Regression Testing Without a QA team - Part I

Many of you work in an environment where there are no QA people assigned to your software product. So when a new version is released, it's usually up to the developers or other non-QA staff to make sure the release is ready.

Usually, this ends up being the same people spending a few days with the new version to make sure nothing seems wrong. But wouldn't it be better to have some insight into what parts of the system were tested and what parts weren't?

Let's walk through a basic strategy for getting some insight into how you want to not only test your product, but how you want to report on those results. Even QA people forget to think about how they want to report their results and end up with a 1200 page document that nobody reads.

For the examples, I'll suppose you are on the team that tests the Calculator application that comes with Windows OS and you are preparing to get it ready for Windows Vista based on the Windows XP version. There are no new visible features to speak of. But there is a new API, Themes, etc. to take into consideration.

Step 1 - Develop a model of the system functionality

There is no single way to do this, but here are some suggestions and considerations.

Think of the 'ilities'

• Usability
• Functionality
• Security
• Performance
• Release (Backwards-Compatibility/Upgrade/Installation)

Think of how the product is organized:

• Are there specific workflows that are helpful to use to organize the list of funcitonality?
• Would it be helpful to organize by screen/page/mode? If it's a website, is it helpful to organize functionality by web page? If it is a command-line applicaiton, is it helpful to organize by comand-line switch?
• If there are multiple components, is it helpful to organize by component (or group of components)?

Keep in mind, that you will usually have a blend of strategies in the end.

For the calculator example, we need to include the scientific and statistical functions.

List of System Functionality (aka Test Requirements)

Functionality

- Perform Standard Calculation

- Perform Additional Scientific Calculations

- Perform Additional Statistical Calculations

- Perform Support Functions

- Support Copy/Paste

- Support Digit Grouping Function

- "About" functionality changes for Vista

Usability

- Support OS Themes

- Support OS Color schemes

- Support OS Font Size settings

- Support 'each' Vista version

NOTE

But there's also a question of detail. You can list test requirements in varying degrees of detail. I've been on both sides of the equation. Too many requirements can be difficult to maintain. Too few details can tend to be useless. You will have to determine what makes sense to you and be prepared to make changes accordingly.

You will also want to think of how you want to report these issues. It may be helpful to use some subset of these test requirements to group test results. Again, this will be dependent on your needs.

Step 2 - Identify 'high risk' areas of functionality

Not all features are created equal. Some workflows are used daily and others are used infrequently. Those used daily likely pose a higher risk to the product if they don't work properly. So-called 'core functionality' is good candidate as well. You will want to come up with a scale for the risk rating. In addition to the scale, it may be helpful to identify the criteria used to justify this risk rating.

For our example, here is the risk rating we could use.

1 - Without this feature, the product would be rejected by the users

2 - Without this feature, the product would be used rarely by the users

3 - Without this feature, the product would be used, but with reservations

4 - Unlikely to affect usage of this product

Here is how we could apply the risk rating to our test requirements.

Functionality

- Perform Standard Calculation (risk - 1)

- Perform Additional Scientific Calculations (risk - 2)

- Perform Additional Statistical Calculations (risk - 2)

- Perform Support Functions

- Support Copy/Paste (risk - 3)

- Support Digit Grouping Function (risk - 4)

- "About" functionality changes for Vista (risk - 4)

Usability

- Support OS Themes (risk - 3)

- Support OS Color schemes (risk - 3)

- Support OS Font Size settings (risk - 3)

- Support 'each' Vista version (risk - 2)

NOTE

You will want to make sure that there is somewhat of an even distribution in your risk levels. Too many items in one level means that you'll want to discriminate further items at that level. We will use this risk rating later.

Wow, this is getting long. I'll post what I have now and pick up on this in a day or so.

OKC Professional Groups

I had an opportunity to attend Refresh OKC's July meeting. They are a group of web developers and designers that meet on topics that generally tie into their work, but don't limit themselves to striclty web design/development.

If this is of any interest to you, check out their website.

Also, there is a information security group DC405 that meets monthly. I haven't checked them out, but hope to in the next month or so.

What other groups would you recommend?

Meeting Announcement - Thursday, July 23rd 11:30am

Time and Location

The Red Earth QA's meeting will be held on the 3rd floor of 100 N. Broadway from 11:30am-1pm on Thursday, June 25th. Look for the signs to direct you to the correct room.

Topic

Frank Roland will talk about his quest to prove that his Soduku solving application works as it supposed to.

Directions

• You can park in Main Street Parking on Main or you can find street parking.
• From I-40, take the Robinson Exit. Go North on Robinson to Main. Right on Main. You can either go to Main Street Parking or continue to Santa Fe Parking. You will see 100 N Broadway on your left across Broadway. The building says 'Chase' at the top.

A Child's View of Debugging

This summer, a friend of mine asked me if my eight year old son would be interested in a Summer Robotics Club. Completely thinking of my son (wink wink), I agreed.

The group meets about every other weekend over the summer covering various topics such as basic theory of atoms, introductory programming and of course, assembling a robot from a kit.

It was my job to do several sessions on introductory programming skills. We used a program called Alice, a free tool for learning programming skills by building 3D animations and even some simple games.

The first session was to go through a tutorial of the User Interface and modify a simple pre-made animation. The second session was troubleshooting a 'broken' animation.

The 'broken' animation showed a top view of an airport, with a single car in the parking lot. The car attempts to drive around the airport, but it goes through the building at one point. It also goes 'too fast' at other times.

Here is one solution by one team of kids. Note that these two were nine years old.

Here are some observations from this solution. They were time-limited, and didn't quite finish.

- The car ends up going off the screen at a couple points
- The car speed issue wasn't addressed
- In the original animation, the car ended up at the exact same spot it started from. In each solution, including this one, the car ended up in a different location (even if just slightly).
- etc.

Overall, I saw some very familiar themes in the whole process. See if any of these sound familiar.

Kids
The car ends up going off the screen at a couple points
Adults
Some attempts at repair cause other issues, even if the attempts don't have any impact on the issue being solved.

Kids
The car speed issue wasn't addressed
Adults
Some bugs will never get fixed.

Kids
In the original animation, the car ended up at the exact same spot it started from. In each solution, including this one, the car ended up in a different location (even if just slightly).
Adults
Sometimes, we break existing functionality when we fix issues. Functionality that isn't listed as a requirement is the most succeptible.

Kids
Note the pause at the end of the video, followed by a short drive forward. This was an attempt to get the car closer to the original location.
Adults
Not all solutions are elegant. It may get the job done, but it could be done more easily.

Kids
Is this close enough?" was a question I got in regards to getting the car back to it's starting point.
Adults
While it may be possible to get an 'exact' solution, 'good enough' may be all that is done.

Kids
"Just a minute! I'm almost done!" was a protest I heard when I told them we needed to move on.
Adults
Debugging is difficult to estimate.
Everyone wants to do a good job and finish the task given.

Kids
In the beginning, changes were being made to the wrong part of the code. There wasn't a clear understanding of where the actual issue was. When a change was made to the wrong part of the code and the animation didn't change as they expected, they blamed the computer for not working right.
Adults
Sometimes we get stumped by a problem. We think we are doing the right thing, but we don't see any progress.

Overall, we had a great time. We still have more sessoins left, so there may be more stories.

Spec Explorer - Validate your model and generate tests

Sounds like a tall order. Let's start at the end result, and then go through how we get there.

The specification we are describing here is for a product I work on where we would like system administrators to send requests to users in the form of messages. For this example, we are only looking at the state transition diagram for the messages.

What does Spec Explorer Give Me?
The following diagram and tests were auto-generated based on the model specified for Spec Explorer.

