Acutest , the UK software testing solution provider, have announced the launch of their new load testing service: the Load Cannon. This is a performance testing service for web-enabled applications and websites. Hosted in the UK, it is a fusion of performance testing tools; load generators; monitors; structured testing methods; risk-based testing techniques and experienced
The load testing service is designed to be robust, quick to operate, capable of both onsite and offsite deployment and is also scalable. The pricing has been designed for the current economic climate. There are no testing tool license costs or restrictions such as rental periods. There are no additional costs for simulating high volumes of users, or transactions, in a test scenario. And you only pay for what you use.
A risk assessment is carried out at the start of the assignment and the testing is prioritised by business impact and likelihood of failure so organisations can match their budget with the level of risk they want to mitigate. This enables them to choose the level of performance testing they want, ranging from a simple benchmark load test to a comprehensive set of performance tests for a complex web-enabled system. So now organisations no longer have to live with the untested risk of performance failure.
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Third-party software testing for mobile applications will boost the testing market in India. With companies planning to cut down on the cost and manpower, testing companies sees domestic market as an opportunity.
According to research firm IDC, the global software testing market is estimated at $13 billion of which India accounts for $1 billion.
Mukesh Sharma, founder and chief executive officer of QA InfoTech, said that the recession has proved to be a positive for testing firms in India.
“Indian companies have started realising the importance of independent third-party testing. Unlike the US market, Indian companies do not carry out independent testing, but this trend is changing now as companies have started focusing on their core job and outsourcing it to testing companies,” he said.
For the full article visit the Financial Chronicle
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Acutest, a QA and software testing company, has announced a strong demand for Software Planner in the UK.
Software Planner is an award winning ALM tool (Application Lifecycle Management) that helps organisations manage all components of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). This includes managing project deliverables, requirements, defects, test cases, test execution and help desk support. “We had anticipated there would be a real demand for Software Planner in the UK, when we formed the partnership with Prgamatic Software, the US developer of the testing management tool, to bring it to the UK market.” said Barry Varley, Managing Director of Acutest. “But we have been surprised at the how fast interest has picked up. The recession in the UK has made many organisations cautious about spending on SDLC test tools. But the immediate value that Software Planner offers has led to a host of enquiries, particularly for the SaaS version of the product. Within a fortnight of announcing the Acutest and Pragmatic Software partnership, we’d signed up our first customer for Software Planner: HMD Clinical." “HMD clinical is a software house developing databases and applications for the clinical trial industry. We operate in an extremely regulated industry that demands high quality, traceable requirements and needed a solution that enabled us to link activities from requirements gathering through design, build, testing and release,” an HMD Clinical spokesman said. “On evaluating many different products, we found there was no shortage of excellent project, requirements, test and defect management solutions, but most were limited to only 1 or 2 of these functions. Software Planner was the only one that provided it all in a single package. Using Software Planner will ensure that we have clear visibility of the entire system validation process."
Software Planner provides features for managing all phases of the software development lifecycle within a single integrated tool. It supports all development methodology including Agile, Waterfall, Iterative, and Spiral. It is available in two versions: an enterprise version which a client installs in their own environment and a Software as a Service (SaaS) version which is hosted by Pragmatic Software.
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IEEE 829-1998, also known as the 829 Standard for Software Test Documentation, is an IEEE standard that specifies the form of a set of documents for use in eight defined stages of software testing, each stage potentially producing its own separate type of document. The standard specifies the format of these documents but does not stipulate whether they all must be produced, nor does it include any criteria regarding adequate content for these documents. These are a matter of judgement outside the purview of the standard. The documents are: - Test Plan
- Test Design Specification
- Test Case Specification
- Test Procedure Specification
- Test Item Transmittal Report
- Test Log
- Test Incident Report
- Test Summary Report
For the full article visit Wikipedia
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Testing SAP requires the involvement of the end users of the systems, They know the outcomes expected from the combination of the organisations business processes and the SAP business modules (such as FI, MM, AM and HR).
Yet these users have two problems to overcome: they are very rarely trained in how to test effectively and they often have a business as usual job to run while they do the testing as well. These mean they have little time to spare for testing and what time they have is not spent as efficiently as they would like. A double whammy that often limits the value of user acceptance testing SAP implementations.
