Paper Info
Title
'Good' Organisational Reasons for 'Bad' Software Testing: An Ethnographic Study of Testing in a Small Software Company
Abstract
In this paper we report on an ethnographic study of a small software house to discuss the practical work of software testing. Through use of two rich descriptions, we discuss that 'rigour' in systems integration testing necessarily has to be organisationally defined. Getting requirements 'right', defining 'good' test scenarios and ensuring 'proper' test coverage are activities that need to be pragmatically achieved taking account of organisational realities and constraints such as: the dynamics of customer relationships; using limited effort in an effective way; timing software releases; and creating a market. We discuss how these organisational realities shape (1) requirements testing; (2) test coverage; (3) test automation; and (4) test scenario design.
Year
DOI
Venue
2007
10.1109/ICSE.2007.1
Minneapolis, MN
Keywords
Field
DocType
program testing,software houses,customer relationship,ethnographic study,requirement testing,software company,software house,software testing,system integration testing,test coverage,test scenario design
Code coverage,System integration testing,Rigour,Systems engineering,System testing,Computer science,Exploratory testing,Scenario testing,Software,Test strategy
Conference
ISSN
ISBN
Citations 
0270-5257
0-7695-2828-7
53
PageRank 
References 
Authors
1.97
11
4
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
David Martin11188.63
John Rooksby232123.19
Mark Rouncefield31631144.08
Sommerville, I.4531.97