QA&TEST Blog http://www.qatest.org/en/blog Wed, 28 Mar 2012 14:03:07 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.2 Formula 1 Engineering at the service of health innovation http://www.qatest.org/en/blog/index.php/2012/03/28/formula-1-engineering-at-the-service-of-health-innovation/ http://www.qatest.org/en/blog/index.php/2012/03/28/formula-1-engineering-at-the-service-of-health-innovation/#comments Wed, 28 Mar 2012 14:01:19 +0000 admin http://www.qatest.org/en/blog/?p=271

Automotive engineering transfers its improvements in health industry to create custom orthopedic implants and components that reduce the margin of error in surgery and could reduce costs.

Read the full article here.

]]> http://www.qatest.org/en/blog/index.php/2012/03/28/formula-1-engineering-at-the-service-of-health-innovation/feed/ 0 Everyday Exercise for the Technical Test Team http://www.qatest.org/en/blog/index.php/2012/03/28/everyday-exercise-for-the-technical-test-team/ http://www.qatest.org/en/blog/index.php/2012/03/28/everyday-exercise-for-the-technical-test-team/#comments Wed, 28 Mar 2012 10:51:35 +0000 admin http://www.qatest.org/en/blog/?p=263

Mr. Bob Jonesis an experienced automated test engineer and advocate of agile testing. In this article published in StickyMinds.com, he gives us some interesting  tips and advices about how not to loose the motivation when creating and being part of a Technical Test Team. This is an interesting and different point of view that we would like to share with you:

“Very often, starting something is much easier than sticking with it. This is just as true for growing a technical test team as it is with gym memberships. At first, a couple pounds come off easily and you get interesting muscle aches. Motivation is high, and you scoff at others who fail to keep their exercise routines. During the initial period of automation high, you build new tests, and everyone is excited about the new skills. It is important to celebrate your early victories—those first bugs found by your automation feel great.

But real life can intrude and kill the passion. Sprint work, family life, and other interests all can get in the way. For continued success and growth, you need to plan time for automation (just like scheduling a regular time for the gym), and plan for more audacious goals.”

Read the full article here.

]]> http://www.qatest.org/en/blog/index.php/2012/03/28/everyday-exercise-for-the-technical-test-team/feed/ 0 DATABASE TESTING – Properties of a Good Test Data and Test Data Preparation Techniques http://www.qatest.org/en/blog/index.php/2012/03/22/database-testing-properties-of-a-good-test-data-and-test-data-preparation-techniques/ http://www.qatest.org/en/blog/index.php/2012/03/22/database-testing-properties-of-a-good-test-data-and-test-data-preparation-techniques/#comments Thu, 22 Mar 2012 15:34:15 +0000 admin http://www.qatest.org/en/blog/?p=251

 

Database is one of the inevitable parts of a software application these days. Moreover, as the complexity of application increases the need of stronger and secure database emerges.

 

In the section “Action/Steps” of the Test Cases, we must mention the acceptable data as input for the test. The data mentioned in test cases must be selected properly. The accuracy of “Actual Results” column of TC Document is primarily dependent upon the test data. So, step to prepare the input test data is significantly important.

Read the full article here.

]]> http://www.qatest.org/en/blog/index.php/2012/03/22/database-testing-properties-of-a-good-test-data-and-test-data-preparation-techniques/feed/ 0 The cost of automation http://www.qatest.org/en/blog/index.php/2012/02/10/the-cost-of-automation/ http://www.qatest.org/en/blog/index.php/2012/02/10/the-cost-of-automation/#comments Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:08:00 +0000 admin http://www.qatest.org/en/blog/?p=245

]]> http://www.qatest.org/en/blog/index.php/2012/02/10/the-cost-of-automation/feed/ 0 Testers: Put on Your End-user Hat http://www.qatest.org/en/blog/index.php/2012/02/08/testers-put-on-your-end-user-hat/ http://www.qatest.org/en/blog/index.php/2012/02/08/testers-put-on-your-end-user-hat/#comments Wed, 08 Feb 2012 16:31:53 +0000 admin http://www.qatest.org/en/blog/?p=242 One of the biggest criticisms about testers and QA organizations is that they do not understand the business or the end-user. If you believe this to be true, it sends a clear message about not having a value-adding testing team of professionals. The more you know about the ultimate customer or end-user, the more you will become an effective, risked-based tester.

When I led QA teams in the past, I made “knowing your customer” a major performance criteria for my staff. To ensure this, I arranged field trips with business development to customer sites and had the testing team view how and why the end-users actually used the system or application. Upon returning from these field trips, the QA team started to modify how it approached end-to-end and user acceptance tests. It was so beneficial that the number of critical end-user defects dropped by more than 20 percent in a very short period of time.

 

Continue reading Paul Fratellone’s article at Sticky Minds.