This course on SAP user acceptance testing is designed to address that very problem. It is also suitable for many of the other participants in SAP UAT such as business analysts, SAP implementors and managers of acceptance test.
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The specific challenges for the Telecommunications software testing community have their basis in the complexity and diversity within the Operational Support Systems (OSS) Architecture and the associated commercial and financial pressures that exist to ensure first to market products.
The Telcos (large telecommunications service providers) are moving towards a standardised Service Orientated Architecture (SOA) that has an emphasis on reusability and common capabilities in order to deliver consistent customer experience. These architectures will support the full range of business activities including Customer Care, Billing and Order Processing; Service Execution Management; Resource Management; Portfolio Management; Enterprise Information Management; Collaborations (with Customers, Users, Employees, Partners and Suppliers).
A Telecoms tester must also possess skills and experience beyond the generic ability to write and execute tests. This is because of the varied range of functional areas that telecoms software testing encompasses:- Technical Domain and Network Access areas
- Billing and payment processing
- Collaborations between telecoms service providers
- Customer Relation Management (CRM
There is also a need to have the relevant expertise to facilitate testing across the products and services offerings, for example:
- Mobile applications
- Broadband and internet applications
- IPTV (Internet TV)
- VOIP applications.
However, a single software tester can't be expected to possess the experience to cover all of these areas and functions. The tester must communicate effectively as it is imperative that they can converse throughout the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), with Business Analysts (BA), Designers, Developers, Third party supplies, Customers and End users throughout the different test phases such as customer acceptance testing and system integration testing.
There is also the issue of data to consider. This may result in the tester selecting or creating data for tests. Or in the case of the introduction of new platforms and data structures, there a need for data migration activities to take place, this means that the tester needs to have the capacity to understand and verify the transformed or migrated data.
And there are other trends which are also having a bearing on the future of testing software in Telecoms:
Agile Testing: Until recently the principal approach to software testing was the Waterfall or V model, Due to the scale of many projects it was not uncommon for the need for a specific product or the technology to be rendered obsolete before it was delivered. This lead to increased interest in Agile methodologies, including agile software testing, in an attempt to meet the demand for faster time to market. This change in itself has brought its own challenges in terms of managing the array of smaller agile projects and ensuring change control across the varied components, computer systems and telecom platforms.
Outsourced QA and testing: In recent years it has become popular for testing to be outsourced to offshore test factories with the aim of reduced cost and delivery timescales. The test factories provide automated regression test services which constantly run on the test environments to identify if any errors have been introduced as a result of recently delivered code.
Testing Environments: These can be complex and expensive to establish and maintain, it is common for environments to be shared by many systems and integration test teams, however this can produce a configuration management headache.
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An long-standing question in the software development world is: what is the correct ratio of testers to developers? A recent thread on the Scrum Development list asked how agile impacts this ratio. The answer to the first question seems to be 'It depends'. The answer to the second question, according to Elisabeth Hendrickson, is that agile teams can do more testing, with fewer testers.
For the full article visit Info Q
Agile testing software development
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LLC (WSO), a leading website optimisation provider, announces RapidaptSM, their breakthrough adaptive multivariate testing service to ignite website conversions and profits for small to mid-sized companies. RapidaptSM is designed for websites with low to medium traffic that need higher site-related income fast. WSO’s Adaptive Multivariate Testing Service quickly generates more sales leads from existing site traffic.
Unlike existing alternatives, RapidaptSM is able to boost conversion rates right from the start, even during the testing period. Its unique self-adjusting method adapts to visitor traffic in real time and, after a very brief learning period, narrows content variations to those that produce the highest conversion rates. RapidaptSM provides higher revenues far faster than the competition.
For the full story visit PR Leap
Website testing services performance
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Grid-Tools Ltd has announced the inclusion of their database shrinking tool, DataShrink, into the 'GT Datamaker Complete Testing Tool-Set'. DataShrink is now offered to IT testing departments as either a separate tool for shrinking major databases (particularly Oracle's E-Business Suite), or available as part of the Datamaker complete test suite.
