Date: Sat, 13 May 2000 14:12:57 -0400 From: John Pustaver Subject: MARK YOUR CALENDAR: Software Quality Group BONUS Meeting, Wed, May 24, Cem Kaner speaking on Alternatives to GUI-based regression as strategies for high volume testing Hi Everyone, Elfriede Dustin was unable to make it to our meeting on the 10th due to the heavy storms that closed Logan airport so we filled in with an informal, enjoyable and enlightening discussion on test automation. I am happy to report that Elfriede has agreed to try again in September. I hope that you will have a chance to come and hear Cem Kaner speak at a special meeting on Wednesday the 24th. Again, at this meeting, we will be giving away books to lucky attendees. We have one copy of Automated Software Testing by Elfriede Dustin, et al and 2 copies of Total Quality Management for Software, edited by Gordon Schulmeyer and James McManus to give away. I hope to see you there. Best wishes, John Pustaver Region I Councilor ASQ Software Division Meeting of the Software Quality Group of New England Meetings of the Software Quality Group are held on the 2nd Wednesday of each month at the facilities of Sun Microsystems, Burlington (Driving directions below). MEETING DAY & DATE: Wednesday, May 24, 2000 TIME: 6:15 PM HEADLINE: Alternatives to GUI-based regression as strategies for high volume testing SPEAKER: Cem Kaner, software development consultant and author MORE INFO: John Pustaver, 978-443-4254, pustaver@swquality.com LOCATION: Sun Microsystems, Burlington (Driving directions below) DESCRIPTION: Today's dominant style of automated testing is done at the level of the graphical user interface. When the GUI changes, the test case needs maintenance. In some companies, the dominant testing cost is maintenance of the GUI-based test suite. Today's dominant objective of automated testing is regression testing. Run the same tests as you ran before, but a little faster and a little cheaper than you could do by hand. However, if the program passed a series of tests before, re-running those tests is not likely to be the most effective method for finding new bugs. This talk looks at some of the alternatives to the GUI-level regression paradigm. In particular, I'll explore examples of high volume testing in which the test cases are generated and evaluated by computer, running new tests every time. These approaches are not silver bullets. They involve their own development and maintenance costs. They are applicable to some issues and not others. They won't replace your staff or (probably) become your dominant testing technique. But under the right circumstances, they are powerful tools. Cem Kaner is the primary author of Testing Computer Software and of Bad Software, What to Do When Software Fails. Cem has managed every aspect of software product development. He is also an attorney whose practice focuses on the law of software quality. Cem has been an important figure in the battle against UCITA, a law that would make it more difficult to bring a software producer to account for defective software. NEXT MEETING NOTE: The next meeting will be held on June 14, 2000: Tom Poirier, The "Quality on Time" Test Methodology for Dot Coms: Achieving Verifiable Levels of Coverage in Abbreviated Time Frames 1999-2000 Software Quality Group Calendar Oct. 13, 1999: Mike Sowers, Getting results with Technical Reviews and Inspections through web based automation. Nov. 10, 1999: Anna Allison , Managing for Success: The High Quality Equation Dec. 8, 1999: Test Automation Panel Discussion Jan 12, 2000: Chuck Connell, Turning Around Software Projects That Are Off Track Feb 9, 2000: Stephanie Beach, Aspect Communications: The basics you need to start working with when you are all alone in the lab. Mar 8, 2000: Valerie Nolan, Configuration Management topic TBD Apr 12, 2000: Bill Harmon, Meaningful Metrics May 10, 2000: Elfriede Dustin, Automated Testing Life-cycle Methodology May 24, 2000: Cem Kaner, Regression Testing Jun 14, 2000: Tom Poirier, The "Quality on Time" Test Methodology for Dot Coms: Achieving Verifiable Levels of Coverage in Abbreviated Time Frames July 12, 2000: Annual Hot Topics Night The Software Quality Group holds monthly meetings. Topics covered at these meetings have included software testing, inspections, ISO 9000, metrics configuration management, and demonstrations of vendor QA tools. There is no charge. The Software Quality Group meets monthly at 6:15pm on the second Wednesday of the month at the facilities of Sun Microsystems, Burlington, MA. Driving directions: From 128/95 Take the Rt. 3 exit heading north (not the Middlesex Turnpike exit if you're coming form the south). From Rt. 3N take the first exit (which is Rt. 62 - Bedford Ave). Turn east toward Burlington. Approximately 0.3 mile after the interchange, turn right onto Network Drive, which leads to the campus on your right. Take the second drive off of Network Drive into the Sun parking lot. Park in the visitor lot and enter the lobby opposite the Sun clock tower. Information about future meetings will be available on the Software Quality Page at http://www.swquality.com/users/pustaver. To be on the email distribution list, send a note to pustaver@swquality.com. The Software Quality Group is cosponsored by Sun Microsystems and the ASQ Software Division and all are welcome. There is NO charge. Directors of the Software Quality Group are John Pustaver, Region I Councilor, American Society for Quality, Software Division and Paul Ratty, Sun Microsystems. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Software Quality Consulting voice:978-443-4254 fax:978-443-6052 pustaver@swquality.com http://www.swquality.com/users/pustaver [Part 2, Text/HTML 156 lines] [Unable to print this part]