11.6. Exercises

Figures 11.9, 11.11, and 11.13 show three budgets for testing operations, one purely exploratory, one scripted manual, and one using both manual and automated scripts. Figures 11.10, 11.12, and 11.14 show the corresponding return on investment analyses for these budgets, using cost of quality. The source spreadsheet for these worksheets, "Exercise Speedy Writer Budget.xls" is also available at www.rexblackconsulting.com.

  1. Some common threads among the three projects are that each release will include 200 must-fix bugs that are either found and fixed during testing or delivered to the customers. In other words, we're not assuming any changes to the development process that would prevent defects. There will be quarterly maintenance releases and one major release every year. This allows you to amortize the test environment, test development, and any tools across three years, or 12 releases. For test engineer time, assume that half the time is spent developing tests or capturing testing done for later re-use, while the other half is spent in execution. Finally, assume that the test team is engaged from the start of the project in November. (Realistically, many major release projects would be longer than three months, but let's keep the exercise as simple as possible to focus on the key concepts.)

    • If you have two colleagues or fellow students available, take turns role-playing the test manager while the other two act as the skeptical project and executive managers. Present ...

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