Well, I have all the charts done (I hope) for the upcoming conferences over the next few months.  Here is where I’ll be (you should be able to find more info on these with a web search)

CAST 2013 Aug 24 to 28 (Mobile and embedded testing tutorial)

SOFTec Asia 2013 Sept 2 to 5 (ISO29119, taxonomies, and exploratory testing)

XBOsoft Webinar Sept 26 (Mobile and embedded testing)

STARwest 2013 Sept 30 to oct 3 (Embedded and ISO29119)

IEEE Webinar Oct 7 (ISO29119 intro)

Software testing (embedded) conference in Bilbo Spain Oct 29-31 (Mobile and embedded Tutorial)

ISO 29119 WG26 meeting Nov 11 to 15 in Scotland

Gees, Seems I might be a little busy.  Also there will be an article in IEEE software and Crosstalk next year (more on these later).  Here is a reminder: Software test attacks to break mobile and embedded device release date: 9/26.

I hope to see people at these events.

So I did an interview about the upcoming book and the topic of mobile-embedded testing.  At is a nice basic intro to the topic kind of postings.    You can check it out at

http://blog.xbosoft.com/2013/08/05/embedded-software-testing-no-tolerance-for-errors/

We are working on several webinars, the web site (too long of a process), and conferences.  I am semi-retired and as my retired friends warned me, I am still too busy just like I was when I worked full time, but I am doing things I enjoy and have passion about.

Passion is necessary for all testers.  You really need to have this to allow you to focus on learning, practice, trying new things, and providing value added information to your stakeholders. If you are not passionate, you may be need to think about changing things.  Life is to short to “just work a job”.  Testing is a job, but it can be interesting and even for type “E” people exciting.  It just takes some work and risk taking (what new technique have you tried today?).

Later

A question I get often is what is the difference between mobile, embedded, and more traditional software testing, e.g. IT or PC?  I just did an interview for my upcoming book (publish due date Sept. 26, so watch for it).  This topic came up there and in a couple of lines of text we addressed it.  The book goes into more detail.  But I think I’d like to address it a little bit more here and later on our web site, which should go live before the book is public.

Besides reading me, one can Google to find things like Wikipedia that outline difference and these are pretty good.  And I think I say this in several places, but really I look at software domains as a continuum along a line or maybe multi-dimensional surface.  At one extreme you have large main frames and supercomputers.  These are big hardware and processing. Maybe at another extreme you have things like embedded microprocessors, FPGAs, and code on a chip (logic gates?). These are small and limited resources. In between you workstations, servers, PC, smart phones, and other devices which run software or can be programmed.  Maybe I should be working on a multi-dimensional picture.

Each of these share concepts and approaches in testing.  It is tempting to plan and conduct testing as if they are same because of what is common.  And certainly a lot of testing can be done in common using classic test techniques.  A tester would certainly find a lot of bugs and provide useful information just being “classic”. BUT, my research into taxonomies, which drive the upcoming book, showed some bugs patterns are more of an issue for mobile and embedded devices.  In my opinion, a good tester will consider such patterns in planning and executing tests for a specialized domain such as mobile or embedded.  My upcoming book provides such patterns (attacks) based on bugs.

Is it complete (meaning all bugs would be found)? No of course not and no test book or technique is.  Much thinking is still needed.  The nature of mobile and embedded are one aspect of context.  Remember: “It depends”.  More to come.

JDH

I just turn 60 yesterday.  It becomes a time for reflection.

I have been working with computers, software, and testing/V&V for 35 years.  They have changed.  We have moved from buying minutes on the CPU, punch cards for input, and big systems of 100,000 lines of code, to buying data transfer down loads, voice/GUI input, and smart phones with 12-20 million lines of code in them. It seems that everyone has a computer (or 2+) in the pocket.

But they are still buggy. Louis Black has a great bit on bugs in smart phones.  My wife swears at them.  I read articles that say “coders and companies still are not testing enough (at all?) before fielding the software”.  So maybe things have not changed that much.

My postings, book (September), and soon to be released web site offer attacks and test approaches that anyone can use.  For most of my 35 years, I have advised many of the same thoughts (test early, everyone tests, use many techniques, etc.)  Much of this is not new. Some people learn from our past and get better software. Some people do NOT learn from our past and reinvent the wheel over and over.  Which type of person are you?

So I continue, as the earlier Blog indicated, wanting to be careful with how much I blog.  Maybe that will change as I get more useful things to post.  This time I would like to mention where things are on several fronts.

1. ISO 29119 Software Testing Standard part 1, 2, and 3 have been approved by ISO.  I was IEEE project editor. It is a benchmark (for those that know about benchmarks they are useful for establishing where things are, but in the USA early land point benchmarks are known to be needing revision). IEEE and ISO will be releasing the software testing standard to general use in the coming weeks/months.  I hope people start looking it over and give us feedback.  There is work to be done.

2. My Book; all work is done except the cover.  Software Test Attacks to Break Mobile and Embedded Software (the book) should be out in the next few months.  We will have our web site up, class materials, and support info in the near future.  It has been a long trip getting it done.

3. Conferences: I will be attending a number of conferences starting in late August until Early November.  We’ll have more posting and info on those as well as some webinars.  Be watching for those details or contact me.  We will be at CAST, Softec Asia, STARwest, IEEE ISO29119 webinar, Embedded Software Testing (Spain), and ISO WG26 meeting.  Topics will be ISO29119, mobile and embedded testing, and general testing.  Hope to meet new friends at these meetings.

Life is busy in semi-retirement.

So it seems like we in the information society have constant information overload.  For years I have resisted some of this, but with the book coming out and me going into “retirement” (meaning I teach and consult on my own terms, so not “real” sitting on the beach retirement), I guess I will start being part of the overload.  I post. I blog.  I write.  I teach.  And in general contribute to the info sphere.  I hope it will be of value (a few well chose words are worth a million of nothing verbs).   I will grow slow.

Just wanted to let the world know that my book is about to go to press.  I am working with the final page proofs as of this writing. This book is a culmination of my 30+ years testing  experience working with mobile and embedded systems. I invite all testers or those who wish to enter the software/mobile/embedded testing field to take a look at my book and, hopefully, learn something new.

CRC/Chapman Hill is taking pre-press orders…Software Test Attacks to Break Mobile and Embedded Devices.

You found me here in WordPress!  You must have some interest in breaking mobile and/or embedded software–that’s why you went looking for info, such as my blog. Right?

Embedded software encompasses the kind of software where one is not really aware you are using software, but it runs much of the world of electronic devices–both large and small.  Mobile software is a close cousin to classic embedded software, since it has may of the “problems” of embedded, but adds features such as a GUI (graphical user interface) screen which can have bugs too. Mobile and embedded devices introduce many new software errors over the classic bugs found in large computers or PC. The kinds of bugs that “reside” in these devices can kill or make the world a better place. I hope to teach people (testers or wannabe testers) how to find the little suckers (bugs) and make the software and thus the devices more reliable or more secure.

To help with this follow the links to page which talks about my book.  Also we will have links to class and events which I’ll be at (see about Jon Hagar link). As time goes on we’ll offer online classes, both mine and other sources. We want interested parties to learn about testing mobile and embedded.  Enjoy.

OK, so let me know your thoughts and needs regarding breaking mobile and embedded software.  Drop me an email.  I’ll post the most interesting or challenging contexts here. This site has been quite for a while, but with books and classes coming available in 2013 and beyond, I’ll be having interesting blogs.  So check back often.