Wednesday, September 24, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
T-1 Agile Testing Practices
By Megan Sumrell & Robert Walsh

When a software development team adopts agile practices, the testing team often struggles to understand what their role is and how they fit in. This tutorial provides participants with an overview of how testing changes when a team adopts agile methods. The class will begin with an overview of agile principles and practices and will be a combination of presentations and hands-on exercises. Participants will leave with a clear understanding of how traditional testers can navigate through an agile adoption.

Topics will include:

• Comparison of traditional QA practices vs. agile testing practices
• Acceptance Test Driven Development (ATDD)
• Defining acceptance criteria
• Executable requirements
• Automated testing on agile teams
• Defect management
• Continuous integration
• Exploratory testing

Wednesday, September 24, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
T-2 Measuring and Improving Your Test Processes
By Robin Goldsmith

Testing effectiveness is determined by your testing process—the way you do things to produce your results. To improve test results, you must improve your testing process, and that requires meaningful, valid and reliable objective measurement. Defect data are the most obvious testing artifact to measure, but they must be put in context and coupled with other key factors. Not only do we tend to miss important measures, but we often overwhelm ourselves with too many measurements.

This interactive tutorial describes a minimum set of metrics that your test and QA teams need to know, ways to make those measures within appropriate contexts, and methods to analyze and report to guide improvement. You’ll learn techniques for overcoming resistance when getting started and engage in practical exercises to see how to apply these techniques.

Wednesday, September 24, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
T-3 SQL for Testers
By Karen N. Johnson

There are application defects that can be found once a tester gains knowledge of a database schema and develops the ability to write and execute SQL queries. By learning about SQL and relational databases, both manual and automated testing can be improved. With knowledge of the underlying data structure of an application, business analysts can draft more technically precise requirements. Analysts will learn about data volume as a factor to consider as an application ages through production use.

In this tutorial, you’ll establish a sound foundation in basic SQL knowledge and understand how both analysts and testers can apply that knowledge to their systems and projects. Topics covered are schemas, primary and foreign keys, data types, SQL query writing, volume data and concurrency, and deadlocks.

Through a combination of lecture and hands-on activities, students will leave with a portable, stand-alone relational database that they can continue experimenting with. Other take-aways include course material designed to move them from beginner to intermediate knowledge and references to advanced materials.

Wednesday, September 24, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
T-4 Creating and Leading the High-Performance Test Organization
By Bob Galen

Fewer people, less time, changing technologies and increased expectations are the norms facing you and your development team today. Nowhere is this more evident than within testing teams, since the pressure increases as software moves along the life cycle. This challenge to leaders creates the opportunity to differentiate themselves and their teams as they meet and exceed organizational expectations.

This tutorial focuses on acquiring the fundamental skills to become that outstanding test leader. It will explore how to build, motivate and lead great testing teams; create impact-driven communications on testing state; properly plan and execute your team’s evolution, growth and ability to meet project challenges; handle the toughest “people” challenges; and be agile and adaptable to changes in the organizational landscape.

Wednesday, September 24, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
T-5 Automated Database Testing: Using Stored Procedures
By Mary Sweeney

Today’s heterogeneous data environments place an increasingly heavy burden on test engineers. Applications, whether Web-based or client/server, must be tested for seamless interface with the back-end databases; this typically goes far beyond what the popular test automation tools can provide. The intricate mix of client/server and Web-enabled database applications is extremely difficult to test productively. As a result, you’re increasingly expected to know how to create and use SQL queries, stored procedures and other relational database objects to effectively test data-driven environments.

In this tutorial, you’ll learn about testing at the database layer as an important adjunct to current tests. Using demonstrations and code examples, the instructor will present tips and techniques for creating efficient automated tests of the critical database back end using SQL, scripting languages and relational database objects. You’ll learn why testing of database objects and stored procedures is necessary; how simple and effective automated tests for the back end can be created using various programming languages, including Perl and VBScript; and how to successfully test database objects, such as stored procedures and views, with many examples and code.

Wednesday, September 24, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
T-6 Testing Techniques: Theory and Application
By Bj Rollison

This tutorial presents the formal theory and practical application of functional (behavioral) and structural (coverage) testing techniques. You’ll learn functional testing techniques like exploratory testing, boundary value analysis, equivalence class partitioning and combinatorial analysis. Structural testing techniques covered include statement coverage, decision/branch coverage, and condition and basis path coverage.

You’ll learn how to use functional testing techniques to establish a solid foundation and minimum baseline for test cases. You’ll also understand how structural testing techniques can be used to design additional tests from a white-box approach to complement the test effort, to ensure that critical paths in the code have been exercised and to achieve higher code-coverage results. You’ll also learn how to apply both black-box and white-box test design approaches to test more effectively. To get the most out of this class, bring a laptop.

Wednesday, September 24, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
T-7 Delivering Test Automation Success Through People, Methods and Tools
By Hans Buwalda

Successful test automation is vital to increasing the efficiency of QA efforts. If done correctly, it’s possible to develop tests earlier, run them faster and repeat them more reliably when the software under test becomes available.

This tutorial presents state-of-the-art techniques—including data-driven testing, keyword-driven testing, and scripted and non-scripted automation—that can help deliver test automation success. As a framework, the class will use Action Based Testing, which has been proven effective and efficient for many testing organizations around the world. An important focus for the day is the managerial perspective, such as how to set up the right team and how to gain commitment from managers and other stakeholders.

You’ll learn:

• Effective integration, fine tuning and management of testing and test automation
• How to apply good test design techniques, such as Soap Opera Testing
• How to use frameworks like Action Based Testing to ensure visibility, maintainability and scalability
• How to incorporate an automation framework along with your existing process
• How to optimize the use of your testing staff’s diverse skill sets

Wednesday, September 24, 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
T-8 Programming Concepts for the Test Professional
By Timothy Korson

This course will discuss modern programming concepts from a test and QA perspective. Attendees will learn to create more effective glass-box tests by being able to identify internal boundary conditions and other error prone areas in the software. Attendees will learn to communicate more effectively with other software professionals by increasing their technical knowledge of software development. Recent developments in software engineering such as Service Oriented Architectures will be discussed.

• Unit 1 – Basic Programming Concepts
• Unit 2 – Modern Programming Concepts
• Unit 3 – Distributed, Composable and Scalable Applications
• Unit 4 – Summary