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Testing COTS Systems? Make Evaluation Count

Over the years, I have been involved in a number of projects testing COTS (Commercial-Off-The-Shelf) systems across a range of industries. Sometimes the project was with the vendor and sometimes with the customer. When it came to supporting a company … Continue reading

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Stop Testing – Start Thinking

Throughout my career I have observed numerous organizations all looking for the ‘silver bullet’ to solve all their product quality problems. News Flash: There is no ‘silver bullet’.  Solving product quality problems can only begin when organizations “Stop Testing and … Continue reading

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Uncovering High Value Defects

Methods of uncovering defects have for the most part stayed the same even with great advancements in process and development tools. One thing that has not stayed the same is the amount of time we have to uncover these defects. … Continue reading

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Maximizing the Value of Test Automation

High quality software delivered to market quickly has always been the goal of Agile teams. A common process teams use to achieve this goal is test automation. However, simply implementing test automation doesn’t always result in reaching this goal. Over … Continue reading

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Testing as a Service? Testing is a Service

We, as testers, do not “build in quality” and can not guarantee all the defects will be found.  We can not, should not, define “what is quality?”  And, we should not be making the choice to release or not. Not … Continue reading

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New Project? Shift-Left to Start Right!

Project management is continually challenged with delivering the “right” solution, on-time and on-budget, with high quality. In the face of typical project constraints and changing priorities, quality is sometimes sacrificed towards the end of the project for the sake of … Continue reading

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By Executive Order – Get The Best Test Automation Solution

Test automation is an investment. Like any investment, you expect a future return. As stated in “Test Automation – Building Your Business Case” the following are some of the benefits typically expected from investing in software test automation: Discover defects … Continue reading

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Distributed Teams – An Interview with Janet Gregory

I recently interviewed Janet Gregory on the topic of distributed teams. Janet is the founder of DragonFire Inc., an agile quality process consultancy and training firm. Janet co-wrote the original book on agile testing “Agile Testing: A Practical Guide for … Continue reading

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Is Functional Assurance the new Quality Assurance?

I have noticed a shift in how companies are attempting to ensure quality and this is what has led me to write this post. Companies desperately want to achieve quality by simply creating automated tests. Why do they want this? … Continue reading

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Test Envisioning

Starting a project seems to be one of the most under-rated steps when it comes to describing critical success factors for projects. A project well-launched is like a well-designed set play that comes together on the field during a game. … Continue reading

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