The document discusses five key pointers for reducing risk in IT projects from a testing perspective as compiled by K.J. Ross & Associates. It recommends starting testing early in the concept phase of a project, getting input from testing teams on contracts to ensure proper testing requirements are included, measuring requirements twice before development to reduce defects, tailoring testing strategies based on assessing project risks, and protecting the testing cycle from being shortened due to other delays.
The key to successful testing is effective and timely planning. Rick Craig introduces proven test planning methods and techniques, including the Master Test Plan and level-specific test plans for acceptance, system, integration, and unit testing. Rick explains how to customize an IEEE-829-style test plan and test summary report to fit your organization’s needs. Learn how to manage test activities, estimate test efforts, and achieve buy-in. Discover a practical risk analysis technique to prioritize your testing and become more effective with limited resources. Rick offers test measurement and reporting recommendations for monitoring the testing process. Discover new methods and develop renewed energy for taking your organization’s test management to the next level.
CAST’s U.S. Federal group helps government agencies maximize IT investments and optimize performance through the use of proven technologies and best practices.
Test environment management anti patterns Niall Crawford
A list of the top 8 Anti-Patterns* found in organizations Test Environment Management space. Anti-Patterns that cause disruption, low productivity, delivery delays and unwanted costs. And conversely recommended patterns to replace them.
Neil Pandit - A Visual Approach to Risk Based Integration TestingTEST Huddle
EuroSTAR Software Testing Conference 2009 presentation on A Visual Approach to Risk Based Integration Testing by Neil Pandit. See more at conferences.eurostarsoftwaretesting.com/past-presentations/
This presentation will give you insights into where the testing industry will be in 2020 and what are the skills required to survive in the testing world.
The key to successful testing is effective and timely planning. Rick Craig introduces proven test planning methods and techniques, including the Master Test Plan and level-specific test plans for acceptance, system, integration, and unit testing. Rick explains how to customize an IEEE-829-style test plan and test summary report to fit your organization’s needs. Learn how to manage test activities, estimate test efforts, and achieve buy-in. Discover a practical risk analysis technique to prioritize your testing and become more effective with limited resources. Rick offers test measurement and reporting recommendations for monitoring the testing process. Discover new methods and develop renewed energy for taking your organization’s test management to the next level.
CAST’s U.S. Federal group helps government agencies maximize IT investments and optimize performance through the use of proven technologies and best practices.
Test environment management anti patterns Niall Crawford
A list of the top 8 Anti-Patterns* found in organizations Test Environment Management space. Anti-Patterns that cause disruption, low productivity, delivery delays and unwanted costs. And conversely recommended patterns to replace them.
Neil Pandit - A Visual Approach to Risk Based Integration TestingTEST Huddle
EuroSTAR Software Testing Conference 2009 presentation on A Visual Approach to Risk Based Integration Testing by Neil Pandit. See more at conferences.eurostarsoftwaretesting.com/past-presentations/
This presentation will give you insights into where the testing industry will be in 2020 and what are the skills required to survive in the testing world.
Derk-Jan de Grood - 9 Causes of losing valuable testing time - EuroSTAR 2010TEST Huddle
EuroSTAR Software Testing Conference 2010 presentation on 9 Causes of losing valuable testing time by Derk-Jan de Grood. See more at: http://conference.eurostarsoftwaretesting.com/past-presentations/
CoverMyQuality: Implementing a Quality Program by Rick Neighbarger and Susan ...QA or the Highway
Follow the Quality Assurance journey taken by CoverMyMeds as it transitioned from a start-up to a growth company. Founded in 2008 with a mission to help patients get the medication they need to be healthy, CoverMyMeds has doubled its staff and revenue every year since inception. As the company expands, quality processes have become paramount in protecting Patient Health Information (PHI) and mitigating risk. Implementing Juran’s concept of Big Q, CoverMyMeds has begun its journey in creating its own quality center of excellence.
Risk-based testing is a commonly-performed technique for prioritizing tests that must be performed in a short time frame. However, this technique isn't perfect and has some risks in itself. This presentation lists 13 ways a tester can be "fooled by risk."
