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Agile Methodologies - Martin Fowler's online discussion of 'agile' methodologies (XP, Scrum, Crystal, FDD, DSDM, etc.) includes summaries of various approaches as well as reference information, and factors to consider in choosing these approaches.
XP Resources - Large collection of resources from Ron Jeffries about 'Extreme Programming' including a discussion of how QA fits into the XP approach, XP Magazine archives with articles such as 'Test-First Design', 'Incremental Requirements', 'Extreme Programming and the CMM', and more. Also see 'The Rules and Practices of Extreme Programming ' at the www.extremeprogramming.org web site.
Scrum - Web site of Advanced Development Methods, Inc and their Scrum methodology, a team-based agile approach to iteratively, incrementally develop software with rapidly changing requirements.
Crystal - Web site about Allistair Cockburn's collection of 'shrink-to-fit, human-powered software development methodologies' based on the premise that each project needs an approach appropriate to its particular member talents and people issues, and that efficiency is best maximized via frequent deliveries and improved communications. Methodology suggestions are grouped by team size (no larger than 50 as of 2004) and recommended for teams at a single geographic location working on non-life-critical projects.
Practical Software and Systems Measurement - Web site with extensive information on software development metrics, sponsored by U.S. government. Site contains articles, reports, examples, and a free PC-based software tool to assiste in project-specific metrics development.
Testing Education Articles - Collection of articles on software testing and the teaching of software testing from the Florida Institute of Technology funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation.
ITIL - 'IT Infrastructure Library' - a set of best-practices guides on the management and provision of operational IT Services. From itSMF, a UK-based organization comprised of 1000 companies and government organizations worldwide that is developing and promoting best practice IT Service Management standards and qualifications. There is a related British Standards Institution BS15000 IT Service Management standard and certification scheme. An online organizational ITIL Service Management Self Assessment is available.
Big Ball of Mud - Outstanding essay on the 'de-facto standard software architecture', by Briane Foote and Joseph Yoder of the U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The 'Big Ball of Mud' architecture is defined as 'a casually, even haphazardly, structured system. Its organization, if one can call it that, is dictated more by expediency than design....The overall structure of the system may never have been well defined. If it was, it may have eroded beyond recognition.' They discuss why this architecture is so popular, advantages and disadvantages, and what can be done to improve such systems.
The Frameworks Quagmire - Article from the Software Productivity Consortium summarizing and exploring the conflicts and complexities among various software process standards existing in the late 1990's - CMMi, SW-CMM, SDCE, Trillium, IEEE, FAA-iCMM, EIA-632, NATO-AQAP, MIL-STD-498, ISO/IEC-12207, ISO-9000, etc.
Satisfice.com Web Site - James Bach's Satisfice.com Web Site with a great collection of his articles on various aspects of software testing.
Bret Pettichord's Software Testing Hotlist - Web site with links to various test and QA-related info; good list of test automation articles and other useful web sites.
BetaSoft Web Site - QA and Testing discussion forums, jobs and resumes, other resources.
SQATester.com - QA and Testing information, discussion forums, other resources.
Seven Steps to Test Automation Success - Good introductory article on how to approach automated testing; by Bret Pettichord.
When Should a Test Be Automated? - Another useful introductory article on automated testing, by Brian Marick.
Test Tools for Free Short article by Danny Faught discussing some free test tools, along with the basics of 'freeware', and information on a testing freeware newsletter. (Note: Many free web testing tools are also included among the web testing tools listed in the Softwareqatest.com 'Web Test Tools' page .)
Loadtester.com - Resource for performance testing, performance monitoring, and capacity planning as it applies to software application development. Although focus is web applications, site has information about other applications. Includes articles, forums, other resources, and news.
Evaluating and Choosing the Right Tool - Elisabeth Hendrickson describes a five-step process for comparing, evaluating, and choosing the right test tool; from the Stickyminds.com web site.
Totally Data-Driven Automated Testing - Introductory article by Keith Zambelich on 'data-driven' and 'keyword-driven' automated testing. Article is from 1998 but information in the article is still valid and applicable.
JUnit.org - Site for test/development engineers using JUnit or one of the other XUnit testing frameworks. Has many useful articles and resources on automated Java regression testing and 'agile' testing processes in general.
Java GUI Testing - Short discussion of automated Java GUI testing issues, includes interesting discussion of methods of identifying a component in a GUI hierarchy for use in developing automated test scripts.
Function Point FAQ - Basics of the Function Point approach to estimating software development effort, based on an end-user/functional view of a software application's 'size'.
