Automated Defect Prevention

This book describes an approach to software management based on establishing an infrastructure that serves as the foundation for the project. This infrastructure defines people roles, necessary technology, and interactions between people and technology. This infrastructure automates repetitive tasks, organizes project activities, tracks project status, and seamlessly collects project data to provide measures necessary for decision making. Most importantly, this infrastructure sustains and facilitates the improvement of human-defined processes. The methodology described in the book, which is called Automated Defect Prevention (ADP) stands out from the current software landscape as a result of two unique features: its comprehensive approach to defect prevention, and its far-reaching emphasis on automation. ADP is a practical and thorough guide to implementing and managing software projects and processes. It is a set of best practices for software management through process improvement, which is achieved by the gradual automation of repetitive tasks supported and sustained by this flexible and adaptable infrastructure, an infrastructure that essentially forms a software production line. In defining the technology infrastructure, ADP describes necessary features rather than specific tools, thus remaining vendor neutral. Only a basic subset of features that are essential for building an effective infrastructure has been selected. Many existing commercial and non-commercial tools support these, as well as more advanced features. Appendix E contains such a list.

With the urgent demand for rapid turnaround on new software releases--without compromising quality--the testing element of software development must keep pace, requiring a major shift from slow, labor-intensive testing methods to a faster and more thorough automated testing approach. Automated Software Testing is a comprehensive, step-by-step guide to the most effective tools, techniques, and methods for automated testing. Using numerous case studies of successful industry implementations, this book presents everything you need to know to successfully incorporate automated testing into the development process. In particular, this book focuses on the Automated Test Life Cycle Methodology (ATLM), a structured process for designing and executing testing that parallels the Rapid Application Development methodology commonly used today. Automated Software Testing is designed to lead you through each step of this structured program, from the initial decision to implement automated software testing through test planning, execution, and reporting. Included are test automation and test management guidance for: Acquiring management support Test tool evaluation and selection The automated testing introduction process Test effort and test team sizing Test team composition, recruiting, and management Test planning and preparation Test procedure development guidelines Automation reuse analysis and reuse library Best practices for test automation

This book describes a complete revolution in software engineering based on complexity science through the establishment of NSE – Nonlinear Software Engineering paradigm which complies with the essential principles of complexity science, including the Nonlinearity principle, the Holism principle, the Complexity Arises From Simple Rules principle, the Initial Condition Sensitivity principle, the Sensitivity to Change principle, the Dynamics principle, the Openness principle, the Self-organization principle, and the Self-adaptation principle. The aims of this book are to offer revolutionary solutions to solve the critical problems existing with the old-established software engineering paradigm based on linear thinking and simplistic science complied with the superposition principle, and make it possible tohelp software development organizations double their productivity, halve their cost, and remove 99% to 99.99% of the defects in their software products, and efficiently handle software complexity, conformity, visibility, and changeability. It covers almost all areas in software engineering. The tools NSE_CLICK- an automatic acceptance testing platform for outsourcing (or internally developed) C/C++ products, and NSE_CLICK_J - an automatic acceptance testing platform for outsourcing (or internally developed) Java products are particularly designed for non-technical readers to view/review how the acceptance testing of a software product developed with NSE can be performed automatically, and how the product developed with NSE is truly maintainable at the customer site.

How much should top management really care about IT? That’s the question Adam Kolawa bluntly poses in this feisty and compelling book. “The Next Leap in Productivity” goes far beyond traditional business books written for the CIO community. It tackles crucial issues such as productivity, efficiency and quality management. It makes the case for applying the principles of Deming and Juran to software development. Then it takes a “leap,” arguing that huge potential increases in IT productivity can lead to enormous increases in enterprise productivity. In this sense, “The Next Leap in Productivity” is a truly visionary book. Software vendors and CIOs who read this book will discover a software development process that is transparent, practical and efficient. Non-technical C-level executives (CEOs, CFOs, COOs, etc.) will discover a blueprint for improving corporate productivity and dramatically reducing operating costs. For the past decade, CIOs have been urged, coaxed, counseled and exhorted to act more like CEOs, CFOs, COOs and other C-level executives. This book suggests that it’s time for CEOs, CFOs, COOs and other C-level executives to start acting more like CIOs. “The Next Leap in Productivity” will appeal to anyone involved in buying, selling, developing or using IT. Advance Praise for “The Next Leap in Productivity” “Adam’s book is a challenge to all the top managers who’ve stopped caring about IT. His message is simple: If you really care about IT, you find ways to make IT more productive. The improvements you achieve in IT productivity can then be leveraged into huge leaps in productivity at the enterprise level. This book offers a roadmap for translating IT productivity into business profit. Adam’s argument is worth reading and worth considering as you formulate your IT strategies and plan your IT budgets.”--Gary Beach, Publisher Emeritus, CIO magazine “Adam lays the groundwork for a common language that can be used to bridge the chasms between IT and other essential components of the business such as finance, product development, sales, marketing, distribution and customer service. Everyone who reads this book will learn valuable lessons that can be leveraged to improve returns on human capital investments at every level of the organization. Adam’s concepts have the potential to boost levels of confidence and performance throughout the enterprise.”-- Michael Minelli, Co-author, Partnering with the CIO “These kinds of productivity principles are not mere theory. When we put these same principles into effect, our productivity went up more than we had thought possible. And our employee morale went up, too. It became easier to write code the right way and harder to make stupid mistakes. This new way of creating software makes it possible for us to concentrate on what we really want to do here at Cisco, which is to improve the Internet for everybody.”-- Andy Chessin, Senior Technical Lead, Cisco, Inc.