About this webinar:
Today’s electronic systems are more intelligent, more connected, and more at risk than ever before. A single vulnerability can lead to widespread system-of-systems compromises. Organizations participating in security-critical industries like Aerospace and Defense (A&D) are especially at risk.
In this webinar, Christopher Rommel from VDC and Joe Jarzombek from Synopsys will discuss the results from a recent report highlighting issues facing these organizations. They will also identify what considerations need to be made for the security of software that enables and controls system functionality.
https://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/11447/268705
New IDC Research on Software Analysis & MeasurementCAST
Watch this exciting webinar with Melinda Ballou, a leading analyst with IDC, as she reviews the newly defined market category of Software Quality Analysis and Measurement (SQAM). Hear Melinda discuss the motivation behind increased spend on SQAM such as competitive pressures requiring rapid adaptability while avoiding software failure, complex sourcing environments that include onshore, offshore and open source options, and economic impacts that drive efficiency and accountability in development.
To view the webinar, visit http://www.castsoftware.com/news-events/event/idc-software-analysis-measurement?gad=ss
Bots for Quality: Augmenting QA's Scope in the Digital AgeCognizant
To help promote the digital journey, software quality assurance (QA) can be transformed through applying machine learning and predictive analytics to produce an insight-driven approach based on smart next-generation automation.
Biomedical engineering work is subjected to stringent regulatory constraints that mandate a robust engineering process that conforms to all pertinent regulatory guidelines and imperatives.
Software development is an important component of any engineering project and as such, it should be equally addressed and properly integrated with the overall engineering process. To that effect, the following software development process is proposed. This process attempts to be well grounded in the nature of innovative Biomedical engineering work. There are inherent significant technology risks related to the development of innovative biomedical devices. These risks must be correctly identified, and mitigated throughout the entire engineering process. The main benefit of the software development process presented here is its explicit management of software risk factors as recommended by modern successful software development practices.
An in depth study of mobile application testing in reference to real time sce...Amit Aggarwal
ABSTRACT
Mobile Application Testing has become an integral part of the quality assurance of modern software’s. Software Testing (Mobile Application Testing) is an important part of software engineering life cycle. Mobile Application Testing requires the use of a model to guide such efforts as test selection and test verification. Being given a large number of test cases can consume a great deal of time and resources, often ruling out their use in an interactive context.
This paper attempts to provide a comprehensive view of the field of Mobile Application Testing. The objective is to pull all the relevant issues into a unified context, although admittedly the overview is biased toward our research and expertise. In view of the vastness of the field, for each topic problems and approaches are only briefly tackled, with appropriate references provided to dive into them. In this work efforts are not confined specifically on providing a complete survey of Mobile Application Testing, rather to show how an unwieldy mix of theoretically and technical problems challenge software testers and to identify the gap exists between the state-of-the-art and of the practice.
Keywords:
Testing, Mobile Application Testing, Errors, Bugs
Why On-Demand Provisioning Enables Tighter Alignment of Test and Production E...Cognizant
To improve their test environments and application quality, organizations are turning to the cloud for on-demand provisioning, as well as build and deployment automation.
EuroSTAR Software Testing Conference 2011 presentation on Implementing Change by Torben Hoelgaard. See more at: http://conference.eurostarsoftwaretesting.com/past-presentations/
Cigniti Technologies is an Independent Software Testing Services Company, headquartered
in Irving, TX. Our test offerings include TCoE, Testing on Cloud, Enterprise Mobility
Testing, Big Data Testing, Functional, Automation, Security and Performance Testing
services. Our workforce is equally distributed between NA & India with a vision to be your
local partner. Cigniti's SMART Tools and Cloud Enabled test labs provide cost effective
solutions with early Return on Investments.
This is a special report by IEEE - Power System relaying Committee's Working Group I12 outlining industry practices of Quality Assurance for protection and control design drawing packages. Throughout the electric utility industry, the drive to maximize quality assurance practices has gained increased prominence. These practices mitigate common errors frequently encountered in engineering design packages, specific to
Protection and Control (P&C) design. This report will illustrate industry practices to be applied in a Quality Assurance
Program for protection and control design drawing packages; from conception to final “as-built.” It is the reader’s responsibility to incorporate these practices into their organization’s Quality Assurance Program.
