Software Testing: A Guide to the Tmap Approach - Hardcover

Pol, Martin; Teunissen, Ruud; Van Veenendaal, Erik

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0201745712 ISBN 13: 9780201745719

Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional, 2001

Synopsis

This book will:

• Introduce you to the method and take you through it step-by-step

• Enable you to address and deal with organizational issues, including functions within a team, training, consulting and administration of the process

• Cover practical infrastructure issues, like the option of using an automation tool to aid the test process

• Outline the different development situations in which TMap has been used, for example, client server, GUI, Object-Oriented, ERP and web-enabled scenarios, and give tips on what problems to look out for in each one

About this title

About the Author

 

Martin Pol is a highly regarded lecturer and speaker throughout the world and has twice chaired the EuroSTAR conference. He has recently received the European Testing Excellence Award for his contribution to the field of testing.

Ruud Teunissen is an international test consultant for IQUIP Informatica B.V. and Gitek, Belgium. He has an outstanding track record in test management and test consultancy and is a regular speaker at international conferences.

Erik van Veenendaal

is a co-founder of Improve Quality Services and is also a lecturer and researcher at Eindhoven University of Technology, Faculty of Technology Management. He is the author of a number of software quality and testing books, a regular speaker at conferences and is a leading trainer in the field of software testing.

From the Back Cover

Testing is an essential part of the software development lifecycle, focusing on issues that must be addressed before the information system goes into production. Have all parts and characteristics of the information system been checked sufficiently? Have issues such as suitability, performance and security been looked at? Have all defects been corrected without any new ones being introduced during the re-work process? It is crucial that these questions are not left unanswered until the final stages, so therefore a well-structured and reliable test process is required.

TMap (Test Management approach) is a well-established and internationally proven methodology, having been developed in the Netherlands and Belgium by IQUIP Informatica B.V, a software testing specialist. It will help save your company time and money by producing well-designed, reliable quality systems. As the method is non-proprietary and is independent of any development method and platform, you can adapt it to suit your organization and its specific requirements.

If you are directly involved in the test process, Software Testing: A Guide to the TMap(R) Approach is for you. It will:

• Introduce you to the method and take you through it step-by-step
• Enable you to address and deal with organizational issues, including functions within a team, training, consulting and administration of the process
• Cover practical infrastructure issues, like the option of using an automation tool to aid the test process
• Outline the different development situations in which TMap has been used, for example, client server, GUI, Object-Oriented, ERP and web-enabled scenarios, and give tips on what problems to look out for in each one

Features:

• A running case study, including a test plan using a real-life example
• A companion website containing updated examples, test case templates, documentation and checklists
• Foreword by Dorothy Graham

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Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

TMap: the book

The TMap T est M anagement ap proach is based on years of practical software testing experiences and developed by the R&D department of IQUIP Informatica B.V. It enjoyed an overwhelming interest from its first publication in Dutch in 1995. Many companies and government departments arranged their organization and performed their test processes as much as possible according to TMap. Within a few years, it became the standard for software testing within the Dutch-speaking countries. The generic approach of the model offers ample space to tune the TMap standard to specific applications and organizational needs. TMap withstands the frequent innovations in IT since one of its main advantages is the possibility to create extensions for progressing IT developments, such as object orientation (OO), enterprise resource planning (ERP), component-based development (CBD), test automation, the Internet, etc.

In 1998, the English summary ‘Structured testing: an introduction to TMap’ was published. It caught the attention of several international organizations, and the demand for the complete English version became enormous, especially through the well-attended TMap-courses. These courses are successfully organized in the Benelux and other parts of the world (UK, USA, Scandinavia, etc.).

Through these courses and, in particular, the continuously increasing international use of the TMap approach, the number of TMap experts is constantly growing, thereby creating an unprecedented flow of information on the application of TMap within different organizations and projects. As authors, we felt obliged to gather all experiences and new developments and share them with the TMap user community: publications in the press and on the Internet; papers, tutorials and track presentations at international test conferences; publication of the German version and TMap-related books regarding test process improvement (TPI); test automation; and finally the reviewed Dutch edition of the standard in 1999. But the demand of the English-speaking community kept on growing.

