The overwhelming majority of a software system’s lifespan is spent in use, not in design or implementation. So, why does conventional wisdom insist that software engineers focus primarily on the design and development of large-scale computing systems? In this collection of essays and articles, key members of Google’s Site Reliability Team explain how and why their commitment to the entire lifecycle has enabled the company to successfully build, deploy, monitor, and maintain some of the largest software systems in the world. You’ll learn the principles and practices that enable Google engineers to make systems more scalable, reliable, and efficient—lessons directly applicable to your organization. This book is divided into four sections: Introduction—Learn what site reliability engineering is and why it differs from conventional IT industry practices Principles—Examine the patterns, behaviors, and areas of concern that influence the work of a site reliability engineer (SRE) Practices—Understand the theory and practice of an SRE’s day-to-day work: building and operating large distributed computing systems Management—Explore Google's best practices for training, communication, and meetings that your organization can use

"If you'd like a glimpse at how the next generation is going to program, this book is a good place to start." —Gregory V. Wilson, Dr. Dobbs Journal (October 2004) Build Your Own Automated Software Testing Tool Whatever its claims, commercially available testing software is not automatic. Configuring it to test your product is almost as time-consuming and error-prone as purely manual testing. There is an alternative that makes both engineering and economic sense: building your own, truly automatic tool. Inside, you'll learn a repeatable, step-by-step approach, suitable for virtually any development environment. Code-intensive examples support the book's instruction, which includes these key topics: Conducting active software testing without capture/replay Generating a script to test all members of one class without reverse-engineering Using XML to store previously designed testing cases Automatically generating testing data Combining Reflection and CodeDom to write test scripts focused on high-risk areas Generating test scripts from external data sources Using real and complete objects for integration testing Modifying your tool to test third-party software components Testing your testing tool Effective Software Test Automation goes well beyond the building of your own testing tool: it also provides expert guidance on deploying it in ways that let you reap the greatest benefits: earlier detection of coding errors, a smoother, swifter development process, and final software that is as bug-free as possible. Written for programmers, testers, designers, and managers, it will improve the way your team works and the quality of its products.

Process automation provides a means to integrate people in a software development organization with the development process and the tools supporting that development. This new technology may significantly improve software quality and development productivity. However, as yet there is little practical experience in its day-to-day use. This book is for those who wish to explore the technology or are considering its adoption. The monograph discusses the underlying concepts, reviews in some detail two of the major process automation products, relates process automation to process improvement, and provides adoption guidelines. Special emphasis is on the process modeling language ProNet which is commercially available. The book is enriched by numerous examples, tables, and technical appendices.

Offers advice on designing and implementing a software test automation infrastructure, and identifies what current popular testing approaches can and cannot accomplish. Rejecting the automation life cycle model, the authors favor limited automation of unit, integration, and system testing. They also present a control synchronized data-driven framework to help jump-start an automation project. Examples are provided in the Rational suite test studio, and source code is available at a supporting web site. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR.

The main subjects in this book relate to software development using cutting-edge technologies for real-world industrial automation applications A hands-on approach to applying a wide variety of emerging technologies to modern industrial practice problems Explains key concepts through clear examples, ranging from simple to more complex problem domains, and all based on real-world industrial problems A useful reference book for practicing engineers as well as an updated resource book for researchers

In this work, over 40 pioneering implementers share their experiences and best practices in 28 case studies. Drawing on their insights, you can avoid the pitfalls associated with test automation, and achieve powerful results on every metric you care about: quality, cost, time to market, usability, and value.

Quickly access 50 tips for software test engineers using automated methods. The tips point to practices that save time and increase the accuracy and reliability of automated test techniques. Techniques that play well during demos of testing tools often are not the optimal techniques to apply on a running project. This book highlights those differences, helping you apply techniques that are repeatable and callable in professionally run software development projects. Emphasis is placed on creating tests that, while automated, are easily adapted as the software under construction evolves toward its final form. Techniques in the book are arranged into five categories: scripting, testing, the environment, running and logging of tests, and reviewing of the results. Every automation engineer sooner or later will face similar issues to the ones covered in these categories, and you will benefit from the simple and clear answers provided in this book. While the focus of the book is on the use of automated tools, the tips are not specific to any one vendor solution. The tips cover general issues that are faced no matter the specific tool, and are broadly applicable, often even to manual testing efforts. What You'll Learn Employ best-practices in automated test design Write test scripts that will easily be understood by others Choose the proper environment for running automated tests Avoid techniques that demo well, but do not scale in practice Manage tests effectively, including testing of test scripts themselves Know when to go beyond automation to employ manual methods instead Who This Book Is For Software test engineers working with automated testing tools, and for developers working alongside testing teams to create software products. The book will aid test engineers, team leads, project managers, software testers, and developers in producing quality software more easily, and in less time.

“This book fills a huge gap in our knowledge of software testing. It does an excellent job describing how test automation differs from other test activities, and clearly lays out what kind of skills and knowledge are needed to automate tests. The book is essential reading for students of testing and a bible for practitioners.” –Jeff Offutt, Professor of Software Engineering, George Mason University “This new book naturally expands upon its predecessor, Automated Software Testing, and is the perfect reference for software practitioners applying automated software testing to their development efforts. Mandatory reading for software testing professionals!” –Jeff Rashka, PMP, Coauthor of Automated Software Testing and Quality Web Systems Testing accounts for an increasingly large percentage of the time and cost of new software development. Using automated software testing (AST), developers and software testers can optimize the software testing lifecycle and thus reduce cost. As technologies and development grow increasingly complex, AST becomes even more indispensable. This book builds on some of the proven practices and the automated testing lifecycle methodology (ATLM) described in Automated Software Testing and provides a renewed practical, start-to-finish guide to implementing AST successfully. In Implementing Automated Software Testing, three leading experts explain AST in detail, systematically reviewing its components, capabilities, and limitations. Drawing on their experience deploying AST in both defense and commercial industry, they walk you through the entire implementation process–identifying best practices, crucial success factors, and key pitfalls along with solutions for avoiding them. You will learn how to: Make a realistic business case for AST, and use it to drive your initiative Clarify your testing requirements and develop an automation strategy that reflects them Build efficient test environments and choose the right automation tools and techniques for your environment Use proven metrics to continuously track your progress and adjust accordingly Whether you’re a test professional, QA specialist, project manager, or developer, this book can help you bring unprecedented efficiency to testing–and then use AST to improve your entire development lifecycle.

With the urgent demand for rapid turnaround on new software releases--without compromising quality--the testing element of software development must keep pace, requiring a major shift from slow, labor-intensive testing methods to a faster and more thorough automated testing approach. Automated Software Testing is a comprehensive, step-by-step guide to the most effective tools, techniques, and methods for automated testing. Using numerous case studies of successful industry implementations, this book presents everything you need to know to successfully incorporate automated testing into the development process. In particular, this book focuses on the Automated Test Life Cycle Methodology (ATLM), a structured process for designing and executing testing that parallels the Rapid Application Development methodology commonly used today. Automated Software Testing is designed to lead you through each step of this structured program, from the initial decision to implement automated software testing through test planning, execution, and reporting. Included are test automation and test management guidance for: Acquiring management support Test tool evaluation and selection The automated testing introduction process Test effort and test team sizing Test team composition, recruiting, and management Test planning and preparation Test procedure development guidelines Automation reuse analysis and reuse library Best practices for test automation