May 19 post

YES... I have been neglecing my blog.
Resources are still my biggest problem. We've had some good candidates in for interviews, but things just didn't pan-out. In the mean-time we've added a co-op to the team to fill a void left by one of our testers when she went on Maternity leave (It's a big void - she's an excellent tester!)

We met the new baby, what a cutie!


Meaningful post...

AUTOMATION!!!
We've got an automation tool for Windows apps now, will be ramping up on how to use it. We don't do a lot of Windows development, so once we've got some good scripts in place it should be a big help. Things look promising for purchasing a tool for mobile device testing too, keep your fingers crossed (I am). By the way, after searcing for over a year, posting on every SQA forum I could find - to ask, I've only found 3 automation tools that support Windows Mobile/Win CE platform testing. Only one of them is a comprehensive tool that compares to the stuff that's available for desktop testing - so that is the one we're looking to go with. Of course, we're going to do our due-dilligence and bring them in for a proof of concept (show their tool running tests on our devices), then we'll get some training and go through an evaluation period. If the evaluation shows that we'll reap a long-term benefit, we'll go ahead and buy it. It's EXPENSIVE - compared to the tools for desktop testing, so we'll definitely want to make sure we'll get our money's worth.

Don't worry... I'm not looking at automation as the be-all, end-all for my resourcing problems, and it won't eliminate the need for solid manual testing, but boy will it help with some of the mind-numbing, tedius, repetitive stuff we have to do. Not to mention speeding up some of our regression testing when we get new builds.

I guess the meaningful part of all this is:
-Automation can be helpful, but is not a "Silver Bullet".
-Automation tools are a big investment, investigate and evaluate before buying to make sure the investment is worthwhile.
-Training - make sure the vendor you choose provides training, otherwise you're looking for trouble

Until I get another chance to make a post... Happy Testing!