It may pain any managers, designers and developers to hear it but software testing is crucial at every part of a product’s development.

From the initial conception, to the design and development and even the finished product testing should occur to keep the product on task for completion.

ISEB/ ISTQB Foundation Software Testing Training teaches delegates about testing throughout the entire software life cycle.

Testing at the last stage is inadvisable as any necessary changes will mean running the product back through the entire process.

Testing should be done at four stages:

• Planning
• Design
• Development
• End product

The below diagram shows how a problem at each stage of the software cycle can affect the final product:

Testing During the Planning Stage

The Design and Development stages may be spot on, but if the wrong requirements are introduced during the planning stage then the wrong product will be produced. Ensuring that all the correct requirements are in place is vital to design and development of the correct product. Read the rest of "Software Testing Throughout the Process"

As businesses look for software that meets the demands of a modern working environment, they are increasingly using cloud computing and mobile technology. Cloud computing really took off in 2011:

Even the best Software Testers don’t pick up every problem and sometimes a bug that is deemed unimportant is picked up by users as a critical issue. Releasing a product that seems unfinished into the public domain may seem counter-productive but it is known to work. Often businesses do this with beta testing – only releasing to a small number of users with warnings that the product is unfinished and an expectation of feedback. Google released almost all of their products early and then makes changes as they go. This means that the finished product is always better at the time of full release than one with no user testing. However, testing is still a critical element of releasing new software and so software testers are still in high demand. Without professional testing, product launches are likely to be hampered by issues unnoticed during development. The best testers are trained testers so please enquire about our accredited ISEB/ISTQB Software Testing Training courses by browsing the websites or calling us on 01273 622272 for more information.

If you have taken the time to research some business terminology then you will probably be familiar with the term ‘iteration cycle’. The idea behind this is that you release your product out into the wild, see how it does, and then improve on it based on the feedback you get.

So in other words, you might release a website, notice that no one is staying on it very long or visiting your other pages, and so improve your navigation and layout. That’s one cycle – release, feedback, edit. Read the rest of "Iteration Cycles and Feedback"

While 2012 is still anew and resolutions are still to be made, let alone broken, IBM has started the year in a bold fashion. It started the New Year with a fit of generosity by gifting, well no purchasing details have been released as of yet, Google 217 patents.

These patents have the potential to boost Google’s social network, Google+, and many of its other services by helping them to fulfil the promise of creating a semantic web. This could allow Google+ to identify experts in particular topics in order to identify people with common interests within the network. It would do this by analysing the content of any content posted or read by the user in order to rank them by expertise, helping you get in touch with the most knowledgeable person within your extended network. From a software testing perspective, this would mean being able to find testers who have the most experience or expertise in particular field easily and accurately.

Giving hasn’t been IBM’s only activity this year so far. The giant technologies company has also purchased Green Hat, a company that specialises in cloud software testing. Cloud computing has been touted as the future of computing; connecting all of your files and data to all of your devices to be accessed anytime, anywhere. However, there are many obstacles that must be faced before a cloud based app is ready to be let out into the wild.

Take a look at this video interview with software testing guru, Fred Beringer, for an introduction to Cloud Testing.

As well as compatibility issues (especially in the mobile field) a lot of focus has to be put upon security, as by having your files free to be accessed from any device anywhere, it also implies that without rigorous security your data is free to be accessed by anyone. This is where testing comes in, a process which is reported to take up more than 50% of total development costs. This makes IBM’s move a wise one.

Green Hat’s expertise and experience in cloud development will surely enhance IBM’s Rational Solution section which creates lifecycle management tools to aid in agile software development and testing. They are also making the services available to third party developers through their Global Business Services’ Application Manager Services (AMS). Read the rest of "2012 Has Already Been a Busy Year for IBM"

Cloud testing allows you to use simulated web traffic to ‘load test’ a website or web application with a flexible, scalable and affordable testing environment.

In this video, software testing blogger (and guru!) Fred Beringer discusses one of the hottest topics in software testing at the moment, ‘Cloud Testing’ and it’s implications for the Software Testing Industry in terms of cost, maintenance and accessibility.

If you are interested in a career in Software Testing get certified with our ISEB / ISTQB Software Testing training courses.