AcraTraining & Consulting » Software Testing

Serious Test Case Design

admin — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 12:51:40 +0000

ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level

admin — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 19:09:24 +0000

This course provides test engineers and test team leaders with the main ideas, processes, tools and skills they need in order to set themselves on a path for true testing professionalism. This hands-on course covers the major test design techniques with lecture and exercises. The course provides the methodology behind the testing and covers issues both individual testers related as well as the whole testing team related. The testing process is presented through theory and hands-on exercises that follow an example project (which was developed for the purpose of presenting this course, and is adjusted to current technology), including the challenging tasks of tracking, analyzing and presenting tests results. Test environment and test automation issues are also covered, along with system development relevant lifecycles and how they affect testing. Class solutions are presented for the exercises performed in the class. This course is aimed at test engineers and test team leaders preparing for ISTQB foundation level certification. It is based on the International Software Testing Qualifications Board Foundation Syllabus (www.istqb.org),

Agile and Agile Testing

Alex — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 21:13:40 +0000

This is a practical course for testers who find themselves on an agile team, test and quality assurance managers in organizations transitioning to agile development, and agile teams learning how to approach testing. The course starts with an introduction to agile testing, how it’s different from testing on a traditional team, and what makes agile testers different. The course contains dozens of stories from real people on real agile teams about the various testing-related issues they faced and how they resolved them. A section on organizational challenges covers cultural issues that agile testers face, team logistics, metrics, defect tracking and test planning. One central part of the course uses agile testing matrix to go through all the different types of testing needed on an agile project, who does it, how to approach each type, and what tools might help. The test automation portion of the course looks at barriers to successful test automation, ways to overcome them, and how to develop a sound test automation strategy. Another core section of the course takes the reader through an iteration, and more, in the life of an agile testing, from release planning to successful delivery. This course presents many testing challenges faced by real agile teams and explains how those teams solved their problems. You’ll learn how apply different types of agile testing to your unique situation in order to guide development, learn about the product and apply that learning to the development and testing process.

The “Right” Move: Writing and Testing from Requirements

admin — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 14:42:30 +0000

How can you ensure that you are on the path to developing the “right” software that will guarantee your project’s success? You must first be sure to acquire the proper techniques for writing the user requirements. Next, you need to identify the set of tests that will appropriately cover those requirements. Only then can you determine whether your software innovation is functioning as planned.

Sometimes, the biggest challenge in a project’s requirements phase can lie in simply trying to comprehend the testing requirements. If the particular requirements are not adequately written, then the testing will not accurately measure those requirements.

Our course will help you better gauge this delicate process by providing you with the tools for:

Designing and executing tests that confirm what the software is intended to do
Developing software that meets the needs and expectations of your clients and users

In the first part, pertaining to writing testable requirements, you will learn:

What are testing requirements?
How to design well written requirements so that they are written in a testable manner?
How to identify poorly written requirements?
What is the impact of incorrect and/or missing requirements in the software development process?

In the second part, relating to effective testing of requirements, you will understand the:

Overall test process with an emphasis on test planning
Range of test case design techniques

Armed with these tools, you will be sure to develop a better understanding of how to effectively develop software from its inception all the way up to its validation through testing. Take charge by designing the “right” requirements as well as learning to identify and solve potential problems. Only then can you implement your test planning process and ultimately achieve your goal of successful software development.

Please click here if you’re interested to register for the upcoming class or for more details.

Fundamentals of Web Application Testing

Alex — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 20:02:54 +0000

Acceptance Testing is a critical step in the life of a systems development project. As the bridge between development activities and production status, the Acceptance Test is the verification that the project will deliver the user functionality as specified in the project requirements. It is typically the final checkpoint for quality, and forms the basis for end user approval of the project work. As such, it is essential that the Acceptance Test is successful.

This foundation course provides an in-depth introduction to planning, creating, executing, and reviewing acceptance test deliverables. The course follows the life cycle and establishes the key linkages between testing activities and the development process as a whole.

The course begins by presenting a context for Acceptance Testing – what is it, and why do we do it? And most importantly, how do we, and the end user, know that it was done satisfactorily and thoroughly. We examine the detailed processes of developing an overall plan, assessing requirements to derive testing strategies, writing the formal Acceptance Test Plan, and conducting a structured walkthrough to ensure its integrity and completeness.

