The
following articles were written and published by P.B. Systems' consultants in newsletters.
Top Ten List - State Snapshots:
This article was posted to a testing newsletter in early 1997. The article
goes into great detail about how to isolate and identify intermittent bugs, be they
inconsistent from machine to machine, or intermittent over time. State snapshots can
be taken of two computer's registries, two computers database schemas, two computer's
dll's/ocx's, etc. These two snapshots can then be compared to quickly locate
differences and isolate an otherwise non-reproducible bug. (The best diffing tool
out there is a freeware tool named ExamDiff.)
A Simple Paper Tool:
This article was posted to a testing newsletter in late 1996. The article was an
editorial regarding the use of checklists to organize an ad-hoc testing approach when
there is not enough time to do a formal test plan. At the time I wrote it, I thought
it was great -- looking back now, I think it was goofy. See what you think.
(The checklist referenced in the article can be downloaded here.)
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The following
items are various lecture courses, power point presentations, and other training materials
created by P.B. Systems' consultants.
Project Scheduling 101:
This zip file includes the course syllabus and lecture notes. An
introduction to project scheduling using Microsoft Project. The course will be broken down
into four classes: What is a Schedule, Schedule Rough-Out, Schedule Refinement, and
Project Tracking.
A schedule is a tool used to control and manage time. A schedule establishes the plan of
action. A schedule clearly communicates that plan of action to all project participants. A
schedule tracks variations from the baseline plan to actual conditions as the project
progresses. A schedule clearly communicates the impact of those variations. Once
completed, an old schedule constitutes a snapshot of history from which a significant part
of the planning process can be extracted on the subsequent project cycle. Survey after
survey (Callahan, pg 4) indicate the importance of schedules in reducing delays, cost
overruns, and disputes.
Testing 101:
This zip file includes the course syllabus and lecture notes. An
introduction to realistic testing of consumer and business software under normal business
conditions. This is a broad overview of all aspects of the testing, ranging from political
situations to testing processes to testing tools. A voluntary study group will be
organized to attend this course.
Software testing is partly intuitive, but largely systematic. Good testing involves much
more than just running the program a few times to see whether it works. Thorough analysis
of the program under test, backed by a broad knowledge of testing techniques and tools are
prerequisites to systematic testing. The purpose of this course is to provide you with
that broad overview of the testing industry, plus the techniques and tools of the trade.
Testware Presentation:
This zip file contains a single Power Point presentation describing
testware. Testware consists of: test plans, test specifications, test cases, bug
write-ups, status reports, and exit reports. The point of the discussion was too
show how all testware interrelates, and to encourage testers to do a thorough and
professional job in building testware, not too take shortcuts unless absolutely necessary.
Interview Quesions:
A nice list of interview questions. Download and print this up quick when you need
to do an interview for a job candidate, and want to measure the soft skills (attitude,
personality, etc.).
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The following
is a collection of responses that P.B. Systems' consultants have posted on HelpTalk.net's MS-Access Forum, and Deja.Com's
Computer.Databases.Microsoft-Access (CDMA).
VBA:
• QA1: How do I run files such as web pages, or
vbscript files (sample.vbs), or Excel files from within Access or VB? The Shell function
only seems to run .exe or .bat files.
• QA7: How do I fix an Access MDB that
works fine on most machines, but gives me an error that it cannot recognize common,
built-in functions like LEFT(), DATE(), etc.?
Forms:
• QA4: How do I make the child window inside an
Access Window look better...how do I get rid of the Access window around it?
• QA5: How do I hide MS-Access Splash Screen
while loading your app?
• QA6: How do I resize the form
inside the MS-Access Window?
Miscellaneous:
• QA2: How do I let a client
view MS-Access data when they do not have MS-Access?
• QA3: I forgot my Access database password. How
do I remove the password and regain access to the database?
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