I just realized I had a couple issues of trade rags sitting around. Here are the things that caught my eye in the Software Test & Performance ones. Aside from the really bad author photos that seem to be used and that I could write some of these articles (and I don’t work for a tool vendor or am selling consulting services).

STP – June 2008

  • Slipping Into Scrum by Rob Sabourin
  • Covered in Java by Mirko Raner is a nice introduction to coverage (by a parasoft employee)

STP – July 2008

  • Coverity’s thread analyzer tool
  • 5 Fatal Flaws of Estimating Tests (by L.R.V Ramana)
    • Asking the Wrong Questions
    • Arranging Activities Illogically
    • Failure to Understand the Multiplier Effect
    • Inconsistencies in Measurement Criteria
    • Not Compensating for Risks and Dependencies

STP – August 2008

  • Talend Open Profiler looks seriously cool. Too bad I’m currently in Rails-land and can’t really use this as well as I might be able to do if it wasn’t for ActiveRecord.
  • There is a decent article on Maven and its role in testing, but I would point you here, here, here, and here instead.
  • Jason Cohen is promoting his book with an article called ‘Think You Have A Team? You Don’t.’ I haven’t read the book yet (it is in the pile) but the article is pretty good. Including choice tidbits like Peer code review not only finds bugs, it creates an environment where developers work together instead of in parallel.

STP – September 2008

This issue is Windows focused which is something I haven’t really be involved in for 3 years, so it should be no surprise if there is not a lot I find interesting. If you are a .NET shop, your milage will be much better.

  • tagline from a Gomez ad: Just because your infrastructure survived the load test doesn’t mean the customer experience did
  • The ‘Construct A Data Framework For Seamless Testing’ by Vladimir Belorusets is pretty good for the Toolsmiths out there, or anyone else building their own custom framework.