Writing Testable Requirements

Alex — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 20:02:08 +0000

Software development often fails because requirements are written poorly, or testing does not adequately cover those requirements, or both. Half of the test effort is just trying to understand the requirements. The better that requirements are written, the higher the likelihood of the development and testing team being able to understand those requirements and focus on their software development tasks. Testable requirements improve the success of creating a set of tests that adequately cover those requirements. These tests are used to verify that the software behaves as expected. The rest of the test effort focuses on understanding what test case design techniques are best suited to capture all of the requirements within a well defined test planning process.

The intent of Writing and Testing Requirements is to provide techniques on how to best write requirements. Once those requirements have been written properly, the next step is to identify the set of tests that adequately cover those requirements.

Performance, Load, and Stress Testing

Alex — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 19:59:40 +0000

Powerful Techniques for Testing System Characteristics

You have made a heroic effort to test a system under unreasonable deadlines with only limited test staff and equipment. You scrupulously ensure the features work as expected, and system performance seems fine in the test lab. So you release the system. A few days later, you receive a call from a senior user. You are expecting words of appreciation, but he only moans about what you’ve done to him.

The features do work, but response time is slow in live operation. Or the system can not handle peak loads and stresses. Or the system isn’t robust and cannot routinely recover from errors. Whether you’ve already been there or you don’t want to go there, this course is for you! It goes beyond the basics of feature testing to ensure that your software works in its “live” production environment before users discover problems.

In the Real World

This practical, hands-on course delivers testing skills participants can immediately apply back on the job. Using a challenging, real-world case study, you will encounter the same issues, decisions, and comparable experiences of testing as in their own work environment. In this course, you are appointed team leader on a project to test the performance, load, and stress characteristics of a mission-critical system. The application uses a mix of Web, client/server, database, wireless, and telephone technology. The managers who appointed you expect an in-depth presentation on how you’ll proceed. Working through a series of exercises in small teams, you develop a workable strategy for the project.

The Test Automation Workshop

Alex — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 19:55:47 +0000

Whether you are considering a solution or have one already established, this course will provide you with the critical tools, strategies, tactics and techniques to significantly increase the performance of your automated testing practice and maximize your return on investment. Automation is software — but it is also a tactical and strategic framework, and your requirements must directly support that framework. Knowing how to find the right software, understanding which framework matches your needs, and implementing them both correctly will enable you to achieve significant ROI — but it is much easier said than done.

From Conceptualization to Implementation

This two-day course was developed as a detailed roadmap for successful test automation deployment. You will get a comprehensive examination of both commercial and open-source solutions and how they can be applied to both traditional applications and specialized testing initiatives. You will learn how to properly evaluate, implement and gain sustainable utilization for your system. You will get invaluable tips, tricks, and techniques for all stages — from conceptualization to implementation. Attendees will leave this class with developed documents that will provide a quick start when you return to the office.

Business Analysis for Testers

Alex — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 04:40:10 +0000

To be effective, Software Testers must understand the overall practices and modeling techniques employed by Business Analysts when working with End Users to define project requirements. Definition of requirements is the most critical phase of a project, and software testers must ensure that all requirements are met in order to plan and execute a successful Acceptance Test.

This is a survey course that examines the information that should be present in requirements deliverables, and also reviews the typical analysis and modeling techniques used by business analysts. Attendees will learn about a variety of typical techniques such as swimlane diagrams, process flows, workflows, entity diagrams, and UML Use Cases and Activity Diagrams. Review and approval processes for these types of models will be presented.

As there is a direct correlation between project requirements and Acceptance Testing, the course will examine traceability, and how to approach deriving a set of acceptance tests from a set of requirements.

When this course is completed, the attendee will have an increased understanding of the requirements gathering process, the contents and models of requirements and how these translate to acceptance testing requirements.

Fundamental of Unit Testing

Alex — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 03:21:56 +0000

This foundation course provides the attendee with an excellent introduction to software testing practices with a specific focus on unit testing techniques for code. Unit testing is the most mysterious of testing as it is closest to the development process itself. Usually, unit testing is an iterative and repetitious task focused on achieving a clean compile and execution without failure. In the real world, this is insufficient and ineffective because even clean compiling code can entirely miss meeting specifications and technical design.

The course provides a broader context for unit testing by presenting testing basics including definitions and methodologies, techniques for testing including black and white box, and explores various techniques such as equivalence partitioning, boundary analysis, and forced error handling. One of the essential goals of this course is to show developers better ways to try to force their code to fail, and thus increase the quality of their testing activities.

Additionally, this course presents a method for conducting structured walkthroughs and technical inspections. These techniques are highly effective in the early detection of software defects, and in many cases, are far more effective than actually executing the code.

This course uses pseudo-code (English-like statements) to illustrate concepts and does not focus on one programming language or technical environment.