sbarber's blog

Testing vs. Checking ... my 2 cents.

Wed, 23 Sep 2009 01:10:31 -0500

I was pleased to see Michael Bolton's series on Testing vs. Checking. If you haven't been following, what I consider to be the central thread of the topic (and the unfortunately inevitable fallout that seems to happen in "testerland" almost any time someone says something that makes sense).

From Michael:

From James Bach:

http://www.satisfice.com/blog/archives/358

From Scott Barber:

http://www.perftestplus.com/resources/014PeakPerf.pdf Original, ST&P Magazine, 2005
http://www.logigear.com/newsletter/investigation_vs_validation.asp Reprinted by Logigear, 2007

Thorkil Sonne: Recruit Autistics

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 21:25:31 -0500

Wired.com ran their smart list today. If you aren't familiar with it or don't care, at least check out the great press fellow software tester, entrepreneur, and social innovator Thorkil Sonne is getting for Specialisterne here:

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/17-10/ff_smartlist_sonne

Attention Vendors and Service Providers

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 02:35:17 -0500

The 4th Annual Conference of the Association of Software Testing (CAST) 2009

Colorado Springs, Colorado, July 13-16, 2009

Serving Our Stakeholders

If your company sells tools, training, or services related to software testing, CAST is the one conference you won't want to cut out of your budget. For a small fraction of the cost of many other conferences you can network with influencers and decision makers, you can become known as a company that really cares about testing and testers (as opposed to a company that simply found a way to make money off of software testing), and you can get a glimpse into where testing is headed in the future.

CAST 2009 Early Bird Rates Extended until May 1

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 00:42:40 -0500

The 4th Annual Conference of the Association of Software Testing (CAST) 2009

Colorado Springs, Colorado, July 13-16, 2009

Serving Our Stakeholders

Opening Keynote by: Dr. Jonathan Koomey

Closing Keynote by: Robert Sabourin & Tim Coulter

Invited Speakers: Mike Dwyer and Kevin Brennan

CAST 2009 Early Bird Rates Extended until May 1

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 00:36:14 -0500

The 4th Annual Conference of the Association of Software Testing (CAST) 2009

Colorado Springs, Colorado, July 13-16, 2009

Serving Our Stakeholders

Opening Keynote by: Dr. Jonathan Koomey

Closing Keynote by: Robert Sabourin & Tim Coulter

Invited Speakers: Mike Dwyer and Kevin Brennan

A misleading benchmark...

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 22:13:12 -0600

No further commentary needed.

--
Scott Barber
President & Chief Technologist, PerfTestPlus, Inc.

Thoughts on Performance Testing w/o "Tools"

Sat, 20 Dec 2008 14:30:12 -0600

I was recently asked the following question via the "Ask The Expert" feature of SearchSoftwareQuality.com.

How can we conduct performance testing, stress testing, and load testing of a Web application manually without using any tools?

My commentary is reproduced below -- you'll have to click through to see my actual recommendations.

Latest Column -- The controversy surrounding the schools of software testing

Fri, 05 Dec 2008 12:57:19 -0600

My latest column...

Periodically, discussions break out in various software testing communities around the Web regarding the schools of software testing.

As I write this, there are discussions going in SQAForums, on the Software-Testing Yahoo! group, and various blogs that (at least up to the time I started writing this piece) reside on or are fed to Testing Reflections. In principle, I'm always pleased when these discussions break out. The point of identifying the schools in the first place was to increase the overall awareness of the diversity in ideologies, practices, and values (i.e. schools of thought) in our field and to stimulate discussion about the situational pros and cons of each. That said, the discussions that actually take place tend to drift off in one or more directions that end up being disappointing, unnecessarily confrontational, and generally not useful.

Latest Column -- Testing training: Disturbing behaviors of students

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 13:17:13 -0600

My latest column...

Drive-by training. Never heard of it? It is exactly what it sounds like. You drive to a training facility (or an instructor drives to you), for a day or three the instructor delivers the pre-packaged training class, then everyone drives back home. It's not the best training model ever invented. There is generally no student assessment, and the only instructor/course provider accountability is reputation. Even so, many good ideas can be shared and lots of students come away feeling that it was well worth "the drive."

