Managing the Test Execution Process

(CSTP #4) or (CTM Elective) or (CSTAS Elective)

This course covers area 4 of the Test Professional Body of Knowledge requirements. This course also covers the Elective area for the Certified Test Manager (CTM) and the CSTAS certification.

For costs and cities where this course might be offered, please see the right border of this page or to bring this course to your test team at your location, contact our Education and Professionals Services Group.

Concepts

This interactive course addresses management aspects of carrying out tests and reporting test results and test status. Since test execution typically occupies the greatest portion of test time, it is essential to leverage limited resources to maximize defect detection and ejection. That means isolating and reporting defects so they can be removed quickly. It also means analyzing testing results in order to focus economically on areas with the biggest payback. Finally, it involves appropriate use of automated tools and other techniques to organize and often handle huge volumes of tests and test results. Exercises enhance learning by allowing participants to practice techniques with an actual case.

This course is intended to complement the one-day Managing Testing as a Process course.

Participants will learn:

• Manual and automated techniques to structure and manage large volumes of testware
• Writing defect and status reports that help assure the important bugs are removed before delivery
• Methods to reliably keep testing efforts on track and economical
• Measures to monitor both testing of particular software and overall test process effectivenes

Outline

• Defining Test Cases
  • What a test case is
  • Test case specification
  • Simple and complex tests
  • Black box traceability coverage
  • White box tests and degrees of coverage
  • Other test case dimensions—load, duration
  • Providing data values
  • Test script format
  • Capturing test data in a matrix
  • Screen images and file layouts
  • Use cases
  • Automated capture/replay scripts
  • Exploratory testing and error guessing
  • Repeatability and reusability of test cases
• Testing Infrastructure - Technical
  • Establishing the technical test environment
  • Creating and maintaining test beds
  • Hardware/software capabilities and versions
  • Configuration management, essential tool
  • Status-based defect tracking, also essential
  • Tools for designing/generating test cases
  • Tools to assist and monitor testing
  • Automated test execution tools
  • Load testing tools
  • Test management tools
  • Issues governing automation of testing
• Isolating and Reporting Defects
  • Need for reproducibility
  • Bug isolation vs. debugging
  • Writing an effective bug report
  • Categorizing defects, identifying trends
  • Dealing with duplicates
  • Prioritizing defects
  • Getting the important bugs fixed
  • Other information to capture
  • Defect reports for the project manager
  • Bug assignment and status
  • Projecting when it will be “good enough”
  • Counting test cycles
  • Defect density, mean times to fail and fix
  • Defect statistics, degrees of precision
  • Estimating remaining defects
  • Seeding and pooling techniques
• Relating Testing Projects & Process
  • Defect age
  • Measuring test detection effectiveness
  • Monitoring test progress and earned value
  • Key to improving accuracy of estimates
  • Reporting test project status
  • Measuring process via projects
  • Evaluating effectiveness of tools, techniques
  • Economical advantages of static reviews
  • Identifying improvement opportunities