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+===================================================+
+======= Testing Techniques Newsletter (TTN) =======+
+======= ON-LINE EDITION =======+
+======= August 1995 =======+
+===================================================+
TESTING TECHNIQUES NEWSLETTER (TTN), On-Line Edition, is E-Mailed
monthly to support the Software Research, Inc. (SR) user community and
provide information of general use to the world software testing commun-
ity.
(c) Copyright 1995 by Software Research, Inc. Permission to copy and/or
re-distribute is granted to recipients of the TTN On-Line Edition pro-
vided that the entire document/file is kept intact and this copyright
notice appears with it.
TRADEMARKS: STW, Software TestWorks, CAPBAK/X, SMARTS, EXDIFF,
CAPBAK/UNIX, Xdemo, Xvirtual, Xflight, STW/Regression, STW/Coverage,
STW/Advisor and the SR logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of
Software Research, Inc. All other systems are either trademarks or
registered trademarks of their respective companies.
========================================================================
INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
o OBJECT APPLICATION AWARDS PROGRAM INVITES ENTRIES
o SOFTWARE RESEARCH, INC. RELEASES CAPBAK/X 5.1
o SOFTWARE RESEARCH TO ANNOUNCE COVERAGE FOR WINDOWS
o CALL FOR SPEAKERS
8TH ANNUAL SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE
o THOUGHTFUL THREAD APPEARS ON INTERNET
Part 2 of 2
o BLACK BOX TESTING
NEW BOOK BY BORIS BEIZER
o SOFTWARE RESEARCH, IDE AND PARASOFT OFFERING JOINT SEMINARS
o CALENDAR OF EVENTS
o TTN SUBMITTAL POLICY
o TTN SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION
========================================================================
OBJECT APPLICATION AWARDS PROGRAM INVITES ENTRIES
Awards designed to showcase the best of custom applications
using object-oriented approaches
Object Management Group, co-sponsor of Object World Frankfurt, is seek-
ing submissions for The Second Annual Object Application Awards.
Winners will be announced at Object World Frankfurt - The Software Event
for Central Europe- on October 10, 1995. Richard Soley, VP and Techni-
cal Director of the Object Management Group, will be the master of
ceremonies.
The awards will showcase innovative custom applications using object
technology. Applications must be currently in use, not for resale, and
must meet one of the following qualifications:
* An application built from scratch
* A modification of an off-the-shelf application
* An object-oriented front end for a host application
All entries must be postmarked by midnight, August 10, 1995.
A panel of judges chaired by Prof. Roberto Zicari, OMG Central Europe,
will select three finalists from each of the following five categories:
* Best distributed application using object technology with legacy
systems
* Best application utilizing reusable components leveraged from
or for use in other projects
* Best object-based application developed using object oriented
and non-object tools
* Best application demonstrating the costs/benefits of using
object technology
* Best use of object technology within an enterprise or large
systems environment
Finalists will be notified the week of September 20, 1994 and must have
at least one company representative present at Object World Frankfurt on
October 10.
All entrants are required to complete an official entry kit. Entry kits
can be obtained by contacting:
Roberto Zicari
The Object Application Awards
c/o Object Management Group
Burgweg 14a,
D-61476 Kronberg (Ts), Germany
Tel: +49-6173-2852
Fax: +49-6173-940420
E-mail:Roberto_Zicari@omg.org
###
========================================================================
SOFTWARE RESEARCH, INC. RELEASES CAPBAK/X 5.1
SR Breaks Ground With Triple-Mode Testing
San Francisco, California, 26 July, 1995 -- Software Research, Inc.
(SR), the leading automated software test tools supplier for GUI and
client-server software applications, today announces the release of
CAPBAK/X 5.1, representing a new plateau in the design of sophisticated
automated capture/playback test tools. Version 5.1 offers ObjectMode
testing in addition to TrueTime and Character Recognition Modes, making
it the only capture/playback tool on the market which offers triple-mode
testing in one seamlessly integrated tool.