GT Datamaker editions offer test data generation to create accurate test data, data masking, data scrambling, data modelling, data quality assurance, subsetting, database compare, a test data warehouse and ‘Test Data on Demand'. With the launch of their new product, DataShrink, Grid-Tools have come full circle with their suite of testing tools. The entire suite provides a successful and compelling proposition to companies looking to improve testing efficiency, reduce IT expenditure, ensure legal compliance and add essential infrastructure to their testing methodologies.
For the full story visit Open PR
QA software testing
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An alternative to traditional load simulators and scripting tools, iReplay(TM) allows organizations to capture full-scale production SQL workloads, and then reproduce the same workloads with all of their native complexity for analysis in test environments. This approach effectively eliminates the gap between production traffic and simulated test conditions, allowing organizations to predict more reliably the impact of changes to critical information systems, while substantially reducing the associated risks.
"In simple terms," says company founder Hardev Dhindsa, "We're reducing the odds that something unexpected can slip through the cracks. It's a rare company that hasn't been stung at some point by a nasty software bug showing up in production, even after weeks or months of lab tests. The reason is pretty simple: simulators can't really duplicate the complexity of live production traffic. iReplay can."
According to Mr. Dhindsa, iReplay test runs will accurately reproduce the behavior and complexity of the original SQL workload, maintaining concurrency and contention while allowing the flexibility to tailor replay runs to meet specific test objectives.
Recommended for regression testing, functional testing, performance testing and capacity planning applications, iReplay(TM) is now available for Sybase, Oracle and DB2. The company also announced plans to release a version for use with Microsoft SQL Server, including support for encrypted traffic, by Q4 08.
For the full article visit Newsblaze
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| » Test Lab |
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Ultimately, the lab will be the final stop for potentially dozens of services and applications riding on Comcast’s video, broadband data and voice plant. “It’s all about testing to make sure anything new can be provisioned and billed for, and to make sure we have the right tools to understand what kind of problems can arise,” Field said. “We built it so that vendors can come in to do early interoperability testing, to isolate problems they may not see in their test facilities — but would in ours,” said Field. Rack upon racks of gear line the vast building, like some futuristic department store. There’s a training room, and a legacy testing lab, important so that new applications don’t crash devices that are already installed in people’s homes. There’s also a troubleshooting area, to fix problems as they occur — but preferably before they occur. Disaster recovery protocols are studied here so that redundant routes can be instantly activated to move information and communications traffic. Likewise, automatic testing lets an operator test multiple devices with multiple applications without having a person sitting there loading each application. Essentially, more testing, faster. Comcast engineers can also test unattended, which means they can do this testing from somewhere other than where the equipment is. For power, Downingtown features substantial generator backup. Battery backup, too — enough for 15 minutes of clean, uninterrupted power. That translates into a room full of stacked, car-battery-sized batteries. For the full article go to Multichannel News Business Continuity Testing
Jul. 6th, 2008 @ 01:51 pm
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| » Software testing training |
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IIST will be offering 20 different courses on software testing and quality assurance. The courses include:
- Principles of Software Testing
- Evaluating Business Eequirements
- Effective Test Management
- Principles of Software Test Automation
- Writing Testable Requirements and Requirements Based Testing
- Risk Based Test Management
- Risk Based Testing: Analysis and Strategy Development
- Software Quality Assurance Methods and Techniques
- Test Process Management
- Managing the Test Project
- Test Process Measurement and Improvement
- Test Automation Strategies and Architectures
For the full list of software testing training courses visit the IIST website
The International Institute for Software Testing (IIST) was founded in 1996 to serve testing and QA professionals. IIST's areas of expertise include: Software Testing, Test Management, Test Automation, Test Design Techniques, Test Process, Testing Web Applications and e-Business, Performance Testing, Software Quality, Quality Management, Software Quality Assurance, User Acceptance Testing, Software Inspections and Peer Reviews.
Jan. 12th, 2008 @ 11:35 am
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| » Tibco automated testing tool |
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From Info World The Tibco General Interface Test Automation Toolkit takes care of the labor-intensive process of quality assurance testing of asynchronous communications, JavaScript and XML components, and rich Internet applications, Tibco said. Downloadable here, the toolkit builds on the open-source Selenium Core test tool for Web applications and runs in a browser. "Once developers are building an application in AJAX, the QA department needs to test. So this is a tool for QA engineers to build automated tests that run General Interface AJAX applications," said Kevin Hakman, director of product marketing for Tibco General Interface. Users can develop automated software testing suites and run scenarios to test an application's performance. Applications that are subsequently changed can be retested with the same library of test cases. AJAX applications are growing in maturity, Hakman said. The Web application development technique is being used in markets like financial services and transportation, he said. The General Interface toolkit also can be leveraged in SOA because it has provisions for SOAP and XML, he said. Although Tibco is giving away its testing toolkit, the company looks to earn money off of it through selling support and service programs and enticing users to try out the company's commercial SOA offerings, such as ActiveMatrix.
