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May 26 2009   7:38PM GMT

Software test environments: Overlooked in licensing?



Posted by: Rick Vanover
QA, test, Rick Vanover, licensing, Microsoft

There is no doubt that test environments are the lifeblood of high-quality technology solutions. In a recent discussion with another IT professional, the issue of test environment licensing came up and clearly became a grey area that is applied differently between organizations. In the case of Microsoft licensing, larger enterprises have a distinct advantage to licensing test environments when engaged in Microsoft Software Assurance (SA). While there may be slight differences of what differentiates a test and QA environment, generally a QA system has a longer lifespan. Further, QA systems usually are fully licensed in all regards like their production counterparts.

Fine print and vague or missing clauses are common in software licensing, and test environment licenses share those same ills. For organizations that do not maintain Microsoft SA, the base operating system licensing can be very expensive to maintain for Windows Server, SQL Server database and other systems. For the operating system, evaluation licenses can usually accommodate temporary use. For ongoing use, the practice and options become unclear. The Microsoft SQL Server product continues to offer a free edition, Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Express. The issue from a test/QA standpoint becomes if using the Express edition is representative of the end configuration or product being tested.

This is not an issue for the most part for organizations utilizing free products end-to-end, such as Linux for an operating system and open databases such as MySQL. There may be licensing considerations if any commercial tools or other licensed software titles are used or tested, however.

How are you approaching this topic? Ideally all systems are licensed the same way, but the informal tiers of testing may be omitted from an organization’s larger licensing initiative. Share your comments below on test environment licensing.

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Mar 10 2009   7:19PM GMT

Why video modes matter in software testing and configuration



Posted by: Rick Vanover
video, test, Rick Vanover, driver, configuration, Software testing

In my software testing work, I’ve found that video configuration consistency is a critical factor in a system’s performance and behavior under test conditions and an important factor in delivering technology in the intended fashion.  Naturally, traditional resolution requirements for a consistent experience are only one part of video’s critical role, which can encompass everything from video adapters, driver version, video configuration, resolution, refresh rate, any console interaction mechanisms and the number of monitors running that configuration.

I recently talked with David Wren about the importance of video configuration’s importance. Wren is the managing director of PassMark software, a leading system benchmark software provider. Wren offers that video configuration is important when ensuring a solution is to function as expected. One example where this was an issue for a Windows-based system was the recent issue with Nvidia drivers on Windows Vista. Some video adapter models have had ten or more driver releases since November 2007.

Beyond driver issues, which Wren states can be notoriously buggy, 2D and 3D video performance can be point to watch in the test process. For software implementations that are not graphics intensive, such as text-based screen activity, the performance is relatively unimportant. When graphics are introduced, then the video performance is critical. This can include playing high-quality videos, games, or graphics rendering with design software. PassMark maintains a benchmark website of video card performance benchmarks that is updated daily, and the results for the same tests on different platforms show varied results.

These factors and more are especially relevant in today’s media-rich technology landscape. Many of the various high quality media will likely perform differently under circumstances where various video configurations are in use, making benchmarks a critical part of the test process.

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