How Collaborator’s Eclipse Plug-In Makes Your Life Easier

May 20, 2013 by Leave a Comment
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Ask any Eclipse developer and they will tell you that they prefer to do all of their work in Eclipse, rather than toggling between multiple systems. This is especially true for code reviews. So it makes perfect sense that we created an Eclipse plug-in for Collaborator, which gives you the ability to bring the whole review experience inside your Eclipse environment. Think about how much time and aggravation you could save by collaborating with co-workers in Eclipse. For example, imagine seeing something in the review that raises questions … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Code Review, collaborator, Development, Software Quality

So, I Heard You Guys Like Software Comics

May 17, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Prioritize-Bugs

We don't exactly have Scott Adams on staff to draw witty satires about office shinanigans, but we always enjoy putting out a few good software comics at the end of a grueling week. Whether it's about the downside of a classic buzzword (Agile anyone?) or the never-ending battle between the QA and development team, it's good to post something a little more light hearted every once in a while. Yes, we realize that we too are guilty of over using some of those buzzwords, and no, the relationship between our development and QA teams isn't … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Agile, cartoons, QA

Automated Testing is Not Agile Testing

May 14, 2013 by 2 Comments
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I’ve touched on this subject in the past, but this time I want to dive right into a response to the following quote from a recently released study on Agile testing: "Because the ultimate goal of Agile testing is to automate more effectively…" Although taken slightly out of context, the message conveyed by this statement (and the study as a whole) is quite clear: The holy grail of Agile testing is test automation. As much as I respect the authors of this report, I have to disagree with that premise. Test automation can surely play an … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Agile, Test Automation, TestComplete, Testing

From Aristotle to Descartes – A Brief History of Quality

May 8, 2013 by 1 Comment
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In the famous book Peopleware, Tom de Marco and Timothy Lister name “Cult of quality” as the top item in their list of the six things needed to build effective software development teams. Cult of quality seems to strike a deep chord in us as human beings. Again and again I have experienced how energizing such an attitude can be. The idea of something being better than something else comes natural to us. At the same time, we quickly become uncomfortable when "quality" gets brought up. "Quality? Isn't that subjective? A feeling? How do you … [Read more...]

Filed Under: SoapUI, Software Quality, What is Quality

Remember when Software Testing was Considered an Artform?

April 22, 2013 by 7 Comments
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Over the last few months I’ve had the opportunity to attend a number of extremely interesting and mind-expanding conferences focusing on emerging (and somewhat disruptive) technologies and companies: APIs, mobile, cloud, big data – the works. They talk repeatedly about continuous integration, Agile methodologies, user groups and continuous deployment – but testing? Nope. Why is that? First, I'd like to elaborate a bit on what I mean (and don’t mean) by "testing." I don’t mean unit tests. I'm not talking about recorded and automated … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Agile, Agile development, art, automated testing, Quality Assurance, software testing, Testing

How Quality Impacts Your Bottom Line

April 11, 2013 by Leave a Comment
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In this guest post, Jamie Turner, CEO of 60SecondMarketer.com, talks about a number of businesses that have focused their attention on quality and provides metrics to show how beneficial this decision was for each company. If you’re reading this, it’s probably because you’re interested in the concept of quality. In fact, quality control may be one of the more important aspects of your job. Whether you’re reviewing code documents or need to create automated functional tests, you recognize that when you focus your attention on … [Read more...]

Filed Under: automated testing, Code Review, Quality, Software Quality

Maintaining Quality Assurance in an Era of Hyper-Development

April 9, 2013 by 2 Comments
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Release cycles are getting shorter, from months to weeks to days and even hours, allowing companies to be more competitive than ever - or at least to think they are. To a large extent, the adoption of both Agile and DevOps practices is making this possible. Agile is bridging the gap between business and development, and DevOps is enabling development to push new features into production continuously and reliably. What implications does this have for QA? Is it possible to maintain an acceptable level of quality and a solid approach to testing … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Agile, automated testing, devops, Monitoring, processes, QA, Quality Assurance, Testing

Your Code May Work, But It Still Might Suck

March 29, 2013 by 8 Comments
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Why one of Steve Jobs's guiding principles should also be yours. And also: What you can learn about code quality from Doom’s source code. In his revealing biography of Steve Jobs, Walter Issacson told of Jobs's fastidiousness when it came to product details, even the stuff people would not see. Jobs demanded the unseen features be as finished and polished as the visible. Look at the chip layout on an old Apple II motherboard, laid out in perfect, neat order. The original Mac case had the designers’ signatures inscribed inside, even though … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Agile Software Development, documentation, process, programming, Software Quality

Should Programming Classes be Covering Software Testing, Too?

March 27, 2013 by 3 Comments
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You might have noticed the recent publicity blitz on behalf of code.org. Or, you might be living under a rock. Code.org was formed earlier this year with the goal of providing young people with mentorship and education in the computer science industry. There are a number of organizations like code.org – Girls Who Code, coderdojo.com, and codecademy.com, just to name a few - and their goal is admirable. Software has become a necessity, rather than a luxury. Software powers everything from our banks to our schools, from … [Read more...]

Filed Under: code.org, developers, programming, Software Quality, software testing, Testing

The History of Quality Assurance

March 26, 2013 by Leave a Comment
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When talking about software quality assurance, it is beneficial to talk about the history of quality assurance and how we have come to use certain methodologies, such as Agile and Waterfall, because, in many ways, the failures and successes of the past have had an impact on our perception of quality today. Quality has always been something society has strived for since ancient human civilization. It can derive back as far as specifications for buildings in ancient Greece to the Egyptians building the pyramids. For the sake of quality in … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Agile, processes, QA, Quality, Quality Assurance, Testing