Apr. 22nd, 2007 @ 09:38 pm
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| » Software testing automation tutorial |
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Companies are turning to automated testing tools more often than ever before to ensure that their applications are working properly prior to deployment. That is particularly important today as more and more applications are written for use on the Web which is the most public of arenas. But for many IT and quality assurance managers, automation is a daunting task. So how do you get quick wins with automation? This article aims to help you develop a test strategy for automation that fits your circumstances: - Recognise that test automation is not automated software testing but computer-assisted testing.
Test automation may provide test execution elements, however what other ways could computers help testing. For example: test data generation; installations; file/database comparisons and analysing test results.
Decide what your automated test goal is (and re-evaluate your test mission as it may change)
Efficiency
This can be one Test Automation Goal, where the key aspects may be reducing testing costs, reducing the time in the testing phase, automating regression tests or improving test coverage.
Service
Tightening build schedules, preventing destabilization, playing to computer and human strengths and increasing management confidence in the product.
Extended testing reach
API based testing, component testing, model based tests, data driven tests and internal monitoring & control
Multiplying resources
Platform testing, configuration testing, model based tests and Data driven tests
Recognise that Test Automation scripting is akin to development and programming
When embarking on the use of scripted test tools the same practices used in software development apply. This includes code standards and reviews. The Key to success with scripting is to:
Generate re-usable components to maximize maintainability.
Use a data driven approach, so that a simple change to data can spawn a whole new raft of tests
Use keyword approaches to enable not technical users to 'drive' the automation.
Decide on the right tools
There are many automated testing tools that can aid testing from excel spreadsheets to Code analysers. The key here is to find tools that are right for your environment. Commercial GUI Regression Test tools: Mercury QTP, Winrunner, Compuware TestPartner, Rational Robot Unit Test Tools:
nunit, junit, jwebunit, htmlunit Existing Development tools: Visual Studio Team test, perl, ruby Open Source Test Tools: Wink, rth, Fiddler, Selenium, WATIR, TestCaseManager, SwexplorerAutomation, ieunit, web test What environment(s) do you wish to test?
Web, SAP, Client/Server, .net, Java, UNIX It is all too easy, however to select an automation tool and be tempted to try to use it for the total automation of all applications. Some tasks do not lend themselves to the tool, but can still be automated using other tools such as command files or PC functionality. There may also be some processes where it is more efficient to test manually. You should not attempt to automate these. Decide who will perform the automation and use the tools It is critical to decide who is going to use/and or create the tools. Don't treat test automation as a part time project. Allocate dedicated individuals time so they can provide real value. Overall when preparing a test automation strategy, plan to achieve small successes and grow.
Dec. 17th, 2006 @ 09:20 am
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| » Data Generator for testing software |
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"This little program lets you generate large volumes of random, custom data for use in testing software. Try messing around with it: you'll soon figure it out! I've had to limit it to a maximum of 5000 results, since server resources are limited."
