Rapid Software Testing with Michael Bolton
Event Info
Description
Rapid Software Testing – Course Outline Developed by James Bach and Michael Bolton and taught by Michael Bolton, this 3-day, hands-on class introduces you to rapid software testing, a complete testing methodology designed for a world of barely sufficient resources, information, and time. Based on the principles in the book Lessons Learned in Software Testing: a Context-Driven Approach, this class presents an approach to testing that begins with personal skill development and extends to the ultimate mission of software testing: lighting the way of the project by evaluating the product.
The philosophy of rapid testing presented in this class is not like traditional approaches to testing, which ignore the thinking part of testing and instead advocate neverending paperwork. Products have become too complex for that, and testers are too expensive. Rapid testing uses a cyclic approach and heuristic methods to constantly re-optimize testing to fit the needs of your clients. Rapid testing isn’t just testing with a sense of urgency, it’s mission-focused testing that eliminates unnecessary work, assures that everything necessary gets done, and constantly asks what testing can do to speed the project as a whole.
One important tool of rapid testing we will cover is the discipline of exploratory testing– essentially a testing martial art. Exploratory testing combines test design and test execution into one process that finds a lot of problems quickly. If you are an experienced tester, you’ll find out how to articulate those intellectual processes of testing that you already practice intuitively. If you’re a new tester, hands-on testing exercises help you gain critical experience.
If you outsource development or testing… We have taught this class at outsource firms in India on behalf of their clients so that they can do a better job of testing without needing detailed test procedures. But more importantly, the rapid testing methodology is about getting a lot of value for the testing dollar (value that simply can’t be reproduced by throwing untrained bodies at the problem) so that your top management won’t see testing as a commodity activity that any stranger will do as well as you. Even if you outsource, you may want to have a core team of testers back at headquarters who can rapidly test products to check the “testing” done by outsource firms.
If you are burdened with clerical requirements… We have taught this class in organizations pursuing the CMM and organizations subject to FDA and other regulatory requirements. Rapid testing is about thinking. As long as they want you to think well and find important problems quickly, this is a class that applies to you. However, we do advocate a lean form of test documentation, to the extent you can possibly lean it. We also teach session-based test management, which allows you to measure and document exploratory testing in a manner compatible with more “formal” process cultures.
Want more detailed course outline? Michael Bolton has a detailed course outline on his website, find it here.
Course Requirements Please bring a Windows laptop with you. Each computer must have an accessible USB port. Course content and software for the purpose of exercises will be installed on each system. The participants must have sufficient administrative rights to afford complete control over the entire system, including the capacity to install software.
Please direct questions and enquiries to Rosie – rosie
softwaretestingclub [dot] com