For now, note that the tests below are labeled 'test segment 0', 'test segment 1' etc. and that the transitions From S0 to S3 represent 'State 0' and 'State 3' respectively. The diagram correctly describes these states and I'll describe how to understand how 'State 0' is associated with the name 'NotCreated' later in this blog entry.

While the diagram isn't the easiest to follow, some deference should be given since it was generated by the model created in the spec. However, you should be able to see that the message starts in a 'Not Created' state, then is moved to 'Pending' etc. until it is ultimately in the 'Deleted' state.

The transitions are the actions taken to move from one state to another such as 'UserViewMessage' and 'CreateMessage'.

The test suite shows how to move through each path of this state diagram. In this particular case, we are able to go through all paths because we don't have any loops (such as you would get if you could take a 'RejectedByClient' message and move it back to 'Pending').

If we had such a model, the test suites would be selected using strategies built into Spec Explorer and could be used as a basis for testing.

We can also use Spec Explorer to ensure that our models were complete and accurate before we sent our Specs for review.

Who is Spec Explorer for?

Anyone that writes specs, interprets specs or implements specs can make use of this.

Business Analysts - This can auto-generate use cases and diagrams as well as validate that the model you intend on having implemented is complete and accurate.

Quality Assurance - This can be used to build more extensive models along with more detailed data tracking to generate test cases.

Developers - This can be used to validate technical designs and auto-generate unit tests including basic validation of those tests.

Depending on your desire to dig into the capabilities, you will get more or less from this tool.

How do I get started?

You can get it from Spec Explorer Site at Microsoft Research as well and copy the spec sample below.

Once you have installed Spec Explorer and launch it, create a new project.

click 'Next'

Select the 'Create Directory for Project' checkbox and then Next.

Select the "AsmL (Plain Text)" Category and "Empty Program" Template and click the "Finish" button. One feature that should be mentioned here is that we can embed the markup language into the Word documents used for specs and it will work the same. Spec Explorer will embed MS Word into the file edit window and you can modify the spec as you would normally do.

Replace the default text with the following:

enum MESSAGE_STATUSES NotCreated Pending ReceivedByCaptureEngine ReceivedByClient ViewedByClient Completed RejectedByClient Deleted var status as MESSAGE_STATUSES = NotCreated [Action] CreateMessage () require status = NotCreated status := Pending [Action] CERequestMessage () require status = Pending status := ReceivedByCaptureEngine [Action] ClientRequestMessage () require status = ReceivedByCaptureEngine status := ReceivedByClient [Action] UserViewMessage () require status = ReceivedByClient status := ViewedByClient [Action] UserReject () require status = ViewedByClient status := RejectedByClient [Action] UserComplete () require status = ViewedByClient status := Completed [Action] UserDelete () require ((status<> NotCreated) and (status <> Deleted)) status := Deleted Main ()

There are 3 main parts to this spec. Variables and Constants, Actions and the 'Main()' statement.

In the Variables and Constants section for this example, we define the Message Status options and define a variable to keep track of the specific state for a given message.

In the Actions section, we describe each action to the message.

The 'Main()' statement is a necessary part for Spec Explorer to do it's anlaysis. More complex usage of the tool will use this, but not this example.

To generate the graph, we need to do a couple things. First, we'll 'build' a reference implementation of the specification. To do this, click 'Project' -> 'Build'. You'll see messages in the 'Output' tab. Note that in the output, you'll see a hint for each action described.

Next, we'll need to run this reference implementation to generate the diagram. To do this, click 'Execute' -> 'Run'.

You'll get the 'Select Execution Goal' dialog.

Select 'FSM Generation' then 'OK'. (FSM = Finite State Machine). Remember the S0 and S1 references from the tests generated earlier? Here is how they are seen by default. In order to make the diagram easier to read, we need to associate each state with some value, in this example, we'll associate it with the variable 'status'.

Right-click on the diagram and select 'Node Label' then 'Custom Expression'.

Now, we have the diagram we are looking for. Next, to generate the tests. Simply click 'Test' -> 'Generate Test Suites' and you get the list of tests listed above.

What are some juicy details that can't be covered here?

Using Word Documents with the AsmL Styles is a simple way to ensure that the model is tied to it's diagram and other analysis. You can publish the word document to a document repository and still be able to pull it back into Spec Explorer for future analysis.

There are several markup languages you can use to generate these models, AsmL language and Spec#.

There are other tools to use as well to build and evaluate these models, NModel , dia2fsm and others.

This is not a deep dive into this area, but I'm sure there will be cases where this is helpful.

Meeting Announcement - June 25th

NEWS
- We've moved our meeting to the 4th Thursday of each month


Time and Location

The Red Earth QA's meeting will be held on the 3rd floor of 100 N. Broadway from 11:30am-1pm on Thursday, June 25th. Look for the signs to direct you to the correct room.

Topic

Jeff Stanley from Metavante will talk about his role in building a Test Technology team to support various QA teams with new tools.

Directions

• You can park in Main Street Parking on Main or you can find street parking.
• From I-40, take the Robinson Exit. Go North on Robinson to Main. Right on Main. You can either go to Main Street Parking or continue to Santa Fe Parking. You will see 100 N Broadway on your left across Broadway. The building says 'Chase' at the top.

Book Review - "Essential Software Test Design"

Earlier this year, I wrote a review of "Essential Software Test Design" for the StickyMinds Website.

http://www.stickyminds.com

It's on the front page this week, and will be found in the archives after this week.

http://www.stickyminds.com/books.asp?ObjectId=1148&Function=FEATUREDETAIL&ObjectType=BOOK

Using Root Cause Analysis for Process Improvement

A few weeks ago, I discussed the idea of Root Cause Analysis. The approach there works well when you want to analyze each individual issue and mitigate it. If you start to do this often, you'll find that to be somewhat unweildy. Further, you may want to see trends in common root causes over a time period.

I'll discuss how to take this information and do some basic analysis to find trends. That trend information can help identify the most common causes and most common areas that cause issues.

In order to do this tracking we need to generalize and standardize some of the fields already tracked. For example, the specification of "Function" and "Cause" should come from their own respective lists. This will allow these to be grouped and each occurance counted for analysis. Additionally, you may want to add other aspects such as version, or sub-function to do analysis on.

If you plan on identifying multiple causes for a given issue, one way to identify that is to replicate the row in the spreadsheet for each subsequent cause so that one individual issue will have one row for each identified cause.

You can open a sample spreadsheet in OpenOffice format and follow along if you would like to see how to take this spreadsheet and do some basic analysis.

This is a sample of not just a single application, but multiple applications. The Root Cause Analysis has already been performed and we're ready for the analysis.

Let's assume we want to count the causes by application feature (called Issue Area in the spreadsheet). In Open Office, you want to use the "Data Pilot" feature. (In Excel, it's called Pivot Table and Pivot Chart).

You'll get the configuration for the Data Pilot (This is nearly exactly how Excel does it as well)

Drag the "Root Cause" button to the "Row fields" area, the "Issue Area" button to the "Column fields" area and Issue ID to the "Data Fields" area.

By default, Open Office wants to sum the data field, we'll want to change that to count, so when we click on the "data field" area, we are prompted to select the function we want to perform. Let's select 'count'.

I don't prefer the default graph, so I delete it, select the data fields without the totals and create a new graph of type 'stacked'.

I can repeat that for cause count by version, cause count by application, overall cause count, etc.

Once I have all my graphs, then I can look for the things that are in most need of change. From the graph above (and reading the issue spreadsheet attached), you'll see that there was a huge issue for login that caused all kinds of havoc. The login issue was related to the main domain server going down due to a faulty network card. Depending on your situation, this may or may not be something that can be mitigated by process change. However, it does give a sense of where the most issues lie and justifies the need for specific changes.

