The Seapine View

There have been many updates to the blog this month. Here is our monthly recap:

Agility Means Deploying Software More Quickly - Peter Varhol attended the Software Test Professionals conference in late October and describes his new outlook toward Agile development.

Improving QA Wizard Pro Script Maintainability - QA Wizard Pro 2011 lets you add comments to an automated test during recording to improve the maintainability of your regression testing suite.

Managing Branches in Surround SCM - There are numerous ways to manage branches in Surround SCM and doing so will keep things running smoothly for your users.

TestTrack Client Installation and Auto-Upgrade - This video discusses the simplicity of installing TestTrack’s client-only installer for Windows and its auto-upgrade functionality.

Recording QA Wizard Pro Scripts Against Windows Applications - This video provides an overview of how to create QA Wizard Pro scripts against Windows applications.

Recording QA Wizard Pro Scripts Against Web Applications - This video provides an overview of how to create QA Wizard Pro scripts against web applications.

The Journey to Become an Agile Expert – Katie Hankins is a software engineer on the Surround SCM team. Follow her on her journey to become an Agile expert.

Powerful Analytics with QA Wizard Pro Load Testing – This video shows you how to read and interpret some of the data created by QA Wizard Pro after the execution of a load test.

Getting Away from Percent Complete - There are many disadvantages to a “percent complete” philosophy in a Waterfall-style of software development as opposed to the Agile philosophy.

Surround SCM Client Installation and Auto-Upgrade - This video discusses the simplicity of installing Surround SCM’s client-only installer for Windows and its auto-upgrade functionality.

This video explains the simplicity of Surround SCM’s client-only installer. Within just a few minutes you can have Surround SCM installed and ready to use.  If the Surround SCM server is upgraded to a new version, users are prompted to automatically upgrade their client, further simplifying the process for you and your IT department.

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When I’m consulting with a client—usually a large business where bloated, traditional Waterfall-style software development processes are the norm — someone inevitably asks about tracking percent complete. They’re pretty shocked when I tell them that tracking percent complete is an utter waste of time.

Unfortunately, many otherwise good project managers are taught that tracking percent complete on a software development project somehow adds value. Often, tracking percent complete is part of the organization’s “standard” PMO process, making it a mandatory metric for all projects. Many project managers track this metric because they don’t know any better — or they know better but are not able to confront the issue within the organization. Any resistance is usually countered with “we’ve always done it this way.”

I know because I have been managed by these traditional-thinking project managers and have also, in my early years, managed projects this way.
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Being able to accurately measure key testing data can provide valuable information for development and QA teams. QA Wizard Pro load testing gives you an easy platform to create and execute load tests while providing key performance metrics.

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What does it take to be an Agile Jedi? Seapine’s own Padawan is about to find out.

Katie Hankins is a software engineer on the Surround SCM team, and she’s learning and applying Agile methods as a member of a team developing commercial enterprise software. Come along as Katie, full-time developer and part-time Agile student, embarks on her journey to become an Agile expert.

QA Wizard Pro automates the functional testing, regression testing, and load testing of web applications. This video provides an overview of how to create QA Wizard Pro scripts against web applications. You will be able to create your own automated scripts by following the same steps in your web site or web application.

Download video in mp4 format

QA Wizard Pro automates the functional and regression testing of Windows applications. This video provides an overview of how to create QA Wizard Pro scripts against Windows applications. You will be able to create your own automated scripts by following the same steps in your own application.

Download video in mp4 format

This video explains the simplicity of TestTrack’s client-only installer. Within just a few minutes you can have TestTrack installed and ready to use.  If the TestTrack Server is upgraded to a new version, users are prompted to automatically upgrade their client, further simplifying the process for you and your IT department.

It’s fall in Ohio, and raking the leaves is a critical task if you want to stay on good terms with your neighbors. It’s easy to let them pile up until getting through your yard becomes an exercise in futility. The same can be true with wading through your Surround SCM branch tree if you have a lot of branches. Surround SCM includes a number of ways to manage the branch tree, which should be performed on a regular basis if you want to keep things running smoothly for your users.

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After recording a QA Wizard Pro script, the purpose of my recorded actions is still fresh in my mind. So I quickly add comments above code before I forget what I’ve done. When I have to revisit my scripts months later, those comments really come in handy.

But what happens after I record a long script? I usually get lazy and don’t add as many comments after recording. There are so many steps and actions that I forget what half of them do. Alternatively, I change my behavior to only record small scripts, making my recording efforts less efficient–but hey, at least I can remember everything I did and comment appropriately.

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