The authors are proud to present this book: the first complete English version of testing according to TMap. We wish you success in applying TMap, and are keen to share your experiences and critics. Let us continue to improve the testing profession and, by doing so, help the IT industry to introduce even better products to society.

TMap: the approach

This book describes TMap as the approach for the structured (white-box and black-box) testing of information systems. It answers the what, when, how, by what, and by whom questions regarding testing.

In order to make the design and execution of test processes more structured, TMap is based on four cornerstones related to those questions. The ‘what/when’ questions are answered by the lifecycle model , a description of the test cycle related to the development cycle. The ‘how’ question is answered in the description of the techniques for planning, preparation and execution of several tests. The ‘by what’ question is considered in the description of the infrastructure . And the description of the organization aspects answers the ‘by whom’ question.

Structure of the book

TMap is a generic approach to structured testing. The theory is described in a universal way because the one and only test approach does not exist. Testing occurs in several variations that demand their own application of the standard. In this book, ample attention is given to the way in which the right components of TMap in any kind of test process could be selected. This book is divided into six parts. Part I describes the phenomenon of testing and TMap in general. Parts II to V describe the respective cornerstones of TMap: lifecycle, techniques, organization and infrastructure. Part VI consists of several important applications of TMap towards modern developments in IT.

Part I describes the importance and the context of software testing in general and the relation with quality assurance in particular. The need for testing and the possibilities of a structured application are described in detail. Part I is concluded with an overview of the test management approach.

Part II contains a detailed description of the lifecycle for test processes. Test activities are described systematically for master test planning, and the low-level and high-level tests. The lifecycle is the central cornerstone of TMap. It describes the relation between the activities in a test process and all the components of the remaining cornerstones: techniques, organization and infrastructure.

Part III describes the available testing techniques in detail. As well as extensive test-specification techniques, the TMap set contains, among others, techniques for test strategy, test effort estimation, and an extensive set of checklists for static testing.

Part IV contains a detailed description of the organizational aspects of testing. It describes the different test functions, including required knowledge and skills, the organization within the test team — tasks and responsibilities — and the incorporation of the test team in the line or project organization. It also pays attention to the recruitment, selection and training of test personnel. Due to the need for ‘hard figures’ about the test process the implementation of metrics is discussed. Part IV is concluded by a chapter on test process improvement: a practical step-by-step guide to structured testing.

Part V describes the infrastructure needed for testing. Guidelines are included for the test environment, test tools and the office environment.

Part VI contains a number of specific applications of TMap. Among others, extensions are created for object orientation (OO), enterprise resource planning (ERP), component-based development (CBD), test automation, and the Internet.

The appendices contain an elaborated example of a test plan, and a description of relations between TMap quality characteristics and ISO9216 quality characteristics definitions.

Target audience

The primary audience of this book is the group of people involved directly in the test process. A test team may use this book as a guide to perform test activities. For those who operate at more of a distance from the basic test process, such as clients, end users, and IT auditors, this book offers a good insight into the phenomenon of testing. For this purpose, in Part I some chapters have been added in which the background and the set-up of testing are discussed. This book does not have to be read from beginning to end. Depending on the involvement in testing, readers will look at some parts thoroughly, briefly or not at all. All readers are advised to look in the first place at Chapter 5 or preferably Part I in its entirety. After that, the interest and use will differ according to the target group.

l Test managers, test coordinators and the like are advised to study the entire book, especially Parts II and IV, and Chapters 10, 11 and 12. Depending on the assignment of supporting test tasks, it is also advisable to read Part V.

l For those people in charge of the primary test activities (testers, developers, users and system managers), you are recommended to study thoroughly Part II and (parts of) Parts III and V.

l IT auditors and employees charged with quality care should look at Parts II and III.

l Clients for development and test processes and line management will, after reading Part I, probably make a selection according to their own interests, for instance organizational aspects (Part IV) or the master test plan (Chapter 7).

l For students (information engineering/business economy) and teachers, the study of the total theoretical framework is important.

l For employees of the personnel and organization departments, Part IV and especially Chapters 19 and 20 offer good references.

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Edition details

• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0201745712
• ISBN 13: 9780201745719
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 592