View source for Managing Quality Through the Entire Development Life Cycle

Facilitated by [http://timbishop.com/ Tim Bishop]

Tim will share his learnings and practices drawn from his rich experience in testing and supporting nonprofit software products.

=== Notes ===
''These are notes from Leo's session on quality''

QA
* is an insurance
** creates stability and quality
* can't be an afterthought
** needs to be part of the design and development process
* Example
** no new staffing at Empower, went form 1800 to 300 bugs
* Example:
** Went from 3 month cycle release to 1 month cycle
* saves many hours
* Time in testing or time in technical support

QA Team
* Core Based
* Customer 
* Sourceforge

Tools/Techniques
* Contiuous Integration Server !Important
** Automatic build/compiling testing
** Automated Test is run with Empty DB in Memory
** Unit Test
*** Smallest part
* Don't commit without running tests
* Test Driven Development
** Define Tests first
** Fail first, then develop that pass tests
* Code Coverage !important
** 80% must be solid (20% risk)
*** Drupal does 70%
* Types/Levels Testing
** Unit Testing
*** Example: Testing methods of objects
** Functional Testing
*** Often bugs are at this level.
** Integration Testing
** Different Layers
** Regression Testing
* Web Testing
** Start with blank DB
** TestNG (Java Tool)
*** Can drive web-sites
* All Automated Tests have to Pass before QA looks at it
** Often new features, no test written
** Simple Manual Tests First
*** Can ask a handful of people to run these simple tests
* Bahvioir Testing
** What should a method do (not the possibilities)
** Instead of Unit Test
* MOCK
** Mock Objects
* Cruise Control
** Sends info to IRC
* Hudson
* Ship Product with Test
** User can run Tests
** Email results of tests
* No Test, No Code
** If you can't write Unit Test, then don't write code
* Weekly Code Review
** Look at Unit Tests
* Test Harness
** Collection of Unit Tests
* To Start Testing
** Look at Bugs
*** Write a failing tests for the bug to recreate bug
* 3rd Party Integration
** Write Tests for their API
** Customers are not concerned with who broke what
* Start Testing from Base of Stack
** DB, Domain Object, Web Interface
* Offer Testing in Contract
** Support versus Testing hours
** Offer no testing and $500/mo support
** Offer testing and $100/mo support
* In open source community, its important to push for testing

Issues/Debates
* Getting QA started in organization
** How to write a Unit Testing
** Use Pre/Post Conditions
** Use of testing tools
** Creating value for QA (especially with development/engineering)
*** More valuable that engineering
* A lot of Overhead
* Tech Support is not QA

Agile
* QA works well with Agile-like process

Benefits
* Can find exact issues easier
** Saves many hours of time when looking for problems

Project Size
* Small
** Unit Testing
** Don't commit without passing
** Regression Testing
** Build in Test Harness
** OFten smaller projects are used in bigger projects
** Automating Project Setup, Common Tasks

Overall Quality
* More than just testing
* Tests are great, but there still needs to be in-person/manual quality checking
*