Association for Software Testing

CAST 2009: Almog presents controversial new test case definition approach

Dani Almog will be outlining a new approach to test case definition at the Conference for the Association for Software Testing (CAST 2009) this month. In his talk “Test Case Definition: A New Structural Approach,” Almog will explore and classify the various definitions of test cases, discuss the implications of the current situation, and will suggest an alternative structural definition for test cases. CAST 2009 takes place July 13-16 in Colorado Springs, CO.

“Based on thorough research of academic articles, journals and books and by consulting some of my distinguished colleagues around the globe, I will present my findings aiming at an alternative formal structural definition of the term ‘test case. Although it may be a controversial approach, formalizing the term fits my engineering perceptio’n of the testing process. Thus, during my talk I will present a newly developed structural definition to a test case.

During the last six years, I was very fortunate to be able to fulfill a dream and implement ideas pertaining to how and when software testing should be developed; in short, finding ways to bridge the gap between the software development approach, the technology, the training (mostly object oriented thinking) and the way we testing engineers see the same applications; in an intuitive, procedural –the way we use it — manner.

I got full support from top management in the company I worked for (Amdocs) to recruit a very talented and innovative group of young people who assisted me in developing and implementing a full infrastructure for test automation. Later, (this) was rolled out to all the corporate divisions and units. Now that I have retired from Amdocs, I have decided to dedicate the rest of my professional career to exposing and promoting the new approach I have developed, including methodologies and tools.”

Dani Almog is currently a member of the academic staff at Ben Gurion University, Israel. He teaching and researching. Dani teaches software quality engineering and testing, and research the interaction between development processes and quality/testing - trying to introduce to the academic world some of the achievements and work models developed in industry.

“Coming from a large corporation’s (Amdocs) R&D division, we have encountered many issues regarding test case automation- a necessity and a key factor for supporting eight different large software products, often with 3 different versions distributed among one hundred different very large customers. This situation made us consider all options and alternatives for test automation infrastructure, tools and methodologies. We were given the opportunity to be involved in shaping the future of our new products’ development processes and procedures. All my academic activities since my retirement, including this talk, are derived from this experience and I am now actually documenting and presenting the best practices of what have we done. “

Almog says that in his talk he’s targeting two different communities. The first is the professional community, who he says is struggling to “improve its skills and outcomes regardless of inferior reputation and image – knowing they never really get the deserved glory.” The second is the academic community, who has “neglected a very exciting field of research and progress.” He suspects both communities might have some criticisms for his talk.

“I welcome the challenge of debate and criticism and believe it will improve my work. I guess the criticism will come from two main channels. From those questioning the relevance of my approach to all different streams and to the new ways software development expands to. And from people who perceive testing as softer and more flexible (exploratory, context-dependent, and others) rather than structured and engineered. I believe that my approach paves the way to more systematic and precise testing, as well as to development of advanced automation tools. I welcome all constructive and relevant criticism. It will help me present a better model.”

For more on the upcoming show, check out the CAST conference website. For a chance to explore the topic in more detail, you can contact Dani Almog on the Software Testing Club or following his discussions.

CAST 2009: Test gurus Sabourin, Coulter preview keynotes

Next month, the Association for Software Testing (AST) will hold the fourth annual Conference of the Association for Software Testing (CAST) in Colorado Springs, Colorado. This will be the first year I won’t be attending, so I wanted to take a chance to catch up with some of the speakers to talk to them about their papers and presentations. The first pair of speakers I was able to catch up with were giving the closing keynote for the conference: Rob Sabourin and Tim Coulter.

Rob Sabourin is presently the President of AmiBug.Com Inc, a frequent guest lecturer at McGill University, the author of a short book illustrated by his daughter Catherine entitled “I Am a Bug,” a regular author of articles of software engineering topics, and he’s a regular speaker at just about every software testing conference you’ve heard of.

Tim Coulter is a software developer for The Open Planning Project, has participated in over ten software testing peer workshops, and he brings a fresh perspective to the practice of software testing which you can read on his blog at OneOfTheWolves.com.

Both Sabourin and Coulter are regulars at CAST, and this year they are taking on a rather interesting challenge with their closing keynote. Their talk, “Tim Bits: What I Learned About Software Testing at CAST 2009″ will be an attempt to summarize lessons learned from the 2009 talks and will use a mix of improv and group participation to make the lessons specific and relevant.

“We came up with the idea of ‘Tim Bits’ at a peer conference,” said Sabourin. “I think it was at a Workshop on Performance and Reliability in New York city in which I asked Tim to give us some quick lightening encapsulations of lessons he learned - as a novice - from presentations made by experienced professionals.  Tim Bits is also the name of a popular doughnut hole treat at the famous Canadian chain Tim Horton’s and thus the pun began.”

Sabourin, a speaking veteran, has a history of taking on challenging keynote presentations. He’s done light but lesson-filled talks about software testing based on lessons-learned from the Simpsons, Dr. Seuss, and the Looney Tunes Gang. Two of the best talks I’ve seen him give include “A Whodunit? Testing Lessons from the Great Detectives” and “Peanuts and Crackerjacks: What Baseball Taught Me about Metrics.” But given that this talk depends on material presented by others in the two or three days before the closing keynote, I asked Sabourin how they plan to prepare.

“I’ve prepared a number of closing keynote-style presentations at STAR conferences in which I focus on pain points of delegates and how lessons learned from specific conference or tutorial sessions can be applied. So when Tim and I were asked to combine Tim Bits with the ‘Closing Lessons Learned’ to create our closing keynote at Cast, we of course said yes.” Sabourin went on to outline their planning. “Tim and I plan to spend several evenings together in New Jersey the week before CAST preparing our Framework. But the actual content will be captured on-the-fly during CAST.”

When I asked if the on-the-fly preparation was at all intimidating, Sabourin responded: “Not at all! We will be well prepared in advance, and spending time dialoguing with delegates to capture real learnings and applications on the fly during the conference will be fun. I feel that our talk at CAST can be a solid practical constructive step to not only making CAST more useful, but also in demonstrating the power of actively participating in the AST community.”

I also asked Coulter how he felt about the talk, and he said: “I’m extremely excited for this talk. This is going to be up there as one of the coolest things I’ve done so far, in testing or otherwise. The AST community has done so much for me since I started college that I’m happy to do anything I can to give back.”

When asked what they would be working on for next year, the two of them listed off several topics.

“I have been working hard on task analysis of session based exploratory testing implemented in real projects and especially in frameworks like SCRUM,” said Sabourin. “In 2010 I hope to share these experiences. I’m also dedicating a lot of time to visual modeling in test design and testing in turbulent contexts.”

Coulter has been thinking about how to put theory into practice. “I’ve thought testing history would be an exciting thing to research, and if I can get a speech or paper to come out of that I would be more than happy. In total though, I don’t know what’s to come. I envision a talk titled ‘Trying to make it in testing while discovering the (software) world around me,’ but when that’ll come I don’t know.”

For more on the upcoming show, check out the CAST conference website. Another great resource is this site’s info on Rob Sabourin, his book, or his classes. And here’s how to learn more about Tim Coulter, the man behind ‘Tim Bits,’ and his current projects.