Illustrative Risks to the Public in the Use of Computer Systems - Enormous list of software, system, and related problems compiled by Peter Neumann/SRI International. Organized by categories such as space, defense, medical, stock market, elections, insurance, cryptography, etc. Includes related book list, other information. (Also see 'Risks Digest' listed below.)
Process Improvement Case Study Featuring Reviews and Inspections - Article titled 'Process Improvement: Case Study of an Improvement Program Featuring Reviews and Inspections' in Software Quality Professional magazine.
Will Bugs Eat Up the U.S. Lead in Software? - Business Week (International Edition) article comparing present state of U.S. software industry to U.S. automobile industry in the 1970's, when Japan took away huge market share with better and cheaper products by adopting Deming's and Juran's quality approaches. Discusses a possible repeat with the current US software industry losing software development market share to countries such as India. Entire issue and cover story reports on software problems - discussion of past problems, problems with software engineering, and possible fixes. Also see similar Infoweek article - 'The Big Picture: Killer Apps And Dead Bodies'.
ARIANE 5 Flight 501 Failure Report by the Inquiry Board - A rare and instructive detailed public analysis of a major software failure - the 1996 launch failure of the new Ariane 5 rocket. This is the official report of the inquiry board appointed by the French National Center for Space Studies and the European Space Agency. Also see the article 'Design by Contract: The Lessons of Ariane' which includes a discussion of the code reuse issues brought to light by the Ariane 5 failure.
Eiffel FAQ - FAQ site for a programming approach, based on the ideas of Bertrand Meyer, with the goal of improving software component reusability, extendibility and reliability using assertions, preconditions, and postconditions.
Internationalization Testing - Article at Sun's web site; includes guidelines and good check list of questions for testing an internationalized software product.
German-Language QA/Testing Web Site - German-language QA and testing web site, with articles, downloadable software and documentation, discussion forum, book reviews.
Risks Digest - Digest of the 'Forum on Risks to the Public in Computers and Related Systems'. Includes latest issue and archives covering software and system problems, vulnerabilities, disasters; based on the comp.risks newsgroup.
SEI Capability Maturity Models - SEI's CMM/CMMI web site, with info including the SW-CMM (Software Capability Maturity Model), P-CMM (People CMM) SA-CMM (Software Acquisition CMM), SE-CMM (Systems Engineering CMM), and IPD-CMM (Integrated Product Development CMM).
Construx Software Resources - Site with many useful resources such as CxOne, a lightweight, tailorable, modular, and scalable software engineering framework, estimation info and resources, various checklists, and Steve McConnell's 'Software Survival Guide' website.
CM Crossroads - Online community and resource center for configuration management, with library of resource links, interactive discussion forums, monthly newsletter, Career Search and Jobs Board. Also see the CmWiki , an open collaboration site for information about CM that includes information about CM, Build Management, Change Management, and concepts, templates, tools, and processes. Also links to an ITILWiki.
CM FAQ - Configuration Management FAQ edited by David Eaton; includes 'What is CM?', 'How should a CM system relate to process enforcement?', CM books and other resources, etc.
SR/Institute's Software Quality Hot List - Extensive collection of links to many QA and testing-related articles, resources, etc.
Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA) - Text of controversial new laws (formerly Uniform Commercial Code Article 2B) concerning software quality. This essentially implements new laws in all 50 states in the U.S. Additional info on UCITA controversies at Ralph Nader's CPT (Consumer Project on Technology) web site and Cem Kaner's BadSoftware.com web site. .
How To Build Reliable Code - Old but still-relevant article from a past issue of Byte Magazine.
NASA SW Engineering Lab site - NASA's Software Engineering Lab web site; includes publications such as "Recommended Approach to Software Development". Though this publication is several years old, it is a good online guide to the SW development process with extenisve sections on System Testing, Acceptance Testing, and other QA and testing issues. Other publications freely available at the site include "Cost and Schedule Estimation Study Report", "C Style Guide", "Software Measurement Guidebook", and "Improving the Software Testing Process...".
FDA Medical Device Software Validation Guidelines - FDA's 1997 draft guidelines for medical device software validation.
Negotiating Testing Resources - Excellent article by Cem Kaner about testing project planning and budgeting; from a 1996 software quality conference.
Software Engineering Resources - Large collection of useful information and links to many other sites and resources, all related to the SW engineering process including project planning and management, metrics, risk analysis, programming methods, OO SW engineering, testing, QA, CM. From R.S. Pressman, author of the book 'Software Engineering, A Practitioner's Approach'.
