GTAC 2010: Turning Quality on its Head

Google Test Automation Conference 2010
October 28-29, 2010

Turning Quality on its Head
Presented by James Whittaker, Engineering Director, Google Inc.

Abstract:

This talk weighs the tradeoff between early cycle unit and component testing with late cycle integration and system testing and argues where the largest quality gains can be made by further investment in one, the other, or both. A very counter intuitive conclusion is reached and a model for testing that follows this conclusion is proposed.

Speaker Bio:

Dr. Whittaker is currently the Engineering Director over engineering tools and testing for Google's Seattle and Kirkland offices. He holds a PhD in computer science from the University of Tennessee and is the author or coauthor of four acclaimed textbooks. How to Break Software, How to Break Software Security (with Hugh Thompson) and How to Break Web Software (with Mike Andrews). His latest is Exploratory Software Testing: Tips, Tricks, Tours and Techniques to Guide Test Design and he's authored over fifty peer-reviewed papers on software development and computer security. He holds patents on various inventions in software testing and defensive security applications and has attracted millions in funding, sponsorship, and license agreements while a professor at Florida Tech. He has also served as a testing and security consultant for dozens of companies and spent 3 years as an architect at Microsoft.

Talk Slides: https://docs.google.com/leaf?id=0B4fT-BFGDnQkMDE5OTk0ZmUtODQ4Ni00NTM3LTlkMGEt...

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• GTAC2010
• Testing
• Software Testing

[cfoleyTwenty4]

The 10:50 mark...that is awesome commentary about Test Plans!!!

[mrichman]

Why did it take him 30 minutes to get to the point?

[linuxcity]

yeah, I personally am a victim of the bug mentioned at 20:48. I was on a trip in Spain and I walked four hours but then just found that place is on next street.

[BigLaBobski86]

gay



[MatthewMiddletonTV]

Interesting ideas - I hope that Google Test Analytics gets released to the public someday!

[thinrhino]

Yawnn...

[visweshwarpvn]

Test engineering (esp..manual testers) do not get due respect, even though they do so much of quality work for the product to succeed,. Hope things will change in future..

[IanPhase]

14:40 the "software as a forest" analogy is invalid. It blurs the natural distinction between the metaphysical and the man-made. This analogy functions as an anti-concept to obliterate the essential nature of software, namely that it is a product of man's reason, or lack thereof. Bugs are thinking or knowledge errors, plain and simple. To preempt bugs before they happen, teach software engineers how to reason using Aristotelian logic.