Archive for Software Testing
Around December 2011, the millionth mobile app was released. This is is an amazing milestone. It shows how important the mobile space has become and how rapidly it’s evolving.
I wondered, have any of these apps been tested? My guess: probably only a few. So, I know what will happen — once users get…
I think’ve finally found a good visual metaphor for model-based testing. In Aliens, Ellen Ripley uses the power lifter suit to battle the Alien Queen. Model-based testing is like the power lifter suit. It has to be driven with intelligence and skill, but it’s your only hope against the super bugs that…
Read MoreThe FDA has just published a new draft of guidance about mobile technology in FDA-regulated systems. This guidance is open for comment and isn’t binding yet.
So, what does this mean for testing FDA-regulated products with mobile technology?
The draft guidance defines when mobile platforms are considered as part of a regulated system or not. The criteria for inclusion…
I attended a great talk today about testing mobile applications, given by Lee Barnes of Utopia Solutions. It recounted the Rubik’s cube permutations that affect mobile app quality and reliability: multiple stacks, multiple handheld devices/form factors, constrained battery life, constrained memory/processor, variability of wireless connectivity, different behavior in dedicated…
Read MoreA Chicago Tribune article recounts how a software bug in an infusion pump lead to brain-death for a patient in 2009 (“Medical Industry Taking Hard Look at Software Faults,” Christine Mai-Duc, Chicago Tribune, August 31, 2011, p. 19)
It reports that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which regulates and…
This post covers part three of my 2010 talk on testability.
Aren’t the dancing hamsters a stitch?
Not so funny if you have to test code whose stability or controllability makes you feel like you’re wearing the hula-hoop.
To reveal a bug, a test must:
Reach the buggy code
Trigger the bug
Propagate the incorrect result to an observable interface
Incorrect…
What makes a software system easier or harder to test?
The general aspects are controllability and observability.
This post covers part two of my 2010 talk on testability.
Controllability determines the work it takes to set up and run test cases and the extent to which individual functions and features of the system under test…
My 2010 keynote at the Google Test Automation conference considered the dimensions of software testability and its implications.
Click here for the slides.
Click here to view the video
This presentation is serialized in following posts.
Part 1: Testability: What is it?
Part 2: Controllability and Observability
Part 3: Accidental Untestability
Part 4: White Box Testability
Part 5:…
J on 
Bob Binder on 