Software Technology Review - Software Engineering Institute's technology descriptions listing - summaries of many software terms and technologies such as COM, OO Design, Function Point Analysis, etc
Software Test Coverage Analysis article Article containing a good discussion of test coverage analysis from Bullseye Testing Technology, maker of "C-Cover Test Coverage Analyzer" tool.
Software-engineer.org - Comprehesive collection of resources on software engineering including QA and testing. Includes articles, tools listings, and extensive collection of other web resources in a wide variety of useful categories.
comp.object FAQ - Extensive FAQ for object oriented subjects; includes some info about object-oriented testing.
CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) - A suite of process improvement models for product and service development and maintenance. The suite includes the CMMI-SW model, and there is a 'staged' and 'continuous' version. Each of the CMMI models can be coordinated with other CMMI models to enable enterprise-wide process improvement. CMMI-SW builds on the previous SW-CMM model which is being 'sunsetted'.
Return to top of Resources Listing
Web QA and Testing Resources
Load Testing Of Web Sites - A collection of useful information on various aspects of performance testing, from Scott Barber's web site. Topics include: "Pinpointing and Exploiting Specific Performance Bottlenecks", "Common Performance Testing Challenges", "How Fast is Fast Enough", and "Introduction to Performance Testing". Although some of the information is not specifically oriented to web performance testing, it is still highly applicable.
Load Testing Of Web Sites - Article from IEEE Internet Computing about web load testing; useful overview from 2002.
Evaluating Web Sites for Accessibility - Article on the World Wide Web Consortium web site's 'Web Accessibility Initiative' section on how to assess and test web sites for accessibility issues.
Keynote Systems Resources Page - Useful collection of articles and information on web site performance testing. Also see the related site performance indices which lists a variety of business, consumer, government, and other web sites along with their 'performance index'.
CMSWatch - Web Content Management web site from CMSWorks Inc. with information, news, opinions, analysis, products, best-practices.
Handling and Avoiding Web Page Errors - Three part series from Microsoft site; covers sources of common Web page errors, how to handle run-time script errors, and techniques for avoiding preventable errors.
Testing Database-Driven Web Sites - Article on web testing from 'DBMS Magazine' (now 'Internet Systems' Magazine).
Return to top of Resources Listing
See: SOURCE: For URLS of each above:
www.softwareqatest.com/qatlnk...GENERAL
XP Resources - Large collection of resources from Ron Jeffries about 'Extreme Programming' including a discussion of how QA fits into the XP approach, XP Magazine archives with articles such as 'Test-First Design', 'Incremental Requirements', 'Extreme Programming and the CMM', and more. Also see 'The Rules and Practices of Extreme Programming ' at the www.extremeprogramming.org web site.
Scrum - Web site of Advanced Development Methods, Inc and their Scrum methodology, a team-based agile approach to iteratively, incrementally develop software with rapidly changing requirements.
Crystal - Web site about Allistair Cockburn's collection of 'shrink-to-fit, human-powered software development methodologies' based on the premise that each project needs an approach appropriate to its particular member talents and people issues, and that efficiency is best maximized via frequent deliveries and improved communications. Methodology suggestions are grouped by team size (no larger than 50 as of 2004) and recommended for teams at a single geographic location working on non-life-critical projects.
Practical Software and Systems Measurement - Web site with extensive information on software development metrics, sponsored by U.S. government. Site contains articles, reports, examples, and a free PC-based software tool to assiste in project-specific metrics development.
Testing Education Articles - Collection of articles on software testing and the teaching of software testing from the Florida Institute of Technology funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation.
ITIL - 'IT Infrastructure Library' - a set of best-practices guides on the management and provision of operational IT Services. From itSMF, a UK-based organization comprised of 1000 companies and government organizations worldwide that is developing and promoting best practice IT Service Management standards and qualifications. There is a related British Standards Institution BS15000 IT Service Management standard and certification scheme. An online organizational ITIL Service Management Self Assessment is available.
Big Ball of Mud - Outstanding essay on the 'de-facto standard software architecture', by Briane Foote and Joseph Yoder of the U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The 'Big Ball of Mud' architecture is defined as 'a casually, even haphazardly, structured system. Its organization, if one can call it that, is dictated more by expediency than design....The overall structure of the system may never have been well defined. If it was, it may have eroded beyond recognition.' They discuss why this architecture is so popular, advantages and disadvantages, and what can be done to improve such systems.
