RBCS Podcast

If you have been in software engineering for a while—or in fact just in the working world in general for a while—you’ve probably seen someone do something stupid with metrics. Such mistakes raise a whole bunch of interesting questions. What are the most common metrics mistakes? Why are they mistakes? Why do people make these mistakes? Are you making these mistakes? Why use metrics at all, when there are so many mistakes? In this talk, Rex will give real-world examples of these mistakes, explain the management and economic theories behind metrics, and help you find ways to implement metrics that aren’t stupid.

Is the V model dead, crushed by the onset of agile methods?  In the age of agile, are those who talk about the V model anachronistic dinosaurs?  Or was the V model actually ahead of its time, illuminating best practices that now form the core of agile testing?  In this talk, Rex will show how the fundamental principles of the V model can be successfully applied in the context of an agile development effort, and how the application of those principles make agile software development even more agile.  Sure to stir some controversy, attend Rex’s webinar, submit questions and comments, and make up your own mind.

Perhaps you, like many software testers and test managers, are enjoying the benefits of incorporating a lightweight analytical risk-based testing strategy such as RBCS’ Pragmatic Risk Analysis and Management (PRAM) technique into your test approach.  What if your organization is adopting an agile methodology?  Can you still use PRAM and other similar analytical risk-based testing strategies?  Absolutely.  In this webinar, Rex will explain the process for integrating quality risk identification and assessment into the release and iteration planning processes, and for integrating quality risk mitigation into each iteration.  You’ll return to work with a proven method for injecting risk-based testing into your agile processes.

What would John Connor, son of Sarah Connor, hero of the resistance in the “Terminator” movie series, say about the Internet of things, the ubiquity of mobile devices, the fact that we almost ran out of IP addresses, software that updates itself, and other signs of the coming computer apocalypse? He’d probably tell us to pull the plug, quickly! Beyond the nightmare scenario of the “Terminator” films, what are the implications of quality, and lack of quality, for the now-real situation that everything is connected to everything else? Will it be Neuromancer, “Terminator,” androids dreaming of electric sheep, or something more benign? Join us for some fun and interesting speculation and prediction on the future of limitless connectivity. 

In many ways, leading a test team is like leading any other team. After all, people are people, no matter what work they do or where they live. Of course, there are some aspects that are specific to managing technical teams. And there are a few aspects that are specific to managing a test team. Given a good team, which you’ve developed carefully, how can you get the best work from them and keep them engaged and motivated? Rex will explore some ideas, and take your questions, in this free webinar. 

Did you ever wonder why your colleagues sometimes look at you funny when you’re explaining your test results, or ask you strange questions like, “Why don’t you find all the bugs in testing?” Maybe they don’t understand what you do or even why you do what you do. In this podcast, Rex will reveal ten common misunderstandings that your fellow software professionals have about testing, and discuss ways to resolve those misunderstandings to promote better communication.

So many test tools are bought, downloaded for free, built, or otherwise acquired in a given year, but how many of those tools are still successfully in use four or five years later?  It’s a depressingly small percentage. Many times, the root cause of tool failure was failing to understand the problem you were trying to solve with the tool in the first place.  In this webinar, Rex will describe a straightforward process that you can use to ensure that you capture a detailed set of requirements for your test tool, which can be used to evaluate tools and vendors. By applying this process, you can improve your chances of avoiding the “failed test tool” syndrome!

In this month’s webinar, we are happy to welcome guest speaker, Adam Leon Smith. Adam is CTO of Dragonfly and is focused on testing, quality and AI. With two decades experience in environments, development, testing, quality and project delivery in addition to commercial experience, he is the chair of the British Computer Society's Special Interest Group in software testing, and works with international standardization committees developing AI and quality-related standards.

AI is a complex topic and is the biggest technical renaissance to impact testing for at least two decades.  Adam will talk about intrinsic quality issues with AI, challenges in testing AI-based systems, and new techniques and methods.  In addition, he will cover emerging AI-enhanced testing tools that are yet to get much coverage.

How many times have you heard statements like, “How did we miss this in test”, “This defect doesn’t happen on my machine”, “We do not need automation”, or “We are waiting on testing to give us the green light”? Far too often, teams are spending a lot of time diving into discussions that they no longer need to have. This builds frustration, affects team alignment, and can potentially impact the quality and milestones of the project. Through the years, we have seen a need for processes, tools, and old-school approaches to change. Discussions we needed to have years ago are no longer the same now.  There is a need for strategic changes in how we operate within a project and how we communicate across teams.

With over 25 years of experience in IT, Mike Lyles has held various roles: from developer, project management office, development management, and ultimately testing. He has witnessed the paradigm shift required to measure success on teams and the speed at which we must reach goals as compared to the past. And most importantly, he has taken part in discussions which are losing their relevancy and need a major overhaul in our workforce today.

Join the discussion, between Rex and Mike, as they discuss many of the well-known phrases, philosophies, and theories around testing of years past, and how that we must overcome the obstacles to be successful today.