London software testing news UK

From The Standard

“The traditional way of writing a bunch of documentation and flipping it over to the next group doesn’t work,” he said. “We prefer executive documentation, which requires that we write the code first. It’s far more disciplined and every two weeks or so we have working and visual software to show to our stakeholders.”

Besides increased teamwork between multiple business groups, some of the key criteria to an agile system, according to Ambler, include continuous testing that drives development, daily work with the stakeholders, and producing working software on a regular basis. Many IT organizations, he said, too often lose sight of their true goals. “You have to know your audience,” Ambler said. “Treat your stakeholders like adults and keep them involved in the process. Any dollar spent on documentation is a dollar not spent on working software.”

Cem Kaner, author of Lessons Learned in Software Testing and Testing Computer Software, agreed, saying Agile development can reduce the cost of late changes and make it easier for IT organizations to respond as the stakeholders’ needs continually evolve.

“The most important thing the executive can do is keep asking the critical question, ‘How does this practice (paired programming, test-first programming, whatever the group is proposing this week) make us more able to be more responsive later,’” Kaner, who is professor of software engineering at the Florida Institute of Technology, added. If those implementing the process can’t answer this question convincingly, Kaner said, it’s a big red flag.

Agile testing

From Business Week

To this day, I’m amazed by the number of people who will spend a ton of money on software for their entire business after a single demonstration. I spend more time picking out a pair of shoes than some clients have spent evaluating a business application.

One company turned to my firm to put in a help-desk system so they could track service issues from the time a ticket is opened to the completion of a customer survey. After one demonstration of our product, The owner, gave me a thumbs-up and said enthusiastically: “This looks great. Let’s get started!” Buying new software should require product research, multiple demos, on-site testing, reference checking, and planning. None of which he had done.

Knowing this, did I take the high road and refuse to move forward? Nope. I said “Super,” arguing to myself that he’s going to buy from someone, so it may as well be me. I kept my fingers crossed. I took his money. I hoped for the best. And I made him sign paperwork releasing my firm from any liability. Not surprisingly, the software wasn’t exactly right and he had to spend a lot more to customize it. We no longer work together.

Have you done all your homework before buying technology? I’ve learned now to ask questions.

Resources testing software

FromTMC net

Empirix), a company dedicated to helping organizations to adopt complex communications solutions with confidence, has announced that Technology Marketing Corporation’s Customer Interaction Solutions magazine has named Empirix’s Hammer Performance Assurance for Siebel service as a recipient of the 2008 CRM Excellence Award.

The Hammer is considered the gold standard for testing for voice applications and telecommunications gear. Empirix strives to provide a unique service designed to ensure the successful rollout of Siebel desktop applications integrated with CTI middleware.

The Hammer Performance Assurance for Siebel is a comprehensive methodology that involves generating real end-to-end calls, from the PSTN to the desktop, that allow Oracle’s Siebel customers and systems integrators to guarantee that their Siebel/CTI implementations deliver expected performance to customers and call center agents when the applications go live.

The comprehensive testing service ensures that the right data will be delivered to the right agent in a timely fashion, under real world conditions.

Market place software testing and quality assurance

From IDG no

Every day, new services launch on the Web, often earlier than they should with the thought that “just getting it out there” is a good idea. And many of these are in perpetual beta, like Google’s Gmail.

Once upon a time the term “beta” meant that the software was very close to release, but the developers were still seeking feedback. Betas were typically only distributed to a limited audience of a few customers who understood the risks inherent in using software that might break, and who would report bugs. Those bugs would then be fixed and the final version released for sale.

Today, betas are instantly available to everyone worldwide; there are rarely limits. They are used to attract free publicity, or to drive user demand through “invite only”-style launches. And a beta is not a one-time event. The software changes frequently; new features are added constantly. If problems occur the answer is often not to fix them, but to state that “the product is only in beta”. But people use the product as if it were final. At best, the service might not work exactly as advertised. At worst, your data could be lost, destroyed, or leaked.

This is understandable to a certain extent. Making software or services available on the Internet provides a kind of load testing that no quality assurance model ever could. And tens or hundreds of thousands of users will find bugs and suggest enhancements faster than a few hundred controlled users — if you intend to fix the issues. Twitter has become a very popular service, but it suffers constant breakdowns.

Such a short release schedule also forces competitors to release their “me too” products much sooner than they should have, which leads to a downward spiral in overall quality of the products — a race to the bottom, so to speak. And it forces users to quickly abandon what might otherwise be promising solutions as they try the next new thing rather than wait for the current service to get better.

From Computer Weekly

The technology allows users to quickly access pictures, documents, video and other data stored across multiple machines in different locations.

Live Mesh uses the internet as a data hub, synchronising files across computers, phones and other devices.

Around 10,000 US testers will initially use the technology on Windows-based computers, but the beta testing will be extended to Apple PCs, mobile phones and other devices in the coming months, said Microsoft.

As well as allowing consumers to easily access and share information, Live Mesh could also be used by firms to easily distribute information to authorised users registered to the system.

