2006 year roundup of SQABD

It was really a satisfactory restart of this SQA_Bangladesh Community in 2006 after a long break. Everything was possible only for the support of the members and VIP persons of different Software Companies. Thanks to BASIS for having interest in sponsoring SQABD in different stages. Lets start a new year with more new thoughts and views and objectives.

Happy New Year :)

2006 came and went. It was an important milestone for SQABD. We were on a mission. It was a journey, and it has just begun. :)

Here are some noteworthy activities of SQABD during 2006:

1. The SQABD Management Team was formed.
2. Outlined the SQABD manifesto, mission and vision.
3. Held 10 roundtables on varying topics.
4. Designed the SQABD logo.
5. Registered www.sqabd.com
6. SQABD has cooperation agreements with PHPExperts, JPGroup, .Net Community and PHP Resources.
7. SQABD is now supported and promoted by BASIS.
8. 50+ rich profiles of SQABD members with "LinkedIn SQABD".
9. Acquired the audio recording gear for the upcoming podcasts on the mentors of the Bangladesh software industry.
10. Moderate the mailing list for spam and job ads to keep it professional and useful for our busy members.
11. Membership has doubled to 200+ by attracting the industry elites.

Like I said, this is the beginning of a journey. So here is a list of what is coming in 2007:

1. Will recruit more volunteers for SQABD Management Team.
2. Design and develop the SQABD website (partially done).
3. More roundtables starting this January, on varying topics.
4. Podcasts on the mentors of the Bangladesh software industry, starting this January.
5. Build connections with more user groups.
6. And more still in planning stage. Will mention these as soon as the plans mature.

Thank you all for being with us and making it an enjoyable and motivating ride. Stay tuned for a great year ahead. :)

Eid Mubarak and a Happy New Year to all of you!!

- Sajjadul Hakim

source: SQABD Yahoo Group

Updates on Scott Ambler's activities

I was little busy at work these few days, so couldn't post any new post in my SQABD Blog. In last few weeks i got few emails from Scott Amblers Yahoo Group and i would like to mention few of those below which could help others too :)

ANN: MS VSTS for Database Professionals
Posted by: "Scott Ambler"
Thu Dec 14, 2006 5:17 am (PST)

Deb Hartmann has posted an article at http://www.infoq.com/news/2006/12/vsts-for-database-launch where I was interviewed regarding the release of VSTS for Database Professionals. This product implements some of the ideas which I wrote about in Agile Database Techniques (www.ambysoft.com/books/agileDatabaseTechniques.html), and perhaps more importantly some of the refactorings that Pramod Sadalage and I describe in Refactoring Databases
(www.ambysoft.com/books/refactoringDatabases.html) .

It's great to see improving tool support for agile database development techniques. After almost two
decades of stagnation within the data community, we're finally starting to see new concepts, in particular agile ones, being adopted. The fact that we're starting to see improved database tools, and arguably even an entire new category in the form of database refactoring tools, is a sure sign that we're approaching the tipping point. The next two years should prove interesting.

- Scott

Objective View #10: Databases and Automated Training
Posted by: "Scott Ambler"
Wed Dec 13, 2006 10:40 am (PST)

I have an article on database refactoring in the issue which is posted at http://www.objectiveviewmagazine. com/

The issue is action packed as you can see from thelist of contents:

Features:
Kent Beck Interview
C# 2.0 & 3.0 Overview
Refactoring Databases
OODBMS Revisited
How to Work with Legacy Code

Opinion:
Grady Booch on SOA
Kevlin Henney - Why the Waterfall Fails
Matt Stephens - Ruby - I Love You (Not)

Plus:
Ed Yourdon - Structured Analysis - A Retrospective
TDD - Treating Tests as Code
EA's Model/Code Sync Features

- Scott

Agile Testing Strategies
Posted by: "Scott Ambler"
Tue Dec 12, 2006 3:18 pm (PST)

My January column is now available online at http://www.ddj.com/dept/debug/196603549?cid=Ambysoft . It describes strategies for testing on agile projects, showing how confirmatory and investigative testing techniques are applied effectively. I hope you find it interesting.