Good luck!

Free e-book (until May 27th) - Defect Prevention

A colleague of mine told me about this book. It is a free download (though requires a signup to Microsoft's training site). Here is an overview and link.


Body:

The Practical Guide to Defect Prevention

This practical, hands-on guide captures, categorizes, and builds a process of best practices to help avoid creating defects during the development process—rather than fixing them after extensive analysis.

The Practical Guide to Defect Prevention

Part I Introduction to Defect Prevention
1 Defect Prevention
2 Defect Prevention Frameworks
3 The Economics of Defect Prevention

Part II Defect Detection Techniques
4 Quality and the Development Process
5 Using Productivity Games to Prevent Defects
6 Improving the Testability of Software

Part III Defect Analysis Techniques
7 Software Measurement and Metrics
8 Risk Analysis
9 Using Simulation and Modeling for Organizational Innovation
10 Defect Taxonomies
11 Root Cause Analysis

Part IV Defect Prevention Techniques
12 Adopting Processes
13 FMEA, FTA, and Failure Modeling
14 Prevention Tab.

Part V A Culture of Prevention
15 Scenario Voting
16 Creating a Quality Culture
17 Moving Quality Upstream
18 Rewards, Motivation, and Incentives
19 Knowledge Management and Communication
20 Pulling It All Together

Meeting Announcement - May 28th

NEWS
- We've moved our meeting to the 4th Thursday this month. (It may be permanent)


Time and Location

The Red Earth QA's meeting will be held on the 3rd floor of 100 N. Broadway from 11:30am-1pm on Thursday, May 28th. Look for the signs to direct you to the correct room.

Topic

Michael Penny from Tek Systems will provide some insight into the local job market.

We have some unconfirmed additions as well. So come and be surprised!

Directions

• You can park in Main Street Parking on Main or you can find street parking.
• From I-40, take the Robinson Exit. Go North on Robinson to Main. Right on Main. You can either go to Main Street Parking or continue to Santa Fe Parking. You will see 100 N Broadway on your left across Broadway. The building says 'Chase' at the top.

Creating User Interfaces - Design Patterns

Do your users complain about your application, even though it gets the job done?

Are you asked to 'spice it up' or make it 'Web 2.0-ish'?

Well Design Patterns are for you! Here are some helpful links (though you can find your own easily) to inspire design of User Interfaces.

 

http://developer.yahoo.com/ypatterns/

http://ui-patterns.com/

http://www.uidesignpatterns.org/designPatterns

http://uipatternfactory.com/

 

For example, UI-Patterns.com lists these patterns among many.

 

Inline Input Adder
Minimize the amount of input fields by allowing the user to add more input fields if he needs them.

 

Undo
Give the user an option to easily undo an action.

 

Edit-In-Place
Use a dynamic text editor to allow the user to edit text

directly “in-place”.

 

Primary & Secondary Actions
Match the visual presentation of actions to their importance to get users through a form as quickly as possible.

 

Inline Suggestions
Help the users to give an answer by suggesting valid answers from which to pick from.

 

Carousel
Show thumbnail images of items on a scrolling menu, which allows users to browse through them.

 

Starting With Root Cause Analysis (and mitigation)

Root cause analysis doesn't have its roots in Software. It was originaly applied to manufacturing processes and has been adapted to Software defects. 

One approach is to list known causes (defect in requirements, defect in design, defect in coding, defect in testing, defect in environment, etc.) and associate each defect with that cause. That is not what I'll be doing here.

I'll be discussing going through a thought experiment for some subset of failures to determine what is likely a series of root causes and how to manage that long-term to make your product better by learning from your team's mistakes. 

First, it's likely that you only have the bandwidth to do this for a relatively few items and it's important to pick those items well. One excellent candidate is user-reported bugs that are deemed 'critical' (Hopefully, you have some reasonable way to do this). In all cases, it's helpful for the bug being analyzed to be fixed and be verified as fixed. 

Then for each defect, record the following: (This is my list, and can be suited to your needs)

• ID  / title - This comes from your bug tracking system and is used to clearly identify what issue is being discussed
  
• Function -  This is the actual system capability that failed and it may be part of a formal list of system capabilities or may be some general statement such as 'Detailed Data Display'
• Effect -  This is the impact to the user or some discoverable impact to the system.  It may or may not be the same as your title, depending on your defect report standards. A good example would be 'User unable to log in after changing to a long password'
  
• Failure -  This is a description of the behavior or design where what was implemented differs from the expectations. It may or may not be the same as your title, depending on your defect report standards. Often, it is more detailed than the Effect and may require some code or environment analysis to clarify.  A good example of this is 'Users are able to create new passwords that are more than 45 characters long, but any password longer than that will not be validated successfully'
• Notes - This is you can discuss any historical / contextual information that doesn't fit elsewhere, but that would be helpful if reviewed in the future. An example could be "This appears to be an issue that has existed since the product's first release, before we did formalized testing"
• Cause(s) -  This is where you apply one of several techniques. Rather than go into them here, you can read about Ishikawa Diagrams and make a Pareto Chart to fill out the next steps. There are other related topics you can apply to fill out this section if you find they suit your needs better.
• Recommended Actions - If you created a Pareto chart, you have the highest contributors to the cause at the top of your list of causes. You work your way down the list to address items insofar as they are helpful. It's likely that some of the causes will need to be left as continued exposure to risk if the cost to implement is not acceptable.
• Responsibility - Not only do you identify actions, but you need to assign them to someone. If you have other methods of assigning work, you can simply refer to that here. For now, we'll assume that this spreadsheet is used to track these items.
• Target Completion Date - The person that is responsible for completing this action should come up with some acceptable date to complete this. Record that date here.
• Action Taken - In the end, it's possible that the action isn't exactly what was targeted. If different, record here.
• Date Action Taken - Record the date that the action was completed so that you can focus only on the items that are not completed.

There is an implied workflow here. On some schedule, you will need to update this list (unless you are doing this as a one-time exercise). Once you have assigned actions, you will need to follow up with people to ensure they are complete or that if any changes need to be made, that those changes are made and that the mitigation is complete.

In addition to online resources regarding root cause analysis, you can also look for classroom training.

Fun Bugs

Have you ever found a bug that you had to say "Hey! Lookit!"? Most of the ones like this I find are only of interest to my team. However, here is a link to bugs found (and fixed) along with a discussion of each.

18 Embarrassing Game AI Bugs

Old-school programming techniques you probably don't miss

Computer World has an article on techniques you rarely need to consider for so-called 'modern' computer systems.

Among those listed are
- hand-coded sorting algorithms
- GUI elements
- self-modifying code (this is particularly interesting for anyone under 40)
- punch cards
- pointer math
- and much more...

The article is well-written and a fun read. From a QA perspective, the 'other shoe' aspect is that these no longer need to be tested. Whew!

Call for Bloggers

If you are interested in blogging on this site, please send us an email at redearthqa@sbcglobal.net.

If selected, we will ask that you commit to a regular schedule and be subject to editorial approval for a short trial period.

Testing Without a QA Team

Yikes! That sounds like heresy! Regardless, it's the position that many developers find themselves in. Typically, this is for internal applications or small-ish products. There is no easy justification to hire a dedicated person (let alone a whole team) to do the QA. That doesn't mean that testing can't be done.

Here are some tips from a book "Beta Testing for Better Software" by Michael R. Fine on approaching the testing effort when there are no full-time QA assigned to the product.

• Start with a usable test product
  Even if you have a list of known issues, if you can describe them clearly you can avoid unnecessary churn.
  