Early introduction of requirement analysis helps QA teams to collaborate with development teams in the identification of complex requirements early enough to develop thorough tests ahead of the code’s arrival.
Derk-Jan de Grood - 9 Causes of losing valuable testing time - EuroSTAR 2010TEST Huddle
EuroSTAR Software Testing Conference 2010 presentation on 9 Causes of losing valuable testing time by Derk-Jan de Grood. See more at: http://conference.eurostarsoftwaretesting.com/past-presentations/
CoverMyQuality: Implementing a Quality Program by Rick Neighbarger and Susan ...QA or the Highway
Follow the Quality Assurance journey taken by CoverMyMeds as it transitioned from a start-up to a growth company. Founded in 2008 with a mission to help patients get the medication they need to be healthy, CoverMyMeds has doubled its staff and revenue every year since inception. As the company expands, quality processes have become paramount in protecting Patient Health Information (PHI) and mitigating risk. Implementing Juran’s concept of Big Q, CoverMyMeds has begun its journey in creating its own quality center of excellence.
Risk-based testing is a commonly-performed technique for prioritizing tests that must be performed in a short time frame. However, this technique isn't perfect and has some risks in itself. This presentation lists 13 ways a tester can be "fooled by risk."
About this webinar:
Today’s electronic systems are more intelligent, more connected, and more at risk than ever before. A single vulnerability can lead to widespread system-of-systems compromises. Organizations participating in security-critical industries like Aerospace and Defense (A&D) are especially at risk.
In this webinar, Christopher Rommel from VDC and Joe Jarzombek from Synopsys will discuss the results from a recent report highlighting issues facing these organizations. They will also identify what considerations need to be made for the security of software that enables and controls system functionality.
https://www.brighttalk.com/webcast/11447/268705
New IDC Research on Software Analysis & MeasurementCAST
Watch this exciting webinar with Melinda Ballou, a leading analyst with IDC, as she reviews the newly defined market category of Software Quality Analysis and Measurement (SQAM). Hear Melinda discuss the motivation behind increased spend on SQAM such as competitive pressures requiring rapid adaptability while avoiding software failure, complex sourcing environments that include onshore, offshore and open source options, and economic impacts that drive efficiency and accountability in development.
To view the webinar, visit http://www.castsoftware.com/news-events/event/idc-software-analysis-measurement?gad=ss
Bots for Quality: Augmenting QA's Scope in the Digital AgeCognizant
To help promote the digital journey, software quality assurance (QA) can be transformed through applying machine learning and predictive analytics to produce an insight-driven approach based on smart next-generation automation.
Biomedical engineering work is subjected to stringent regulatory constraints that mandate a robust engineering process that conforms to all pertinent regulatory guidelines and imperatives.
Software development is an important component of any engineering project and as such, it should be equally addressed and properly integrated with the overall engineering process. To that effect, the following software development process is proposed. This process attempts to be well grounded in the nature of innovative Biomedical engineering work. There are inherent significant technology risks related to the development of innovative biomedical devices. These risks must be correctly identified, and mitigated throughout the entire engineering process. The main benefit of the software development process presented here is its explicit management of software risk factors as recommended by modern successful software development practices.
An in depth study of mobile application testing in reference to real time sce...Amit Aggarwal
ABSTRACT
Mobile Application Testing has become an integral part of the quality assurance of modern software’s. Software Testing (Mobile Application Testing) is an important part of software engineering life cycle. Mobile Application Testing requires the use of a model to guide such efforts as test selection and test verification. Being given a large number of test cases can consume a great deal of time and resources, often ruling out their use in an interactive context.
This paper attempts to provide a comprehensive view of the field of Mobile Application Testing. The objective is to pull all the relevant issues into a unified context, although admittedly the overview is biased toward our research and expertise. In view of the vastness of the field, for each topic problems and approaches are only briefly tackled, with appropriate references provided to dive into them. In this work efforts are not confined specifically on providing a complete survey of Mobile Application Testing, rather to show how an unwieldy mix of theoretically and technical problems challenge software testers and to identify the gap exists between the state-of-the-art and of the practice.
Keywords:
Testing, Mobile Application Testing, Errors, Bugs
Why On-Demand Provisioning Enables Tighter Alignment of Test and Production E...Cognizant
To improve their test environments and application quality, organizations are turning to the cloud for on-demand provisioning, as well as build and deployment automation.
