The Seapine View

“We’re overrunning our schedule and we have to go live now. I know the software’s not perfect but it must be good enough…right?”

If you are responsible for quality that sort of question can be a tough one to answer. Often, there can be a lot of pressure on you to agree that the software is done even if it’s not ready. On the other hand, if you are too cautious you might unnecessarily delay the release which will incur unnecessary costs, miss opportunities, and ultimately the quality team may end up being seen as a hindrance and source of delay.

So how do you decide when it’s the right time to ship? Continue reading…

Since we launched the Agile Expedition, we’ve seen a huge number of folks taking the time to learn more about Agile development ideas and methods. What we’ve lacked during most of that period is an easy way for you to take your new  knowledge and put it to work in TestTrack. Also, as customers begin the process of becoming more agile, they’ve been asking for help and guidance in using TestTrack to support the adoption of those Agile practices.
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You can use QA Wizard Pro to test web sites or applications that contain dynamic content that changes on a regular basis. As the content changes, test scripts may fail because the application no longer matches the data stored in QA Wizard Pro. You can use XPath queries and URL format rules to configure your scripts to handle dynamic data

Download the Testing Dynamic Web Applications How To and learn how to configure your scripts to use XPath queries or URL format rules to test a web application that contains dynamic data.

TestTrack TCM Test Runner allows testers to execute test runs, create problem statements and log defects from a web browser. If you have a test environment or test lab setup that restricts you from installing additional software for executing tests or logging defects, then TestTrack TCM Test Runner is just the thing you need.

This video shows you have to use TestTrack TCM Test Runner to execute a test run and log a new defect for development.

Unlike a wildebeest, your products are unlikely to thrive in the middle of the herd right now. In challenging economic times, your customers start focusing on value and you need to separate yourself from the herd. I was reminded of this earlier in the week while listening to Activision Publishing’s CEO discuss the gaming market. In responding to a question about current challenges in the gaming industry, Eric Hirshberg had this to say (paraphrasing):

It’s really the best of times and the worst of times for the gaming industry. The top 10 titles are bigger than ever and growing, the part of the industry that is struggling is the “middle class of title.” The middle-budget and middle-rating games aren’t seeing as much interest as they did just a few years ago … There’s no way to market yourself out of a mediocre game.

His point was that quality is the key imperative to a title’s success, and that’s something we’re seeing in every industry right now. The products that best meet users’ needs—and do so reliably—are the products that win in this market.

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On January 19, I presented the ‘Manager’s Guide to Defining Testing in an Agile Age’ webinar. This is the last post in a three-part series I’ve been doing to highlight the key takeaways from the webinar;  get your testers involved early, make your testers first-class participants, and today I’d like to drill down into the third and last area.

Automate testing processes and activities.

In one sense, Agile methodologies were a reaction to the over-tooling of traditional methodologies. Many Agile proponents believe that too much time was being spent operating and collecting data for tools instead of focusing on the actual work to be done.

But automation is essential in many aspects of Agile testing. Automation enables the easy collection and analysis of data that enable testers and other project team members to make decisions about the quality and completeness of work. And testers need to make use of automated defect tracking to make sure a feature is retested when a defect is found, even if the defect is fixed right away.

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Interactive filters makes finding items in TestTrack quick and easy. With interactive filters, users are prompted to select criteria when a filter is applied. This means you can create a single filter to show items in any workflow state, for example. This video walks you through creating and using interactive filters.

Developers spend most of their time working in their Integrated Development Environment (IDE), and having to switch tools to update a bug or check in code can be tedious and inefficient. Tools that integrate with the IDE are beneficial because they allow users to stay in the IDE and not have to bother with switching to another tool.

Eclipse is one of the most popular IDEs for Java development. Seapine ALM provides a tight integration that allows users to access defect, test, and requirement artifacts as well as source code control functions to update files.

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When I review TestTrack defects to address documentation requests or review product change requests that affect documentation, I typically look at the Overview tab first. This tab displays a read-only summary of the defect description, workflow events, and tracked emails. It helps me quickly see all the information related to the defect in one place and follow any discussion about the defect in sequential order.

Our development or QA teams typically enter a Comment workflow event to add feedback to defects instead of adding comments to the defect description field. This makes it much easier to follow the discussion thread because inline comments can get buried if a description is long.
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I recently presented the “Manager’s Guide to Defining Testing in an Agile Age” webinar. In my initial post on the topic, I provided an overall description of the webinar, and drilled down a little into the first area of discussion—get your testers involved early.

Now I’d like to drill down into the second area.

Make your testers first class participants in the project.

This is a tough one to embrace and implement because it means changing almost everything testers know about the testing process. Traditionally, testers have been proud of their independence. Once product requirements have been defined, testers take them and spend weeks analyzing the requirements, writing test plans, and developing test cases prior to doing any testing.

Continue reading…