• Target actual users
  Find people that not only know the domain for which the product is intended for, but also someone that is able to think clearly and provide good feedback.
• Be sure you are mentally ready for the feedback
  You may have to ask for clarification for bugs that are reported. Users are not experienced in writing bug reports and likely cannot do any sort of analysis on what the root cause is.
• Be sure your schedule is ready for the feedback
  The users that are helping with the feedback will be more likely to provide feedback if they feel that their issues are addressed quickly. If there is a server portion that is offline for several hours, users may loose confidence in the product. Knowing that it's down and reacting to that quickly is good. If there is a simple fix you can provide, be ready to send that out as appropriate. Even better, plan on updates to the software as a result of the beta testing so that the users can see the improvement (and have some pride knowing that they contributed to this)
• Have a clear plan
  Knowing how many users is one thing. Clearly guiding them on what new features they should be focusing on or bug fixes to verify is important. You should also have a clear timeframe in which to ask for this feedback.
• Identify what success looks like
  How do you know if the beta test was successful? How do you know that the new features have been sufficiently exercised? How do you know that your participants provided some value? How do you plan on addressing these issues before you leave 'Beta'? How does this beta compare to previous betas?

The book goes into more details and I encourage you to read it. Even if you have a full-time QA staff, this book provides some insight into how Beta testing can be used effectively within your current processes.

Meeting Announcement - April 16th, 2009

Time and Location
The Red Earth QA's meeting will be held on the 3rd floor of 100 N. Broadway from 11:30am-1pm on Thursday, April 16th. Look for the signs to direct you to the correct room.

Topic

Sky IT Group will be presenting Quality Center 10 new features.

Requirements Management Only License – enables business analyst & owners to leverage QC to create a central location for requirements management, versioning and reuse.
Versioning - Manage project chaos by versioning requirements, tests and components.
Integrated dashboard module.
New Baseline Functionality - Capture project assets at critical stages with new baselining functionality.
Risk Based Quality Management - Enhanced Risk Based Quality Management with testing effort.
Quality Center Premier Edition.
a Reuse of Requirement / Tests across Projects.
b Defect sharing across Projects.
c Integrated dashboard module across Projects.

The presenter, Sky IT Group will be providing Subway for lunch.
We need a response by Wednesday 8:00 am only if you plan to attend for lunch at 11:30.

Can't attend in Person?

phone dial-in (877) 848-7030

code 8218181

Join the meeting

Computer Audio
To use computer audio, you need speakers and a microphone, or a headset.

First-Time Users
Make sure the Office Live Meeting client is installed before the meeting:

Troubleshooting
Unable to join the meeting? Launch the Office Live Meeting client and join the meeting with the following information:
Meeting ID: 253cc236575a4d95b7662f69832764d9
Entry Code: sYj1ys9uweq
Location: meet:sip:Bill.Rice@dvn.com;gruu;opaque=app:conf:focus:id:253cc236575a4d95b7662f69832764d9%3Fconf-key=sYj1ys9uweq

Notice
Office Live Meeting can be used to record meetings. By participating in this meeting, you agree that your communications may be monitored or recorded at any time during the meeting.

Directions

• You can park in Main Street Parking on Main or you can find street parking.
• From I-40, take the Robinson Exit. Go North on Robinson to Main. Right on Main. You can either go to Main Street Parking or continue to Santa Fe Parking. You will see 100 N Broadway on your left across Broadway. The building says 'Chase' at the top.

Meeting Announcement - March 19th

Time and Location
The Red Earth QA's meeting will be held on the 3rd floor of 100 N. Broadway from 11:30am-1pm on Thursday, March19th. Look for the signs to direct you to the correct room.

Topic
Randy Rice will be giving us a preview of his StarEast presentation on Dashboards. Randy is local to the Oklahoma City area and travels internationally to consult with companies regarding their development and testing processes and provide training in many areas including Quality Assurance.

http://riceconsulting.com/home/

Can't attend in Person?

dial-in number: 877 848- 7030
passcode: 8218181

Directions

• You can park in Main Street Parking on Main or you can find street parking.
• From I-40, take the Robinson Exit. Go North on Robinson to Main. Right on Main. You can either go to Main Street Parking or continue to Santa Fe Parking. You will see 100 N Broadway on your left across Broadway. The building says 'Chase' at the top.

Meeting Announcement - February 19th

Time and Location
The Red Earth QA's meeting will be held on the 3rd floor of 100 N. Broadway from 11:30am-1pm on Thursday, February 19th. Look for the signs to direct you to the correct room.

Topic
Sonata will be doing an online meeting showing their automation framework that ties into Quick Test Pro.

Can't attend in Person?

Here are the details for online access.

When: Thursday, Feb 19, 2009 12:00 Noon (CST)

Duration: 1:00

https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/sonata/join?id=CCM7DP&role=attend&pw=4%7C%3AtT%5Bf%262

Meeting time: Feb 19, 2009 12:00 Noon (CST)

Add to my Outlook Calendar:

https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/sonata/meetingICS?id=CCM7DP&role=attend&pw=4%7C%3AtT%5Bf%262&i=i.ics

AUDIO INFORMATION

-Telephone conferencing

Use the information below to connect:

Toll: +1 (218) 486-3850

Participant code: 331404#

FIRST-TIME USERS

To save time before the meeting, check your system to make sure it is

ready to use Microsoft Office Live Meeting.

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=90703

TROUBLESHOOTING

Unable to join the meeting? Follow these steps:

1. Copy this address and paste it into your web browser:

https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/sonata/join

2. Copy and paste the required information:

Meeting ID: CCM7DP

Entry Code: 4|:tT[f&2

Location: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/sonata

If you still cannot enter the meeting, contact support:

http://r.office.microsoft.com/r/rlidLiveMeeting?p1=12&p2=en_US&p3=LMInfo&p4=support

NOTICE

Microsoft Office Live Meeting can be used to record meetings.

By participating in this meeting, you agree that your communications

may be monitored or recorded at any time during the meeting.

Directions

• You can park in Main Street Parking on Main or you can find street parking.
• From I-40, take the Robinson Exit. Go North on Robinson to Main. Right on Main. You can either go to Main Street Parking or continue to Santa Fe Parking. You will see 100 N Broadway on your left across Broadway. The building says 'Chase' at the top.

Meeting Announcement - January 15th

Time and Location
The Red Earth QA's meeting will be held on the 3rd floor of 100 N. Broadway from 11:30am-1pm on Thursday, January 15th. Look for the signs to direct you to the correct room.

Topic
Software Development Technologies will be discussing their offerings.

Can't attend in Person?
dial-in number: 877 848- 7030
passcode: 8218181

Directions

• You can park in Main Street Parking on Main or you can find street parking.
• From I-40, take the Robinson Exit. Go North on Robinson to Main. Right on Main. You can either go to Main Street Parking or continue to Santa Fe Parking. You will see 100 N Broadway on your left across Broadway. The building says 'Chase' at the top.

Meeting Announcement - December 18th

Time and Location
The Red Earth QA's meeting will be held on the 3rd floor of 100 N. Broadway from 11:30am-1pm on Thursday, December 18th. Look for the signs to direct you to the correct room.

Topic
This is our annual Christmas (or Holiday) Meeting. Please bring your favorite seasonal snack or non-alcoholic beverage to share.

During the meeting, we will review the past year and plan for the coming year.

Can't attend in Person?
dial-in number: 877 848- 7030
passcode: 8218181

Directions

• You can park in Main Street Parking on Main or you can find street parking.
• From I-40, take the Robinson Exit. Go North on Robinson to Main. Right on Main. You can either go to Main Street Parking or continue to Santa Fe Parking. You will see 100 N Broadway on your left across Broadway. The building says 'Chase' at the top.