EuroSTAR Software Testing Conference 2011 presentation on Implementing Change by Torben Hoelgaard. See more at: http://conference.eurostarsoftwaretesting.com/past-presentations/
Cigniti Technologies is an Independent Software Testing Services Company, headquartered
in Irving, TX. Our test offerings include TCoE, Testing on Cloud, Enterprise Mobility
Testing, Big Data Testing, Functional, Automation, Security and Performance Testing
services. Our workforce is equally distributed between NA & India with a vision to be your
local partner. Cigniti's SMART Tools and Cloud Enabled test labs provide cost effective
solutions with early Return on Investments.
This is a special report by IEEE - Power System relaying Committee's Working Group I12 outlining industry practices of Quality Assurance for protection and control design drawing packages. Throughout the electric utility industry, the drive to maximize quality assurance practices has gained increased prominence. These practices mitigate common errors frequently encountered in engineering design packages, specific to
Protection and Control (P&C) design. This report will illustrate industry practices to be applied in a Quality Assurance
Program for protection and control design drawing packages; from conception to final “as-built.” It is the reader’s responsibility to incorporate these practices into their organization’s Quality Assurance Program.
Early introduction of requirement analysis helps QA teams to collaborate with development teams in the identification of complex requirements early enough to develop thorough tests ahead of the code’s arrival.
20% of software projects fail. Failed projects cost the world economy over $500 billion a year. The hidden costs of making, finding, and fixing software defects consume 30% or more of the IT budget. The facts are continuing to get worse. Software bugs are eating your lunch. You can reverse the trend as many companies have by applying some proven, practical methods – Good Software Engineering Practice. You can do much of this on your own if you analyze the Cost of Quality and use it as a fundamental metric to demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of everything you do. If you add Fagan Inspections (static testing) to your existing software testing you can start reducing the cost of quality immediately. In this study of one company’s results over several years, we show you step by step how they demonstrated over $6 million in cost savings and avoidance. You can do the same and more. We can help you realize your own dramatic improvements in bottom- and top-line results. Rebecca Staton-Reinstein, president, Advantage Leadership, Inc.
An organization can achieve transparency over application quality for outsourced Application Development and Maintenance (ADM) with assessments from CAST. You gain objective measurement to monitor compliance with development best practices and architectural guidelines, reducing risk and increasing transferability between teams.
From Data to Insights: How IT Operations Data Can Boost QualityCognizant
By leveraging highly-analyzed operational data - the voice of customers, machines and tests - quality assurance (QA) and IT groups can derive major gains in quality of apps and in user experience.
How can banks achieve assured release through effective user acceptance testingMaveric Systems
Similar urgency is also seen in product replacements and technology upgrades targeted towards better customer experience and to meet demanding regulatory requirements, all at short notice.
The business case for software analysis & measurementCAST
As software becomes more integrated into our daily lives, companies are finding that visibility into the systems that run their business has many benefits: reduces business risks, increases revenue, and improves IT spending.
This whitepaper provides a framework for capturing the impact of software analytics on your business and a worksheet to help you create your own business case. Leaders that can clearly articulate this value are more successful than their peers in obtaining strategic support and funding for software analytics.
Leveraging Automated Data Validation to Reduce Software Development Timeline...Cognizant
Our enterprise solution for automating data validation - called dataTestPro - facilitates quality assurance (QA) by managing heterogeneous data testing, improving test scheduling, increasing data testing speed and reducing data -validation errors drastically.
A Review on Software Fault Detection and Prevention Mechanism in Software Dev...iosrjce
IOSR Journal of Computer Engineering (IOSR-JCE) is a double blind peer reviewed International Journal that provides rapid publication (within a month) of articles in all areas of computer engineering and its applications. The journal welcomes publications of high quality papers on theoretical developments and practical applications in computer technology. Original research papers, state-of-the-art reviews, and high quality technical notes are invited for publications.
