testing effort

The goal of usability testing, simply put, is to make sure that a user can complete the tasks they are expected to complete. Usability testing doesn’t test whether or not the functions of the application, website or connected device work correctly, but rather that a user intuitively understands how to perform these tasks — and how easy or difficult it was to do so. With usability testing, “close enough” won’t cut it. A product may have a superior architecture, a great set of features, good performance, scalability and a number of other positive attributes. However, all of this effort is wasted if the user experience is inadequate. An application, website or connected device that is not user-friendly is just as bad as a buggy version and can lead to diminished revenue, product abandonment or a total failure. An application with poor usability can also negatively affect a brand

DBAs need help with tackling significant issues, including doing more with fewer resources, quickly responding to upgrade and patch needs, while reducing the time spent on cloning databases. Finally, they need help eliminating the time they spend integrating, testing, and deploying full-stack cloud solutions. How can DBAs reconcile these competing demands? Learn more about expanded offerings in a database appliance that are delivering numerous advantages. These new configurations have the potential to help IT derive new benefits in its efforts to serve the business.

Over the last several years CA Technologies has acquired a number of companies and their respective products, to augment its continuous delivery suite and, especially, its DevTest portfolio. In particular, it has recently acquired Grid-Tools and Rally Software. Bloor Research has been asked to explore how Grid Tools’ products – now known as CA Test Data Manager (formerly Datamaker and CA Datafinder) and CA Agile Requirements Designer (formerly Agile Designer) expand and augment the capabilities provided by CA Service Virtualization (previously iTKO’s LISA) and CA Agile Central (formerly Rally), making the whole greater than the sum of the parts.

CA’s portfolio is designed to drive efficiency from planning through production. A core component of our continuous delivery portfolio is CA Release Automation, a market-leading application release automation solution that delivers full application deployment automation and release coordination across stages, environments and teams. The solution’s analytic capabilities enable DevOps teams to plan, manage, analyze and optimize the continuous delivery pipeline from a single control point. In addition, the portfolio includes CA Agile Central, CA Agile Requirements Designer, CA Service Virtualization and CA Test Data Manager. We continue to invest in and enhance the portfolio, most recently via the acquisition of BlazeMeter, an innovative, SaaS-based performance and load-testing solution.

Software delivery processes and systems, and the people involved with them, are under increasing pressure. Sometimes it’s digital transformation, other times it’s simply the challenge of keeping up with the demands created by ever more dynamic markets and an escalating pace of change. None of this is news, but is does provide an important backdrop to the discussion of how software delivery needs to evolve, especially given that traditional methods and approaches were never designed to deal with the fastmoving and unpredictable environment you are probably working in today.

One way to shift testing practices earlier in your software lifecycle is by using multi-layered visual models to specify requirements in a way where all ambiguity is inherently removed. With unambiguous and complete requirements, developers introduce less defects into their code and manual test cases, automated test scripts and required test data can be automatically generated based on the requirement, without manual intervention.

Take an idea from design to deployment at pace— without compromising quality—using an end-to-end, continuous delivery ecosystem that’s capable of driving rigorous testing from the desired user functionality.

Ubiquitous connectivity and mobile devices have changed everything, opening up markets to millions of new consumers across the globe. Within the past few years, nimble upstarts have created mobile apps that have converted banking customers, cab riders and hotel guests at unprecedented rates. Large, established brands are scrambling to transform their businesses in order to maintain market share. To compete in this application economy, you must adapt or be left behind.

In a series of articles Paul Gerrard, a testing guru and consultant, discusses a range of testing topics. Test models are fundamental to testing and, in this article, Paul talks about the art of creating and using models. If testers are “shifting left,” pairing with developers or at least working more closely with developers, testers (and developers) need to be able to create models, learn how to articulate and share them, and support better collaboration.

Generate rich virtual data that covers the full range of possible scenarios and provide the unconstrained access to environments needed to deliver rigorously tested applications on time and within budget. Model complex live system data and apply automated rule-learning algorithms to pay off technical debt and uncover in depth understanding of composite applications, while exposing virtual data to distributed teams on demand and avoiding testing bottlenecks.

A lot can be learned from getting a group of experienced CIOs in a room and encouraging them to talk freely about the topics at the front of their minds. Rarely do they want to discuss technology, and even the latest IT industry ‘hot topics’ usually don’t get that much airplay. Conversations, and sometimes quite heated debates, tend to revolve around broader business-related trends, how these are changing stakeholder and user behaviour and expectations, and how best to respond to such dynamics.

Continuous Delivery has become somewhat of a buzzword in the software development world. As such, numerous vendors promise that they can make it a reality, offering their tools as a remedy to the traditional causes of project delays and failure. They suggest that by adopting them, organizations can continually innovate and deliver quality software on time, and within budget.

NSS Labs performed an independent test of the Cisco AMP for Endpoints v6.0.5. The product was subjected to thorough testing at the NSS facility in Austin, Texas, based on the Advanced Endpoint Protection (AEP) Test Methodology v2.0, which is available at www.nsslabs.com. This test was conducted free of charge and NSS did not receive any compensation in return for Cisco’s inclusion. This report provides detailed information about this product and its security effectiveness. Additional comparative information is available at www.nsslabs.com. As part of the initial AEP test setup, products were configured in a deployment mode typical to enterprises. As such, products were configured to mimic an enterprise environment by applying typical applications such as exclusion policies and tuning requirements. All product-based configurations are reviewed, validated, and approved by NSS prior to the test. Every effort is made to ensure optimal security effectiveness, as would be the aim of a typi

In today's marketing environment, how are CMO's using data to be more effective? CMOs weigh in on their top challenges and opportunities surrounding data driven marketing, revealing a clear emphasis on the need to demonstrate ROI, use testing to optimize efforts, and increase personalization in marketing activities.

Endpoint computing managers should plan to spend six to nine months learning about Windows 10, developing new environments and testing their applications. Such preparation will significantly lessen time and effort spent on migration and support.

"DBAs need help with tackling significant issues, including doing more with fewer resources, quickly responding to upgrade and patch needs, while reducing the time spent on cloning databases. Finally, they need help eliminating the time they spend integrating, testing, and deploying full-stack cloud solutions. How can DBAs reconcile these competing demands? Learn more about expanded offerings in a database appliance that are delivering numerous advantages. These new configurations have the potential to help IT derive new benefits in its efforts to serve the business. "

This no-nonsense primer covers the benefits and basic principles of good testing, offers practical advice for getting the most out of your testing efforts, and pinpoints several areas where automation will help you achieve the most cost-effective results.