“This book fills a huge gap in our knowledge of software testing. It does an excellent job describing how test automation differs from other test activities, and clearly lays out what kind of skills and knowledge are needed to automate tests. The book is essential reading for students of testing and a bible for practitioners.” –Jeff Offutt, Professor of Software Engineering, George Mason University “This new book naturally expands upon its predecessor, Automated Software Testing, and is the perfect reference for software practitioners applying automated software testing to their development efforts. Mandatory reading for software testing professionals!” –Jeff Rashka, PMP, Coauthor of Automated Software Testing and Quality Web Systems Testing accounts for an increasingly large percentage of the time and cost of new software development. Using automated software testing (AST), developers and software testers can optimize the software testing lifecycle and thus reduce cost. As technologies and development grow increasingly complex, AST becomes even more indispensable. This book builds on some of the proven practices and the automated testing lifecycle methodology (ATLM) described in Automated Software Testing and provides a renewed practical, start-to-finish guide to implementing AST successfully. In Implementing Automated Software Testing, three leading experts explain AST in detail, systematically reviewing its components, capabilities, and limitations. Drawing on their experience deploying AST in both defense and commercial industry, they walk you through the entire implementation process–identifying best practices, crucial success factors, and key pitfalls along with solutions for avoiding them. You will learn how to: Make a realistic business case for AST, and use it to drive your initiative Clarify your testing requirements and develop an automation strategy that reflects them Build efficient test environments and choose the right automation tools and techniques for your environment Use proven metrics to continuously track your progress and adjust accordingly Whether you’re a test professional, QA specialist, project manager, or developer, this book can help you bring unprecedented efficiency to testing–and then use AST to improve your entire development lifecycle.

Most software-development groups have embarrassing records: By some accounts, more than half of all software projects are significantly late and over budget, and nearly a quarter of them are cancelled without ever being completed. Although developers recognize that unrealistic schedules, inadequate resources, and unstable requirements are often to blame for such failures, few know how to solve these problems. Fortunately, the Personal Software Process (PSP) provides a clear and proven solution. Comprising precise methods developed over many years by Watts S. Humphrey and the Software Engineering Institute (SEI), the PSP has successfully transformed work practices in a wide range of organizations and has already produced some striking results. This book describes the PSP and is the definitive guide and reference for its latest iteration. PSP training focuses on the skills required by individual software engineers to improve their personal performance. Once learned and effectively applied, PSP-trained engineers are qualified to participate on a team using the Team Software Process (TSP), the methods for which are described in the final chapter of the book. The goal for both PSP and TSP is to give developers exactly what they need to deliver quality products on predictable schedules. PSPSM: A Self-Improvement Process for Software Engineers presents a disciplined process for software engineers and anyone else involved in software development. This process includes defect management, comprehensive planning, and precise project tracking and reporting. The book first scales down industrial software practices to fit the needs of the module-sized program development, then walks readers through a progressive sequence of practices that provide a sound foundation for large-scale software development. By doing the exercises in the book, and using the PSP methods described here to plan, evaluate, manage, and control the quality of your own work, you will be well prepared to apply those methods on ever larger and more critical projects. Drawing on the author’s extensive experience helping organizations to achieve their development goals, and with the PSP benefits well illustrated, the book presents the process in carefully crafted steps. The first chapter describes overall principles and strategies. The next two explain how to follow a defined process, as well as how to gather and use the data required to manage a programming job. Several chapters then cover estimating and planning, followed by quality management and design. The last two chapters show how to put the PSP to work, and how to use it on a team project. A variety of support materials for the book, as described in the Preface, are available on the Web. If you or your organization are looking for a way to improve your project success rate, the PSP could well be your answer.

Architecting High Performing, Scalable and Available Enterprise Web Applications provides in-depth insights into techniques for achieving desired scalability, availability and performance quality goals for enterprise web applications. The book provides an integrated 360-degree view of achieving and maintaining these attributes through practical, proven patterns, novel models, best practices, performance strategies, and continuous improvement methodologies and case studies. The author shares his years of experience in application security, enterprise application testing, caching techniques, production operations and maintenance, and efficient project management techniques. Delivers holistic view of scalability, availability and security, caching, testing and project management Includes patterns and frameworks that are illustrated with end-to-end case studies Offers tips and troubleshooting methods for enterprise application testing, security, caching, production operations and project management Exploration of synergies between techniques and methodologies to achieve end-to-end availability, scalability, performance and security quality attributes 360-degree viewpoint approach for achieving overall quality Practitioner viewpoint on proven patterns, techniques, methodologies, models and best practices. Bulleted summary and tabular representation of concepts for effective understanding Production operations and troubleshooting tips