TMF2014 Mobile Testing Workshop Michael PalotasKJR
A very big thank you to Michael Palotas from Grid Fusion & eBay International for taking the time and effort to travel across the globe to present at the Australian Test Managers Forum 2014. If you would like any information on TMF please email tmf@kjross.com.au
A very big thank you to Michael Palotas from Grid Fusion & eBay International for taking the time and effort to travel across the globe to present at the Australian Test Managers Forum 2014. If you would like any information on TMF please email tmf@kjross.com.au
Thanks to Andrew Prentice from Atlassian for presenting at the Australian Test Managers Forum 2014. If you would like any information on TMF please email tmf@kjross.com.au
Thanks to the team at Thinksoft for presenting at the Australian Test Managers Forum 2014. If you would like any information on TMF please email tmf@kjross.com.au
Thanks to Chris Birmele from Microsoft Australia for presenting at the Australian Test Managers Forum 2014. If you would like any information on TMF please email tmf@kjross.com.au
Thank you Dr. Kelvin Ross for presenting at the Australian Test Managers Forum 2014. If you would like any information on TMF please email tmf@kjross.com.au
Looking for an opportunity to get in to the software testing industry or ready to take your skills to the next level in Australia? Then have a look at the software testing courses KJ Ross provide.
We offer two styles of delivery - live virtual training by accessing courses from anywhere and in-house with your team - learning from our expert knowledge sharers.
Essentials of Automations: Optimizing FME Workflows with ParametersSafe Software
Are you looking to streamline your workflows and boost your projects’ efficiency? Do you find yourself searching for ways to add flexibility and control over your FME workflows? If so, you’re in the right place.
Join us for an insightful dive into the world of FME parameters, a critical element in optimizing workflow efficiency. This webinar marks the beginning of our three-part “Essentials of Automation” series. This first webinar is designed to equip you with the knowledge and skills to utilize parameters effectively: enhancing the flexibility, maintainability, and user control of your FME projects.
Here’s what you’ll gain:
- Essentials of FME Parameters: Understand the pivotal role of parameters, including Reader/Writer, Transformer, User, and FME Flow categories. Discover how they are the key to unlocking automation and optimization within your workflows.
- Practical Applications in FME Form: Delve into key user parameter types including choice, connections, and file URLs. Allow users to control how a workflow runs, making your workflows more reusable. Learn to import values and deliver the best user experience for your workflows while enhancing accuracy.
- Optimization Strategies in FME Flow: Explore the creation and strategic deployment of parameters in FME Flow, including the use of deployment and geometry parameters, to maximize workflow efficiency.
- Pro Tips for Success: Gain insights on parameterizing connections and leveraging new features like Conditional Visibility for clarity and simplicity.
We’ll wrap up with a glimpse into future webinars, followed by a Q&A session to address your specific questions surrounding this topic.
Don’t miss this opportunity to elevate your FME expertise and drive your projects to new heights of efficiency.
JMeter webinar - integration with InfluxDB and GrafanaRTTS
Watch this recorded webinar about real-time monitoring of application performance. See how to integrate Apache JMeter, the open-source leader in performance testing, with InfluxDB, the open-source time-series database, and Grafana, the open-source analytics and visualization application.
In this webinar, we will review the benefits of leveraging InfluxDB and Grafana when executing load tests and demonstrate how these tools are used to visualize performance metrics.
Length: 30 minutes
Session Overview
-------------------------------------------
During this webinar, we will cover the following topics while demonstrating the integrations of JMeter, InfluxDB and Grafana:
- What out-of-the-box solutions are available for real-time monitoring JMeter tests?
- What are the benefits of integrating InfluxDB and Grafana into the load testing stack?
- Which features are provided by Grafana?
- Demonstration of InfluxDB and Grafana using a practice web application
To view the webinar recording, go to:
https://www.rttsweb.com/jmeter-integration-webinar
Neuro-symbolic is not enough, we need neuro-*semantic*Frank van Harmelen
Neuro-symbolic (NeSy) AI is on the rise. However, simply machine learning on just any symbolic structure is not sufficient to really harvest the gains of NeSy. These will only be gained when the symbolic structures have an actual semantics. I give an operational definition of semantics as “predictable inference”.
All of this illustrated with link prediction over knowledge graphs, but the argument is general.
