Whitepapers
IV&V Australia's consultants have written or contributed to a number of articles and white papers on a range of testing-related topics:
Getting the Most from Test Process Improvement
Is It A Bug? Lessons from Developing Safety-Critical Software
Software Testing – A Project Manager’s Secret Weapon
This Is Only a Test
A Discipline Finding its Identity
Who Should Do What?
Clearing the Testing Minefield
Surviving Testing Risks - A practitioner's guide
What Happens When You Don't Have a Test Plan
Software Unit Testing
Clearing the Testing Minefield
Surviving Testing Risks - A practitioner's guide
What Happens When You Don't Have a Test Plan
Software Unit Testing
Getting the Most from Test Process Improvement
The use of test process improvement models is gaining currency these days, to the point where it is now the norm. The value in these models is that they provide a mechanism for comparing your current testing approach to industry best practice, and provide a measurable step by step strategy for improving your processes accordingly.In this presentation, some of the most common pitfalls in overdoing test process improvement are discussed, so that you can be sure to get the most from your test process improvement activities. It describes how to take a practitioner’s approach to improvement, rather than a theoretical one.
“Getting the Most from your Test Process Improvement” was presented at the STANZ 2007 conference by Donna O’Neill, IV&V Australia’s CEO.
Is It A Bug? Lessons from Developing Safety-Critical Software
Developers working with safety-critical software have long known that "reliable operation to specification" is not a guarantee of safety. The safety-critical systems literature identifies at least three other sources of unsafe behaviour - operator error, inherently unsafe specifications, and operation outside intended conditions.This presentation discussed experiences with developing safety-critical software, and explores how the thinking behind these other classes of failure can be applied to a range of different application areas (eg, security, compatibility). It discusses techniques that testers can use to apply the lessons learned in safety critical software to finding these classes of defects that may exist “outside of the specification”, and to provide a framework for managing these vulnerabilities.
“Is it a bug?” was presented at the AsiaSTAR 2004 conference by Rodney Parkin, IV&V Australia’s Technical Director.
Software Testing – A Project Manager’s Secret Weapon
SoftwareTesting is a discipline that is starting to “come of age” within the software development community. More and more organisations are realising the importance of independent testing and the contribution it makes to the delivery of a quality product. This presentation discusses how a savvy Project Manager can use testing, and the visibility and control that testing activities can bring, to their best advantage in running a successful development project.“Secret Weapon” was presented at the AsiaSTAR 2003 conference by Donna O’Neill, IV&V Australia’s CEO.
This Is Only a Test
Dan Tebbutt explores the business case for software testing with a cross section of industry experts. One of them was IV&V Australia's CEO Donna O'Neill.
This article was
commissioned by Software Engineering
A Discipline Finding its Identity
Software companies can no longer afford to develop and test their systems on an ad-hoc basis. Without a defined testing strategy, companies will be left behind in the increasingly sophisticated world of software development.This article was first published in Software Engineering Australia (SEA) Software Journal, spring edition 2001.
Who Should Do What?
On many projects the division of testing responsibility between developers and independent testers is not well understood. This can lead to gaps in test coverage, as well as strained relationships between the two groups. In our consulting work, we find that this conflict is almost always caused by a lack of a clear understanding of the respective roles and responsibilities of these two groups.This paper discusses some of the causes of the conflict, presents a simple framework for defining the different team roles, and provides some practical methods for defining “who should do what”. It was presented to the AsiaSTAR conference in Sydney in July 2001.
Clearing the Testing Minefield
We never have enough time to do adequate testing; we rarely have clear requirements on which to base our tests; we battle for our own test environment, and we beg for robust software that works well enough for us to do meaningful testing. The list goes on. Our challenge is to ease our way through this minefield, so that we can maximise the time we spend adding value to the project, and reduce the time we spend responding to non-productive diversions.This paper will provide some strategies for meeting this challenge and achieving real value-added testing. It was presented to the AsiaSTAR conference in Sydney in July 2001, and to the EuroSTAR conference in Stockholm in November 2001.
Surviving Testing Risks - A practitioner's guide
This paper identifies a number of test planning and technical risks that are typically encountered on software development projects. Suggestions for surviving the risks are presented in terms of the contributing risk factors, the consequences of the risks, and suggested mitigation strategies.This paper was presented to the SEA 2000 conference in Canberra.
What Happens When You Don't Have a Test Plan
Software companies can no longer afford to develop and test their systems on an ad-hoc basis. Without a defined testing strategy, companies will be left behind in the increasingly sophisticated world of software development.This paper was published in Systems magazine in November 1997.