'Good' Organisational Reasons for 'Bad' Software Testing: An Ethnographic Study of Testing in a Small Software Company

Martín, David; Rooksby, John; Rouncefield, Mark; Sommerville, Ian

doi:10.1109/icse.2007.1

Cited by 71 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…One recent example is the study described in [12], where the expected number of failures detected by different testing techniques is compared. The analytical studies are really interesting from a theoretical viewpoint, but further investigation is needed before these can be applied in practice because the main focus in practice is to minimize the effort and time required to demonstrate that the software is good enough [4]. The negative consequences of this lack of information is that testing remains one of the most expensive activities of the development process and with delivered products of poor quality and low reliability [5].…”

Section: Testing Practices In Scrummentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore the need for empirical studies of testing practices and evaluation has been identified, to develop an understanding of the organizational rationale for how software testing is practiced, for example in [4] and [5]. Software testing research has focused on extending the quality of testing in technical terms, like improving the design of tests, designing tools to support testing and measuring test coverage and efficacy of fault finding techniques [6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Focus on Usability in Testing Practices in Industry

Lárusdóttir

Bjarnadottir

Gulliksen

2010

IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology

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Abstract.A study exploring the focus on usability in testing practices in software development teams in Iceland using the agile software process Scrum is described in this paper. A survey was conducted to describe how testing is conducted and to what extent testing techniques are used. The results show that unit, integration, system and acceptance testing are the most frequent testing techniques used, but usability testing is not that common. Neither are alpha, beta, performance/load and security testing. Interviews were conducted to exemplify how practitioners conduct usability testing and what they describe as the difference of usability and acceptance testing. Some examples from the interviews show that practitioners are willing to do formal usability testing on extensive parts of the system, but because the iterations in Scrum are short and the changes to the system in each iteration are small, formal usability testing does not fit into the project work.

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Section: Testing Practices In Scrummentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Focus on Usability in Testing Practices in Industry

Lárusdóttir

Bjarnadottir

Gulliksen

2010

IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology

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“…Such a knowledge-intensive activity as software testing can also profit from a LL system as a means of managing individual experience gained in testing projects to prevent the same mistakes from being made again and to assure successes are repeated. Martin et al [48], for example, stress the importance of learning from experience in software testing: "drawing and learning from experience is somehow as important as following a rational approach to testing".…”

Section: Ll Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

An architectural model for software testing lesson learned systems

Andrade

Ares

Martínez

et al. 2013

Information and Software Technology

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“…The important point is that this approach, then, paints the engineer in quite a different light to view in Bird et al: here it is their capacity and ability that is celebrated, not the contrast between 'the facts' and 'their knowledge'. Research in this vein tends to offer guidance for new kinds of information and data that will provide engineers with tools that refine their ability to use their rich knowledge (see also Martin et al, 2007; also the considerable corpus of research by de Souza and his colleagues). Thus, and for example, Phillips et al propose that more information about the actual timelines of code reinserts be made clearly visible in the SCM tools; engineers know how to use this information but simply need it to be better specified.…”

Section: Overview Of the Evidencementioning

confidence: 99%

Calendars: Time Coordination and Overview in Families and Beyond

Bødker

Grönvall

2013

ECSCW 2013: Proceedings of the 13th European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 21-25 September 2013, Paphos, C

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ECSCW 2013 received 82 competitive paper and note submissions. After extensive review, 15 were selected to form the core of the traditional single-track technical programme for the conference. These are supplemented by exciting workshops and masterclasses that cover a broad range of topics and allow for wider and more active participation. These additional contributions will be published in the Volume 2 Proceedings, together with the expanded selection of demonstrations, videos, and work in progress.Work in progress has been introduced as a new peer reviewed category for ECSCW 2013, and those papers will be included in the Volume 2 Proceedings that will be available online.The technical program this year focuses on work and the enterprise as well as on the challenges of involving citizens, patients, and others into collaborative settings. The papers embrace new theories, and discuss known ones. They challenge the ways we think about and study work and contribute to the discussions of the blurring boundaries between home and work life. They introduce recent and emergent technologies, and study known social and collaborative technologies. Classical settings in computer supported cooperative work are looked upon anew. With contributions from all over the world, the papers in interesting ways help focus on the European perspective in our community.Many people have worked hard to ensure the success of this conference, and we briefly acknowledge them here: all the authors who submitted high quality papers; all those who contributed through taking part in workshops, masterclasses, demonstrations, and the new category of work in progress; the 64 members of a global programme committee, who dedicated time and energy to reviewing and discussing individual contributions and shaping the programme; the people who helped organise the programme: the workshop and masterclass chairs, the chairs of demos and videos, work in progress, student volunteers, and various other practical arrangements. Finally, we acknowledge the student volunteers who provided support throughout the event; and we thank the sponsors and those who offered their support to the conference. Abstract. The title of this paper comes from comments made by an 'angry' ethnographer during a debriefing session. It reflects his frustration with a certain analytic mentality that would have him justify his observations in terms of the number of times he had witnessed certain occurrences in the field. Concomitant to this was a concern with the amount of time he had spent in the field and the implication that the duration of fieldwork somehow justified the things that he had seen; the implication being that the more time he spent immersed in the study setting the more valid his findings and, conversely, the less time, the less valid they were. For his interlocutors, these issues speak to the grounds upon which we might draw general insights and lessons from ethnographic research regarding the social or collaborative organisation of human activities. However, the strong i...

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'Good' Organisational Reasons for 'Bad' Software Testing: An Ethnographic Study of Testing in a Small Software Company

Cited by 71 publications

References 13 publications

The Focus on Usability in Testing Practices in Industry

The Focus on Usability in Testing Practices in Industry

An architectural model for software testing lesson learned systems

Calendars: Time Coordination and Overview in Families and Beyond

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