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Welcome to RBCS, Inc.
Dear Reader
,
Welcome
to our first newsletter of 2013. I hope your year is off to a great start, as is
ours here at RBCS.
In
this newsletter, I have some quick thoughts for you on the use of production
data for testing. Many of our clients need large amounts of realistic
data for their testing, and what better source than their production data.
However, challenges exist. This short article should help you clarify your thinking about how
you can use production data successfully.
After
the new ISTQB 2012 Advanced syllabi were beta released last summer, I spent a
lot of last year working on updates to our live ISTQB Advanced courses. Well,
all that hard work has paid off. All of our live courses are updated and
accredited. More news below.
If
you're excited about taking some live training from us this year, well, we're
excited to have you there. Our schedule for public, live training is posted on
our website, and you can see it here, too.
Our
successful webinar series continues in 2013. We have the next six months worked
out, and you can find the schedule here. Register today so you don't miss any of these great,
free training opportunities, many of which include PDUs for those of you with
PMI certifications and continuing-education requirements.
A
good question to ask yourself for 2013 is, "Where do I stand in terms of my
testing and quality assurance processes?" If you've wondered about this
before, and are looking for an answer, we have a way to help you. We can do
an assessment of your test processes, or of your larger quality assurance
processes, usually in the space of a week, with our final report arriving two or
three weeks later. More details about that process is found below.
Finally,
people have been saying nice things about RBCS and our courses lately. Check out
some of the comments below.
I
hope you enjoy the newsletter, and continue to enjoy a great 2013.
Regards,
Rex
Black, President
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 Challenges of
Testing with Production
Data
By Rex
Black
This article is excerpted from
Chapter 3 of Rex Black's book Managing the Testing Process,
3e.
A number of RBCS clients find that obtaining good test data
poses many challenges. For any large-scale system, testers usually cannot create
sufficient and sufficiently diverse test data by hand; i.e., one record at a
time. While data-generation tools exist and can create almost unlimited amounts
of data, the data so generated often do not exhibit the same diversity and
distribution of values as production data. For these reasons, many of our
clients consider production data ideal for testing, particularly for systems
where large sets of records have accumulated over years of use with various
revisions of the systems currently in use, and systems previously in use.
However, to use production data, we must preserve privacy. Production
data often contains personal data about individuals which must be handled
securely. However, requiring secure data handling during testing activities
imposes undesirable inefficiencies and constraints. Therefore, many
organizations want to anonymize (scramble) the production data prior to using it
for testing.
This anonymization process leads to the next set of challenges, though. The
anonymization process must occur securely, in the sense that it is not
reversible should the data fall into the wrong hands. For example, simply
substituting the next digit or the next letter in sequence would be obvious to
anyone - it doesn't take long to deduce that "Kpio Cspxo" is actually "John
Brown" - which makes the de-anonymization process
trivial.
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RBCS'
ISTQB Advanced Level Courses Accredited to the 2012 Syllabi and on Public
Delivery Schedule
Look
no further! RBCS has all three Advanced Level courses accredited to the
2012 syllabi and on the public delivery schedule! Courses can also
be delivered onsite at your organization. See the public delivery schedule
on this newsletter or visit our training page today!
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| Test Analyst |
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| Test Manager |
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| Technical Test Analyst |
Register
for any public course in 2012 by March 31, 2013 and receive a 10% discount
on tuition. Click on your preferred course above for more information
and to register. Enter code FEBNEWSADV in the promotion code field in your
cart and your discount will be reflected on your final receipt.
All
individuals sitting for an Advanced Level exam are required to prequalify with
the ASTQB to sit for the exam.
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Complimentary
Webinars
Did you miss
the complimentary January Webinar, "The New ISTQB Advanced
Syllabi"? Check out what you missed!
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| The New ISTQB Advanced
Syllabi |
Webinar attendees
are automatically entered into a drawing to win their choice of one of our green
e-learning courses. Visit our training page to see the complete webinar schedule, or just look on
this email, sign up for a webinar, show up at whichever webinar session is most
convenient, and--who knows--you might be the lucky winner of some valuable free
training. Either way, you're sure to learn
something.
Congratulations Paul Schwartz, an attendee of
the January webinar and Bob Rappold, an attendee of
the December webinar, for being selected as the winners of
an e-learning course!
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RBCS
Test Assessments and Quality Assessments
For
almost two decades, RBCS has offered consulting, training and outsourcing
services.Two of our most popular consulting services, and ones that have been
most requested in 2013, are Test Assessments and Quality
Assessments.