Meeting Announcement - November 20th

Time and Location
The Red Earth QA's meeting will be held on the 3rd floor of 100 N. Broadway from 11:30am-1pm on Thursday, November 20th. Look for the signs to direct you to the correct room.

Topic
Chris Busby from Devon will be showing us Silk Performer.

Can't attend in Person?
dial-in number: 877 848- 7030
passcode: 8218181

Directions

• You can park in Main Street Parking on Main or you can find street parking.
• From I-40, take the Robinson Exit. Go North on Robinson to Main. Right on Main. You can either go to Main Street Parking or continue to Santa Fe Parking. You will see 100 N Broadway on your left across Broadway. The building says 'Chase' at the top.

Meeting Announcement - October 16th

Time and Location
The Red Earth QA's meeting will be held on the 3rd floor of 100 N. Broadway from 11:30am-1pm on Thursday, October 16th. Look for the signs to direct you to the correct room.

Topic
Frank Rowland will finish his discussion of Dr. Edward Deming's 14 principles of quality. Dr. Deming is considered one of the pioneers in establishing quality-based practices in many disciplines, including software quality assurance.

Can't attend in Person?
dial-in number: 877 848- 7030
passcode: 8218181

Directions

• You can park in Main Street Parking on Main or you can find street parking.
• From I-40, take the Robinson Exit. Go North on Robinson to Main. Right on Main. You can either go to Main Street Parking or continue to Santa Fe Parking. You will see 100 N Broadway on your left across Broadway. The building says 'Chase' at the top.

Meeting Announcement - September 18th

Time and Location
The Red Earth QA's meeting will be held on the 3rd floor of 100 N. Broadway from 11:30am-1pm on Thursday, September 18th. Look for the signs to direct you to the correct room.

Topic
Frank Rowland will discuss Dr. Edward Deming's 14 principles of quality. Dr. Deming is considered one of the pioneers in establishing quality-based practices in many disciplines, including software quality assurance.

Can't attend in Person?
dial-in number: 877 848- 7030
passcode: 8218181

Directions

• You can park in Main Street Parking on Main or you can find street parking.
• From I-40, take the Robinson Exit. Go North on Robinson to Main. Right on Main. You can either go to Main Street Parking or continue to Santa Fe Parking. You will see 100 N Broadway on your left across Broadway. The building says 'Chase' at the top.

Training Course in OKC by Rice Consulting, November 4-5 2008!

Innovative Techniques for Software Testing
This workshop is designed for software and testers, test team leaders, and software developers who want to learn new and innovative ways to perform software testing. The topics covered in this workshop are appropriate for any level of testing knowledge and experience, from foundation to advanced levels. You will learn new and innovative techniques for software testing. This is also a great course to bring developers to!

This workshop is 50% lecture and 50% interactive labs where you will be able to practice with others the techniques covered in the lectures.

Your instructor will be Randy Rice, a recognized trainer and consultant in the field of software testing and a member of the Board of Directors of the American Software Testing Qualifications Board (ASTQB).

Course Location

Downtown Oklahoma City
Devon Energy Corporation
20 North Broadway
Oklahoma City, OK 73102-8260

Detailed directions will be e-mailed to registered attendees.

How to Register

You can register at http://www.mysoftwaretesting.com.

Space is limited to 20 people and the availability is first-come, first-served.

Course Details

You can see a complete outline at:

http://www.riceconsulting.com/training/innovative-software-testing-approaches.htm

Questions?

You can e-mail any questions to webrequest@riceconsulting.com.

Meeting Announcement - August 21st

Time and Location
The Red Earth QA's meeting will be held on the 3rd floor of 100 N. Broadway from 11:30am-1pm on Thursday, August 21st. Look for the signs to direct you to the correct room.

Topic
We will have a Business Analyst discuss Quality from a BA perspective.

Can't attend in Person?
dial-in number: 877 869-2112
passcode: 6595084

Directions

• You can park in Main Street Parking on Main or you can find street parking.
• From I-40, take the Robinson Exit. Go North on Robinson to Main. Right on Main. You can either go to Main Street Parking or continue to Santa Fe Parking. You will see 100 N Broadway on your left across Broadway. The building says 'Chase' at the top.

Meeting Announcement - July 17th, 2008

Time and Location
The Red Earth QA's meeting will be held on the 3rd floor of 100 N. Broadway from 11:30am-1pm on Thursday, July 17th. Look for the signs to direct you to the correct room.

Topic
We will have a presentation by VMWare on Lab Manager via WebEx.

They are providing lunch, so contact us at redearthqa@sbcglobal.net if you'd like to attend and meet other QA professionals!

Can't attend in Person?

Please click the following link to see more information about the meeting, including its agenda, or to join the meeting.
https://vmware.webex.com/vmware/j.php?J=924025108

Teleconference: 1-877-647-3411

Participant # 411667


Directions

• You can park in Main Street Parking on Main or you can find street parking.
• From I-40, take the Robinson Exit. Go North on Robinson to Main. Right on Main. You can either go to Main Street Parking or continue to Santa Fe Parking. You will see 100 N Broadway on your left across Broadway. The building says 'Chase' at the top.

Meeting Announcement - June 19, 2008

Time and Location
The Red Earth QA's meeting will be held on the 3rd floor of 100 N. Broadway from 11:30am-1pm on Thursday, June 19th. Look for the signs to direct you to the correct room.

Topic
We're still finalizing the speaker for this meeting. We hope you will join us!

Directions

• You can park in Main Street Parking on Main or you can find street
  parking.
• From I-40, take the Robinson Exit. Go North on Robinson to Main. Right on
  Main. You can either go to Main Street Parking or continue to Santa Fe Parking.
  You will see 100 N Broadway on your left across Broadway. The building says
  'Chase' at the top.

Meeting Announcement - May 15th, 2008

Time and Location
The Red Earth QA's meeting will be held on the 3rd floor of 100 N. Broadway from 11:30am-1pm on Thursday, May 15th. Look for the signs to direct you to the correct room.

Topic
Microsoft will be presenting Visual Studio Team Test Edition, the load test agent as well as cover where the product is going in future versions.

Can't Attend in Person? (Note: this is changed for this month)
Toll-free: +1 (866) 500-6738
Toll: +1 (203) 480-8000
Participant code: 2333987

Directions

• You can park in Main Street Parking on Main or you can find street
  parking.
• From I-40, take the Robinson Exit. Go North on Robinson to Main. Right on
  Main. You can either go to Main Street Parking or continue to Santa Fe Parking.
  You will see 100 N Broadway on your left across Broadway. The building says
  'Chase' at the top.

Meeting Announement - April, 17th

Time and Location
The Red Earth QA's meeting will be held on the 3rd floor of 100 N. Broadway from 11:30am-1pm on Thursday, April, 17th. Look for the signs to direct you to the correct room.

Topic
Testing Nightmares and Turnarounds
Randy Rice, CSTE, CSQA, CTFL
Rice Consulting Services, Inc.

It’s good to learn from your own mistakes, but even better to learn from the mistakes of others. Randy Rice presents case studies of testing projects that have gone horribly wrong and the one characteristic they all have in common. Although many of these projects ultimately ended in failure, Randy will present examples where corrective actions were very successful.

You will learn lessons that address test team organization, test environment design, working with software developers, test outsourcing, test tool integration, team building and the importance of strong management leadership in the success of your testing. You will also learn what is needed to turn around testing projects that are headed toward failure and how to become an agent for change. Test team leaders and managers will learn mistakes to avoid and where to focus your efforts in leading test teams to get the best results.

