Computerworld UK "Test Driven"

Test Driven Development as high-jump

david.evans@sqs-uk.com — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 19:16:00 GMT

I thought it would be far too corny to put some kind of Olympic-themed testing analogy blog entry up during the last fortnight, but with the closing ceremony well and truly behind us, it must be safe to do so now.

Is Unit Testing on the Wane?

david.evans@sqs-uk.com — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 15:53:00 GMT

A recent article by Andrew Binstock titled Is Unit Testing Doomed? uses the demise of the unit test-tool company Agitar to ask the question if this signals a cooling of interest in unit testing within the development community.

Test Driven Development as insurance

david.evans@sqs-uk.com — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 10:09:00 GMT

I'm an agnostic generally, but Test-Driven Development is something that I can get quite preachy about. It may not save your soul, but it can save a lot of searching.

Are Late Test Results as bad as Wrong Test Results?

david.evans@sqs-uk.com — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:13:00 GMT

Educational Testing Services (ETS), the private US company responsible for marking over a million British schoolchildren's national curriculum tests, faces being sacked and having to repay millions of pounds in penalties over late test results.

Good news for database testing: DBFit is here

david.evans@sqs-uk.com — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 14:31:00 GMT

There are times when you feel good about life. As a tester, I admit this does not come around often.

The bigger the name, the bigger the loss

david.evans@sqs-uk.com — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 16:08:00 GMT

I don't want this blog to start sounding like I'm banging the same old drum of the cost of failing to test properly, but these stories do seem to be coming out with frightening regularity.

Heathrow T5 Baggage Handling System - the jury is still out

david.evans@sqs-uk.com — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 21:10:00 GMT

I said in an earlier post that I was looking forward to hearing Huub van der Wouden, the test manager for the Heathrow Terminal 5 Baggage Handling system, speak at the BCS SIGIST, and I think his presence had a lot to do with the unusually high attendance at the conference today.

HMRC and Capgemini count the real cost of software errors

david.evans@sqs-uk.com — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 15:26:00 GMT

A programming error has resulted in HMRC systems failing to make child trust fund payments to the accounts of thousands of families. Read the story here.

Testing Times (and Dates)

david.evans@sqs-uk.com — Thu, 15 May 2008 11:18:00 GMT

Every application has to be tested, but not in equal doses. Risk-Based Testing 101 tells you that given a limited amount of resources for testing, you should concentrate those resources on testing areas of greatest risk. Unfortunately it is often the case that the graph of the spread of testing effort across an application bears a remarkably similar shape to the graph of the testability of the application.

Was Testing to blame at Heathrow T5?

david.evans@sqs-uk.com — Sat, 10 May 2008 15:33:00 GMT

I think it takes a very brave man to say they are a Test Manager for the Heathrow Terminal 5 Baggage Handling system. Well, not only do Huub van der Wouden and Roger Derksen admit this, but they are getting up in front of a crowd of other testers at the BCS Special Interest Group in Software Testing, to talk about the project.

Confidence in Quality

david.evans@sqs-uk.com — Thu, 01 May 2008 17:06:00 GMT

What is it that we testers and other software quality professionals actually produce? What is created that wasn't there before we do our 'stuff'? I find that I have differences of opinion with many of my peers in the industry about this. For many, we are in the business of producing Quality. If, the theory goes, we are doing our job well and doing it more often, more Quality is being pumped into the ether. I don't subscribe to this view.