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Welcome to the
first newsletter of 2015. It's been a busy time here since
December. I just wrapped up an assessment report for a
client--weighing in at 130 pages! Assessments are one of the
most interesting engagements that we get, and I always enjoy a chance
to study a client's testing challenges and make constructive
suggestions.
Two colleagues
and I just completed work on a large development project that
included custom course materials, programs, exercises and solutions,
and an intriguing hardware platform. I can't say much more about it
now, but I'm looking forward to being able to share more about this
exciting program.
We have been
making a gradual transition to a more green delivery of our
courses. Of course, our ongoing free webinar series is entirely
green. Our bootcamps and e-learning courses are now entirely
green as well. Our live courses are mostly green, with only
printed slides. All the same elements of our acclaimed courses
are still there, of course, but they are made available via a
flexible system that allows online and offline access. For our
clients who still want the big old notebooks, yes, we can get those
for you. However, for every course attendee who said, "Love the
materials, but do I really need a 20 pound notebook!?!" we
finally found a solution that works.
Do you know a
college student who is studying software testing, or perhaps should
be studying software testing? See below for an exciting
scholarship program, offered by the ASTQB. We are proud to help the
ASTQB promote this worthy endeavor.
Finally, do you
know what June 26, 2015 is? It's Take Your Dog to Work Day.
Dog-friendly workplaces are hip now, but, at RBCS, every day has been
take your dog to work day since we started the company in 1994.
Twenty-one years of office dogs and counting. Meet the dog who joins
the ranks of Max, Cosmo, Hank, and Eeland as RBCS office dogs.
Regards,
Rex Black,
President
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Save 15%
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Meet Kibo, the new
RBCS office dog! He has some  big paws to fill but we are sure, with enough
training, he will master webinar etiquette, phone manners and
basic protocol for meetings. In recognition of our newest team
member, we would like to
extend you a limited time offer of 15% off of any product in the RBCS
store. When you are ready to check out of the store, simply add the
code KIBO15 into the promo code field in your cart. The discount will
be reflected on your final invoice.
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Offer
Expires: March 15, 2015. Does not apply to shipping or
handling.
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Managing Vendor Quality Risk
By Rex Black
More
and more projects involve more integration of custom developed or
commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components, rather than in-house
development or enhancement of software. In effect, these two
approaches constitute direct or indirect outsourcing of some or all
of the development work for a system, respectively.
While some project
managers see such outsourcing of development as reducing the
overall risk, each integrated component can bring with it
significantly increased risks to system quality. In this
article, I'll explain the factors that lead to these risks, and then
strategies you can use to manage them.
I'll
illustrate the factors and the strategies with a hypothetical
project. In this project, assume you are the project manager for
a bank that is creating a Web application that allows homeowners to
apply for a home equity loan on the Internet. You have two
component vendors. You buy a COTS database management system
from one vendor. You will hire an outsourced custom development
organization to develop the Web pages, the business logic on the
servers, and the database schemas and commands to manage the
data. Let's see how you can recognize the factors that create
quality risks, and the strategies you can use to manage those risks.
Quality Risk Factors in Integration
Figure 1 shows four factors that lead to increased
quality risk for a system. Working clockwise from the upper left,
let's take a look at each factor that can increase risk to system
quality.
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Figure
1: Sources of risk in system integration
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One factor that
increases quality risk is coupling, which creates a strong
interaction with the system-or consequence to the system-when the
component fails. For example, suppose the customer table on the Web
application database becomes locked and inaccessible under normal
load. In such a case, most of the other components of the system,
being unable to access customer information, will also fail. The
database is strongly coupled to the rest of the system.
Another factor
that increases risks is irreplaceability, when there are few similar
components available or the replacement is costly or requires a
long-lead time. If such a component creates quality problems for your
system, you are stuck with them. For example, the database package
you choose might be replaceable, provided that you don't do anything
non-standard with it. However, the development organization will want
to be paid for the custom-developed Web application, and, should you
choose to try to replace it, off-the-shelf products might not exist.