The Frameworks Quagmire - Article from the Software Productivity Consortium summarizing and exploring the conflicts and complexities among various software process standards existing in the late 1990's - CMMi, SW-CMM, SDCE, Trillium, IEEE, FAA-iCMM, EIA-632, NATO-AQAP, MIL-STD-498, ISO/IEC-12207, ISO-9000, etc.
Satisfice.com Web Site - James Bach's Satisfice.com Web Site with a great collection of his articles on various aspects of software testing.
Bret Pettichord's Software Testing Hotlist - Web site with links to various test and QA-related info; good list of test automation articles and other useful web sites.
BetaSoft Web Site - QA and Testing discussion forums, jobs and resumes, other resources.
SQATester.com - QA and Testing information, discussion forums, other resources.
Seven Steps to Test Automation Success - Good introductory article on how to approach automated testing; by Bret Pettichord.
When Should a Test Be Automated? - Another useful introductory article on automated testing, by Brian Marick.
Test Tools for Free Short article by Danny Faught discussing some free test tools, along with the basics of 'freeware', and information on a testing freeware newsletter. (Note: Many free web testing tools are also included among the web testing tools listed in the Softwareqatest.com 'Web Test Tools' page .)
Loadtester.com - Resource for performance testing, performance monitoring, and capacity planning as it applies to software application development. Although focus is web applications, site has information about other applications. Includes articles, forums, other resources, and news.
Evaluating and Choosing the Right Tool - Elisabeth Hendrickson describes a five-step process for comparing, evaluating, and choosing the right test tool; from the Stickyminds.com web site.
Totally Data-Driven Automated Testing - Introductory article by Keith Zambelich on 'data-driven' and 'keyword-driven' automated testing. Article is from 1998 but information in the article is still valid and applicable.
JUnit.org - Site for test/development engineers using JUnit or one of the other XUnit testing frameworks. Has many useful articles and resources on automated Java regression testing and 'agile' testing processes in general.
Java GUI Testing - Short discussion of automated Java GUI testing issues, includes interesting discussion of methods of identifying a component in a GUI hierarchy for use in developing automated test scripts.
Function Point FAQ - Basics of the Function Point approach to estimating software development effort, based on an end-user/functional view of a software application's 'size'.
Illustrative Risks to the Public in the Use of Computer Systems - Enormous list of software, system, and related problems compiled by Peter Neumann/SRI International. Organized by categories such as space, defense, medical, stock market, elections, insurance, cryptography, etc. Includes related book list, other information. (Also see 'Risks Digest' listed below.)
Process Improvement Case Study Featuring Reviews and Inspections - Article titled 'Process Improvement: Case Study of an Improvement Program Featuring Reviews and Inspections' in Software Quality Professional magazine.
Will Bugs Eat Up the U.S. Lead in Software? - Business Week (International Edition) article comparing present state of U.S. software industry to U.S. automobile industry in the 1970's, when Japan took away huge market share with better and cheaper products by adopting Deming's and Juran's quality approaches. Discusses a possible repeat with the current US software industry losing software development market share to countries such as India. Entire issue and cover story reports on software problems - discussion of past problems, problems with software engineering, and possible fixes. Also see similar Infoweek article - 'The Big Picture: Killer Apps And Dead Bodies'.
ARIANE 5 Flight 501 Failure Report by the Inquiry Board - A rare and instructive detailed public analysis of a major software failure - the 1996 launch failure of the new Ariane 5 rocket. This is the official report of the inquiry board appointed by the French National Center for Space Studies and the European Space Agency. Also see the article 'Design by Contract: The Lessons of Ariane' which includes a discussion of the code reuse issues brought to light by the Ariane 5 failure.
Eiffel FAQ - FAQ site for a programming approach, based on the ideas of Bertrand Meyer, with the goal of improving software component reusability, extendibility and reliability using assertions, preconditions, and postconditions.
Internationalization Testing - Article at Sun's web site; includes guidelines and good check list of questions for testing an internationalized software product.
German-Language QA/Testing Web Site - German-language QA and testing web site, with articles, downloadable software and documentation, discussion forum, book reviews.
Risks Digest - Digest of the 'Forum on Risks to the Public in Computers and Related Systems'. Includes latest issue and archives covering software and system problems, vulnerabilities, disasters; based on the comp.risks newsgroup.
SEI Capability Maturity Models - SEI's CMM/CMMI web site, with info including the SW-CMM (Software Capability Maturity Model), P-CMM (People CMM) SA-CMM (Software Acquisition CMM), SE-CMM (Systems Engineering CMM), and IPD-CMM (Integrated Product Development CMM).