Accelerate your Kubernetes clusters with Varnish CachingThijs Feryn
A presentation about the usage and availability of Varnish on Kubernetes. This talk explores the capabilities of Varnish caching and shows how to use the Varnish Helm chart to deploy it to Kubernetes.
This presentation was delivered at K8SUG Singapore. See https://feryn.eu/presentations/accelerate-your-kubernetes-clusters-with-varnish-caching-k8sug-singapore-28-2024 for more details.
Transcript: Selling digital books in 2024: Insights from industry leaders - T...BookNet Canada
The publishing industry has been selling digital audiobooks and ebooks for over a decade and has found its groove. What’s changed? What has stayed the same? Where do we go from here? Join a group of leading sales peers from across the industry for a conversation about the lessons learned since the popularization of digital books, best practices, digital book supply chain management, and more.
Link to video recording: https://bnctechforum.ca/sessions/selling-digital-books-in-2024-insights-from-industry-leaders/
Presented by BookNet Canada on May 28, 2024, with support from the Department of Canadian Heritage.
UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series, part 3DianaGray10
Welcome to UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series part 3. In this session, we will cover desktop automation along with UI automation.
Topics covered:
UI automation Introduction,
UI automation Sample
Desktop automation flow
Pradeep Chinnala, Senior Consultant Automation Developer @WonderBotz and UiPath MVP
Deepak Rai, Automation Practice Lead, Boundaryless Group and UiPath MVP
Epistemic Interaction - tuning interfaces to provide information for AI supportAlan Dix
Paper presented at SYNERGY workshop at AVI 2024, Genoa, Italy. 3rd June 2024
https://alandix.com/academic/papers/synergy2024-epistemic/
As machine learning integrates deeper into human-computer interactions, the concept of epistemic interaction emerges, aiming to refine these interactions to enhance system adaptability. This approach encourages minor, intentional adjustments in user behaviour to enrich the data available for system learning. This paper introduces epistemic interaction within the context of human-system communication, illustrating how deliberate interaction design can improve system understanding and adaptation. Through concrete examples, we demonstrate the potential of epistemic interaction to significantly advance human-computer interaction by leveraging intuitive human communication strategies to inform system design and functionality, offering a novel pathway for enriching user-system engagements.
GDG Cloud Southlake #33: Boule & Rebala: Effective AppSec in SDLC using Deplo...James Anderson
Effective Application Security in Software Delivery lifecycle using Deployment Firewall and DBOM
The modern software delivery process (or the CI/CD process) includes many tools, distributed teams, open-source code, and cloud platforms. Constant focus on speed to release software to market, along with the traditional slow and manual security checks has caused gaps in continuous security as an important piece in the software supply chain. Today organizations feel more susceptible to external and internal cyber threats due to the vast attack surface in their applications supply chain and the lack of end-to-end governance and risk management.
The software team must secure its software delivery process to avoid vulnerability and security breaches. This needs to be achieved with existing tool chains and without extensive rework of the delivery processes. This talk will present strategies and techniques for providing visibility into the true risk of the existing vulnerabilities, preventing the introduction of security issues in the software, resolving vulnerabilities in production environments quickly, and capturing the deployment bill of materials (DBOM).
Speakers:
Bob Boule
Robert Boule is a technology enthusiast with PASSION for technology and making things work along with a knack for helping others understand how things work. He comes with around 20 years of solution engineering experience in application security, software continuous delivery, and SaaS platforms. He is known for his dynamic presentations in CI/CD and application security integrated in software delivery lifecycle.
Gopinath Rebala
Gopinath Rebala is the CTO of OpsMx, where he has overall responsibility for the machine learning and data processing architectures for Secure Software Delivery. Gopi also has a strong connection with our customers, leading design and architecture for strategic implementations. Gopi is a frequent speaker and well-known leader in continuous delivery and integrating security into software delivery.
Smart TV Buyer Insights Survey 2024 by 91mobiles.pdf91mobiles
91mobiles recently conducted a Smart TV Buyer Insights Survey in which we asked over 3,000 respondents about the TV they own, aspects they look at on a new TV, and their TV buying preferences.
From Daily Decisions to Bottom Line: Connecting Product Work to Revenue by VP...