Yet another
factor that increases risks is essentiality, where some key feature
or features of the system will be unavailable if the component does
not work properly. For example, suppose you planned to include a
pop-up loan planner on the first page of your application to allow
customers to evaluate some payment scenarios. Should that component
not work, you can still deliver the major features of your
application. A pop-up loan planner is not essential to your system.
However, if the subsystem that accesses a credit bureau to check
customer credit scores does not work, you cannot process loan
applications, since checking credit scores is essential.
The final
factor that increases risks is vendor quality problems, especially if
accompanied by slow turnaround on bug fixes when you report problems.
If there is a high likelihood of the vendor sending you a bad
component, the level of risk to the quality of the entire system is
higher. For example, if you buy a commercial database from a
reputable, established vendor, or if you select a custom development
organization with a proven track record, then you will probably have
fewer problems. If you use a new open-source database that has never
been used in commercial applications before, or if you use a newly-open
custom development organization, then you will probably have more
problems, particularly is there is no or poor component technical
support.
So, you can see how these factors would exist and
affect a typical data center application. For a weapons system
where defense contractors intend to develop software to run on COTS
platforms, the situation is similar, though the replaceability and
vendor quality problems could be exacerbated by limited choices for
components and vendors. How can you mitigate these risks? I have seen
and used four typical strategies.
To learn about the four strategies, visit
our articles page and
read this article in its entirety.
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ASTQB
Software Testing Scholarship 
The American Software Testing Qualifications Board (ASTQB) seeks to
support the teaching and study of software testing within U.S.
colleges and universities. For the 2015-2016 academic year, the
ASTQB is offering scholarships of $2500 to qualified
undergraduates! For more information, visit the ASTQB website or email the
ASTQB. Don't wait! Applications are due April 1, 2015!
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Featured
Course
ISTQB
Virtual Advanced Test Manager Boot Camp
March 9-10, 2015
12 noon - 3:30
pm CST
Cost: $599
The
Test Manager Advanced Level Boot Camp course, created by Rex Black,
past President of the International Software Testing Qualifications
Board (ISTQB), past President of the American Software Testing
Qualifications Board (ASTQB) and co-author of the International
Software Testing Qualifications Board Foundation Syllabus, is ideal
for testers and test teams preparing for certification in a short
timeframe with time and money constraints.
This boot camp combines a
two day virtual classroom immersion in the Advanced Level Test
Manager Syllabus with two weeks of our world-recognized, self-paced,
ASTQB-accredited e-learning.
The objectives of the two
day virtual classroom are as follows:
- Review the learning objectives in
the ISTQB Advanced Level Syllabus Test Manager 2012, which are
the main basis for Advanced exams
- Review the text of the ISTQB
Advanced Level Syllabus Test Manager 2012, helping to explain
the concepts in clear, memorable terms
- Review and explain the glossary
terms in the ISTQB Advanced Level Syllabus Test Manager 2012,
including their ISTQB definitions
- Provide an immersive experience with
the ISTQB Advanced Level Syllabus Test Manager 2012, thereby
giving the attendee a comprehensive exam preparation experience
Attendees attend the
virtual classroom via GoToWebinar. Each 2 day 3 1/2 hour per day
course starts at 12:00 noon Central and ends at 3:30 PM Central, to
provide convenient access to attendees anywhere in the American
hemisphere. Sessions include over an hour of planned Q&A sessions
for attendees. Ten minute breaks occur every two hours. Sessions are
recorded and made available to attendees within 48 hours.
