Greg,

A best practice in testing is to design the test cases as part and parcel of
the requirements and specifications process and to add test cases as new
issues are uncovered during design.   In other words the testing process
begins *before* design, is a part of design, and continues through out the
entire process.

P.S.  In my somewhat crabby opinion your response is of much higher quality
than the comments which evoked them.

Cortlandt Wilson
(650) 966-8555

-----Original Message-----
From: HP-3000 Systems Discussion [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
Behalf Of [log in to unmask]
Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2001 12:30 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [HP3000-L] OT: Quality Control at Microsoft-was: Please cut
out the M$ a d hominems


X-no-Archive:yes
But how do you know that the design has quality? Even the most thorough desk
checks and peer reviews can miss errors that are only found by testings (and
even the most thorough test suite can miss errors that are only found by
creative, inquisitive, or slightly clumsy users).

Agreed; you don't get it by testing. But good testing shows whether or not
it was there by design. And the psychological effect of knowing that one's
code is going to be reviewed and tested is that programmers tend to be more
careful, at least complying with the letter of the law.

And I'm sure one could name a number of other elements that go into the kind
of environment that produces quality. I've enjoyed the book "Peopleware", on
this very subject.

But in the wonderful world of methods and methodologies, testing is an
important means of determining that one is producing work of some quality.

Greg Stigers
http://www.cgiusa.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Peter da Silva [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Tuesday, December 11, 2001 8:17 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: OT: Quality Control at Microsoft-was: Please cut out the M$
ad hominems

You don't get quality by testing, you get quality by design... and redesign.

You have to be able to throw things away.  I don't think Microsoft has ever
thrown away a line of code, except by terminating a project completely.

--
 `-_-'   In hoc signo hack, Peter da Silva.
  'U`    "A well-rounded geek should be able to geek about anything."
                                                       -- [log in to unmask]
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