Test
Assessments: Following Rex Black's professionally-acclaimed book, Critical
Testing Processes, we examine the twelve critical testing processes for
effectiveness and efficiency, including defect detection and return on
investment metrics. The assessment report will also list specific, prioritized
recommendations, your roadmap for future test process improvement. A typical
assessment engagement involves about one week on-site by our software
testing consulting experts, plus one week of off-site analysis and report
preparation. Find out more about how our Test Assessment
service can help you.
Quality
Assessments: We evaluate and make recommendations for the best overall approach
to achieve quality on your projects. Be confident in the quality of your
deliverables throughout the process, from requirements, design and code reviews
to unit, integration, system, and acceptance testing. Our software
consultants also compare financial and project timelines of your current
practices against the industry's best practices. A typical assessment engagement
involves about one week on-site, plus one week of off-site analysis and report
preparation. Find out more about how our Quality Assessment
service can help you.
Contact us if you have any questions about this process,
the pricing or the finished deliverable.
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People
are Talking about RBCS
"It
was very handy for doing sample tests and looking stuff up before the
exam."
-Grant
Horner, e-learning course attendee
"Really
liked some of the hands-on exercises. Items on interviewing and doing a skill
inventory on the employees were great. Great information on doing analysis on
different types of metrics for process improvement."
-Anonymous
Attendee of the first run of the ISTQB Advanced Level Test Manager course
accredited to the 2012 syllabus
"This
course raised my awareness of testing techniques that we use currently -
providing a better understanding of them - I learned new techniques and more
efficient ways to apply techniques already in use. Overall a very practical
course."
- Anonymous
attendee of a recent onsite delivery of the ISTQB Foundation Level
course
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Green
Tip
Bring
reusable food and drink containers to work rather than disposable varieties.
Packing a lunch is a great way to save money, eat healthier, and cut down on the
packaging materials that typically come with take-out or frozen
meals.
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Complimentary Webinars
Earn 1.5 PDUs for
these webinars. Attendance of the live webinar is required to earn
PDUs.
February 26,
2013
March 12, 2013
April 16, 2013
May 23,
2013 |
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E-Learning
Courses
Earn 22.5 PDUs for this course
US$ 899
ISTQB Test Engineering
Foundation en Español
Gana 22.5 PDU al término de este
curso
US$ 899
ISTQB Test
Engineering Foundation Level E-Learning,
ISTQB?????????????
???????22.5 PDU
US$ 899
ISTQB Advanced Test
Analyst
(compatible
for 2012 syllabus)
US$ 999
ISTQB Advanced Technical Test
Analyst
US$ 999
ISTQB Advanced Test
Manager
(compatible for 2012 syllabus)
Earn 32.5 PDUs for this
course
US$ 999
ISTQB Advanced Level -
FULL
US$ 2,697
Requirements Engineering
Foundation
(an IREB,
IIBA and IBAQB exam preparation course)
Earn 18 CDUs for this course
US$ 799
Managing the Testing
Process
US$ 499
Assessing Your Test
Team
US$ 499
Pragmatic Software
Testing
US$ 449
Risk Based
Testing
US$ 449
US$ 499
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ISTQB Certified Tester Virtual Boot
Camps
Earn 22.5
PDUs
US$
449
April
17, 2013
11am-5pm
CDT
(updated
for 2012 syllabus)
Earn
32.5 PDUs
US$
599
May 22, 2013
11am-5pm CDT
(updated for 2012 syllabus)
US$ 599
March
13, 2013
11am-5pm
CDT
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Non-Certification
Virtual Workshops
Earn
3 PDUs for attendance of these workshops
Testing Metrics
US$
199
February
28, 2013
1pm-4pm
CST
US$
199
May
21, 2013
1pm-4pm
CDT
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Certification
Public Courses
Test Engineering
Foundation Level
Earn
22.5 PDUs for this course
US$
2,000
April 15-18, 2013
Toronto, Canada
April 22-25, 2013
Phoenix, AZ
June
3-6, 2013
San
Francisco, CA
 Advanced Test
Manager
(Accredited
to 2012 syllabus by ASTQB December 2012)
Earn 32.5 PDUs for this
course
US$ 2,650
March 18-22, 2013
Phoenix, AZ
April 22-26, 2013
McLean, VA
May 13-17, 2013
Newark, NJ
(Accredited
to 2012 syllabus by ASTQB December 2012)
US$ 2,250
(Accredited to 2012 syllabus by ASTQB January
2013)
US$ 2,250
April 1-3,
2013
Irvine,
CA
(an IREB,
IIBA and IBAQB exam preparation course)
Earn 18
CDUs for this course
US$
2,500
Dates
TBD |
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Other Public
Courses
Managing the Testing
Process
US$
2,500
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