James A. Whittaker Software Architect Visual Studio Team Test Microsoft

Global climate change

Alternative energy

Managing global finance

“A second V-22 crash in December 2000 killed four Marines. The accident was pegged to a ruptured hydraulics line and a software failure.” “Fans of the rock band Pearl Jam got a taste of cyber-gridlock Saturday, when a software failure disabled phone lines set up for ticket requests for shows in Seattle, Toledo, Ohio, and other cities.” “Patriot Missile's Tragic Failure Might Have Been Averted -- Computer Glitch Probably Allowed Scud To Avoid Intercept, Army Says” “Software Failure Halts Big Board Trading for Over an Hour” - C8B63&scp=1&sq=%22software%20failure%22&st=cse C8B63&scp=1&sq=%22software%20failure%22&st=cse “This is what happened in 2003, when a software failure near Toledo, Ohio, combined with sagging power lines and a simple error by a control room worker to cause a blackout in eight Northeastern and Midwestern states and Ontario.” - 1&scp=14&sq=%22software%20failure%22&st=cse&oref=slogin 1&scp=14&sq=%22software%20failure%22&st=cse&oref=slogin “Nike last year had to reduce prices and fly some products to customers after a software failure resulted in excess inventory and missed shipments.” - C8B63&scp=24&sq=%22software%20failure%22&st=cse C8B63&scp=24&sq=%22software%20failure%22&st=cse

fee = 8.95 fee = 0.00 fee =

The future I see Moving Test Forward Visualizat ion Test Culture Testing’s Butterfly Tests Ship with Product Informa tion Virtualiza tion Test Sourcing

For testers, it’s everywhere – On your desk – On your drive – On your network – In your head – In other people’s heads – … We need information to be available, actionable and alive

The future I see Moving Test Forward Visualizat ion Test Culture Testing’s Butterfly Tests Ship with Product Informa tion Virtualiza tion Test Sourcing

Hard problems: – Ain’t got no repro – The Vista lesson Solution: – Control the environment – Easier said than done … until now

Virtualization for user machines – Think Watson … only better – Fool proof debugging – Libraries of virtual test machines Virtualization for tester machines – Virtualized test libraries, just add apps – Environment-carrying tests

Virtual test machines would have value – Buy them, sell them, rent them Testers no longer test, they design – Determining what needs to be tested supersedes how to test it – Why select among tests when you can have them all? The result – Apps released after centuries of accumulated testing against hundreds of thousands of possible environments – Most apps don’t require dedicated QA staff

The future I see Moving Test Forward Visualizat ion Test Culture Testing’s Butterfly Tests Ship with Product Informa tion Virtualiza tion Test Sourcing

Well, there’s: – Input – Output – Data flow – Control flow – Modules – Dependencies – Environment variables – Files – Interfaces – Bugs

I’ve painted my vision of the future A future where – late cycle heroics are cause for shame – testing is thorough, predictable, repeatable – software just works – quality is an expectation – innovation is an epidemic

20 years from now – Will the quality of software be taken for granted? Will users be genuinely surprised when it fails? – Will researchers look back in wonder that there was ever even a need for dedicated bug finders?

James A. Whittaker