ISTQB's Advanced Technical Test Analyst - A Technically Enlightened Way to Test Systems

Advanced Level Technical Test Analysts should be able to:

• Structure the tasks defined in the test strategy in terms of technical requirements
• Analyze the internal structure of the system in sufficient detail to meet the expected quality level
• Evaluate the system in terms of technical quality attributes such as performance, security, etc.
• Prepare and execute the adequate activities, and report on their progress
• Conduct technical testing activities
• Provide the necessary evidence to support evaluations
• Implement the necessary tools and techniques to achieve the defined goals

Watch the below Recorded Webinar (by Sir Rex Black) on ISTQB's Advanced Technical Test Analyst - A Technically Enlightened Way to Test Systems

Performance Testing on Advanced Web Sites - On Demand Webinar

Web 2.0 has taken the IT world by storm—allowing organizations to move from simple, static methods of data delivery to being able to provide highly interactive, user-centric, online experiences. However, traditional performance testing solutions cannot keep pace with the growing complexity. HP TruClient technology, available in HP LoadRunner and HP Performance Center, is a browser-based virtual user generator (VUGen) that makes testing Web 2.0 and Ajax applications faster, easier, and more comprehensive. 

Onlife Health will discuss how they've utilized HP TruClient technology to develop their online portal, how it has helped them reduce their application test cycles, as well as identify and eliminate potential problems throughout the application lifecycle. Onlife Health will describe how they've achieved faster scripting time—by at least 50%—and share real world best practices.

During this web seminar, you'll learn how to:

• Test critical end-user facing Web 2.0 and Ajax applications accurately and efficiently, even using beginners or less technical scripters
• Reduce hardware and software costs by predicting application scalability and capacity, and lower the cost of defects by testing earlier
• Pinpoint end-user, system-level, and code-level bottlenecks rapidly and with ease

Register for this event and receive a complimentary copy of HP's white paper, "HP TrueClient Technology: Accelerating the Path to Testing Modern Applications." This white paper compliments the valuable information you will gain from participating in this web seminar.

Click Here to Register.

---

Presenters
Ron Foster, Senior Systems Engineer, Onlife Health

With more than fourteen years of IT experience in various platforms and technologies, Ron has performance tested both large and small enterprise applications. He has more than six years experience with LoadRunner and scripting against multiple protocols, including .NET record/replay, Citrix, Web, AJAX C&S, and TruClient. Ron is currently a Senior Systems Engineer for Onlife Health in Nashville, Tenn.





Priya Kothari, Senior Product Manager, HP Software

Priya Kothari is the senior product manager for HP's Performance Validation solutions, including HP LoadRunner and HP Performance Center. Priya has been with HP (and previously Mercury) for more than eleven years. She was a founding member of "ActiveTune," Mercury's managed testing service in 2000, that was the foundation for HP's current Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). Priya has a long history with Performance Center, being one of the first people to use it since early inception days.

Is testing about checking against system requirements, or is it about exploring the software?

Some time back Mr. Bolton published an article on testing vs checking. On same concept, Elisabeth Hendrickson wrote one asrticle Two sides of testing. I was reading an article on testing "Two sides of testing". Where Elisabeth Hendrickson answers Is testing about checking against system requirements, or is it about exploring the software? In her great article, there we couple of points she mentioned which are very note-worthy.

Elisabeth proves that following claim in red is not always true.

Many years ago in a hallway conversation at a conference, a test manager and I were discussing our respective approaches to testing.

 "If they can't tell me what the software is supposed to do, I can't test it," Francine, the test manager, scowled. "So, I tell them that I won't start testing until they produce a detailed requirements document."

My eyebrows shot up through my hairline. At the time, I was working for a Silicon Valley software vendor that made consumer applications. If I waited for a comprehensive specification before I started testing, I'd be waiting forever. And, I'd be fired for failing to contribute meaningfully to the project. I said something to that effect, and Francine just shook her head at me. She couldn't imagine not having detailed specifications. I couldn't imagine holding the project hostage until I got documentation.

Few more useful quotes:

In the past, I was firmly on the side of using exploratory approaches. For most of my career, I worked for organizations that preferred lightweight documentation, so we didn't usually produce detailed test scripts. Even if those organizations had wanted binders full of step-by-step test cases, I agreed with James Bach that sticking to a testing script is like playing a game of  Twenty Questions where you have to ask all the questions in advance.

However, my perspective on this debate has shifted in the past several years as I started working with agile teams that value testing in all forms. I have come to realize that the old discussion of whether "good testing" involves predefined, detailed test scripts or exploratory testing is like pitting salt against pepper, glue against staples, or belts against suspenders.

It is a false dilemma and a pointless debate.

So Guys, what do you think? Is testing about checking against system requirements, or is it about exploring the software? Give your comments below.

Click here to Read the complete article "The two sides of testing".

Agile Test Automation - Training

Successful Automation in an Agile Environment
December 13–14, 2011

Don't miss out on this popular new course! Make plans to join SQE for the final Agile Test Automation course of 2011!

In this interactive tutorial, Janet Gregory describes how to use automation early and guide development, what tests should be automated, and how to work through ways to overcome common barriers to automation.

