Quality Assurance Experiences

1
Quality Assurance Experiences

• Pete Nordquist
• Intel / Bear Creek / SOU

2
Background

• 4 months Bear Creek Corp.
• 14 Years Intel Corp.
• MSCS Oregon Graduate Institute
• Math Ed / Music Ed George Fox College

3
Why Test?

• Validate system requirements met
• Validate system integration
• Provide independent verification
• Advocate for the users

4
Furps

• FUNCTIONALITY Feature Set - Capabilities -
  Generality Security
• Does it do what it is supposed to do?

5
fUrps

• USABILITY Human Factors - Aesthetics -
  Consistency Documentation
• Can the user make it do what it is supposed to
  do?

6
fuRps

• RELIABILITY Frequency/Severity of Failure -
  Recoverability - predictability - Accuracy - Mean
  Time to Failure
• How often does it do what it is supposed to do?
• Under normal conditions
• Under boundary conditions

7
furPs

• PERFORMANCE Speed - Efficiency - Resource
  Consumption - Throughput - Response Time
• Does it do what it is supposed to do in a
  reasonable amount of time?

8
furpS

• SUPPORTABILITY Testability - Extensibility -
  Adaptability - Maintainability - Compatibility -
  Configurability - Serviceability - Installability
  Localizability
• How easy is it to keep it doing what it is
  supposed to do?

9
Hints

• Concentrate on Sunny Day scenario
• Learn everything you can about how the product is
  supposed to work then extrapolate to how it ought
  to work.
• Look for consistency / point out holes
• Use product under conditions as close as possible
  to those the real users will encounter.
• Integrate, integrate, integrate
• Trust, but verify

10
Politics of Testing

• Make friends of developers
• Educate management on risks
• design problems,
• test coverage.
• Remember you wont be paid if product does not go
  out the door.
• Remember you wont be paid if product goes out
  the door and doesnt work.

11
FURPS reference

• Practical Software Metrics for Project Management
  and Process Improvement
• by Robert B. Grady
• Prentice-Hall ECS Professional
• 270 pages (May 1992) Prentice Hall PTR ISBN
  0137203845

12
Other references

• Capability Maturity Model - http//www.sei.cmu.edu
  /cmm/docs/biblio.html
• ISO 9000 - http//www.isoeasy.org/bibliog.htm
• Testing Computer Software -- Cem Kaner, et al
• http//www.extremeprogramming.org/index.html

13
Backup
14
Quality Week 2000

• Protecting Intellectual Property in an Open
  Source World
• 13th International Software / Internet Quality
  Week
• Software Research, Inc