The beta is expected to be extended to users outside the US before the end of the year.

Resources testing software

From IT DIrector

According to Ounce Labs, the following are some best practices that organisations should follow when outsourcing software code development:

• Define upfront what is meant by security, including the security environment in which the application is to be used and what other resources could be exposed by a security vulnerability, and include the definition in the contract put in place
• Validate the security mechanisms to be used upfront and set requirements for their use
• Ensure that the third party is using software coding best practices and that they are documented and validated
• Demand proof of the level of training, skills and security awareness among the third party’s development staff
• Ensure that expectations are laid out in the service-level agreement, including milestones and deliverables
• Define acceptance criteria for the security of applications delivered
• Provide a list of the most critical flaws that are deemed unacceptable
• Mandate measures for certifying that code is secure, including the use of automated testing tools
• Define steps required in the audit process and ensure that all code is audited and certified before payment is made
• Ensure that the right to audit code and perform security checks is written into the contract
• Define processes for remediation by the third party and ensure that responsibility for bearing the costs of remediation or legal liability, even after the application has been delivered, are written into the contract
• Specify in the contract that security checks and monitoring will be continued throughout the lifecycle of that application and lay out the third party’s responsibility for fixing flaws found at a later date.

Outsourced software testing quality assurance

From Telecom paper

Skype has released a beta version of Skype for your mobile, a mobile thin client that works on about 50 of the Java-enabled mobile phones from Motorola, Nokia, Samsung and Sony Ericsson. The beta version of Skype for your mobile is available with a feature set that includes chat, group chat, presence and receiving calls from Skype users and through SkypeIn. Additional features, which include the making of Skype-to-Skype and SkypeOut calls from the mobile handsets, are initially supported in seven markets, which include Brazil (Rio de Janeiro), Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Poland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. This public testing phase is expected to last several months, after which a public version of the application will be made available to mobile phone owners.

Testing solutions for the telecom sector

From Sourcewire

Epitiro, the leader in comparative broadband benchmarking, today announces ISP-I™ Reportal, a new website testing enhancement to the company’s portfolio of broadband benchmarking solutions. Businesses that depend on their websites for effective communication and e-commerce will now be able to fully understand the true on-line customer experience and address performance issues.

ISP-I™ Reportal is the first website testing solution to be located on multiple consumer broadband (DSL, Cable, Wireless, WiFi) networks thus enabling a true and accurate analysis of a website’s performance from the end user perspective. ISP-I™ Reportal conducts testing via the leading ISPs worldwide and uses popular browsers, including Internet Explorer and Firefox, to measure response times, security levels, page flows and other transactions that affect the customer experience. The comprehensive analysis is performed using Epitiro’s extensive deployment of edge-based agents.

“In order to get a consumer view, it is essential that customer experience testing is performed at real end-user locations and not some technically or logistically convenient mid-point sited within the carrier network or data center.” said JP Curley, Technical Director, Epitiro. “ On-line experience is dependent on both the website design as well as variables beyond the control of a business such as an ISP’s traffic management policies, the browser a customer uses, and of course, the customer’s location. With ISP-I™ Reportal, businesses will now have visibility of their customer’s on-line experience and be able to make immediate improvements.”

From Heise Online

The Council of Registered Ethical Security Testers (CREST) was formally launched at the Infosecurity Europe expo in London. Born of the recognition that there was no assurance framework for security services providers in the private sector analogous to the government CLAS scheme, CREST was initiated in early 2007 to provide a “kite mark” for security testers serving commerce and industry.

Consultation with security testing professionals revealed that there were at that time no defined standards or formal tests of competence. Around 30 specialist companies therefore pooled resources to develop a framework of standards and examinations that would serve as a common criterion of competence for both companies and individuals. Processes were then developed to support the framework. The initiative is well supported in government circles. The examinations have been accepted as comparable with CLAS lead auditor qualifications – to the extent that a pass in the CREST exam qualifies the recipient, as if under CLAS, to work on government projects.

The consortium went live in early 2008 as a not-for-profit organisation offering technical examinations for individuals and an assurance framework for companies to apply to validating their staff on commercial and ethical criteria. Two tracks of examinations for individuals are currently offered: infrastructure testing and application testing with an emphasis on web applications. The examinations are in three parts: a black box practical, a multiple choice theory paper drawn from a large pool and a discursive answer theory paper. The latter, although currently unusual in technical examinations, was included specifically to validate the communication skills of candidates, as this is seen as a critical component of the consultancy role.

From Reuters

IBM plans to unveil a new type of computer for big data hubs operated by so-called Web 2.0 companies, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

IBM’s iDataPlex line is due for sale next month and is meant for companies that buy vertical racks with dozens of servers based on Intel microprocessors, the report said.

The line is aimed at fewer than 1,000 customers worldwide, according to the Journal report.

Early testers of the unit include Yahoo Inc and Tencent QQ, a Chinese company. IBM has deployed about 300 units for testing, and the vice president for its enterprise systems group, Jim Gargan, told the Journal he expected large sales.

Software development testing