• Learn how to avoid mistakes in testing projects that can place the entire project at risk
• Learn how to take corrective actions that have a positive effect on the success of your test team
• Learn the most critical areas in which to focus your testing efforts to avoid a testing nightmare

Can't Attend in Person?
dial-in number: 877
869-2112
passcode: 6595084

Directions

• You can park in Main Street Parking on Main or you can find street
  parking.
• From I-40, take the Robinson Exit. Go North on Robinson to Main. Right on
  Main. You can either go to Main Street Parking or continue to Santa Fe Parking.
  You will see 100 N Broadway on your left across Broadway. The building says
  'Chase' at the top.

Meeting Announcement - February 21st 2008

Time and Location
The Red Earth QA's meeting will be held on the 3rd floor of 100 N. Broadway from 11:30am-1pm on Thursday, February 21st. Look for the signs to direct you to the correct room.

Topic
This month we will be discussing Difficult Discussions.

QA is often in a position of asking hard questions and delivering unpleasant news. This topic will go over some of the pitfalls to avoid as well as tips on how to approach these discussions.

Can't Attend in Person?
dial-in number: 877
869-2112
passcode: 6595084

Directions

• You can park in Main Street Parking on Main or you can find street
  parking.
• From I-40, take the Robinson Exit. Go North on Robinson to Main. Right on
  Main. You can either go to Main Street Parking or continue to Santa Fe Parking.
  You will see 100 N Broadway on your left across Broadway. The building says
  'Chase' at the top.

Meeting CANCELLED - January 17, 2008

Sorry for the late notice. There will be no January Meeting.

Time and Location
The Red Earth QA's meeting will be held
on the 3rd floor of 100 N. Broadway from 11:30am-1pm on Thursday, January 17th.
Look for the signs to direct you to the correct room.

Topic
This month we will be discussing Difficult
Discussions.

QA is often in a position of asking hard questions and
delivering unpleasant news. This topic will go over some of the pitfalls to
avoid as well as tips on how to approach these discussions.

Can't Attend in Person?
dial-in number: 877
869-2112
passcode: 6595084

Directions

• You can park in Main Street Parking on Main or you can find street
  parking.
• From I-40, take the Robinson Exit. Go North on Robinson to Main. Right on
  Main. You can either go to Main Street Parking or continue to Santa Fe Parking.
  You will see 100 N Broadway on your left across Broadway. The building says
  'Chase' at the top.

Meeting Announcement - December 20, 2007

Time and Location
The Red Earth QA's meeting will be held on the 3rd floor of 100 N. Broadway from 11:30am-1pm on Thursday, December 20th. Look for the signs to direct you to the correct room.

Topic
This month, Sonata Software will present their SonnetTEST functional testing framework.

Can't Attend in Person?
dial-in number: 877 869-2112
passcode: 6595084

Directions

• You can park in Main Street Parking on Main or you can find street parking.
• From I-40, take the Robinson Exit. Go North on Robinson to Main. Right on Main. You can either go to Main Street Parking or continue to Santa Fe Parking. You will see 100 N Broadway on your left across Broadway. The building says 'Chase' at the top.

November Presentation Materials

The presentation and samples can be downloaded for the Quickstart Guide to Pairwise testing for the November meeting.

Meeting Announcement - November 15th 2007

Time and Location
The Red Earth QA's meeting will be held on the 3rd floor of 100 N. Broadway from 11:30am-1pm on Thursday, November 15th. Look for the signs to direct you to the correct room.

Topic
This month's topic will be 'Quickstart to Pairwise Testing'

Can't Attend in Person?
dial-in number: 877 869-2112
passcode: 6595084

Directions

• You can park in Main Street Parking on Main or you can find street parking.
• From I-40, take the Robinson Exit. Go North on Robinson to Main. Right on Main. You can either go to Main Street Parking or continue to Santa Fe Parking. You will see 100 N Broadway on your left across Broadway. The building says 'Chase' at the top.

Meeting Announcement - October 18th, 2007

Time and Location
The Red Earth QA's meeting will be held on the 3rd floor of 100 N. Broadway from 11:30am-1pm on Thursday, October 18th. Look for the signs to direct you to the correct room.

Topic
Robert will discuss the article "Clearing the Testing Minefield" by Donna O’Neill.

Can't Attend in Person?
dial-in number: 877 869-2112
passcode: 6595084

Directions

• You can park in Main Street Parking on Main or you can find street parking.
• From I-40, take the Robinson Exit. Go North on Robinson to Main. Right on Main. You can either go to Main Street Parking or continue to Santa Fe Parking. You will see 100 N Broadway on your left across Broadway. The building says 'Chase' at the top.

Meeting Announcement - September 20th

Time and Location
The Red Earth QA's meeting will be held on the 3rd floor of 100 N. Broadway from 11:30am-1pm on Thursday, August 16th. Look for the signs to direct you to the right room.

Topic
We will be having CompuWare to discuss their products and services.

Can't Attend in Person?
dial-in number: 877 869-2112
passcode: 6595084

Directions

• You can park in Main Street Parking on Main or you can find street parking.
• From I-40, take the Robinson Exit. Go North on Robinson to Main. Right on Main. You can either go to Main Street Parking or continue to Santa Fe Parking. You will see 100 N Broadway on your left across Broadway. The building says 'Chase' at the top.

Meeting Announcement - August 16, 2007

Time and Location
Red Earth QA's August meeting will be held on the 3rd floor of 100 N. Broadway from 11:30am-1pm on Thursday, August 16th. Look for the signs to direct you to the right room.

Topic
We will anounce the topic at the meeting. Sorry for not having those details for the meeting announcemnet.

Can't Attend in Person?
dial-in number: 877 869-2112passcode: 6595084

Directions

• You can park in Main Street Parking on Main or you can find street parking.
• From I-40, take the Robinson Exit. Go North on Robinson to Main. Right on Main. You can either go to Main Street Parking or continue to Santa Fe Parking. You will see 100 N Broadway on your left across Broadway. The building says 'Chase' at the top.

Slides for July Meeting

The topic for July's meeting has changed. Robert will be providing a preview of his StarWest presentation "Top 10 signs you need to update your QA processes". If you will be joining by phone today, you can download the slides here.

Meeting Announcement - August 19th

Time and Location
Red Earth QA's May meeting will be held on the 3rd floor of 100 N. Broadway from 11:30am-1pm on Thursday, July 19th. Look for the signs to direct you to the right room.

Topic
Bill Rice will discuss setting up a Quality Center of Excellence.

Can't Attend in Person?
dial-in number: 877 869-2112
passcode: 6595084

Directions- You can park in Main Street Parking on Main or you can find street parking.
- From I-40, take the Robinson Exit. Go North on Robinson to Main. Right on Main. You can either go to Main Street Parking or continue to Broadway. You will see 100 N Broadway on your left across Broadway. The building says 'Chase' at the top.

Meeting Announcement, June 21st noon.

Time and Location
Red Earth QA's May meeting will be held on the 3rd floor of 100 N. Broadway from noon-1pm on Thursday, June 21st. Look for the signs to direct you to the right room.

Lunch will likely start about noon so as not to interfere with the ISTQB Certification course. Please RSVP by Tuesday, June 19th.

Topic
Since this is during the ISTQB Certification at Devon, we will have a look at the lighter side of QA presented by Dwain Avance from Metavante.

Can't Attend in Person?
We will have teleconferencing available in a separate email.

Directions- You can park in Main Street Parking on Main or you can find street parking.
- From I-40, take the Robinson Exit. Go North on Robinson to Main. Right on Main. You can either go to Main Street Parking or continue to Broadway. You will see 100 N Broadway on your left across Broadway. The building says 'Chase' at the top.

