Key Points

• Overview of the industry-standard Unified Modeling Language (UML) for testers
• Examples of using UML to capture test design as part of system design and to provide access methods for testing the AUT
• Guidelines for an architectural process around UML to enable testing from the beginning of the software development lifecycle

Abstract...

Architectural process and patterns for testability will have a significant impact on software quality. Yet testing technology has largely ignored the use of architectural artifacts as a source of test design and instead focused on processes of deriving test requirements or testability solely from the as-built system. This is backwards, as it is architectural process and standards that are the single greatest factor determining the testability of software, whether at component, integration or system levels. The Unified Modeling Language (UML) has become the industry standard for capturing software architectures and elaborating system design. This talk provides an overview of the use of the UML to capture test design and specify accessbility for testing the AUT.

Author Bio...

Sam Guckenheimer is the senior director of technology for Rational's Automated Testing products. In this role, he is responsible for the product vision, strategy and implementation of Rational's software testing products and the formulation of architectural standards for testability. He joined the engineering team at SQA Inc. in 1995 as director of technology integration, assumed responsible for marketing of test products when SQA merged with Rational in early 1997, and assumed his current position in autumn 1999.

Sam has held several marketing, engineering, and general management positions in US and European software companies over the last eighteen years. At Rational, Sam has spearheaded the integration of the load testing products, the development of Java and Web server testing technologies, the internationalization of SQA Suite, and the introduction of OEM versions of these products. Prior to joining SQA, he spent six years with Softbridge, Inc., ending his time there as managing director of Softbridge Capital Markets, a subsidiary based in London, England. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Harvard University, he is a frequent speaker on software development and application topics at industry conferences and seminars, and has spoken as a guest lecturer at the management schools of MIT, Harvard, and Yale.