Venkat's Blog

Open Source Testing Tools for Java Applications

Venkat Reddy Chintalapudi — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:50:26 +0000

Overview

Open Source testing tools are being used aggressively and there are many tools over the web for Java Applications. These tools are great asset to the development teams and provides many features / services over the quality of applications under development. We can use this as the starting point and focus more efforts on the uncovered areas for better quality.

It’s very important to know the context of development and the right tools for quick benefits. However, heavy usages of these tools lead to misleading data and metrics too. So think twice on what is required for the project and which tools might provide the required data / services.

Services Offered

The following services / features are offered from most of the open source tools

Continuous Integration for the builds
Unit Testing
Code Coverage
Source Code Metrics (like size, Complexity, design, dependency)
Static Analysis for various bug patterns
Test Automation
Performance Testing

List of Open Source Tools

Functional Testing
Unit Testing
Performance Testing
Test Management
Security testing
Bug databases
Link Checkers
Open Source Testing Tools from Java Source
Web Testing Tools

Quick Benefits from Static Analysis

It’s very easy to integrate static analysis tool(s) with builds and there quick benefits. The following issues can be uncovered

Null Pointer Exceptions
Other un handled exceptions
Infinite Loops
Dead code
Compliance with Java Coding standards
Code Coverage data
Trends / history on the above checks against previous builds
Validations against Java coding guidelines from Sun

The following Metrics can be captured

Source Code Metrics
Coverage Metrics
Dependencies with the Design
Code complexity metrics

The Resources listed below helps in implementing the same.

Series of articles listed under In Pursuit of Code Quality from IBM Developer works
Discussion Forum on Improve Your Java Code Quality from IBM Developer works

Exploring the craft of Software Testing

Venkat Reddy Chintalapudi — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 12:26:36 +0000

It’s been a while since i wrote any thing new on my blog. I would like to thank all the readers of my blog for keeping this live as of today. There were no posts for the last two years and still attracts good number of visitors. I have another blog called Tech Bytes and this just contains my reading list over technology and tools. The Tech Bytes now merged into this blog and will be keep the efforts only here. I have recently came to know that this blog has been listed in the MSDN Tester Center Community Blogs. It’s a great feeling to get listed there.

I am back to blogging and will be sharing my views regularly.I will be focusing on the craft of software testing, quality and development. Lot many things happened over the past two years. Quality is the buzz word now every where.

Software Testing

Testuff – The Test Management Tool for small and medium projects

Venkat Reddy Chintalapudi — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 01:22:00 +0000

Almost an year ago, I have evaluated some low cost and open source Test Management Tools. Managing the Test Efforts & Test documentation is always an issue for small and medium companies.

The following were my requirements for Test Management Tool

Capture the Requirements
Design & Prepare Test Cases
Map Test Cases with Requirements
Link Bug reports with Test Case ID after the test execution
Test Execution Reports
Version Management for the Test Cases
Search Feature

Testuff comes with all the above features and some additional capabilities to record the test execution and link them with the issue tracker. It comes free for single user. Check out the testuff blog for more updates

Software Quality and Testing Podcasts

Venkat Reddy Chintalapudi — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 08:59:00 +0000

Podcasts are useful resources for testing community. These are free mp3 files you can download and listen to at your convenience. It contains various topics on Software Testing, Quality, & Development. I would like to share some of the podcasts that i follow for my blog readers.

Podcasts from Stickyminds

Randy Rice’s Podcasts

Testing & QA Podcasts from SD Times

Explore the Testability aspect for Java Code

Venkat Reddy Chintalapudi — Thu, 22 May 2008 11:51:00 +0000

The Testability Explorer is an open source project that lets you measure the testability of Java code. This is an interesting idea: a metric not of direct quality, or of testing, or of test coverage, but of ease of testing. Presumably code that is easy to test will get tested, and will therefore be of higher quality, other things being equal.

The following information over Testability Explorer is useful

Software Requirements are Required Reading by project teams.

Venkat Reddy Chintalapudi — Tue, 13 May 2008 06:51:00 +0000

I have always challenges with the Software Requirements for the products and would be the same for others too. Most of the time, the requirements talk about just the functional needs and ignore on the non functional aspects of the system. Once the requirements are freezed, we rarely go back to them for any updates required. The development teams always have implementation issues and the behavior changes from the drafted requirements.

Jonathan Erickson, Editor in Chief for DDJ talks about requirements in Software Development projects. It’s interesting article on Requirements & Check this out here – Dr. Dobb’s | Requirements Are Required Reading | May 7, 2008

This leads to more challenges to the testers as we go by the drafted requirements into the documents. The understanding on the non functional needs differs from dev teams to test teams. So, tt’s quite common to receive comments like That’s expected behavior and Not a Bug from dev teams.

Trends in Static Analysis Tools and Code Quality Metrics

Venkat Reddy Chintalapudi — Wed, 07 May 2008 12:59:00 +0000

Interesting trends are happening around Static Analysis and Code Quality. The tools vendors closely looking at each of the code quality metrics and merging them to have a better metric. We can see the pattern from Agitar by coming up with CRAP4J. Here is one more vendor coming up with the tools on Code Quality and Static Analysis.

The AppPerfect comes with a suite of products around code quality metrics and improvements. DevTest4J is a suite of products designed to help you build and test high-performance applications during the development phase of the product life-cycle.

Trends in Static Analysis – ENERGY for better java code

Venkat Reddy Chintalapudi — Wed, 07 May 2008 12:52:00 +0000

I have come across yet another static analysis tool for Java programs. ENERGY is a free static analysis tool to measure code quality & presents overall status on the health of source code. Energy comes with a code quality metric by combining the bug patterns on the source code and rates it between 1 to 10. The tool tries to identify the symptoms via static analysis and then publish a rating. How it works is an interesting insight.

Check the following video to learn more about the tool.

Technorati Tags: Code Quality Metrics, Java, Static Analysis, Code Quality.

Communicating the Value of Testing Throughout the Organization

Venkat Reddy Chintalapudi — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 19:47:00 +0000

As Testers, It’s important to identify the value associated with Software Testing and communicate the same across organization. Please check the following webibar for some view points on communicating the value of Software Testing.

Test managers constantly lament that few outside their group understand or care much about the value they provide and consistently deliver. Unfortunately, they are often correct. The lack of visibility and understanding of the test team’s contribution can lead to restricted budgets, fewer resources, tighter timelines, and ultimately, lower group productivity. Join Theresa Lanowitz and Dan Koloski as they highlights ways to move from simply being a tester of software to an advocate for your organization’s customers. Learn how to effectively and concisely communicate with key stakeholders in your organization to ensure that they understand the value and role of the testing group. With effective and concise communication, the testing group will be perceived as more strategically important and integral to the success of every project.

Communicating the Value of Testing Throughout the Organization

Is Counting a Bad Idea for Test Effort?

Test 2008 – Software Testing Conference

Venkat Reddy Chintalapudi — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 14:50:00 +0000

Test 2008 is the first conference being organized by PureConferences in India. Our conference will provide a platform for international and national test professionals to interact and participate. Speakers from around 10 countries, such as USA, UK, France, Sweden, Canada, Italy, Netherlands, including India will deliver keynotes, tutorials, and papers during the conference. We intend to involve academia and institutions of learning with our conference. We also intend to make Test2008 a ‘green’ conference as far as possible. Additionally, we will institute two test scholarships for educating promising students unable to finance their studies.

Agility in Testing is the theme of Test2008–Test Excellence through Speed and Technology. It’s being held at Delhi in India during 13-16 October 2008