Meeting Announcement, Thursday, May 17th / funny stuff

Time and Location
Red Earth QA's May meeting will be held on the 3rd floor of 100 N. Broadway from 11:30-1pm on Thursday, May 17th. Look for the signs to direct you to the right room.

Lunch will be available starting at 11:30 for those that can come early. Lunch will still be available during the meeting. Please RSVP by Tuesday, May 15th.

This month, lunch will be provided by Metavante.

Topic
We will be continuing our professional development series.

Can't Attend in Person?
We will have teleconferencing available in a separate email.

Directions- You can park in Main Street Parking on Main or you can find street parking.
- From I-40, take the Robinson Exit. Go North on Robinson to Main. Right on Main. You can either go to Main Street Parking or continue to Broadway. You will see 100 N Broadway on your left across Broadway. The building says 'Chase' at the top.

Funny Stuff
Robert has started a comic strip for anyone working with QA, "So Quiet, Actually", which will be updated weekly.

QA Training and Certification in OKC, June 20-22nd!

We're excited to announce an excellent training and certification opportunity to be held in Oklahoma City. Randy Rice is coordinating with Red Earth QA to offer a training/certification course in Oklahoma City. Please see the flyer and/or his website for complete information.

If you have any questions, you can reply to redearth@sbcglobal.net or ask Randy Rice directly at rrice@riceconsulting.com.

Also, send this to others you know that may be interested:
- Developers
- Project Managers
- Business Analysts
- Support Personnel

April Presentation Slides

During the April meeting, Jeff Stanley discussed how he has changed the format and content of the QA Staff meetings. He has provided the slides for you to download.

Meeting Announcement, Thursday, April 19th

Time and Location
Red Earth QA's next meeting will be held on the 3rd floor of 100 N. Broadway in the 3rd floor from 11:30-1pm on Thursday, April 19th. Look for the signs outside the elevators to direct you to the right room.

Lunch will be available starting at 11:30 for those that can come early. Lunch will still be available during the meeting. Please RSVP by Tuesday, April 17th.

This month, lunch will be provided by Tek Systems.

Topic
We will be starting our QA Career Development series. The specific topics are still being finalized.

Can't Attend in Person?
We will have teleconferencing available in a separate email.

Directions
- You can park in Main Street Parking on Main or you can find street parking.
- From I-40, take the Robinson Exit. Go North on Robinson to Main. Right on Main. You can either go to Main Street Parking or continue to Broadway. You will see 100 N Broadway on your left across Broadway. The building says 'Chase' at the top.

Red Earth QA - Meeting Announcement, Thursday, March 15th (RSVP by Tuesday, 13th for lunch)

Time and Location
Red Earth QA's March meeting will be held on the 3rd floor of 100 N. Broadway in the 3rd floor from 11:30-1pm on Thursday, March 15th. Look for the signs to direct you to the right room.

Lunch will be available starting at 11:30 for those that can come early. Lunch will still be available during the meeting. Please RSVP by Tuesday, March 13th.

This month, lunch will be provided by Inceed.

Topic
Robert will be discussing 'Quality-Related Requirements'. This will cover not only how to evaluate the quality of requirements, but identify requirements that improve quality of the product.

Can't Attend in Person?
We will have teleconferencing available in a separate email.

Directions
- You can park in Main Street Parking on Main or you can find street parking.
- From I-40, take the Robinson Exit. Go North on Robinson to Main. Right on Main. You can either go to Main Street Parking or continue to Broadway. You will see 100 N Broadway on your left across Broadway. The building says 'Chase' at the top.

Invitation to Red Earth QA

What is Red Earth QA?
The Red Earth QA SIG is an Information Technology organization that focuses on improving the quality of software implementation projects by sharing information on testing tools and techniques. This also includes networking with peers that may or may not be full-time Quality Assurance staff.

What topics are covered?
Our past meetings have covered topics on:

• Methodology (Decision Trees, Effective Software Testing, etc.)
• Technology Presentations from Microsoft, Compuware and from our members
• Book Reviews, and much more

Our future meetings will be directed by member suggestions.

Who can participate?
Our meetings have been attended by Quality Assurance staff, Business Analysts, Consulting Company Representatives, Independent Contractors and IT managers. We are open to anyone interested in producing better software to attend our meetings.

When are meetings?
While we generally hold meetings on the 3rd Thursday of each month, it would be best to check our website at http://redearthqa.blogspot.com/ for current meeting announcements.

In the months we are fortunate to have a sponsor for lunch, we typically open the meeting at 11:30am with the meeting itself starting at noon.

Where are meetings?
We offer teleconferencing for our meetings, so you don't need to leave your office to participate! However, it's always best to come in person.

While each of our meetings have been at Devon Energy downtown, it's best to check our website, http://redearthqa.blogspot.com/ for specific information, including directions and parking availability.

How do I learn more?

• Email redearthqa@sbcglobal.net and ask a question or be asked to be added to the email distribution list.
• Visit our website at http://redearthqa.blogspot.com/
• Attend a meeting!

How can I help?
We always appreciate any help you have to offer. Here are some things we can always get help with.

• Organize a meeting or speaker
• Contact peers at other companies and invite them
• Prepare a presentation
• Sponsor lunch

You can contact us by email http://redearthqa.blogspot.com/ if you would like to offer your time or have any questions.

Red Earth QA - Meeting Announcement, Thursday, February 15th (Lunch provided by GDH Consulting)

Time and Location
Red Earth QA's February meeting will be held on the 3rd floor of 100 N. Broadway in the 3rd floor from 11:30-1pm on Thursday, February 15th.

Lunch will be available starting at 11:30 for those that can come early. Lunch will still be available during the meeting. Please RSVP by Tuesday, February 13th.

TopicBill and Robert will be reviewing our first year and looking forward to the next year.

Can't Attend in Person?
We will have teleconferencing available in a separate email.

Directions- You can park in Main Street Parking on Main or you can find street parking.
- From I-40, take the Robinson Exit. Go North on Robinson to Main. Right on Main. You can either go to Main Street Parking or continue to Broadway. You will see 100 N Broadway on your left across Broadway. The building says 'Chase' at the top.

Meeting Slides for January 18, 2007

Today's presentation on Self-Validating Test Data can be downloaded here.

Meeting Announcement, Thursday, January 18th

Time and Location
Red Earth QA's November meeting will be held on the 3rd floor of 100 N. Broadway in the 3rd floor from 11:30-1pm on Thursday, January 18th.

No Lunch will be provided this meeting. You are invited to come by at 11:30 for those that can come early.

Topic
Robert will be presenting "Self-Validating Test Data". We will discuss techniques and considerations for creating test data that is relatively easy to validate.

Can't Attend in Person?
We will have teleconferencing available in a separate email.

Directions- You can park in Main Street Parking on Main or you can find street parking.
- From I-40, take the Robinson Exit. Go North on Robinson to Main. Right on Main. You can either go to Main Street Parking or continue to Broadway. You will see 100 N Broadway on your left across Broadway. The building says 'Chase' at the top.

Additional Info
The Red Earth QA SIG is an Information Technology organization that focuses on improving the quality of software implementation projects by sharing information on testing tools and techniques. This also includes networking with peers that may or may not be full-time Quality Assurance staff.

Meeting Announcement, Thursday, December 21st (bring treats!)

Time and Location
Red Earth QA's November meeting will be held on the 3rd floor of 100 N. Broadway in the 3rd floor from 11:30am-1pm on Thursday, December 21st. Feel free to bring a favorite holiday treat to share with the group.

Topic
We will have a presentation on the Start West conference.

Directions- You can park in Main Street Parking on Main or you can find street parking.
- From I-40, take the Robinson Exit. Go North on Robinson to Main. Right on Main. You can either go to Main Street Parking or continue to Broadway. You will see 100 N Broadway on your left across Broadway. The building says 'Chase' at the top.

