CAST 2008 Tutorials

CAST 2008 Tutorials (Monday)

Jerry Weinberg: The Tester's Communication Clinic

**Sold out on Monday -- Second session just added on Thursday**

Working with hardware and software is only half of the professional tester's job–and though hard enough, it's not nearly as hard as the other half, working with people. In this interactive workshop, you’ll obtain new strategies for coping with your most serious communication problems–with managers, developers, customers, and other testers. Gerald Weinberg helps you affirm your most successful strategies, while sharing other techniques you may not have thought of. Learn to be more sensitive to management desires and more influential in obtaining effective developer responses. Real-life communication situations of the participants will be used to illustrate practical application of various communication models, including:

• The Satir Interaction Model
• The Congruence Model
• Personality Types
• Modality Preferences

About Jerry:

Scott Barber: Performance Testing Software Systems: Analyzing Performance Test Data

Performance Testing frequently generates very large volumes of data. That data usually requires significant analysis before findings are made and recommendations are delivered. To make matters more complex, even though there is a large volume of data, there are typically an insignificant number of tests conducted for most data reduction methods to be statistically valid. Finally, many of the statistical methods that are frequently used are either mis-used or mis-understood.

One of the Performance Testing Software Systems (PTSS) series of workshops, Analyzing Performance Test Data is targeted for anyone who analyzes performance test results data. It focuses on how to make sense out of performance test data to improve findings and recommendations to help achieve business objectives, reduce project risk, and avoid bad press. Further, it teaches methods for visually reporting results of performance tests that are less prone to misinterpretation than reporting complex statistics the audience is unlikely to understand. Finally, this workshop provides you with the knowledge you need to use statistics correctly to help you understand the data.

PTSS is a unique series of workshops that employ heuristic approaches to performance testing that focus on mitigating risks to the business and satisfying end users in commercially driven software development environments. This approach marries the software testing insights of James Bach, Rob Sabourin, Cem Kaner and many other members of the Context-Driven School of software testing with the performance testing insights of Alberto Savoia, Ross Collard, Roland Stens, and the rest of the WOPR (Workshop On Performance and Reliability) community. The approach has a track record of success with regard to adequately mitigating business risk in time to keep pace with the commercial aspects of the project. The Microsoft patterns & practices book Performance Testing Guidance for Web Applications by J.D. Meier, Scott Barber, Carlos Farre, Prashant Bansode, and Dennis Rea complements the material presented in this workshop.

About Scott:

Scott Barber is the Chief Technologist of PerfTestPlus, Vice President of Operations and Executive Director of the Association for Software Testing and Co-Founder of the Workshop on Performance and Reliability. Scott's particular specialties are testing and analyzing application performance, developing customized testing methodologies, embedded systems testing, testing biometric identification and personal security systems, group facilitation and authoring instructional materials. Scott is an international keynote speaker and contributor to various software testing publications. He is a member of ACM, IEEE, American MENSA, the Context-Driven School of Software Testing and is a signatory to the Manifesto for Agile Software Development. Additionally, Scott is the lead contributing author for Performance Testing Guidance for Web Applications.

Scott is active in his personal mission of improving the state of performance testing across the industry by collaborating with other industry authors, thought leaders and expert practitioners as well as volunteering his time to establish and grow related industry organizations. His tireless dedication to the advancement of software testing in general and specifically performance testing is often referred to as a hobby in addition to a job due to the enjoyment he gains from his efforts.

Julian Harty: Mobile Wireless Test Automation

Automated testing is becoming a generally accepted ''good practice'' suitable for many situations. There are plenty of tools, frameworks and practices which are used throughout the software industry. However, automated testing of mobile wireless applications is not yet mature, particularly when the testing includes 100''s of different, disparate devices, multiple natural languages, network operators, etc.

This tutorial is based on current experiences and practices at Google and will explain some of the challenges, difficulties and even the successes gained over the last 12 - 18 months of hands-on test automation of mobile wireless applications. The scope of test automation includes:

• Web applications
• J2ME applications
• Native applications (e.g. Symbian, Blackberry, Windows Mobile)
• Testing of the servers that support the devices
• Rendering issues
• Performance testing

Key Points:

• Learn about some of the unique challenges of test automation for mobile wireless applications. Learn how some of these automation challenges can be addressed.
• Be prepared to get involved in the tutorial and share your problems and experiences with a group of peers.

