The Seapine View

As I have worked with customers to implement our tools and improve current processes, one thing I have noticed is the use of modular tests. While the specific approach varies, these are tests that focus on a specific piece of functionality or contain a set of steps commonly used in the application being tested. Modular test cases are then reused and incorporated into longer test cases.

In this video, I provide an overview of modular test cases, the benefits, and how to manage them in TestTrack using the Share Steps feature, which is available in the 2011.1 release.

As projects grow in scope, both testing complexity and demands on the testing team increase. Homegrown methods for managing those tests start letting you down. Even as you spend more time managing individual tests, it becomes clear that you’ve lost track of the larger picture—what the results of your testing mean for the quality of your software and the efficiency of your testing program.

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Join me at Swiss Testing Days in Zurich on Wednesday 16 March for my Integrating Testing into an Agile Environment presentation. I’ll be discussing how both testing and the role of testers changes in an Agile environment. The goal is to effectively integrate testing with development to create one cohesive team that consistently delivers quality software.

• Make testers an integral part of the Agile team, ensuring that testing is present throughout the iteration or release cycle.
• Transition from documentation-heavy requirements to effectively working with user stories in creating test cases and acceptance criteria.
• Leverage existing testing skills while working with developers and users to improve team agility without sacrificing quality.

If you’re attending, I’d love to chat about your specific challenges with testing in an Agile environment after the talk.

If you’re not able to attend the conference this year, I’ll be live blogging the event all day. Just bookmark this page, and come back on the 16th to catch all of the action!

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“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…

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.

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Thanks to everyone who joined us for the A Software Manager’s Guide to Defining Testing in an Agile Age webinar. The recording is now available if you missed the training session or want to watch it again. Q&A from the session follows.

Download video in mp4 format

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Transitioning from current development methodologies to Agile can be very difficult for testers. Software managers need to provide the leadership needed for testers to apply their craft in an environment where change is constant. This webinar will explain how both testing and the role of testers change in an Agile development environment, and how managers can help testing teams adapt to those changes and consistently deliver quality software.

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One of the more popular feature requests from QA Wizard Pro customers is exception handling. We added two well-known exception handling techniques to QA Wizard Pro 2011: Try…Catch statements and On Error statements.

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Make plans to join us when the Seapine ALM Tour 2010 stops in Huntsville, Alabama on September 23. Meet some of our product management team, see the upcoming Seapine ALM 2011 release, and learn ways to boost agility, collaboration, and traceability! It’s all free!

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Many web applications behave differently depending on what browser the user is using. For example, many web sites will switch to a mobile web interface if the user’s browser indicates that the user is using a mobile platform. Most web applications are designed to fully support all popular browsers. However, you probably want to make sure that your web application responds correctly regardless of the browser. With QA Wizard Pro load testing, you can simulate different user agents during playback to test this behavior.

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