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Monday, April 21, 2008 6:56 AM

Know That Which You Test

Someone recently related to me his experience using the new Microsoft Robotics Studio . He loaded it up and proceeded through one of the tutorials. To make sure he understood, he typed everything in instead of cutting and pasting the sample code. After
Posted by SteveRowe | 3 Comments
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Wednesday, March 05, 2008 8:31 AM

What Tests Belong in the BVTs?

BVTs or Build Verification Tests are standard Microsoft parlance for the tests we run every day to ensure that we didn't break anything important with our checkins the day before. I've previously written about the importance of keeping them clean . Within
Posted by SteveRowe | 1 Comments
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Tuesday, February 26, 2008 9:36 AM

When to Test Manually and When to Automate

There's a balancing act in testing between automation and manual testing. Over my time at Microsoft I've seen the pendulum swing back and forth between extensive manual testing and almost complete automation. As I've written before, the best answer lies
Posted by SteveRowe | 10 Comments
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Wednesday, December 19, 2007 11:45 AM

What Is Test Automation?

I talk about it a lot, but I don't know that I've ever defined it. A reader recently wrote in and asked what exactly this was. I suppose that means I should give a better explanation of it. Long ago in a galaxy far, far away, testers were computer-savvy
Posted by SteveRowe | 8 Comments
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Thursday, October 25, 2007 7:43 AM

Testing A Daily Build

It is becoming accepted in the industry that teams should produce a build on a daily basis. Every project at Microsoft does this as do most projects elsewhere. If you happen to be on a project that does not, I suggest you work to get one implemented soon.
Posted by SteveRowe | 5 Comments
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Wednesday, October 24, 2007 9:40 AM

New MSDN Tester Center

MSDN now has a home for test information. Check out the new MSDN Tester Center . It has articles, videos, and a collection of blog posts all revolving around the idea of testing. If you are a tester or test developer, bookmark this site. It looks like
Posted by SteveRowe | 0 Comments
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Friday, September 21, 2007 7:57 AM

Metrics of Software Quality

This post over on TestingReflections brings up an interesting point. Michael answers the question, "What are the useful metrics for software quality" with another question. He asks, in a roundabout fashion, what is it that we value about the software?
Posted by SteveRowe | 1 Comments
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Wednesday, September 19, 2007 7:30 AM

Do We Still Need Test Developers?

In my post, Test Developers Shouldn't Execute Tests , Antony Marcano asked if we actually need test developers or if developers would do. If the more traditional testing tasks are being done by one group and the automation by another, does it even make
Posted by SteveRowe | 2 Comments
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Friday, September 14, 2007 10:03 AM

Test Developers Shouldn't Execute Tests

This view puts me outside the mainstream of the testing community but I feel strongly that test teams need to be divided into those that write the tests (test developers) and those that execute them (testers). Let me be clear up front. I don't mean that
Posted by SteveRowe | 6 Comments
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Thursday, September 13, 2007 8:35 AM

Managing Mistakes

A promising young executive at IBM was involved in a risky venture that lost $10 million for the company. When Tom Watson Sr., the founder and CEO of IBM, called the executive to his office, the executive tendered his resignation. Watson is reported to
Posted by SteveRowe | 4 Comments
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Saturday, August 25, 2007 1:06 PM

Test Automation in Crackdown

An interesting report over at Gamasutra. Jami Johns from Microsoft Game Studio gave a talk at Gamefest 2007 about how they tested Crackdown. The thing that strikes me most from the article is the increasing need for automated testing and thus test developers
Posted by SteveRowe | 1 Comments
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Monday, August 13, 2007 9:15 AM

Scrum Meetings for Test

A year and a half ago I talked about how I was running scrum meetings with my team. Since then, we've refined the process but have consistently held scrums on a regular basis. Note that I'm not running a full Scrum system with sprints and product backlogs
Posted by SteveRowe | 3 Comments
Wednesday, August 01, 2007 12:51 PM

Dilbert On Software Testing

Two recent Dilbert comic strips are a picture of how things sometimes work in our business. In the first , Dilbert complains that funding for test automation has been eliminated. The PHB responds that Dilbert should write some himself. Because Dilbert
Posted by SteveRowe | 0 Comments
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Friday, July 27, 2007 5:56 AM

How To Automate UI Testing

Most software has a user interface. That means that most test teams spend time testing that interface. The easiest way to do this is to just click on all the buttons and make sure the right thing happens. This works, but it doesn't scale. Eventually you
Posted by SteveRowe | 1 Comments
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Friday, July 20, 2007 8:03 AM

Keep Your BVTs Clean

At Microsoft we build each of our products on a daily basis. After each successful build, we run a series of automated tests we tend to call BVTs (Build Verification Tests). If the BVTs fail, no one further testing is done and developers are called in
Posted by SteveRowe | 10 Comments
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