CAPBAK/X 5.1 is an important breakthrough in capture/playback tools for
X- Windows. Three important, but independent, operating modes become
fully inter-operable: TrueTime operation, where activities are recorded
exactly as the user executes them, and played back with complete syn-
chronization; ObjectMode operation, which records widget (object)
activities directly from the GUI (Graphical User Interface); and Charac-
ter Recognition Mode, where test activities reflect the contents of the
screen as processed through a built-in OCR engine. Character Recogni-
tion Mode is available in both TrueTime and ObjectMode testing.
In TrueTime mode, CAPBAK/X 5.1 will correctly identify defects even if
the smallest product change occurs. ObjectMode testing can be more
flexible, because an application's widgets are activated directly,
regardless of their color, screen placement, and other criteria.
ObjectMode allows the very same test to be run on multiple hardware and
operating platforms. Character Recognition Mode, which is available in
both TrueTime and ObjectMode testing, helps extend the life of that same
test script by allowing it to adjust for changes in window layouts or
fonts.
"CAPBAK/X is unique in the marketplace because the user can switch
between TrueTime and ObjectMode recording in the same session taking
advantage of both major types of capture/playback technology," said Dr.
Edward Miller, President of SR. "The fact that they are smoothly
integrated with our OCR-based Character Recognition Mode allows the user
unique flexibility in testing. It is very easy to use. Tests don't have
to depend on one or the other approach; either mode can be used stand-
alone or combined to deliver the very best features of each. We believe
this is the ideal GUI testing solution."
CAPBAK/X uses a new "C" language interpreter which allows test record-
ings to be expressed entirely in a proper subset of "C". The advantage
of this fully general approach to expressing and controlling tests is
that the "C" language is widely used, and will be understood by software
testers of all skill levels. Tests recorded by CAPBAK/X are easy to
modify as well. Both TrueTime and ObjectMode captures create "C"
scripts automatically; you do not have to creating new scripts manually.
CAPBAK/X 5.1 includes sophisticated features and subsystems that make it
an ideal tool for comprehensive application testing:
o XFlight allows an OEM the possibility to do TrueTime or ObjectMode
"flight recorder" remote testing for beta-site or field-diagnostic
purposes.
o Xdemo plays fully functional demonstrations of software that any
organization plans to distribute.
o Xvirtual, included with CAPBAK/X at no extra cost, supports
client/server load generation from single or multiple workstations.
o Automatic output synchronization, which solves the playback synchron-
ization problem associated with UNIX windowing systems.
o A new hierarchical data structure for each test, separating TrueTime,
Character Recognition Mode and ObjectMode capture information into
their own SQL-ready subdirectories.
CAPBAK/X 5.1 is part of SR's STW/Regression, one of the three product
bundles that make up the integrated Software TestWorks (STW) tool suite.
CAPBAK/X 5.1 is available on Sun SPARC/SunOS, Sun SPARC/Solaris,
x86/Solaris, HP-9000/HP-UX, SGI/IRIX, and other UNIX platforms. CAPBAK/X
5.1 is available immediately, with prices starting at $4,370 for a sin-
gle floating license, or as part of the STW/Regression bundle, which
includes CAPBAK/X, SMARTS, EXDIFF, and CAPBAK/UNIX, starting at $7,000
for a single floating license.
Software Research, Inc., founded in 1977, is the leader in software
testing and quality assurance. Software TestWorks (STW) has over 4500
licenses and over 12,500 users. With STW, Software Research provides
the broadest suite of software test tools in the market: STW/Regression
for test automation and test suite management; STW/Coverage for coverage
analysis in a variety of languages for branch, call-pair and path-level
coverage; and STW/Advisor for metric and static analysis to aid in test
resource allocation. Software Research, Inc. is privately owned and
internally funded. Auditing services for the company are performed by
Deloitte and Touche.
Product details are available directly from SR at 901 Minnesota Street, San
Francisco, California 94107 USA, by phone: (415) 550-3020; by
FAX: (415) 550-3030; or by E-mail: info@soft.com.
