Sirius SQA

Sirius Software Quality Associates, Inc. is proud to announce a partnership with Bender RBT. Bender RBT Inc is the world’s leading expert in Requirements Based Testing (RBT). “Their approach to testing pushes quality higher upstream, which is perfectly in keeping with our philosophy” said David Gilbert, President of Sirius SQA. “We are very excited about this partnership, and the upcoming integration between our two products.”

The RBT process first ensures that the specifications are correct, complete, unambiguous, and logically consistent. Then a necessary and sufficient set of test cases, from a black box perspective, are created to ensure that the design and code fully meet those requirements. By integrating testing throughout the development life cycle the focus shifts from mere defect detection to defect prevention.

An integration between the companies two products is in the planning stages, with the intent being for BenderRBT to be able to export all of it’s generated test cases directly into TestExplorer projects for execution in TestExplorer.

“We feel this will offer a significant way for both of our clientelles to leverage their investments, and achieve a much higher level of quality in their testing process.” David said, “The synergies between our products is very strong; The ability to quickly generate what you know is the right testcases for your desired coverage, and then rapidly execute them and capture solid results, without the initial overhead of automation, is a powerful methodology, especially for test teams dealing with large amounts of new functionality.”

For more information about Sirius Software Quality Associates, Inc. and TestExplorer, please visit www.sirius-sqa.com.

For more information about BenderRBT, and their services or products, pleasevisit www.benderrbt.com.

Sirius Software Quality Associates, Inc. to attend StarEast Conference and Expo.
Sirius SQA is pleased to be hosting a booth at the upcoming StarEast Conference in Orlando, Florida, May 16-20th. “This marks a major milestone in the growth and evolution of our company.” said David Gilbert, President of Sirius SQA. “We feel this conference provides the perfect opportunity for us to begin to gain more widespread corporate recognition, and to get our flagship product, TestExplorer, into a more visible position in the marketspace. StarEast is one of the most well known, well attended, and well respected trade shows in our industry, and us having a booth there will strengthen our position as serious new player in the testing software industry.”

David has also been chosen as a presenter in the “Lightning Talks” to be presented Thursday morning.

“It is an honor to be chosen to speak in a forum such as this, and we truly welcome the opportunity to let people get to know us in a different way than the website may communicate.”

For more information on StarEast, please visit www.sqe.com/stareast/.

For more information on Sirius SQA, please visit www.sirius-sqa.com.

 

TestExplorer is an intuitive and easy to use tool that provides both the right amount of structure, and a wealth of documentable results, from Ad Hoc, Exploratory, and Manual Scripted testing. TestExplorer runs quietly in the background while the tester executes a manual test. All keyboard and mouse input are recorded into a log file.

Screen shots are captured to a results file, and can be captured at specific time intervals, or keyed to certain inputs, e.g. a screenshot each time the Enter key is pressed. By capturing this information in the background, the tester can completely document and recreate with 100% accuracy the execution of this test.

This allows the tester to display for development team members exactly what he did and observed, in a fraction of the time it took him to do it.

A Hammer and a Nail
The right tool, for the right job, at the right time.

David Gilbert, President,
Sirius Software Quality Associates
There is an old axiom that if the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to approach every problem as if it were a nail. While there is a great deal of truth in that, I believe it does the hammer a bit of a disservice. First, it casts the hammer in a bit of a negative light, which is not fair to the hammer, a marvelous and ubiquitous tool whose longevity alone is testimony to its usefulness. Second, it implies that the ONLY time you need a hammer is when you are faced with a nail, and that is simply not true. Finally, it also implies that if you have a nail, you need a hammer; again, the world is not so simple.

A carpenter understands that building a house is a complicated task. It requires many specialized skill sets, and many of those skill sets have specialized tools associated with them. Now, no one could argue that we have been building houses far longer than those specialized tools have existed; so why, then, do we feel we need them?

The answer is that specialized tools, in the hands of skilled craftsmen, applied appropriately, bring efficiency. If we have the right tool, in the hands of the right person, and we use it at the right time, we will do a better job, and probably do it more quickly as well.

Let’s suppose that our carpenter has the choice between a hammer and a nail gun. They both drive nails, but one does it much faster – which should he choose? The answer, of course, is, “It depends”. If our carpenter is installing a sub floor, and needs to drive a lot of big nails through hard wood in a straight line as fast as he can over and over, then he would likely want the nail gun. On the other hand, if he is installing a delicate piece of wood trim in a tight corner, he may prefer the delicate touch of a light hammer. Perhaps something is not lined up properly, and needs some encouragement to put itself in the proper position…(Hey, these things happen in the real world)…a nail gun would do him no good at all there, but the not so delicate touch of a larger hammer could save the day.

What if, in the midst of using our nail gun to lay down the flooring, something goes wrong, and a nail goes halfway in and then bends? The nail gun is not broken, and the process we really need to accomplish is still best served by the nail gun; but the nail gun is not going to help resolve our current problem, which is preventing us from completing our current task. With a hammer, we could straighten and finish driving the errant nail, or simply pull it out and drive a fresh one, then continue on with our nail gun.

So why all this talk about houses, carpenters, nails and hammers?

Because, just like building a house, building complex software systems is a complicated task. We hire experienced people, with specialized skill sets, and buy very expensive tools to support those skill sets to help those people be highly productive. But I am concerned that sometimes, we loose sight of the basic skill sets and tools that are also required, and fail to provide the proper tools to extract the true value from those skill sets. Have you ever had to work with someone who knew a lot about an automated testing tool, but really did not understanding testing? Sadly, if you have been in this business long, the answer to that question is yes. What about the situation where you are working with a very skilled and knowledgeable team, but still are not as successful as you should be because even in light of financial and managerial support, for whatever reason, you could not get the right tool for the right job at the right time? The company had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on nail guns…but no one thought to buy hammers.

The corollary here is obvious…nail guns are automation tools, and hammers are for doing manual work. But aside from being obvious, it is also accurate. And that is why, if our carpenter has the choice between a hammer and a nail gun, he should choose both. Because you are truly most efficient when you have the right tool for the right job at the right time.

Sirius SQA is proud to announce our premier software product, TestExplorer, an exploratory and manual testing software suite. TestExplorer is a product suite for bringing the organizational paradigms and methodologies of automated testing to manual testing, and is specifically designed around the concept of Exploratory Testing. TestExplorer is an intuitive and easy to use tool that provides both the right amount of structure and a wealth of documentable results, from Ad Hoc testing, Exploratory testing, and Manual Scripted testing. It is designed to let the tester focus on the test, not the tool. With its VisualTest Playback capabilities, it allows testers to quickly review the proceedings from any manual test, to demonstrate questionable behavior for the development team, or to facilitate root cause analysis.