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Showing posts from August, 2011

Build Automation - Tools for Improving Engineering Process

Build Tools Build automation involves scripting or automating the process of compiling computer source code into binary code.   These tools are particularly useful for continuous integration (CI) builds where frequent calls to the compile process are required and incremental build processing is needed. Core activities involved in build automation: Compiling source code into binary code Packaging of binary code Running of tests Deployment of binary code to test environments / production environment Creation of documents or release notes Advantages: Accelerate compile and link processing Eliminate redundant tasks Have history of build and releases in order to investigate issues Features of build tools that need to be considered before picking it: Frequent / Scheduled Builds Support for Source Code Management system Incremental Build Processing Reporting on build’s status Generation of release notes and other documentations Some Popular Ope

Continuous Integration (CI) - Tools for Improving Engineering Process

CI is one of the modern software development practices for applying quality controls in small pieces.  CI involves automatically building and testing an application at frequent intervals on a dedicated integration server.  Developers regularly commit small updates and are notified rapidly if their changes cause the build to fail. Core activities involved in CI: Maintaining a code repository Committing the code to the baseline everyday Automating the build process Deploying the build to test environment Making the build self-testing Reporting the build status to the team Advantages: Reduces the risk of integration issues appearing late in the project Improve communication between team members Reduce the time needed to prepare a release Most fundamental feature of CI tool is the automatic build cycle.  The CI tool, either at a scheduled time or whenever any changes are detected in the source code repository, fetches the source code latest version

Latest Software Testing Trends

Mobility Application Testing §          Over the last few years, the volume of smartphone usages has increased considerably.  There are plethora of mobile handsets which run million of applications embedded in it.  Some of the application today are using power of cloud to communicate with the ERP system Testing as a Service (TaaS) §          This model involves the on-demand test execution of well-defined suites of test material, generally on outsourced basis.  The execution can be performed either on client site or remotely from the outsourced providers test lab / facilities. Analytics / BI (Business Intelligence) Testing §          Identifying issues related to data inconsistency, data quality, data security, failures in the extract, transform and load (ETL) process, performance related issues, accuracy of business flows and fitness for use from an end user perspective. Developers Converting As Testers §          Tester needs to be strong in both technical skills as well as indus