- Scott

Scott W. Ambler
Practice Leader Agile Development, IBM Methods Group
http://www-306. ibm.com/software /rational/ bios/ambler. html


source: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/ambysoft/

SQA Engineers in Bangladesh

I can see that in our Bangladesh perspective as the SQA Career path is very new in our IT scope, most of the SQA Engineers are not guided properly or misguided with wrong information. Even most of the Software Engineers think about SQA Engineering as just only a career of a simple Bug Reporter. A person who will be bugging the Development Team with number of valid and invalid Bugs and argu with them when needed.

This is a very usual scenario for where most of the companies don't even bother about Quality Development or even Standardized process. But now a days few of smart companies are comming up with the thought to standardized their own process and quality of service / development for further competion. Competition with different outsourcing neighbour companies or the local outsourcing companies.

Confusion on SQA Career is most of a common scenario in different developing countries. And the career path guidance is even dependent upon the enviroment where most of we SQA Engineers are working. The limitations, scopes everything depends on the environment or the place where we are working.

Here i am posting a reply that Mr. Sajjadul Hakim replied to a SQA Engineer in SQA Bangladesh Yahoo Group. As i see the Reply is very informative for all SQA Engineers (Newbie, Intermediate, Advanced, and Experts) so sharing it to all my Blog Readers.

---

This is the basic question that was asked ...

On 10/27/06, ****** ****** <***********@yahoo.com> wrote:

Hello Dear,
Actually I'm new in this group. Few months ago I
joined in a software company as a Jr. SQA Engr.
Actually I didn't know what is SQA. It was totally new
to me. And lot of my colleagues discouraged me. They
told there is no future of SQA in Bangladesh. I'm
confused. So can you tell me please about the prosect
of SQA in Bangladesh?

Regards
******
SQA Engineer

---

Replied by Sajjadul Hakim [ Tue Oct 31, 2006 12:35 pm ] as below

There is no easy answer to your question regarding the prospect of SQA career in Bangladesh. I would advice you to go through the following links and make your own judgment. I also want to encourage testers, who already have a career, to comment on their experiences.


The career prospect in Bangladesh was addressed in this group a long time ago, here:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/sqa_bangladesh/message/44


Recently we tried to address an interesting new role of Testers in Bangladesh, here:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/JPGroup/message/1679


Agile testing is becoming quite popular these days, and we addressed that here:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/sqa_bangladesh/message/376


The issue of choosing the right company for your career was addressed here:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/sqa_bangladesh/message/360


If you are concerned about training, then a good place to start was mentioned here:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/sqa_bangladesh/message/311


Always keep yourself updated about testing and SQA by participating in mailing lists. There is no alternative to this. Here is a list of useful mailing lists depending on your skill level:

Beginner: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/SQAtester/
Intermediate: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Software_QA/
Advanced: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/software-testing/
Expert: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/agile-testing/

Regularly read the articles posted at www.stickyminds.com. This is a reliable source. Also, if you can subscribe to "Better Software" magazine, please do so immediately. You may also be eligible for a free subscription.


Always keep on the lookout for books and articles by these veterans, because the things they write are pretty profound:

• Cem Kaner
• James Bach
• Bret Pettichord
• Brian Marick
  

Always keep in touch with testers in Bangladeshi software companies that are recognized to have a good testing team. Networking is an important part of career growth. A few companies to mention are:

• Metatude
• Relisource
• SoftwarePeople
• Uniqa
  

Have a thorough knowledge of how testing fits in the SDLC. Have a good understanding of the SDLC.

Always brush up your programming skills. It can only make you better.

Work closely with the developers. Understand the development environment in your project and get acquainted to it, i.e. the IDE, OS, DB, dev process, deployment process etc. It can only make you better.

Software companies are always looking for skilled testers. Don't always rely on Bdjobs for your next job. Networking is a far better tool.

Your salary will depend on your skills, period. You will need to prove yourself.

So much to do...but whats the hurry. Just start the process. Feel free to comment. Thanks.

Regards,
Sajjad

---

Hope everyone gets help from this post :)

Agile Software Development and Business Analysis

Recently Scott W. Ambler (practice leader Agile Development in the IBM methods group) wrote an article on "Agile Software Development and Business Analysis" in "Requrments Networking Group (RQNG)". You should need a membership to read the article from the group. RQNG offering Free membership, so you don't have to worry about the membership. You can collect the article in PDF file from the RQNG group or from the SQA Bangladesh - SQABD file section.