In accordance with the RBCS
Green Initiative this boot camp is completely paperless, unless you
opt to purchase hard copy materials. The e-learning course includes:
- Two weeks of unlimited access to the
online course, starting one week prior to the virtual classroom
session
- A set of approximately 500
PowerPoint slides covering the topics to be addressed
- Advanced Test Manager Sample Exam
Questions embedded throughout course. A complete set of
questions for every learning objective in the Test Manager
module of the ISTQB Advanced Syllabus Test Manager
- ISTQB Advanced Level Syllabus Test
Manager
- The latest glossary of terms used in
Software Testing produced by members of the ISTQB
- Standards for Software Testing
- Test Engineering Foundation Sample
Exam Questions embedded throughout course
- Exercise solutions
- Project Source Documents for Course
Exercises
- Choice of ePub format or Amazon
Kindle format versions of the supplemental textbook,
"Advanced Software Testing-Vol.2: Guide to the ISTQB
Advanced Certification as an Advanced Test Manager"
Exam Vouchers are not
included with the purchase of this boot camp course. However, as an
ASTQB Accredited Volume Purchase Pricing Training Provider, RBCS can
assist clients in purchasing single vouchers or volume discounted
vouchers.
Accredited by ASTQB January
2014 ISTQB Advanced level Syllabus 2012. Click below to download your preferred format
of the syllabus: PDF format, EPUB (Nook) format or MOBI (Kindle) format.
There are no cancellations
or registration transfers to another date within 30 dates prior to
the start of the course. You will be held responsible for 100% of the
tuition if you cancel your registration within that time period. If
the course is canceled by RBCS you will received a 100% refund or,
upon your request, your tuition can be moved to another course.
Earn 32.5 PDUs upon completion of the e-learning
portion of this course
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Complimentary Webinars
Did
you miss the complimentary webinar, "Interviewing Testers"
on January 2 & 6, 2015? Check out what you missed!
 ?
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 Stewart
Conway, an attendee of the January webinar, for being
selected as the winner of an e-learning course.
Register now for our
next complimentary webinar, "Skynet Has Arrived: Will
Ubiquitous Connectivity via Mobile and Distributed Computing Give Us
Convenience or the Terminator?" on February 25, 2015.
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Green Tip
Try
to buy products that are biodegradable, 100% organic, free of BPA (a
chemical used to make plastic and other consumer products that can
affect infants and children), non-vinyl, non-toxic or made from
sustainable wood like bamboo.
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Complimentary Webinars
Earn
1.5 PDUs for select webinars. Attendance of the live webinar
is required to earn PDUs
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ISTQB Certified Tester Virtual Courses
(based on materials accredited to
the 2012 syllabus)
March 9-10, 2015
12 noon to 3:30 pm CST
ISTQB Advanced Level
Test Analyst Boot Camp
(updated for 2012 syllabus)
US$ 599
May 18-19, 2015
12 noon to 3:30 pm CDT
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Non-Certification Virtual
Workshops
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 Certification Public Courses
Test Engineering
Foundation Level
(accredited by ASTQB June 2010)
Earn 22.5 PDUs for this course
US$ 2,000
April 6-9, 2015
Phoenix, AZ
May 18-21, 2015
San Antonio, TX
June 15-18, 2015
Las Vegas, NV
Foundation Level
Extension Agile Tester
(accredited by ASTQB July 2014)
earn 10.5 PDUs
US$ 1,500
February 26-27, 2015
San Jose, CA
May 21-22, 2015
Austin, TX
Advanced Test Manager
(accredited to 2012 syllabus by ASTQB December 2012)
Earn
32.5 PDUs for this course
US$ 2,650
March 30-April 3, 2015
Chicago, IL
May 4-8, 2015
San Francisco, CA
(accredited
to 2012 syllabus by ASTQB December 2012)
April 27-30, 2015
Newark, NJ
May 11-14, 2015
Detroit, MI
Advanced Technical Test
Analyst
(accredited to 2012 syllabus by ASTQB January
2013)
US$ 2,250
March 2-4, 2015
Tampa, FL
(an IREB, IIBA and IBAQB exam preparation course)
Earn 18 CDUs for this course
US$ 2,500
Contact RBCS
to schedule
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