Software Test Management

Download the Output Report from this Forum workshop. It was attended by 21 people representing 16 organisations from a wide cross-section of enterprises, including media, financial services, retailing, public and government bodies, pharmaceuticals, transport and utilities.

Software has increased in complexity. Complex systems need to be integrated with other complex systems. Software systems operate across platforms. The software running these platforms is also complex. The result is that the opportunities for software failure multiply. What can go wrong will go wrong eventually.

The target of testing is to identify and eliminate defects, especially the critical ones, as early as possible in the project lifecycle. Testing includes the validation of requirements and designs etc., because defects appear here. Defects are easier to eliminate in the earlier stages of a project than in the later stages, such as after go-live.

In this discussion hosted by The Corporate IT Forum, senior testing professionals shared their experiences of software testing for both in-house and outsourced testing. Topics discussed included software assurance, test team independence, the role of test architecture and the test architect, testing regimes, organisational aspects, testing environments and their management, virtualised testing environments, test data, test automation tools, the use of testing stubs, and justifying the cost of testing with metrics.