Construx Software Resources - Site with many useful resources such as CxOne, a lightweight, tailorable, modular, and scalable software engineering framework, estimation info and resources, various checklists, and Steve McConnell's 'Software Survival Guide' website.
CM Crossroads - Online community and resource center for configuration management, with library of resource links, interactive discussion forums, monthly newsletter, Career Search and Jobs Board. Also see the CmWiki , an open collaboration site for information about CM that includes information about CM, Build Management, Change Management, and concepts, templates, tools, and processes. Also links to an ITILWiki.
CM FAQ - Configuration Management FAQ edited by David Eaton; includes 'What is CM?', 'How should a CM system relate to process enforcement?', CM books and other resources, etc.
SR/Institute's Software Quality Hot List - Extensive collection of links to many QA and testing-related articles, resources, etc.
Uniform Computer Information Transactions Act (UCITA) - Text of controversial new laws (formerly Uniform Commercial Code Article 2B) concerning software quality. This essentially implements new laws in all 50 states in the U.S. Additional info on UCITA controversies at Ralph Nader's CPT (Consumer Project on Technology) web site and Cem Kaner's BadSoftware.com web site. .
How To Build Reliable Code - Old but still-relevant article from a past issue of Byte Magazine.
NASA SW Engineering Lab site - NASA's Software Engineering Lab web site; includes publications such as "Recommended Approach to Software Development". Though this publication is several years old, it is a good online guide to the SW development process with extenisve sections on System Testing, Acceptance Testing, and other QA and testing issues. Other publications freely available at the site include "Cost and Schedule Estimation Study Report", "C Style Guide", "Software Measurement Guidebook", and "Improving the Software Testing Process...".
FDA Medical Device Software Validation Guidelines - FDA's 1997 draft guidelines for medical device software validation.
Negotiating Testing Resources - Excellent article by Cem Kaner about testing project planning and budgeting; from a 1996 software quality conference.
Software Engineering Resources - Large collection of useful information and links to many other sites and resources, all related to the SW engineering process including project planning and management, metrics, risk analysis, programming methods, OO SW engineering, testing, QA, CM. From R.S. Pressman, author of the book 'Software Engineering, A Practitioner's Approach'.
Software Technology Review - Software Engineering Institute's technology descriptions listing - summaries of many software terms and technologies such as COM, OO Design, Function Point Analysis, etc
Software Test Coverage Analysis article Article containing a good discussion of test coverage analysis from Bullseye Testing Technology, maker of "C-Cover Test Coverage Analyzer" tool.
Software-engineer.org - Comprehesive collection of resources on software engineering including QA and testing. Includes articles, tools listings, and extensive collection of other web resources in a wide variety of useful categories.
comp.object FAQ - Extensive FAQ for object oriented subjects; includes some info about object-oriented testing.
CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) - A suite of process improvement models for product and service development and maintenance. The suite includes the CMMI-SW model, and there is a 'staged' and 'continuous' version. Each of the CMMI models can be coordinated with other CMMI models to enable enterprise-wide process improvement. CMMI-SW builds on the previous SW-CMM model which is being 'sunsetted'.
Return to top of Resources Listing
Web QA and Testing Resources
Load Testing Of Web Sites - A collection of useful information on various aspects of performance testing, from Scott Barber's web site. Topics include: "Pinpointing and Exploiting Specific Performance Bottlenecks", "Common Performance Testing Challenges", "How Fast is Fast Enough", and "Introduction to Performance Testing". Although some of the information is not specifically oriented to web performance testing, it is still highly applicable.
Load Testing Of Web Sites - Article from IEEE Internet Computing about web load testing; useful overview from 2002.
Evaluating Web Sites for Accessibility - Article on the World Wide Web Consortium web site's 'Web Accessibility Initiative' section on how to assess and test web sites for accessibility issues.
Keynote Systems Resources Page - Useful collection of articles and information on web site performance testing. Also see the related site performance indices which lists a variety of business, consumer, government, and other web sites along with their 'performance index'.
CMSWatch - Web Content Management web site from CMSWorks Inc. with information, news, opinions, analysis, products, best-practices.
Handling and Avoiding Web Page Errors - Three part series from Microsoft site; covers sources of common Web page errors, how to handle run-time script errors, and techniques for avoiding preventable errors.
Testing Database-Driven Web Sites - Article on web testing from 'DBMS Magazine' (now 'Internet Systems' Magazine).
Return to top of Resources Listing
See: SOURCE: For URLS of each above:
www.softwareqatest.com/qatlnk...GENERAL
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