Speakers
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Graham Bath Graham Bath, T-Systems Test Factory

Graham’s experience in testing spans over 25 years and has covered a wide range of domains and technologies. As a test manager, he has been responsible for the testing of mission-critical systems in spaceflight, telecommunications and police incident-control. Graham has designed tests to the highest level of rigor within real-time aeropsace systems such as the Tornado and Eurofighter military aircraft. As a principal consultant for the T-Systems Test Factory he has mastered the Quality Improvement Programs of several major German companies, primarily in the financial and government sectors. In his current position, Graham is responsible for the training programme and for introducing innovative testing solutions to his company’s large staff of testing professionals.

Graham is a member of the authoring team for the new ISTQB Advanced Level Certified Tester and is a long-standing member the German Testing Board, where he chairs the Advanced Level and Expert Level Working Parties. Currently he is co-authoring the new ISTQB Expert level syllabus “Improving the Test Process”.

Together with Judy McKay, Graham has co-authored the recently published book “The Software Test Engineer’s Handbook”, which is a study guide for the ISTQB Test Analyst and Technical Test Analyst Advanced Level certificates.

Tutorial C1: Non-Functional Testing
Why is it that when testers do functional testing they normally find it relatively straight forward to apply a structured testing process, yet when it comes to non-functional testing they run into difficulties? Too often the risks to be addressed by non-functional testing aren’t fully appreciated, planning needs are underestimated or relatively little thought is spent on specifying the actual tests properly. After completing the tutorial you will be able to take a more balanced approach when establishing a testing strategy and will benefit your project by preventing critical non-functional issues from reaching production. You will learn:

• what the specific non-functional testing types are (including security, performance, reliability, portability).
• what kinds of risks these testing types address.
• what principle issues effect the planning of non-functional tests.
• how to approach the specification of non-functional test cases.
• what possibilities exist for executing non-functional tests, including the use of specific test tools

Graham Bath is a member of the International Software Testing Qualification Board (ISTQB) Working Party which has developed the new Certified Tester “Advanced Level” syllabus. He is responsible author for the section on non-functional testing and is co-author of the book “Test Engineer’s Handbook”, which is a study guide for Advanced Level Test Analysts and Technical Test Analysts.

Tutorial C2: Test Process Improvement: Strategies and Critical Success Factors
Test process improvement can be achieved by applying a variety of different strategies. In the first part of this tutorial Graham presents an overview of possible test process improvement strategies and gives a detailed example of how to apply a model-based strategy using one of the industry’s leading models.
The second part of the tutorial asks the question “why do test process improvement efforts often fail”. Some of these may already be well known (e.g. lack of management backing) but there are others which often escape the attention of those setting out to improve testing. For example:

• having an appreciation for the process of test improvement
• understanding different approaches which can be taken (analytical, model-based, hybrid)
• appreciating the strengths and weaknesses of different improvement approaches
• selecting the right improvement approach or right model to fit the needs of stakeholders
• understanding the roles and skills needed for an improvement team
• managing the process of change

Each of these critical success factors will be discussed and possible solutions presented.
The tutorial will focus on several of the key concepts contained in the ISTQB Expert Level syllabus „Improving the Test Process“, which is currently being written by a small team of authors (including Graham) and is due for release in 2009.