QW2001 Plenary Talk 1P2

Mr. Hans Buwalda
(CMG)

The Three "Holy Grails" of Test Development
(...adventures of a mortal tester...)

Key Points

Presentation Abstract

In the test development process, there are some important choices to make, which tend to have a key in the influence on its success. These choices can be compared with "Holy Grails". The Holy Grail is part of the ancient English legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. It is a symbol for something that can be strived for, but not easily be reached. This is also true for at least some of the choices to be handled in the development process. In the talk three main topics will be presented, that have proven in practice to be the most important issues to address.

The model of the Holy Grails is based on experience with literally hundreds of testing and test automation projects. The grails provide a quick and very practical instrument to either plan test development or understand a large amount of problems in existing test development project, ranging from lack of coverage to unmotivated testers.

Part of the talk (of the “second grail”) is an introduction to the principle of “Soap Opera Testing”. In this technique, tests are formulated as small stories. They are based on the every day business practice for which the system under test is designed, but represent this compressed and exaggerated, comparable to the many soap opera shows on television. The stories are expressed with so-called “Action Words”, which are direct input to automated execution of the tests.

About the Author

Hans Buwalda is project director at CMG, a leading European information technology services group. He is responsible for new developments around the TestFrame approach for testing and test automation of which he is the original developer and main architect. In 1996, he presented the main ideas for the first time to an international audience in a speech called 'Testing with Action Words, abandoning record and playback'. Since then the method has become in use in an increasing number of countries and Hans has become a frequent speaker at industry conference, tutorials and workshops.