# # #
========================================================================
SOFTWARE RESEARCH TO ANNOUNCE COVERAGE FOR WINDOWS
Exciting new product unveiled at Windows Solutions '95
Windows Solutions '95, one of the largest Windows conferences in the
world, is coming up at the end of this month at San Francisco's Moscone
Center. Several major new products will be announced at the conference,
including Software Research, Inc.'s STW/Coverage for Windows. If you
are planning on taking part in the conference, be sure to stop by the
Software Research booth, #2101.
========================================================================
CALL FOR SPEAKERS
8TH ANNUAL SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE
"Integrating People, Process and Technology"
21-26 April 1996
Salt Lake City, Utah
Co-sponsored by the Departments of the Air Force, Army and Navy Co-
hosted by the Software Technology Support Center (STSC) & HQ USAF/SC
The Departments of the Air Force, Army and Navy have joined forces to
present STC' 96, the premier Software Technology Conference in the
Department of Defense. We anticipate over 3,000 participants from the
Joint Services, other government agencies, industry and academia will
attend.
The conference provides a forum for software professionals to increase
their awareness and understanding of effective software technologies,
exchange lessons learned, and receive the latest software strategies
from leaders in the field. The program will include tutorials, presen-
tations, vendor exhibits, "birds-of-a-feather," and plenary sessions.
We are looking for speakers who can share findings and lessons learned
in applying technologies in the following areas:
Software Measures/Metrics Process Improvement
Software Testing Technology Adoption
Quality Assurance Integrating People, Process & Technology
Cleanroom SEPG Issues
Software Inspections Software Capability Maturity Model
Software Architectures Project Management
Software Environments Configuration Management
I-CASE Risk Management
Open Systems Cost Estimation
Embedded Software Software Acquisition Management
Artificial Intelligence Managing Technology Change
Digitization Human Resource Management
Virtual Reality Education and Training
3D Modeling & Simulation Organizational Development
Requirements Analysis Data Administration
Software Design Information Security
Requirements Engineering Communication Software
Object-Oriented Development Networking
Ada Global Information Infrastructure
Reuse
Reengineering
Automatic Test Systems
For more detailed information, please contact:
Judy Albert
DISA/JIEO
5600 Columbia Pike, RM 503
Falls Church, VA 22041
Email: albertj@cc.ims.disa.mil
========================================================================
THOUGHTFUL THREAD APPEARS ON INTERNET
Editor's note: The following posting, written by Cem Kaner, appeared in
the comp.software.testing user group on InterNet. We thought it was
worth passing along to you.
This is the second of two parts; the first half appeared in last month's
TTN/Online.
* * * *
(in June's issue, we saw):
I posted a long message to a spinoff thread from this one, but almost no
one has responded to it. Might be, of course, that you read it and
decided it wasn't worth responding to, but I thought it might be that no
one noticed it because of where it was posted.
I spent a few hours drafting this note, and put in a few thoughts and
suggestions near the end that I haven't seen here before, so I decided
to re-post. If you've seen this message before, sorry for wasting your
time and storage.
The original post was in response to a thoughtful comment by Kent
Archie.
-- cem
* * *
Another example. Use the tool to help you explore the program (run new
tests) instead of helping you regress the program. Increase the diver-
sity of your testing instead of initially narrowing it.
a) This is obvious with a mathematical program -- get another program
that does equivalent computations. Drive your program, generate
results, drive the other program, compare the results, report bugs
when the difference in results is bigger than your specified delta.
The key trick here is that you aren't spending your precious, limited
time creating and running every test. Either you're driving this
through a random test case generator or you're creating a table of
test cases, then using your test case driver to read the table, set
the appropriate variables to the appropriate values, and running the
resulting tests.
b) This isn't restricted to math functions. Here's a configuration test-
ing example.