]]> http://www.qatest.org/en/blog/index.php/2012/02/08/testers-put-on-your-end-user-hat/feed/ 0 Seven deadly sins in SW Testing http://www.qatest.org/en/blog/index.php/2012/02/03/seven-deadly-sins-in-sw-testing/ http://www.qatest.org/en/blog/index.php/2012/02/03/seven-deadly-sins-in-sw-testing/#comments Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:14:35 +0000 admin http://www.qatest.org/en/blog/?p=236

]]> http://www.qatest.org/en/blog/index.php/2012/02/03/seven-deadly-sins-in-sw-testing/feed/ 0 Testers with Asperger’s Syndrome http://www.qatest.org/en/blog/index.php/2012/01/30/testers-with-asperger%e2%80%99s-syndrome/ http://www.qatest.org/en/blog/index.php/2012/01/30/testers-with-asperger%e2%80%99s-syndrome/#comments Mon, 30 Jan 2012 10:52:31 +0000 admin http://www.qatest.org/en/blog/?p=232 There are more and more companies in Europe that hire testers with Asperger’s Syndrom or autism.  This practice has advantages and inconvenients, and the best way to discover them is talking to a person affected by this syndrome. Tirsh Khoo, tester in Sydney for a known management platform of email campaigns, has arranged an interview with Michael Drejer, who has Asperger syndrome and works as a tester in a company in Denmark.

Click here to read the whole interview.

]]> http://www.qatest.org/en/blog/index.php/2012/01/30/testers-with-asperger%e2%80%99s-syndrome/feed/ 0 Hearing no http://www.qatest.org/en/blog/index.php/2010/10/04/hearing-no/ http://www.qatest.org/en/blog/index.php/2010/10/04/hearing-no/#comments Mon, 04 Oct 2010 11:13:39 +0000 admin http://www.qatest.org/en/blog/?p=225 You’ve been working with a group of stakeholders to forge consensus on a project issue. Some want exactly what others don’t want, some refuse to reveal their private agendas, and some seem to change their goals almost at random. At times, you’ve felt that the group was close to agreement, only to be disrupted when someone on high changed the external constraints.

It’s been a little frustrating.

Work life sometimes delivers disappointments, often in the form of No. Some of us have difficulty hearing No or dealing with it once we do hear it. And, sometimes, No arrives so frequently that we exhaust our ability to cope with it.

Click here to continue reading this article at Sticky Minds.

]]> http://www.qatest.org/en/blog/index.php/2010/10/04/hearing-no/feed/ 0 Smart grid: What’s here, what’s needed, and what you should know now http://www.qatest.org/en/blog/index.php/2010/09/27/smart-grid-whats-here-whats-needed-and-what-you-should-know-now/ http://www.qatest.org/en/blog/index.php/2010/09/27/smart-grid-whats-here-whats-needed-and-what-you-should-know-now/#comments Mon, 27 Sep 2010 09:32:18 +0000 admin http://www.qatest.org/en/blog/?p=217 Let’s define the smart grid as the infrastructure and technologies that enable integration of the consumer and distributed resources (generation, renewables, storage, demand response, load control) with the operation of the entire grid and electricity markets, while also improving the reliability and Security of the overall electric service. The biggest gap is the lack of inexpensive, standardized, and ubiquitous communications that deliver bandwidth, extreme reliability, and security for both control and management applications as well as basic information management and sharing applications. This broadband communications infrastructure does not need to be one technology, but it needs to extend all the way from central control systems to end-user devices.

Click here to read this whole article at Embedded Computing Design.

]]> http://www.qatest.org/en/blog/index.php/2010/09/27/smart-grid-whats-here-whats-needed-and-what-you-should-know-now/feed/ 0 The golden rules of managing software projects http://www.qatest.org/en/blog/index.php/2010/09/21/the-golden-rules-of-managing-software-projects/ http://www.qatest.org/en/blog/index.php/2010/09/21/the-golden-rules-of-managing-software-projects/#comments Tue, 21 Sep 2010 16:32:44 +0000 admin http://www.qatest.org/en/blog/?p=212 We asked what looks to have been a pretty contentious question – what’s the role of managers in software development? – and we got some pretty contentious answers, which are well worth a look in their entirety. The conclusion: a lot of managers are crap. But – and it’s a big but – they don’t have to be, if they get certain basics in place.
Here are your very own top five golden rules, compiled from your comments, which managers can employ to build trust and get the best out of developers. These rules may seem like common sense, but we know from the feedback that they are as frequent as a night bus.
1. Protect the team from unnecessary distractions: A manager’s job is to help the developers to work as productively as possible towards logical and achievable project goals by protecting the team. He must also earn the team’s respect by fighting heroically for them against the boneheaded stupidity to be found in swampy stagnant meeting rooms across Britain.

Click here to continue reading this article at  The Register

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