Are your automated tests effective and easy to maintain?
Janet will use examples to illustrate how to design automated tests for maximum effectiveness and ease of maintenance. Find out different approaches for evaluating and implementing automated test tools, shortening feedback cycles, creating realistic test data, and evaluating your automation efforts.

Do you ever question how to deliver good quality when you have to release so often?
By combining a collaborative team approach with appropriate tools and design approaches, over time you can not only automate your regression tests but also use automation to enhance exploratory testing.

Do you worry about testing lagging behind coding?
By the end of this session, you'll understand how to fit automation activities within each iteration so that testing "keeps up" with coding.

Here's what one recent attendee had to say about Agile Test Automation:
"Excellent content, excellent instructor, convenient format. Great combo!" William Krebs, Allscripts

About the Instructor: The co-author of Agile Testing: A Practical Guide for Agile Testers and Teams, Janet Gregory specializes in helping teams build quality systems. Janet's greatest passion is promoting agile quality processes. As tester or coach she has helped introduce agile development practices into companies and has successfully transitioned several traditional test teams into the agile world. Janet's focus is working with business users and testers to understand their roles in agile projects and has partnered with developers on her agile teams to implement successful test automation solutions.

Click Here to register and join for the training

Performance Testing on the Cloud

SoftSmith is conducting a "Cloud based Performance Testing Webinar" this month on

Date: 17-Nov-2011
Time: 4.00pm to 5.30pm IST
Webinar Link: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/314865266


Detailed Content:

• How will you know the performance of a hosted SaaS application?
• Measure performance and availability of cloud applications.
• Load test from Amazon cloud.
• Load test from real end user machines, from various cities, various countries.
• Analyze performance measurements.

You can register in this webinar by just clicking the above gotomeeting link,this webinar is absolutely free of cost.

Smart Phone Testing – Are You "Smart" Enough?

Mobile phone usage has exploded over the last few years as the device transitions from its traditional role as a communications medium to becoming a multi-purpose personal gadget. This expansion, driven by a flurry of technological advancements across a variety of device models, complicates the product development and rollout process for device manufacturers and application developers.

The more daunting task now becomes application quality testing across operating systems, device platforms, and networks to ensure wide acceptance and proper usage. Non-functional testing, including usability, security, and adaptability, is as important as functional testing. Effective testing enables device makers and application developers to collect appropriate metrics that help improve product quality.

In this web seminar, Cognizant explores industry best practices on mobile testing and demonstrates effective ways of managing mobile application quality. From this web seminar, you’ll take away:

• A clear understanding of different aspects of mobile application testing and effective execution of appropriate testing approaches
• An automation approach to accelerate any mobile testing cycle 
• How to establish a mobile testing lab 
• New techniques to emulate, simulate, and handle multiple browsers, operating systems, platforms, networks, and languages

Presenter: Pradeep Kumar, Head of Mobile Testing Practice, Cognizant

Click on below link to See this On Demand Webinar - 
https://goo.gl/v1iEk

Visual Studio Quality Assurance and Testing Tools - Case Study?

•	26% reduced development-to-test cycle time
•	91% increase in defects discovered

Read this white paper from Pique Solutions to learn how you can get these types of improvements, and the business case to support adopting Microsoft Visual Studio quality assurance and testing tools.

Download this report from Pique Solutions today!

Requirements management Fundamentals?

Learn four fundamentals of requirements management.

Too often projects fail due to issues with requirements. Today, more than ever, it's important for everyone involved in a project to clearly understand the scope of what it is the team is building and why. In this whitepaper, we'll cover the significance of requirements management, as well as four fundamental concepts that are valuable for all stakeholders to understand:

• Planning good requirements
• Collaboration and getting buy-in
• Traceability and change management
• Quality assurance

Click Here to download the free whitepaper - https://www.jamasoftware.com/contour/rm101-stickyminds.php

Performance Testing Across the Lifecycle?

Is performance the last thing you test? Most projects ignore performance testing until code is complete - when fixing bugs or rethinking architecture choices is most costly. In this webinar, Matt Heusser, leading author and consultant on Agile Testing, and Dan Bartow, SOASTA's Performance Engineering VP, will discuss the challenges and benefits of focusing on performance earlier, as part of a rapid development and deployment approach for today's websites and mobile applications. 

They'll explore how to:

• Build comprehensive test plans that involve Development, Test and Operations
• Create iterative performance tests and execute them across the development cycle
• Integrate functional and performance testing in fast-paced environments
• Integrate performance testing into continuous build frameworks
• Report on "Performance Regression" and "Performance Coverage"

Matt will discuss how to best direct the planning process to cover performance in agile models, with tips and examples. Dan will illustrate how the always-agile SOASTA development team has run functional and performance tests using the CloudTest platform as part of a daily build process for years. You'll see how CloudTest Lite can be integrated with continuous build frameworks like Hudson and Jenkins. Join these seasoned experts for an educational session that will enable you include performance testing early and often, no matter how fast your teams move. 

Click here to Register for the free Webinar - https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/941147144