March 2006

Featured Article

Testing Without Defined Requirements

By Randall W. Rice, CSTE, CSQA, CTFL

Over the past few years in teaching and consulting with testers and test managers worldwide, I have noticed something interesting. On one hand, testers complain they hardly ever get user requirements adequate for testing. On the other hand, when discussing what to base tests upon, the main response is "user requirements."

When I suggest there are other ways to design and evaluate tests, the response is similar to the time I accidentally walked into the glass of the revolving door at the Portland airport- surprise, followed by intense laughter.

I'm serious, though. There really are other ways to design and evaluate tests besides requirements. First, let's look at why you may need to do this.

By the way, let me be quick to say that I am a big believer in having solid, testable requirements for any project. Without them, you are at risk for a multitude of problems, including not knowing if an acceptable solution has been delivered. However, I also know we must anticipate real-world situations in which we may not (or should I say "probably not") get testable requirements.

Here are just a few of the situations that may require other techniques than requirements-based testing. [Read more here]

What's New on RiceConsulting.com  

Our Unit Test Course is Now Online

We are pleased to announce that we are now offering an online version of our
Unit Testing course!  Save 30% until April 30, 2006!
Regular Price of $129 is discounted to $89. 

We know there are times when you and your team would like to receive training but because of time, budget and travel restrictions, you just can't receive the training in person. For those reasons, we developed these online training courses.

Our online training is almost like having Randy training you at your desk!

The unit testing course contains 3.5 hours of recorded lectures, along with courseware PDF notes and exercises to reinforce your learning.

For more details, visit our e-Learning center.

Listen to Podcasts about Software Quality

You can now download mp3 audio programs at RiceConsulting.com.  Whether you listen on your computer or on your iPod, you can learn more about testing and software quality. In fact, I think this is the first podcast devoted to the topic of software testing and software quality. And...it's totally free!  Click here to go to the podcast page.

Check Out My New Blog!

I know, first the podcast, then the blog....is this guy on the cutting edge or what? My goal is to get helpful ideas on software testing and quality to you as soon as possible. This newsletter takes quite a bit of time to compose, proofread and all the other stuff that's needed for a newsletter. The blog and podcasts are much more agile in nature. In fact, you can even subscribe to a RSS feed from the blog so you can get updates the instantthey are posted.  Click here to go to my blog at http://randallrice.blogspot.com.  I'm still planning to keep the newsletter going, but it may become a quarterly publication.

Upcoming Events

I'll be speaking at StarEast in Orlando, Florida again this year. On Monday, May 15th, I'll be doing a full-day tutorial on Becoming an Influential Test Team Leader. If you are a test team leader and have never been to this session, I really encourage you to attend. You can learn more and register at http://www.sqe.com/stareast/ .  I'll also be presenting a tracksession on Wednesday, May 17th titled Credibility - The Software Test Manager's Key to Success.  If you are struggling with getting or rebuilding your credibility as a tester or test manager, this is a great session to show how to build or rebuild your credibility.  

Past Events

I would like to thank my friends at Grove Consultants in the U.K. for hosting the one-day session on Process Improvement Using Root Cause Analysis in London on February 10th. The session was a great success and we had a great time. Thanks to everyone involved! If you would like to know how to bring a session like this to your city, just contact me.

"We are prone to judge success by the index of our salaries or by the size of our automobiles rather than by the quality of our service and relationship to mankind." - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

"The bitterness of poor quality lingers after the sweetness of meeting schedules is forgotten." Kathleen Byle

A Practical Guide to Needs Assessment

Kavita Gupta

Product Details:

ISBN: 0787939889
Format: Hardcover, 224pp
Pub. Date: September 1999
Publisher: Wiley, John & Sons, Incorporated

I came across this book while looking for some new ideas on assessing training needs. I was immediately impressed with the ease of reading along with practical tools and methods.

Gupta addresses four major types of needs analysis:

• Strategic Needs Assessment, which assesses strategic business and organizational needs
• Competency-based Assessment, which identifies knowledge, skills and attitudes for superior job performance
• Job and Task Analysis, which determines the responsibilities and tasks needed to perform a job
• Training Needs Assessment, which identifies the knowledge and skills needed to perform a job

All of these assessments are needed by software test and QA managers in leading and developing teams. Perhaps even more valuable are the examples of how to construct and perform these assessments. With just a little adaptation and creativity, you can apply these techniques to other types of assessments, such as process, tool and risk assessments.

If you design and conduct training courses, then this book will be an instant toolkit for you. In addition to a complete description and analysis of the various techniques, Gupta provides all the templates and checklists you will need to get started right away in performing these assessments.

Gupta also does a very good job in providing practical advice on data gathering techniques such as surveys and interviews.

I highly recommend this book to anyone that designs or conducts any type of assessments.

     "Everything can be improved." - C.W. Barron

           "Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives."

William A. Foster

All of these links are very informative...check them out!

World's largest Windows error message 

Google's Web Page Creator Crashes on Takeoff 

Kudos to CIO magazine for focusing their November 2005 issue on the topics of requirements and testing.
Click to here to reach the archived issue online

Listen to this podcast on the importance of software testing

Humor to Brighten Your Day (It's clean) from James Huggins' web site

A thought-provoking article on requirements 

Dubai wants IT business as well as U.S. ports
It's encouraging companies to set up operations in the United Arab Emirates

IT exec sentenced to eight years for data theft
Case involved the theft of a billion records from Acxiom 

"The important thing is not to stop questioning." - Albert Einstein

"Quality means doing it right when no one is looking." - Henry Ford