Association for Software Testing

Last updated

The Association for Software Testing, commonly referred to as the AST, is dedicated to advancing the understanding of the science and practice of software testing according to context-driven principles. AST's membership consists of scholars, students and practitioners who are interested in the advancement of the field of software testing. The group was founded in the United States in 2004 by Cem Kaner.

Contents

AST has multiple objectives, including:

Conference

The AST's first conference, named "CAST" for the Conference of the Association for Software Testing, was held in Indianapolis, Indiana in 2006 and had the theme "Influencing the Practice".

Training

The AST offers a series of online training courses in black box software testing (BBST), based on videos from Florida Institute of Technology's Center for Software Testing Education & Research (CSTER) with additional study aids and support from live instructors.

The initial set of courses enhances materials developed under a series of grants from the National Science Foundation. These materials are used in traditional university courses and in courses for practitioners, such as those offered by AST. The AST courses run 4 weeks each and focus on a single topic or test technique. AST is planning new courses by additional instructors.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Software testing</span> Checking software against a standard

Software testing is the act of checking whether software satisfies expectations.

In software testing, test automation is the use of software separate from the software being tested to control the execution of tests and the comparison of actual outcomes with predicted outcomes. Test automation can automate some repetitive but necessary tasks in a formalized testing process already in place, or perform additional testing that would be difficult to do manually. Test automation is critical for continuous delivery and continuous testing.

In software engineering, a test case is a specification of the inputs, execution conditions, testing procedure, and expected results that define a single test to be executed to achieve a particular software testing objective, such as to exercise a particular program path or to verify compliance with a specific requirement. Test cases underlie testing that is methodical rather than haphazard. A battery of test cases can be built to produce the desired coverage of the software being tested. Formally defined test cases allow the same tests to be run repeatedly against successive versions of the software, allowing for effective and consistent regression testing.

A test script in software testing is a set of instructions that will be performed on the system under test to test that the system functions as expected.

In the field of human–computer interaction, a Wizard of Oz experiment is a research experiment in which subjects interact with a computer system that subjects believe to be autonomous, but which is actually being operated or partially operated by an unseen human being.

Exploratory testing is an approach to software testing that is concisely described as simultaneous learning, test design and test execution. Cem Kaner, who coined the term in 1984, defines exploratory testing as "a style of software testing that emphasizes the personal freedom and responsibility of the individual tester to continually optimize the quality of his/her work by treating test-related learning, test design, test execution, and test result interpretation as mutually supportive activities that run in parallel throughout the project."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Certification</span> Formal confirmation of certain characteristics of an object, person or organization

Certification is part of testing, inspection and certification and the provision by an independent body of written assurance that the product, service or system in question meets specific requirements. It is the formal attestation or confirmation of certain characteristics of an object, person, or organization. This confirmation is often, but not always, provided by some form of external review, education, assessment, or audit. Accreditation is a specific organization's process of certification. According to the U.S. National Council on Measurement in Education, a certification test is a credentialing test used to determine whether individuals are knowledgeable enough in a given occupational area to be labeled "competent to practice" in that area.

Cem Kaner is a professor of software engineering at Florida Institute of Technology, and the Director of Florida Tech's Center for Software Testing Education & Research (CSTER) since 2004. He is perhaps best known outside academia as an advocate of software usability and software testing.

In software engineering, graphical user interface testing is the process of testing a product's graphical user interface (GUI) to ensure it meets its specifications. This is normally done through the use of a variety of test cases.

Software Quality Management (SQM) is a management process that aims to develop and manage the quality of software in such a way so as to best ensure that the product meets the quality standards expected by the customer while also meeting any necessary regulatory and developer requirements, if any. Software quality managers require software to be tested before it is released to the market, and they do this using a cyclical process-based quality assessment in order to reveal and fix bugs before release. Their job is not only to ensure their software is in good shape for the consumer but also to encourage a culture of quality throughout the enterprise.

Dance science is the scientific study of dance and dancers, as well as the practical application of scientific principles to dance. Its aims are the enhancement of performance, the reduction of injury, and the improvement of well-being and health.

There is considerable variety among software testing writers and consultants about what constitutes responsible software testing. Proponents of a context-driven approach consider much of the writing about software testing to be doctrine, while others believe this contradicts the IEEE 829 documentation standard.

Language assessment or language testing is a field of study under the umbrella of applied linguistics. Its main focus is the assessment of first, second or other language in the school, college, or university context; assessment of language use in the workplace; and assessment of language in the immigration, citizenship, and asylum contexts. The assessment may include listening, speaking, reading, writing, an integration of two or more of these skills, or other constructs of language ability. Equal weight may be placed on knowledge and proficiency, or greater weight may be given to one aspect or the other.

Gray-box testing is a combination of white-box testing and black-box testing. The aim of this testing is to search for the defects, if any, due to improper structure or improper usage of applications.

James Marcus Bach is an American software tester, author, trainer, and consultant.

In computer programming and software testing, smoke testing is preliminary testing or sanity testing to reveal simple failures severe enough to, for example, reject a prospective software release. Smoke tests are a subset of test cases that cover the most important functionality of a component or system, used to aid assessment of whether main functions of the software appear to work correctly. When used to determine if a computer program should be subjected to further, more fine-grained testing, a smoke test may be called a pretest or an intake test. Alternatively, it is a set of tests run on each new build of a product to verify that the build is testable before the build is released into the hands of the test team. In the DevOps paradigm, use of a build verification test step is one hallmark of the continuous integration maturity stage.

ISO/IEC/IEEE 29119Software and systems engineering -- Software testing is a series of five international standards for software testing. First developed in 2007 and released in 2013, the standard "defines vocabulary, processes, documentation, techniques, and a process assessment model for testing that can be used within any software development lifecycle."

TechWell Corporation, was founded in 1986 by Bill Hetzel and David Gelperin as a consulting company to help organizations improve their software testing practices and produce higher quality software.

Ministry of Testing, also referred to as the MoT, is a global software testing community that was founded by Rosie Sherry, who was longlisted for most influential woman in UK tech by Computer Weekly in 2017 and 2018, as well as listed in the Female Founders 101 list by BusinessCloud. MoT started out as a UK-based internet forum for software testers and quickly grew into an independent business that provides software testing conferences and Meetups around the world, and an online learning platform dedicated to the craft of software testing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert France</span> Jamaica-born American computer scientist

Robert Bertrand France was a Jamaica-born American computer scientist.

References

  1. "A Professional Organization for Testers". Association for Software Testing. Retrieved 2022-11-01.