Suppose that you have a program that allows you to vary many charac-
teristics of printed output. For example, a word processor might let
you print in columns, might let you apply different fonts to the
text, might let you insert graphics at various areas of a printed
page, might let you rotate graphics, etc.
And, of course, it might let you do all this on different printers.
Suppose you have reason to expect some interactions between some of
these features and decide to co-vary them to look for bugs. So you
create a test matrix:
1. # of columns
2. font (size, typeface, style)
3. graphic source format
4. graphic position
5. graphic rotation
Each of these is a column. Each row represents a different test case.
Enter your test matrix into a spreadsheet and program your automator
to read the spreadsheet.
For each test series:
start by printing your printer and other hardware config information
then, for each test
- load the next test case
- print a page with the test values
- do the test (load the text, apply the font, load the graphic, etc.)
- print the result
A human inspects these results. A human spent the
time planning the test and creating the test matrix.
But the machine spent the time executing the test
and it did the print runs overnight.
What you accomplished here is that you kept the tester
focused on the planning of test cases and the analysis
of results. You saved on execution time, and you saved
it NOW instead of LATER.
Obviously, you need a tool that can support this, but
there are tools that can do it. Try MS-Test 2.0 and an
Excel spreadsheet, for example.
I think that's enough examples, so I'll stop this here.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
CEM KANER JD, PhD, CQE. Attorney / Certified Quality Engineer
read Kaner, Falk & Nguyen, TESTING COMPUTER SOFTWARE (2d Ed. VNR)
1060 Highland Court #4, Santa Clara 95050 408-244-7000
-----------------------------------------------------------------
* * *
End Part 2
Editor's note: If you missed the first part, found in the June 1995
edition of TTN/ Online, email "ttn@soft.com" with a request for that
issue.
========================================================================
BLACK BOX TESTING
NEW BOOK BY BORIS BEIZER
Black Box Testing
Boris Beizer, John Wiley and Sons Inc, 1995
294 +xxiv pages; (paperback) $29.95
ISBN Number: 0-471-12094-4
Beizer's latest book on testing is an introductory text with no prere-
quisites except basic programming knowledge. The book features fully
worked examples and exercises for each technique discussed. The exam-
ples are based on testing problems that will be at once surprising and
familiar to all readers (we re not telling). As a black-box testing
book, it deals with systematic testing based on requirements rather than
tests based on code. Techniques include: control flow testing, loop
testing, data flow testing, domain testing, syntax testing, and finite-
state testing. Some readers may be perplexed by what seems to be code-
based testing (e.g., control flow testing) in a black-box testing book,
but the perspective is from the point of view of models and model pro-
grams used to generate effective test cases. Although intended as an
introductory book, even the expert will find many new insights and new
material such as the latest domain testing methods. The book was written
at the publisher s request to replace Myers classic, but dated, The
Art of Software Testing and it deals with completely updated versions of
most of the test techniques discussed there. For testers and developers
who want to understand efficient test design methods, this is bound to
become their first book.
To order Black Box Testing , visit your local bookstore or order
directly from Wiley at 1-800-225-5945. You can also visit the following
bookstores on the net to order this book other technical books.
Powell's Technical Books:
http://www.technical.powells.portland.or.us
Softpro: http://www.softproeast.com/softpro
Wordsworths http://www.wordsworth.com
http://www.readusa.com
Computer Literacy: http://www.clbooks.com
Reiter's Scientific: bks@reiters.com
Stacey's staceybks@aol.com
Please note that Computer Literacy seems to have a complete catalog of
all titles in their store, so they might be the most complete list.
Books are also available at Borders, Barnes and Noble, and technical
book stores, but stock and availability varies from place to place.
========================================================================
SOFTWARE RESEARCH, IDE AND PARASOFT OFFERING JOINT SEMINARS
Software Research, Inc., IDE, and ParaSoft will be offering joint
software testing seminars this fall in various locations around the
country
The schedule is as follows:
East Coast
Washington October 6
NJ October 9
Boston October 10
West Coast
San Francisco October 25
Seattle October 26
Los Angeles October 27
For more detailed information, and location specifics, please contact
Software Research by phone: (415) 550-3020, Fax: (415) 550-3030, or
email: seminars@soft.com
========================================================================
------------>>>CALENDAR OF EVENTS<<<---------------
========================================================================
Here is a list of upcoming events of interest.