Download the PDF from RQNG


Source: ambysoft, rqng

Fixed Price Contracts

Few days back Sajjadul Hakim posted a topics in SQA Bangladesh Group about "Fixed Price Contracts". I thought it will be nice to post in this Blog to focus the topics he discussed already. Here a pasted the whole topics with detail URL. Please feel free to discuss on this issue in the SQABD group if you are interested.
____________________________________________________________


Fixed Price Contracts

When does your project start failing? The day you accepted the project.

Most projects worked in Bangladesh are fixed price contracts.

A fixed-price (FP) contract between a provider and a customer defines
the scope, features, planning, timing and price of a software project.
Pretty much everything is fixed, not only the price.

How do you make sure you are not walking into the lion's den? There is
a good article on projects that are based on fixed price contracts,
called "Agile Fixed Price Projects part 1: The Price Is Right". You
can read it here (PDF attached):
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sqa_bangladesh/files/fixedpriceprojects.pdf

In the following I tried to write a summary with some comments to
influence you to read the entire article. Here goes…


# There is a project in the horizon…Do you qualify…
----------------------------

Question 1: Do I know the domain?
You can't really estimate and develop the software within deadline if
you are new to the domain. The software is all about providing a
solution to the customer. It is very difficult to do that if you have
no experience in the domain.

Question 2: Do I know the technology?
It is not practical to experiment with new technology and tools when
you have a deadline to meet.

Question 3: Can I work with my usual team?
Get the project signed off. Now hire engineers to form the team. This
is a recipe for disaster. You can't really estimate efficiency and
performance of engineers if you haven't worked with them.

Question 4: Can I handle the estimated project size?
If you and your team have worked on short projects, you will be taking
a huge risk undertaking a long project. If you have worked with small
teams, you will be taking a huge risk managing a big team.


# Hooray, you qualify…Should you accept the project…
--------------------------------

Sales tip 1: Don't just respond to "Request For Proposal" (RFP)
Let's talk about our government. Government floats tenders with RFP
document for software projects. Software companies (vendors) submit
their bids based on the instructions in the RFP document. The proposal
contains specification, timing, planning and price. The government
chooses the best proposal (yeah right). Always get more info from the
customer personally before creating the proposal, since the RFPs are
incomplete. You must do this to estimate better.

Sales tip 2: It works both ways
You will have a deadline to meet. That means you will need certain
info and feedback from the customer within certain timeframes or else
you may miss the deadline. So add these conditions in your contract,
i.e. the customer should deliver some information by a certain date;
provide testing feedback within a certain date etc.

Sales tip 3: Don't underbid
If you know how much the project will cost, then don't underbid just
to throw off your competition. How will you compensate for the loss if
you win the project? By giving the customer less than they asked for?
Good luck with that.

Sales tip 4: Add some slack to cover the risks
Your estimates are always flawed. Accept it. Keep buffer time. Don't
cut your buffer to underbid your competitor.

Sales tip 5: Real business requirements
Write the specification with the customer. If the customer is
reluctant to give you enough info, then chances are he will do the
same after you get the project. In any case, you don't have enough
info to estimate. If you go through with it you will probably fail the
deadline.


# Got the job…Rough ride ahead…
--------------------------------

Implementation tip 1: Don't allow change requests
I don't want to comment on this. Better read the entire section in the
document. Here is a quote from the doc: "Don't use Change Requests
because their drawbacks heavily outweigh any initial advantages they
bring"

Implementation tip 2: Spend your slack wisely
Things will go wrong. Prepare for it. Use your buffer time wisely.
Leave some buffer for the end. Usually that's when the heat is on.

Implementation tip 3: Simple, honest and correct tracking
Remember the Green Shift Anti-pattern in one of my previous post? Look
it up here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sqa_bangladesh/message/431

Implementation tip 4: Manage your project
Be proactive. Let the team solve problems with you. Let the team
interact with customers. Stay alert for creeping issues.


Now I am done…for now at least. Deadline oriented projects are always
high risk. The above steps should minimize the risks involved.

This may work for you if you are getting projects abroad. But let's
face facts…you won't really get too many projects that fit all the
criteria in Bangladesh. The author has created another article that
brings a little agility to fixed price contracts. Will post that
later. Thanks.

Regards,
Sajjad


_______________________________________________
source: SQA Bangladesh (www.sqabd.com)