The Quality Academy Blog

STANZ 2009 a success

2009-09-02T11:40:00.003+10:00

Well 2 of my team have just returned from STANZ 2009. From all reports it was a success even if numbers were down.

I wish I could have gone too but I look forward to the team putting together some presentations and sharing them with others and the Quality Academy.

If you also attended the conference and would like to share please feel free to join the quality academy site. As a wetpaint site it is very easy for followers to contribute.

Exploratory Testing Results

2009-09-02T11:23:00.001+10:00

Exploratory Testing Results

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Justify your existence

2009-06-11T16:45:00.003+10:00

I just returned from the Testing SIG for the Australian Computer Society. Today's topic was on Test Metrics. It was a good collaborative session on the topic of testing metrics and how they can be used to put it simply justify your existence.

It made me think back to when first started testing at Runge. Testing was non existent and there was a lot of skepticism about the need for more employees who drain money rather then adding to the bottom line.

It was hard work metrics were non existent. So we had a lot of work to do but while waiting for the metrics to come through. We didn't just sit back, we needed more testers and fast. So we were forced to act and not just justify our existence but need for more testers.

One of things we did the best was to celebrate the losses. Like when a bug made it through to the client. This may sound crazy but for us it was a perfect time to go and speak to our internal clients. We would deflect the attack on us by joining them. Our testing was not good enough but while we were agreeing with them. We would ask how we can improve it?

All of a sudden these testing guys weren't that bad. Actually they were really good because it meant they didn't have to do all the testing. Slowly we won the little people over. This was how we justified our existence. For you see the little people talked to the big people. They mentioned how much more time they had to go earn money with the testers around.

So if you don't have all the metrics you think is needed to justify your existence. Maybe you can try what we did.

A blow to certification credibility from within

2009-06-04T13:47:00.003+10:00

I recently received a newsletter that is sent to training providers of the ISTQB. It was rather interesting as it gave a detailed results table of the pass fail rate in Australia by training provider. But the information I found most interesting was an analysis of recent Advanced level exam results. along with the news that the ISTQB made the decision to increase the examination time for Advanced level courses.
"At the meeting the Advanced Level examinations
were discussed at length and a decision was taken
to increase the Examination time from 2 to 3 hours.
Please ensure that all of your Advanced candidates
are aware of this significant change."
I see this as a real blow to the advanced level certifications and was surprised that it came from the board. The reason i say its a blow is because I feel that perhaps the time was increased to fix the extremely poor success rates for advanced level courses. Something that I felt gave them credibility.

Below is the table of the results.

Training Provider League Table from 01/01/2008 to 03/04/2009
These statistics are based on ANZTB foundation exams only.

Trainer	Pass Rate	Total Exams
Equinox	95%	40
Other *	86%	872
Revolution IT	92%	458
Planit	92%	51
Software Education	87%	89
The Testing Consultancy	96%	46

* Other relates to candidates who sat public exams.

Training Provider League Table from 01/01/2008 to 21/04/09
These statistics are based on ANZTB Advanced exams only.

Trainer	Pass Rate	Total Exams
Equinox	33%	6
Other *	46%	48
Disqover	100%	4
Planit	61%	76
Software Education	63%	19

* Other relates to candidates who sat public exams.

Another interesting stat is that the ANZTB gains $300 per foundation exam. With 1556 exams in the past 15 months the ANZTB has made $466800. Not bad for an organisation that gives the impression of being a reputable not for profit group similar to the ACS.

Certification to be or not to be

2009-06-04T13:16:00.004+10:00

I have been reading a lot about certification recently and have found a lot of negativity coming from bloggers in the USA. In particular I found James Bach's blog very interesting.

I have had a few conversations regarding certification and the ISTQB this year and I thought I would blog my view.

The Pros

Attempting to gain certification shows a genuine commitment to improving your craft.
It gives testers around the world the ability to learn the same base level of knowledge.

The Cons

Non practicing testers are gaining the certification and calling themselves testers.
The certification is being promoted by some as a must have to gain your next job.
Some feel gaining the certification means they are a good tester and can stop learning more.

So where do I stand on this topic? well I am neither for or against certification. I really like that we have some standard knowledge being spread across the globe I think that is really positive. But I really hate the fact that a lot of the courses are being run for pure profit.

In my team I have promoted self study of the course content. I have expressed to my team that the piece of paper at the end of the course and exam is not what is important. The most important part is that we are learning more about our craft. I am not looking for my team to blindly follow what they learn. But i feel that armed with more knowledge of their craft they are better equipped to make decisions on how to test.

Test Automation

2009-05-07T13:58:00.002+10:00

I just started a new topic on Test Automation on the testing academy site.

It made think back to when I first started to play with QTP. It seemed so easy with the play and record options during the trial period. It wasn't perfect but I put that down to a lack of training.
A few months later we had a few copies of QTP but not enough time to use it. QTP was fast becoming expensive shelfware for us. We had a few tests but they didn't do a lot and needed constant updates.

I finally found some time after a big release and as I recall I spent about 3 weeks working on it and at the end of it I had a handful of tests automated. I then brought one of my team members onto the project (Adam Arnold). We worked together and started to bounce ideas off one another. Our automation was increasing at break neck speed. But we continuously hit problems with record and play back and third party software our company used. It was frustrating but we stuck with it and eventually got pointed in the right direction by a few old pros in the field.

Record and play is used in the sales pitch and that is about all its good for as we discovered. We found out the hard way that automation is hard work. So I hope to start building this new topic to help everyone else avoid the same headaches.

2009-04-23T10:13:00.002+10:00

I have had a look around and decided that wetpaint offers a good service and it also allows readers to contribute.

http://qualityacademy.wetpaint.com/

it has only just begun but i will be adding to it reguarly.

Cheers,

Darren

http://www.linkedin.com/in/darrenmryan

2009-04-22T13:30:00.000+10:00

Well I have started to get this academy idea off the ground and am looking for a web host to use, any ideas?

New Year = New Blog

2008-12-29T09:44:00.002+10:00

Well i started this blog to help other testers out and over the past 2 years i got busy and stopped helping people. My apologies for this it was certainly not my intention to become so busy its just how things work out.

I have recently had a few conversations on the importance of the ISTQB. It seems this certifaction has been tainted of late. Mostly by testing/training companies looking for an easy $. I think the certificate is still of value but don't agree with the $2499.00 value that all companies in Australia seem to be placing on the 3 day course. So I have decided to revamp this old blog and run the Testing Acadamy from it (or perhaps a proper web site I have yet to make up my mind).

The aim of the Testing acadamy will be to add some meaning to the content of the ISTQB and instead of giving you hints at what to know to pass a test and recieve a pretty peice of paper I will be actually helping you to understand the content.

I look forward to kicking this off in 2009

cheers,

Darren