AUDIENCE:   The course is designed for test managers and software testers who intend to take up roles as test managers. PREREQUISITES:   A basic knowledge of software testing. The course is generic and not based on any software or hardware platform. DURATION:   3 days. Lecture presentations are supported by exercises allowing reinforcement of learning and enhancing the understanding process. OBJECTIVES:   If you develop and implement an effective test strategy, you can successfully manage software test efforts. Successful test management requires the same approach as successful project management - develop a sound strategy, keep in close touch with the situation, identify and aggressively manage the critical issues and modify the strategy as needed, based on situational feedback. The "trick" to test management is knowing the components of an effective test strategy, including feedback mechanisms, and recognising the critical issues as they surface. This course provides the essential framework for successful test management. It focuses on a number of areas - the development and management of a successful testing organisation and team, the development of an effective test strategy and an understanding of the processes of testing and the recognition of issues and their origin. At the end of the course attendees will be able to: - Understand the importance of management, leadership and team building. - Produce an effective and realistic test plan. - Monitor the status of testing activities and software products. - Make decisions regarding the use of metrics in the testing process. - Understand how to improve testing in a structured and incremental fashion. COURSE CONTENT:   Testing & Quality Why do we test, software quality, how do we test, when to start, when to stop, what do we test against, what do we test with, the test life-cycle, levels of test. The Test Organisation The roles of a test manager, leadership guidelines, motivation, ways to obtain buy-in, team organisation, choosing staff, test qualifications. Test Planning Contents of a test plan, risk analysis, test approach, test deliverables. Estimating and Scheduling Estimating techniques, test case estimation, scheduling, resource allocation, contingencies, re-planning. Test Design Test techniques (functional, structural, static and dynamic analysis), test design, test case and test procedure specification, testing without requirements. Test Automation Why automate, what to automate, cost of automation, return on investment, open source tools, issues with automation. Execution Management Test progress monitoring, defect tracking and analysis, test effectiveness, estimates of defects, when to stop testing, reporting. Metrics Process metrics, maintainability, usability, cost of finding and fixing defects. Test Process Improvement What is process improvement, Capability Maturity Model (CMM), model for test process improvement, test maturity matrix, checkpoints, improvement suggestions. JJ05/10