Daily Archives: 05/02/2012

Not so fast when it comes to testing in the cloud

Signs of a “Testpocalypse” loom on the horizon, Alberto Savoia (costumed as the Grim Reaper) told the audience. It was the keynote at the Google Test Automation Conference last October, where the theme was “Cloudy with a Chance of Tests.”

“Hiring and recruiting for testers is waaaay down. Testers are being commoditized, and there’s an exodus of test leadership,” he said. Finally, “More and more companies are shifting to ‘FrAgile’ post-agile ‘testing.’ ”

Indeed, outsourcing quality assurance is now the norm for 70% of respondents to the June 2011 World Quality Report conducted by Capgemini, HP and Sogeti. But cloud adoption is causing new demand for testing and QA, according to the survey.

“The day of the performance tester is going to come back,” said Kelly Emo, director of application product marketing for HP Software. “When you think about what cloud brings to the equation of testing, there are a couple of levels. For teams developing apps where part or all of it will be running in the cloud, that’s a whole new level of concerns across all three aspects of testing: functional, performance and security. The other level is, how can you harness the cloud to make you more effective as a tester?”

Savoia isn’t really a pessimist about testing, but he does see it as a rapidly changing field. Even the name “tester” is suspect, he said, and should be replaced by something new to reinvigorate awareness of the value of people who break software for a living.

According to Emo, “I think that what’s happening is that people are categorizing too much. More testers are becoming developers, and developers are becoming testers. Testers today have to know the fundamental architecture, or whether there are pieces running on iOS or Android hitting their app in the cloud. And to be more responsive to business, developers need to focus on regression testing, unit testing and basic functional testing so that testers can focus on high-value fringe cases, integration or end-to-end, and exploratory testing.”

Read More:

http://www.sdtimes.com/NOT_SO_FAST_WHEN_IT_COMES_TO_

TESTING_IN_THE_CLOUD/By_Alexandra_Weber_Morales/About_

CLOUD_and_TESTING/36327

Did you like this? Share it:

Microsoft now testing Skype for Windows Phone 7, could debut soon

After a surprisingly long delay, Windows Phone owners may soon be able to get their hands on a Skype app of their very own.

Microsoft is currently testing a near-final version of Skype for Windows Phone 7, and the company may be planning to launch the app at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona later this month, reports Tom Warren at the Verge.

Microsoft has been promising a Skype app for Windows Phone for some time. The app was originally targeted for a late 2011 launch, but it obviously missed that timeline. During CES, a Skype representative hinted that a Windows Phone app was “coming soon.”

According to Warren, the Skype app won’t offer any big surprises design-wise. But it’s expected to be heavily integrated in Windows Phone 8′s People Hub, which should make it easy to Skype your phone’s contacts.

If Microsoft handles the integration right, Skype on Windows Phone 8 could be even more useful and elegant than Apple’s FaceTime on the iPhone. And given that Microsoft spent $8.5 billion to acquire Skype, I’d imagine that the company would want to make the most of its investment.

Read More:

http://venturebeat.com/2012/02/03/skype-windows-phone-7/

Did you like this? Share it: