When is independent testing completely independent?

Read an interesting headline earlier today - "Symantec Touts Independent Testing". At first glance it looks like Symantic are recommending that you use independent testing services rather than rely on the supplier to test their software - a great endorsement for the independent software testing market sector.

But when you read the story it's not really that at all.

"Symantec announced that Norton Internet Security 2009 has received a perfect score and was named the top-rated product in a comprehensive analysis of protection in security suites conducted by third-party testing organization Cascadia Labs. Recently engineered with performance as a key focus, Norton Internet Security 2009 and Norton AntiVirus 2009 also received top marks in overall performance in a comprehensive test conducted by PassMark Software, beating out competitors like Avira, ESET, Kaspersky, McAfee and Trend Micro. "

So its more about comparative benchmarking carried out by an independent company. Still it is testing and it is independent, isn't it? Well, yes, of course. The fact that the exercise was commissioned by Symantic doesn't change that, does it?

If you are interested in the full story you can find it at Trading Markets

Scalable performance testing solution

Cloud testing services seem to be proliferating at a pace. The International Business Times reported that SOASTA, a provider of Cloud-based testing solutions, has created an on-demand testing service in the Cloud, enabling affordable, highly scalable load and performance testing of web applications and web services.

"Developing and bringing to market scalable, reliable applications in an increasingly services-based world has traditionally been a time consumingand expensive undertaking. As a result, most organizations do not have the expertise and resources to test their web applications cost effectively.With SOASTA CloudTest, any organiszation can easily leverage a leading testing service combined with the power of Cloud networks for a"pay-as-you-go" testing service. SOASTA's offerings provide a dynamically scalable testing solution to simulate real world traffic and loads,uniquely backed by integrated test results and analytics - ensuring faster testing and more reliable web applications and services."

RBT - Requirements-Based Testing

There is an interesting article in Embedded.com about requirements based testing and what it calls the "crisis in quality".

To do this, many organisations have recently embraced requirements-based testing (RBT).

Teams can be more effective using Requirements Based Testing because it enables them to target the root causes of quality issues by being tightly coupled with application requirements and integrated through various activities throughout the software lifecycle.

The challenge is to ensure these processes with existing QA and testing best practices. To that end, these suggestions to improve your RBT practices are offered.

Suggestion #1: test early and frequently, so testing becomes a parallel activity to the development process, a constant pursuit that spans all roles and makes all stakeholders aware of quality objectives.

Suggestion #2: test with your head, not your gut, to inject repeatability and method in to the test planning process, in order to make test coverage more predictable.

Suggestion #3 test with measurement and improvement in mind to quantify the status of deliverables and activities, so management can oversee quality initiatives across the IT application portfolio.

Risk-based testing

BT to start testing 2012 Olympics infrastructure in 2010

Interesting to note that testing for the 2012 Olympics communications infrastructure will begin in two years time, according to Computing

"BT is to implement a rigorous testing and training programme to ensure the communications infrastructure supporting the London 2012 Olympics avoids disruption.

The supplier will be responsible for providing all communications services for the Games on behalf of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games. It will install 4,500km of fibre, capable of transmitting the entire content of Wikipedia every second.

BT aims to have the infrastructure ready for testing by October 2010, when the first live pilot will take place at the Olympic sailing centre in Weymouth.

One of the first areas that will be tested is the intrusion detection system, which BT will install in partnership with Atos Origin."

Telecom software testing

Business Process Testing

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