KJ Ross Whitepaper How CXO's can reduce IT Project risk by improving software testing
1. info@kjross.com.au
www.kjross.com.au
1300 854 063
VERTICALS
MANAGEDSERVICES
TRAINING
RESOURCE
PLACEMENT
CONSULTING
“Less than 40% of all
respondees involve
testing at the concept
phase of a project”
WHITE
PAPER
High profile IT projects have been making headlines
withdisturbingregularityinrecentmonths,prompting
the question: who’s next? Responsible CEOs and CIOs
needtoreducerisk,negativePublicRelationsexposure
and project costs. So, is there anything that they can
do to reduce the IT project risk?
K.J. Ross & Associates (KJ Ross) are an independent
software testing organisation that often deals with
the end result of poor software developments or
application implementations. Following are five key
pointers for risk reduction in IT projects from a testing
perspective. These are compiled from the experience
of KJ Ross and from the annual Ross Report on the
Australian Software Testing Industry.
BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING, START TESTING!
The 2010 Ross Report shows less than 40% of all
respondees involve testing at the concept phase of
a project, but over 70% aim to achieve this by 2012.
Why does early engagement matter? At the vendor or
product selection phase of an IT acquisition project,
setting measurable criteria for acceptance will assist in
providing a more objective basis for selection.
Before you sign a deal, get input from the testing team
on contracts, asking the question, does the vendor
have internal quality processes? Are key software
quality deliverables included? A typical issue is that
the requirement to provide evidence of system
testing is frequently left out of contracts. This results
in the acquirer having to engage in a very heavy user
acceptance test phase, which is really a duplication of
system testing, simply because the coverage of the
system by the vendor is unknown.
K. J. Ross & Associates
Software Testing & ICT Risk Mitigation
As the graph above illustrates, there is a significant shift over the
last 2 years getting testers involved earlier in the process. This has
been successful at reducing project costs and future plans involve
getting testers involved even earlier.
HOWCXO'SCANREDUCEITPROJECTRISK
BYIMPROVINGSOFTWARETESTING
DR. MARK PEDERSEN &
JOE GRIFFITHS 05/01/2012
2. info@kjross.com.au
www.kjross.com.au
1300 854 063
K. J. Ross & Associates
Software Testing & ICT Risk Mitigation
WHITEPAPER |
MEASURE TWICE, CUT ONCE: TESTING YOUR REQUIREMENTS
The Standish Group’s CHAOS report identifies the
top three factors determining project failure are lack
of user input, incomplete or incorrect requirements,
and changing requirements. Testing requirements for
correctness, consistency, and completeness before
going to development or to purchase a solution,
improves software quality through setting clearer
goals for developers, technical support and testers
later in the lifecycle. This reduces waste by avoiding
rework and extra redesign, development and testing
cycles. Requirements evaluation has been consistently
demonstrated to be 5 times more effective as a defect
discovery technique compared to typical black box
testing. The cost of defect detection and removal rises
exponentially throughout the software lifecycle: hence
early error detection through Requirements Evaluation
delivers a strong ROI compared to wearing the cost of
defect discovery and repair downstream.
The secret is to get the requirements right!
The graph below illustrates that 46% of the defects are injected before
coding begins
HOWCXO'SCANREDUCEITPROJECTRISK
BYIMPROVINGSOFTWARETESTING
The graph to the left shows that currently only 9% of defects are detected at the
requirements stage with the majority detected in the classical testing phases.
Defect Discovery Paradox
The later in the process that errors occur the more costly they are to fix.
Page 2
Economic Benefit of Early Defect Detection
As seen to the left there was a 40% saving in
costs through using early error detection.
3. Typically the real reason for implementing a change
in IT lies in the perceived risk of delivering the change
being less than the risk of not changing. It is therefore
essential to identify risks arising from the deployment
of an IT solution and adopt a proactive approach to
reducing these risks:
»» Establish a risk-based test strategy which identifies
where the greatest technical and operational risks
lie.
»» Incorporate risk-based test activities into the
overall project delivery methodology.
»» Incentivise quality by setting up vendor payments
according to measurable quality milestones.
»» Identify the shortfalls and provide feedback to
the vendor and business for review as the project
progresses.
Testing typically suffers from development slippages
and immovable delivery dates, resulting in reduced
test coverage and inappropriate sequencing of tests
(e.g. running user acceptance testing in parallel with
system testing).
