable in life. Each one of us has his/her own views that are not necessary same to others views. While you think something is good, others might think is bad. likewise, you might think something is unacceptable while others think is acceptable.

Neither avoidance of the conflict nor high emotions will be able to resolve the conflict. You must use reason to resolve the conflict. Reason is rational, logical and professional way to resolve conflict.

* Conflict Management Training by Corporate Coach Group – UK

 

Moving to Agile

It is easy to make a decision to move to agile development. However, implementation of such a decision can be very difficult. It requires everybody efforts. Among the main characteristics of agile are:

  1. Turbulence
  2. Delighting customer
  3. Frequent releases (every two weeks)
  4. 100% regression test automation. (more…)

Testing Quote of the Week 1

“Testing is the future and the future starts with you.” ~ Portal 2

Software Testing Conference (SOFTEC2012)

 

Malaysian Software Testing Board (MSTB) organizes this annual Software Testing Conference (SOFTEC). This event features international speakers who are well-known in the field of software testing.

SOFTEC2012 has adopted the theme of “The Art of Testing”. It will take a closer look at the finer points of software testing particularly on testing techniques and effective application of those techniques. The conference will be held at the Istana Hotel in Kuala Lumpur from 10th to 12th July 2012. (more…)