As it turns out, I've been delivering a lot of drive-by training to software testers this fall. That in itself isn't particularly noteworthy -- end-of-the-budget year is a popular time for drive-by training -- but something that is noteworthy is that I have noticed a rise in some disturbing behaviors among the individuals and organizations that select and attend drive-by training.

At first, I thought it was just me. But after an informal poll (and some lively discussions) with my employees and trainer friends in the testing realm, I became increasingly convinced that the behaviors I'm noticing are not exclusive to me and that I'm not the only one who thinks they are on the rise.

Read the rest of the column.

--
Scott Barber
President & Chief Technologist, PerfTestPlus, Inc.
Executive Director, Association for Software Testing
Co-Author, Performance Testing Guidance for Web Applications

"If you can see it in your mind...
you will find it in your life."

Latest Column -- Software Testers are not helpless

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 00:20:49 -0500

My latest column...

During a coffee break at a class the other week, I overheard the following comment from one student to another:

Tester: "This stinks! All of my automated test scripts are broken and I can't seem to get the tool to work now that the developers have enabled Secure Sockets Layer. I'm going to have to work through the weekend."

I know that it's generally considered rude to eavesdrop, and ruder still to comment on a conversation you weren't invited to, but I figured that since I was teaching the class I'd be forgiven. Besides, I simply couldn't help myself.

Read the rest of the column.

--
Scott Barber
President & Chief Technologist, PerfTestPlus, Inc.
Executive Director, Association for Software Testing
Co-Author, Performance Testing Guidance for Web Applications

"If you can see it in your mind...
you will find it in your life."

June Issue of AST Update Now Available

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 12:55:01 -0500

June 2008 Issue of the Association for Software Testing Magazine and Newsletter Now Available

Latest Column -- Avoid "Center of the Universe Syndrome"

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 00:03:55 -0500

My latest column cautioning testers not to think they are the center of the development team's universe http://searchsoftwarequality.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid92_gci1325828,00.html.

--
Scott Barber
President & Chief Technologist, PerfTestPlus, Inc.
Executive Director, Association for Software Testing
Co-Author, Performance Testing Guidance for Web Applications

"If you can see it in your mind...
you will find it in your life."

5 Questions with Scott Barber by a Braidy Tester

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 01:29:44 -0500

I recently had the honor of being interviewed by Michael Hunter, a Braidy Tester, for Dr. Dobbs Portal. Check it out: 5 Questions with Scott Barber.

--
Scott Barber
President & Chief Technologist, PerfTestPlus, Inc.
Executive Director, Association for Software Testing
Co-Author, Performance Testing Guidance for Web Applications

"If you can see it in your mind...
you will find it in your life."

Latest Column -- Inspired by taking AST's Bug Advocacy Class

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 01:18:53 -0500

Software testing is improved by good bug reporting

I recently completed (successfully, I might add) the second of the Association for Software Testing's all online, free to members Black Box Software Testing course. Each of these courses is four weeks in length. I've been involved with this program since years before it became a program, and I am an instructor for the first course in the series, called Foundations. For this course, called Bug Advocacy, I was a student.

I made CNBC.com (in a CAST press release)

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 01:19:42 -0500

High Demand Causes Three-Day Software Testing Conference to Add Fourth Day

Ok, so I know that this is all about CAST, and all about AST being true to it's word to adapt the conference on the fly to follow the energy and interests of the participants (in fact, that's why we refer to folks who come to the conference as participants, not attendees or delegates), and all about the fact that even during one of the worst economic years I can remember, CAST is so cool that we had to extend it!

I'm proud of whatever part I've played in making that happen as AST's Executive Director, and I'm extremely grateful to all of the volunteers who have worked hard to make this conference happen. In fact, if you're not already planning to be there, you should. It is the testing conference you won't want to miss, you know.

Ok, you guessed it, I came up with that tagline, but it is the one testing conference each year that I refuse to miss. Not because I'm AST's Executive Director, but because of the participation, conferring, facilitation, and challenging topics. So seriously, if you're still on the fence, (or your boss is still on the fence) take a look at the CNBC.com article http://www.cnbc.com/id/25091786/ (or take it to your boss), and then decide to come out and join us.