Additional Info
The Red Earth QA SIG is an Information Technology organization that focuses on improving the quality of software implementation projects by sharing information on testing tools and techniques. This also includes networking with peers that may or may not be full-time Quality Assurance staff.

Meeting Announcement, Thursday, November 16th (Please RSVP for lunch provided by Metavante)

Time and Location
Red Earth QA's November meeting will be held on the 3rd floor of 100 N. Broadway in the 3rd floor from 11-1pm on Thursday, November 16th. Lunch will be provided by Metavante, so please RSVP by Tuesday November 14th.

Lunch will be available starting at 11:30 for those that can come early. Lunch will still be available during the meeting.

Topic
We have Microsoft on hand to discuss the Visual Studio for Testers product.

Can't Attend in Person?
We will have teleconferencing available in a separate email.


Directions
- You can park in Main Street Parking on Main or you can find street parking.
- From I-40, take the Robinson Exit. Go North on Robinson to Main. Right on Main. You can either go to Main Street Parking or continue to Broadway. You will see 100 N Broadway on your left across Broadway. The building says 'Chase' at the top.

Additional Info
The Red Earth QA SIG is an Information Technology organization that focuses on improving the quality of software implementation projects by sharing information on testing tools and techniques. This also includes networking with peers that may or may not be full-time Quality Assurance staff.


You can always see current information and links by going to our site http://redearthqa.blogspot.com/

October's Meeting Download

You can download the presentation for October's meeting here

Meeting Announcement, Thursday, October 19th (Please RSVP for the lunch provided by Devon)

Time and Location
Red Earth QA's October meeting will be held on the 3rd floor of 100 N. Broadway in the 3rd floor from 12-1pm on Thursday, October 19th. Lunch will be provided by Devon, so please RSVP by Tuesday October 17th.

Lunch will be available starting at 11:30 for those that can come early. Lunch will still be available during the meeting.

Topic
Carol Kates from Teleflora will present a couple of testing tips from the following book:

Effective Software Testing – 50 Specific Ways to Improve Your Testing by Elfriede Dustin. The book will be available if anyone would like to borrow it.

After the presentation please be ready to actively participate with testing tips/improvements of your own! You know what they are – let’s share! What’s been the biggest improvement YOU’VE applied recently? How do YOU handle planning test cases using high level requirements or (heaven forbid!) no requirements? Where in your applications do YOU find the most defects when you test – do you find them due to prior planning or do you use the ‘ad hoc’ method? How do you identify test cases? Do you create a test case matrix to trace back to requirements? What do YOU do if the requirements team can’t update use cases/requirement documentation due to a lack of planning in the project plan or a lack of resources? How do YOU find out about changes to the software? What tips do YOU have when working with automated testing tools? How do You determine the functionality you’ll regression test? Are you smoke testing too long with every build? If YOU don’t receive any communication about the project status, what do you do to stay abreast of what’s going on?

Look at the whole project lifecycle process and share YOUR suggestions for improving the final outcome. Don’t worry if you think ‘Oh everyone does this anyway!” You’d be surprised to find that not everybody does it! Let’s talk about what YOU are doing! I’m positive everyone will leave the meeting with a tip or two that just might work out for YOU!

Can't Attend in Person?
We will have teleconferencing available:

Call 1-877-869-2112

Use passcode 6595084

Directions
- You can park in Main Street Parking on Main or you can find street parking.
- From I-40, take the Robinson Exit. Go North on Robinson to Main. Right on Main. You can either go to Main Street Parking or continue to Broadway. You will see 100 N Broadway on your left across Broadway. The building says 'Chase' at the top.

Additional Info
The Red Earth QA SIG is an Information Technology organization that focuses on improving the quality of software implementation projects by sharing information on testing tools and techniques. This also includes networking with peers that may or may not be full-time Quality Assurance staff.

Red Earth QA - Meeting Announcement, Thursday, Sept. 21st (Please RSVP for the lunch provided by GDH Consulting)

Red Earth QA's September meeting will be held on the 3rd floor of 100 N. Broadway in the 3rd floor training room behind the elevators from 12-1pm on Thursday, September 21st.

We will be going over the Microsoft Visual Studio Testers Edition with a representative from Microsoft.

This month, GDH Consultants will sponsor the lunch again. Please RSVP no later than 5pm on Tuesday the 19th.

For those not able to attend in person, we will be sending out teleconferencing information just prior to the meeting.



Directions
- You can park in Main Street Parking on Main or you can find street parking.
- From I-40, take the Robinson Exit. Go North on Robinson to Main. Right on Main. You can either go to Main Street Parking or continue to Broadway. You will see 100 N Broadway on your left across Broadway. The building says 'Chase' at the top.

The Red Earth QA SIG is an Information Technology organization that focuses on improving the quality of software implementation projects by sharing information on testing tools and techniques. This also includes networking with peers that may or may not be full-time Quality Assurance staff.

August Presentation Available

You can download August's presentation on Evaluating Your SQA Process here.

Meeting Announcement, Thursday, August 17th. (Please RSVP for the lunch provided by Tek Systems)

Red Earth QA's August meeting will be held on the 3rd floor of 100 N. Broadway in the 3rd floor training room just behind the elevators from 12-1pm on Thursday, August 17th.

This month, Tek Systems will sponsor the lunch again. Please RSVP to redearthqa@sbcglobal.net no later than 5pm on Tuesday the 15th.

Directions

- You can park in Main Street Parking on Main or you can find street parking.

- From I-40, take the Robinson Exit. Go North on Robinson to Main. Right on Main. You can either go to Main Street Parking or continue to Broadway. You will see 100 N Broadway on your left across Broadway. The building says 'Chase' at the top.

List of Books Presented from the June 20th meeting

• Lateral Thinking - Presented by Jeff Stanley after he was inspired by James Bach http://www.satisfice.com/
• Usability Engineering - Presented by Robert Watkins
  
• Type Talk at Work - Presented by Robert Watkins

Meeting Announcement - July 20, 2006 12-1pm

Red Earth QA's June meeting will be held on the 3rd floor of 100 N. Broadway in room 3.016 from 12-1pm on Thursday, July 20th.

This month's meeting will feature Software Quality Assurance consultant Randy Rice.

Directions

- You can park in Main Street Parking on Main or you can find street parking.

- From I-40, take the Robinson Exit. Go North on Robinson to Main. Right on Main. You can either go to Main Street Parking or continue to Broadway. You will see 100 N Broadway on your left across Broadway. The building says 'Chase' at the top.

The Red Earth QA SIG is an Information Technology organization that focuses on improving the quality of software implementation projects by sharing information on testing tools and techniques. This also includes networking with peers that may or may not be full-time Quality Assurance staff.

Meeting Announcement - June 22, 2006 12-1pm

Red Earth QA's June meeting will be held on the 3rd floor of 100 N. Broadway in room 3.016 from 12-1pm on Thursday, June 22nd.

We are thankful that GDH Consulting has agreed to provide lunch for the group this month. Please RSVP by Tuesday, May 20th so we can get an estimate of the number of people that will be attending. This would be a good time to bring a friend!

This month's meeting will be several presentations on books of interest to testers. We still have openings if you would like to present.

We are pleased to announce that Randy Rice will be speaking at our July meeting. He is a local SQA consultant, trainer, author and strong supporter of this group.

Directions

- You can park in Main Street Parking on Main or you can find street parking.

- From I-40, take the Robinson Exit. Go North on Robinson to Main. Right on Main. You can either go to Main Street Parking or continue to Broadway. You will see 100 N Broadway on your left across Broadway. The building says 'Chase' at the top.