Organisations can protect the quality of their IT
projects by ensuring independent test process
governance as well as providing adequate funding.
The testing process can be compromised when
vendors are allowed to “mark their own homework”,
or even“setting their own exams”. Problems also occur
when testing reports go via project management,
rather than directly to key stakeholders. Make testing
status reports a regular feature of steering committee
meetings and consider conducting independent test
process audits.
If you follow an agile methodology, ensure there are
dedicatedtestersembeddedwithineachdevelopment
team.
In terms of budget, estimate testing as a percentage of
the total project cost, rather a malleable phase of the
project which can be impacted by schedule changes.
The average spend on software testing in Australia
runs to around 25% of the total project budget (p.
15, Ross Report 2010 see below). Even with the right
budget, tight timelines can prevent adequate testing,
in which case you need to look at improving efficiency
through test automation and test case optimisation.
The chance of hitting the headlines after Go Live is
greatly reduced by protecting the testing phase from
being squeezed by upstream slippages, and insisting
on achieving meaningful test coverage of the system
according to the risk profile of the project.
TAILORING TESTING: ASSESS RISK AND TEST ACCORDINGLY
Page 3
K. J. Ross & Associates
Software Testing & ICT Risk Mitigation
WHITEPAPER | HOWCXO'SCANREDUCEITPROJECTRISK
BYIMPROVINGSOFTWARETESTING
PROTECT THE TESTING CYCLE
info@kjross.com.au
www.kjross.com.au
1300 854 063
The Ross Report shows that on average, 25%
of budgeted and actual costs of a successful
project are spent on testing.
This graph shows that some projects will spend up to
40% of project costs on testing. This will either be due
to poor quality or a need for mission critical systems.
The average project will spend 20 - 25% of project
costs on testing
4. VERTICALS
MANAGEDSERVICES
TRAINING
RESOURCE
PLACEMENT
CONSULTING
K. J. Ross & Associates
Software Testing & ICT Risk Mitigation
WHITEPAPER | HOWCXO'SCANREDUCEITPROJECTRISK
BYIMPROVINGSOFTWARETESTING
Page 4
info@kjross.com.au
www.kjross.com.au
1300 854 063
Ensure there is a separate channel of reporting for
Validation and Verification to avoid a single point of
pressureforGoLive.Validation,e.g.viaUserAcceptance
Testing (UAT), needs to focus on the solution being fit
for purpose, and that the business is operationally
ready to adopt the solution.
The Validation step is not a rubber stamp. Steering
committees need to be able to stop a Go Live if the risk
is too great for the business. Ensure that:
»» UAT phases are coordinated by experienced test
managers. Just throwing end users at the new
system will not deliver systematic coverage of
essential risks.
»» Non-functional requirements (performance,
usability, etc.) are covered adequately. On
average, only 20% of the total software testing
effort gets directed at non-functional testing, and
yet the success of a new IT solution is primarily
assessed on its ability to deliver improvements to
both efficiency and ease of use
»» Operational work-arounds are in place. Should
the worst happen, make sure you can still run
your business.
KJRosswillbeissuingfurtherWhitepapersonthetopic
of reducing IT risk from a testing perspective that will
cover these topics as well as “Testing in Production”
and“So you think you can test?”.
This will include commentary from major clients and
industry and will be available from our web site or by
request from marketing@kjross.com.au at a later date.
If you are interested in having input to or receiving the
Whitepaper please contact the team at marketing@
kjross.com.au
A free copy of “The Ross Report” a survey of testing in
Australia can be requested from marketing@kjross.
com.au
This report was compiled by Dr. Mark Pedesen,
Innovation Manager and Joe Griffiths, National
Engagement Manager at KJ Ross. This included input
from the 100+ testing and industry specialists at KJ
Ross including Dr. Kelvin J Ross himself.
Information from the 2010 Ross report was also used
in the article.
GOING LIVE WITH CONFIDENCE FURTHER INFORMATION
AUTHORS
“STEERING COMMITTEES NEED TO
BE ABLE TO STOP A GO-LIVE IF
THE RISK IS TOO GREAT FOR THE
BUSINESS”