About Julian:

Julian Harty has lots of experience in software testing and for the last year has worked for Google as a senior QA Engineer. He is passionate about improving software quality, and how software testing fits as a part of software quality. He is a frequent author and speaker at testing conferences.

From a business perspective, every company is in the business of creating products or services. In turn, those products and services generate revenue, and hopefully, profit after expenses. From a business viewpoint, it’s about money and results. So when we talk about quality, it is essential to consider quality in its financial context. (Of course there is non-financial value such as human life affected by poor quality product but we won’t talk about that here). Software testing plays a key role in improving the quality of software-related products and services. On the flipside, the cost of testing software can reach up to 40% of the overall software development cost (based on our internal study). As a testing professional, what can we do to move beyond our craft, and contribute as a leader? In that leadership role, we can potentially maximize our effectiveness in helping the business deliver profit and result.

Much has changed in software testing over the past two decades, yet many of the principles stay the same. In this tutorial, we will discuss a “macro” approach to software testing. We will be focusing on leadership skills and thinking out-of-the-box in the context of software testing. Most of my professional career is in the software industry. While I have worn many hats throughout, from testing to programming, software test management to software development management, technical management to business, studying to teaching, software consumer to designer, virtually all facets of my work involve software testing. I have also had experience in building and running a company of software testing professionals from a hundred-fifty staff (dot-com), to twenty staff (dot-bomb), and now to four hundred staff (globalization); opportunities of working with and testing for hundreds of companies and different products in various industries, interfacing with software testers, business analysts, developers, managers, and C-level executives, I want to share with you what I’ve learned and am still learning about developing leadership skills in software testing.

About Hung:

Hung Nguyen is CEO, President, and Founder of LogiGear and is responsible for the company's strategic direction and executive business management. He's been a leading innovator in software testing, test automation, testing tool solutions and testing education programs for the last two decades.

Mr. Nguyen is coauthor of the top-selling book in the software testing field, Testing Computer Software (Wiley, 2nd ed. 2002) and other publications including Testing Applications on the Web (Wiley, 2nd ed. 2003). His experience over the past two decades includes leadership roles in software development, quality, product and business management at Spinnaker, PowerUp, Electronic Arts, Palm Computing and other leading companies. A frequent speaker at industry events and a contributor to many industry publications, Nguyen also teaches software testing at LogiGear University, and at the University of California Berkeley Extension and Santa Cruz Extension in San Francisco and Silicon Valley.

CAST 2008 Tutorials (Thursday)

Jerry Weinberg: The Tester's Communication Clinic

Working with hardware and software is only half of the professional tester's job–and though hard enough, it's not nearly as hard as the other half, working with people. In this interactive workshop, you’ll obtain new strategies for coping with your most serious communication problems–with managers, developers, customers, and other testers. Gerald Weinberg helps you affirm your most successful strategies, while sharing other techniques you may not have thought of. Learn to be more sensitive to management desires and more influential in obtaining effective developer responses. Real-life communication situations of the participants will be used to illustrate practical application of various communication models, including:

• The Satir Interaction Model
• The Congruence Model
• Personality Types
• Modality Preferences

About Jerry:

Live! AST Instructors’ Orientation Course Jumpstart Tutorial: Rebecca Fiedler, Cem Kaner, Scott Barber

This workshop will use presentations, lectures, and hands-on exercises to address the challenges of teaching online. (Bring your laptop and wireless card if you can.) The presenters will merge instructional theory and assessment theory to show you how they developed the AST-BBST online instructional model. Over lunch, Scott Barber will lead a panel discussion of AST members who are working on AST Instructor Certification. For more information, see the announcement at http://www.satisfice.com/kaner/?p=41

This Tutorial, the day after CAST, satisfies the Instructors’ Orientation Course requirement for prospective AST-certified instructors.

To register for this Tutorial, go to https://www.123signup.com/register?id=tbzrz

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