read more | digg story
Dec. 3rd, 2006 @ 05:04 am
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| » Interoperatbility testing success |
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Telco Systems, a provider of carrier-class transport and access solutions for public and private IP and TDM networks, has announced that it has successfully passed a wide range of Carrier Ethernet interoperability tests with multiple vendors. The testing was completed during the European Advanced Networking Test Center (EANTC) Carrier Ethernet Interoperability showcase presented at the Carrier Ethernet World Congress in Madrid, Spain, in September. The test environment included over 50 products supplied by 16 vendors and revealed many improvements over last year’s test results including: - Multi-vendor interoperability of IEEE 802.1ah EFM OAM standard and 802.1ag Connectivity Fault Management draft standard
- IEEE 802.3ad Ethernet link aggregation tests for native Ethernet link resilience
- MPLS as a foundation for large Carrier Ethernet networks
- Support for advanced traffic engineering in MPLS
For the full story visit Business Wire
Telecom software testing services UK
Nov. 11th, 2006 @ 10:40 am
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| » Performance testing Windows |
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I found this good article on testing what slows down Windows boot up. It concludes:
Well it's clear to see what sort of application has most effect on Windows. Antivirus programs tether the performance of your computer alongside that of one three years its elder. If you really need an antivirus system, make sure you follow these benchmarks but also make sure you check how good the one you're looking at really is. Nod32 gets good security reviews and seems to leave the system fairly nippy.The new version of Norton has shocked me a little. Every year since their Norton AntiVirus 2002, they've added more and more "bloat". They call them features, and looking at the box, you'd agree. Features have traditionally come at a price though. If you're scanning more things, it's going to take it more time. NIS2007 seems to do all the work of 2006 but with significantly less load on the FileIO. I'm not shouting "go out and buy it" because of the massive boot delay and there are still better products. If you're looking for the best of the best antivirus products you should look at their detection rates. There's no point in having something, no matter how expensive, if it cannot keep you protected. Here is an excellent roundup of anti-virus systems. Next time I'll be expanding from where the Black Viper services guide took off and writing "What speeds Windows up". If you have any top tips regarding that, get them in and I'll make sure they're posted in that review. Again, if the demand is high enough for another roundup of laggy applications, I'll do another one of those as well.
Application performance testing services
Oct. 21st, 2006 @ 09:13 am
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| » Beta testing paradigm |
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Interesting article in about IT Business about Beta testing.
The word ‘beta’ has become synonymous with ‘bug hunting’ in the context of unfinished software, but vendors are embracing the idea that beta tests, both public and private, can improve products in the eyes of users before they’re even released.
Adobe Systems has warmed to this concept, says Dave Story, vice-president of engineering at the San Jose-based software firm, and has moved its newest product, Lightroom, into a public beta program far sooner than it might have in previous few years. In fact, it’s the first time Adobe has offered a beta without asking users to register and qualify for the program.
“We’ve turned all our development processes upside down,” he says, adding that the traditional paradigm of rushing a product to meet a release deadline, then putting a beta out to simply iron out the kinks is not always what users what to see from software providers.
Software application load testing services
Oct. 7th, 2006 @ 11:31 am
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| » TestTrack software testing tool |
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From Business Wire As software applications become increasingly complex and development schedules more aggressive, the challenges facing quality assurance (QA) teams are expanding proportionately. New software solutions and better practices, including investing in the creation and management of well-documented test cases, are becoming essential to maintaining quality. Recognizing the vital role test case management (TCM) plays within the software QA process, Seapine Software, a leading provider of application lifecycle management (ALM) solutions, today introduced TestTrack TCM. This announcement was made during the SD Best Practices Conference & Expo, which runs September 11-14 in Boston TestTrack TCM is a highly scalable, cross-platform client/server solution that allows QA teams to plan, execute, and manage any testing process. Built on the proven TestTrack architecture, TestTrack TCM manages all facets of the testing process including test case creation, scheduling, execution, measurement, and reporting. TestTrack TCM helps QA teams formalize the testing process and overcome barriers to creating well-documented test cases, including lack of time and resources.
Consultancy software testing improvement service
Sep. 26th, 2006 @ 10:23 am
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| » Security testing Microsoft IE |
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A new a new vulnerability in Internet Explorer has been uncovered and hackers have posted code that can be used to attack users of Microsoft’s IEr browser. The vulnerability is similar to a software defect that Microsoft patched last month in IE.
The xsec.org hackers referred to their code as a 0day, meaning an exploit for a previously undisclosed vulnerability.
"Calling it 0day is a stretch," said HD Moore, the head of the Metasploit project, via e-mail.
Moore wrote an automated ActiveX testing tool called AxMan that uncovered a handful of IE bugs, including the one exploited by on xsec.org. Although Moore recently launched a project called the Month of Browser Bugs, in which he disclosed a new browser vulnerability every day for the month of July, he said he had refrained from disclosing this particular vulnerability.
For the full story visit CIO.com
Software security testing services
Sep. 17th, 2006 @ 06:33 pm
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