2. An overview of STAG
Focused test engineering company, estd in 2000
Offices in Bangalore & Chennai
A method centric approach to test engineering
Test Engineering Services Group Knowledge
Services Group
Enterprise Business
Applications Embedded & Telecom
Banking & Media
Financial Apps Mobile applications Training
Healthcare Protocols Consulting
ERP, eLearning Assessment
Test Automation
Functional test automation practice
Performance test practice
Custom tooling
Copyright 2008,STAG Software Private Limited. All rights reserved
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3. Approaches to “Clean Software”
Approach Key characteristic Effective Consistent Efficiency Scalable Visibility Agile
Process driven Test process is key
approach Independent test team
Domain centered Domain specialists
approach weedout defects
Automation driven Tools/Automation is
approach key driver
Ad-hoc/creative/ Focus on individual's
exploratory approach ability to uncover defects
Frequent& continuous Focus on number of cycles
evaluation approach to uncover defects
Engg method Scientific approach to
centered approach detection/prevention
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4. What is method-centered approach?
An approach that fosters a
scientific way of thinking &
disciplined way of doing
Method = Scientific concepts + Set of steps
A scientific way to hunt down defects
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5. STEM 2.0 Illustrated
Phase-wise goals
Discipline-wise goals
Understand expectations Formulate and Evaluate, refine formulation
o do
of product and quality od depeen understanding and deepen understanding
Tt to
HA OW NE
Phase #1 wW Phase #2 wH Phase #3 DO
Kno Kno
BASELINING FORMULATION EVALUATION
Understand market space, business Formulate the scope of work Based on the scope, setup the
D1 D3 D7
problem, technology Formulate the quality levels environment and execute the tests
Understand who the users are Formulate the types of tests based Report defects discovered
Identify & understand business use cases on the potential defects Learn from the context & refine
UNDERSTOOD the problem- Milestone #1
FIGURED out HOW to do - Milestone #2
READY TO RELEASE - Final Milestone
Identify understand the features that Formulate the techniques & process Generate reports for management on
D8
make the business use cases for optimal defection/prevention progress, health and risk
Understand who uses what and their Identify what requires tooling Take actions to ensure progress
frequency of usage Formulate the scope of each cycle towards the goal
Understand the attributes expected Estimate effort/time
by the end-users Identify risks and formulate risk
Understand where & what aspects to focus mitigation plan
Understand the critical success factors Identify inputs, model behavior D4
Understand what is 'good quality' Generate test scenarios/cases
i.e. what is clean software Refine using structural properties
Identify & understand the potential D2 Assess completeness
defects critical to be detected/prevented If tooling/automation is required D5 STEM Core Concept
Map these potential defects to identify what needs to be automated Technique
use cases/features and design & code tool/scripts Principle
Design measurements to track our Guideline
progress towards the goals of high D6
quality, on-time delivery
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6. STEMTM - STAG Test Engineering method
STAG’s test technology
STEM = STEM Way + STEM Core
Is a collection of EIGHT key 32 key concepts power how
disciplines/workflows executed over each step in a discipline is
THREE phases. Each discipline/workflow to be done in a scientific
consists of clear steps. manner
STEM promises:
High early stage detection 30-50% better
Higher quality software 300%-1000% better
Deskilling & team scaling 100-200% better
Better net to catch defects 200%-500% better
High ROI on tooling upto 100%
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7. ACTIVITIES
C1 1 Partitioning - Clearly partition the functional and non-functional requirements
1.1 For each requirement identify the nonfunctional aspects
2 Behavior modeling - Model the functional behavior using a semiformal notation
2.1 Read the specification or experiment with the software to understand the intended behavior
2.2 Identify the various inputs that participate in this requirement. Note that some of the inputs
may be via user interface while some of them from within the system.
C2 2.3 Understand the specification of each input. Input granularity principle is key to figuring this.
C3 C4 2.4 …
3 Generation - Design test scenarios and generate the corresponding test cases
4 Refinement using structural properties- Use code structure/design aspects to add/delete TS/TC
5 Requirement tracing - Trace the scenarios/cases to the requirement/feature/code-component
6 Fault tracing - Trace the scenarios/cases to the potential defects that it will uncover
7 Assess the coverage of the test scenarios/cases
STEM Core Concepts
1 Reductionist principle
2 Input granularity principle
3 Box model [ y=f(x)]
4 Behavior Stimuli approach
5 Techniques landscape
6 Complexity assessment
7 Operational profiling
8 Test coverage evaluation
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8. STEM application results
Significantly lowered defect escapes – 1000%
Estd. high maturity system quickly (3months)
Improved efficiencies via automation -500%
Enhanced defect finding rates- 500%
Scaled up teams very quickly- less that 4 weeks
Early stage defect detection - 2x
Copyright 2008,STAG Software Private Limited. All rights reserved
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9. What we do…
Test engineering group Knowledge services group
Full Cycle QA Training
Managed QA Specialized workshops in test
Offshore test center engineering
Finishing school for large SI cos
Slice QA services
Test design, Test strategy development Assessment
Release assessment Test competency assessment
Unit test assessment
Requirement testing
Performance assessment Consulting
Test capability assessment and
Tooling & automation improvement
Functional test automation Development quality
improvement
Script migration
Custom tooling
Copyright 2008,STAG Software Private Limited. All rights reserved
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10. Work showcase
• Have run a 20 people OTC for a large US based eLearning co.
• 5 people OTC for a US-based telecom co.
• 7 people OTC for a US-based compliance co.
• Managed QA for a eLearning product company
• Managed QA for a pharma product dev. co.
• Test design service improved #TC by 2x improving test coverage
for a internet banking co
• Our custom tooling reduces cycle time by 5 times for large BI
product company
• Performance/load assessment for a shipping logistics company
ensures that system is ready for deployment
• Our training for a large US based financial co. reduces defects at
late stage by 30%
Copyright 2008,STAG Software Private Limited. All rights reserved
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11. Thank you.
STEMTM is the trademark of STAG Software Private Limited
Copyright 2008,STAG Software Private Limited. All rights reserved
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