"o" indicates that Software Research, Inc. will lead or participate in
these events. "-" indicates that Software Research, Inc. will not par-
ticipate in these events.
o 30 Aug-1 Sep Windows Solutions, Moscone Center, San Francisco,
Ziff-Davis Expos, 303 Vintage Park Drive, Foster City,
CA 94404-1138, Tel: 415-578-6900, Fax: 415-525-0224, SR
#: 3397
o 30 Aug-1 Sep Windows Solutions, Moscone Center, San Francisco,
Ziff-Davis Expos, 303 Vintage Park Drive, Foster City,
CA 94404-1138, Tel: 415-578-6900, Fax: 415-525-0224, SR
#: 3397
- 11-14 Sep Information Superhighway Summit, Santa Clara Conven-
tion Center, Santa Clara, CA, Contact: ComNet, Tel:
[+1] (800) 225-4698 (US Only), or: [+1] (508) 879-6700,
Fax: [+1] (508) 872-8237, Email: comnet@idgwec.com, WWW:
http://www.idgwec.com
o 28-29 Sep Pacific Northwest Software Quality Conference (PNSQC),
Oregon Convention Center, Contact: - Exhibits, Mr.
James Mater, Revision Labs, Inc., Tel: 503-690-2341, -
Conference Management, Ms. Terri Moore, Pacific Agenda,
PO Box 10142, Portland, OR 97210, Tel: 503-223-8633, SR
#: 3123
o 23-24 Aug XVT Software Partners, Village At Breckenridge, CO,
Contact: John. L. Donnelly, Exhibit Manager, Tel: 303-
440-9813, Fax: 303-440-9836, email: johnd@xor.com, SR #:
3381
o 19-21 Sep UNIX Expo 1995, Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, New
York, NY, Contact: Don Berey, Tel: 800-829-3976, ext.
169, or Laura McQuaid, show manager, Tel: 800-829-3976
ext. 9100, Fax: 201-346-1602, SR #: 3238
o 3-5 Oct Software Development '95 East, Washington, D.C. Convention
Ctr., Washington, D.C., SR #: 3299-B
========================================================================
------------>>> TTN SUBMITTAL POLICY <<<------------
========================================================================
The TTN On-Line Edition is forwarded on the 15th of each month to sub-
scribers via InterNet. To have your event listed in an upcoming issue,
please e-mail a description of your event or Call for Papers or Partici-
pation to "ttn@soft.com". The TTN On-Line submittal policy is as fol-
lows:
o Submission deadlines indicated in "Calls for Papers" should provide
at least a 1-month lead time from the TTN On-Line issue date. For
example, submission deadlines for "Calls for Papers" in the January
issue of TTN On-Line would be for February and beyond.
o Length of submitted items should not exceed 68 lines (one page).
o Publication of submitted items is determined by Software Research,
Inc., and may be edited as necessary.
========================================================================
----------------->>> TTN SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION <<<-----------------
------------------->>>NEW INSTRUCTIONS!!<<<-------------------
========================================================================
To request a FREE subscription or submit articles, please send E-mail to
"ttn@soft.com".
TO SUBSCRIBE: please use the keywords "Request-TTN" or "subscribe" **AND
INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS** in the Subject line of your E-mail header.
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TO CANCEL: include the phrase "unsubscribe" or "UNrequest-TTN" **AND
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E-mailing requests to "ttn@soft.com".
TESTING TECHNIQUES NEWSLETTER
Software Research, Inc.
901 Minnesota Street
San Francisco, CA 94107 USA
Phone: (415) 550-3020
Toll Free: (800) 942-SOFT
FAX: (415) 550-3030
E-mail: ttn@soft.com
## End ##