Internet Info 1997 December/Internet_Info_CD-ROM_Walnut_Creek_December_1997.iso/faqs/comp/answers/software-eng/testing-faq

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From: [e-mail] (Danny Faught)
Newsgroups: comp.software.testing,comp.software-eng,comp.answers,news.answers
Subject: comp.software.testing Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
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Summary: read me before posting to comp.software.testing
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Archive-name: software-eng/testing-faq
Posting-Frequency: semi-monthly
Last-modified: 1997/09/18
Version: $Revision: 1.36 $
URL: http://www.rstcorp.com/c.s.t.faq.html
     http://www.faqs.org/faqs/software-eng/testing-faq/

                      comp.software.testing FAQ
                  and information resource

This is the Frequently Asked Questions list for comp.software.testing.
This FAQ is posted twice a month, and is cross-posted to
comp.software-eng.  If your news server is set up properly, you should
always be able to find the latest version in news.answers or
comp.answers.  A context diff showing recent changes will usually be
posted to comp.software.testing as a followup to the FAQ.

The latest version of this FAQ may be retrieved using Usenet, the World
Wide Web, ftp, email, gopher, or even telnet.  See the FAQ
"Introduction to the *.answers newsgroups" in news.announce.newusers or
<ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/news-answers/introduction>
for details.  Please check the date above - if this file is more than a
month old, it is obsolete.  The main ftp site for the FAQ is
<ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/software-eng/testing-faq>.
The folks at RST sponsor the primary web site for the FAQ, at
<http://www.rstcorp.com/c.s.t.faq.html>.

The FAQ is still under construction (and like most FAQs, it always will
be).  I'm maintaining this FAQ to collect a consensus from the
comp.software.testing community, so it depends on your feedback for it
to take shape.  Please don't hesitate to send me corrections,
additions, and other comments.

Herein, unless otherwise stated, "I" refers to Danny Faught.  This file
is Copyright 1997 by Danny Faught.  Permission is granted to distribute
this file unedited and in its entirety, provided the "Date" header is
no more than one month earlier than the date of distribution.  This
information is provided without any express or implied warranty.

------------------------------

Subject: 1. Table of Contents

    1. Table of Contents
    2. What is this newsgroup about?
    3. What other FAQs are relevant?
    4. What other resources are available?
    5. World Wide Web resources
    6. Netiquette
    7. What's the difference between QA and testing?
    8. I'm looking for a test tool...
    9. Beta testing
   10. How do I find information about testing object-oriented programs?
   11. How do I test web-related applications?
   12. What is black box/white box testing?
   13. Should we discuss bug tracking tools in this newsgroup?
   14. What kind of salary should a tester make?
   15. Where can I find sample test plans?
   16. Conferences
   17. Periodicals
   18. Books
   19. Bibliographic resources
   20. Organizations
   21. Contributors

------------------------------

Subject: 2. What is this newsgroup about?

If you're new to Usenet, please read through the FAQs in
news.announce.newusers and hang out in news.newusers.questions for a
while before you consider posting.

The original charter for comp.software.testing can be found at
<http://tsunami.jpl.nasa.gov/TEL/docs/cst-charter.html>.  Here's an
excerpt (with corrections):

    CONTENTS:

    For the purpose of this discussion, we will assume that a system is
    composed of hardware, software, people, and procedures. The
    proposed group should be chartered to include discussions
    characterized by the following list of subjects, compiled from
    preliminary discussions:

        system test automation
        system test planning
        system test optimization (e.g. minimize regression testing)
        test tools
    test metrics
        measurement technology
        nature of testing under various development models
        (e.g. object-oriented, real time, etc...)
        testing in a rapid prototyping environment (i.e. sans spec)
    relationship of various classes/types of tests to requirements, ...
    conference and symposium announcements
    the definition of "software testing" and its relationship to
        SQA and debugging.
    requirements traceability
    risk-based testing
    the most useful form of specifications and functional
        requirements from the tester's point of view.
    testing techniques, e.g., structured testing using control
        flowgraphs and basis path testing, equivalence class
        partitioning, boundary value analysis, cause-effect graphing,
        path predicate testing, data flow testing, program slices,
        data object state and usage analysis, data flow anomaly
        analysis, and sensitivity analysis.
     test coverage criteria, e.g., statement (C0), path, branch (C1),
        module (S0), and call-pair (S1) coverage criteria.

    All levels of testing for both hardware and software should be
    considered appropriate subject matter. While it is likely that the
    group will take on a software flavor early on, we should try to
    generate interest and input from people with hardware and system
    testing experience and perspective. It is especially important that
    we foster discussion of *system* level testing issues, since this
    is the weakest area of our collective knowledge.

------------------------------

Subject: 3. What other FAQs are relevant?

Brian Marick maintains the following FAQs:
    Testing Contractors and Consultants List
    Testing Courses List
    Testing Tool Supplier List

These FAQs are also available at <http://www.stlabs.com/marick/root.htm>
and <ftp://cs.uiuc.edu/pub/testing/faqs/>.  Please consult the
appropriate FAQ before before asking questions about the information
already contained therein.  The Testing Tool Suppliers FAQ also
contains a nice list of the available software test tools.

Since software testing is a subdiscipline of software engineering,
you will probably find the FAQs posted to comp.software-eng useful.
They can be found at <ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/comp.software-eng/> or
<http://www.qucis.queensu.ca/Software-Engineering/>

The Problem Management Tools (bug tracking) FAQ is posted to
comp.software.config-mgmt, and is also available on news.answers and
the rtfm archives.  The URL is
<http://www.iac.honeywell.com/Pub/Tech/CM/index.html>.

Rick Hower maintains the "Software QA/Test Resource Center" at
<http://www.charm.net/~dmg/qatest/>.  It covers a broad range of
questions about software testing.

------------------------------

Subject: 4. What other resources are available?

A searchable archive of comp.software.testing can be found at:
<http://tel.jpl.nasa.gov/cst-bin/archive.html>.  The archives are also
packaged on a monthly basis at <ftp://tel.jpl.nasa.gov/pub/cst-archive>.
Some articles seem to be missing, though.

There's a mailing list gateway for comp.software.testing.  To
subscribe, unsubscribe, or ask questions about the list, send mail
to [e-mail].  List maintenance is not
automated at the moment.

Statistics about comp.software.testing are available at
<http://sunsite.unc.edu/usenet-i/groups-html/comp.software.testing.html>,
though it looks like the data hasn't been updated since January, 1996.

Danny Faught and Mark Wiley maintain a mailing list for people who like
to talk about the implementation details of OS testing and test tools.
Mail [e-mail] with "subscribe swtest-discuss" in
the body of the message to subscribe.  Send "unsubscribe swtest-discuss"
to unsubscribe.

There is an ISO 9000 mailing list.  Mail to [e-mail] with
"subscribe iso9000 (your name)" in the body of the message, or
"Signoff iso9000" to unsubscribe.

There is also a list devoted specifically to ISO 9000-3.  To join,
send mail to [e-mail] with "subscribe iso9000-3" in the
body of the message.  Send "unsubscribe iso9000-3" to leave the list.
There's also an iso9000-3-digest list to get the same information in
digest format.

There is a mailing list for Microsoft Test and Rational Visual Test.
To join, mail to [e-mail] or
[e-mail] with "subscribe" in the subject
line.  See also <http://www.stlabs.com/mst.htm#List_serv>.  You can
also read the microsoft.public.visualtest newsgroup from the
msnews.microsoft.com news server.

Segue Software sponsors the QAPUSER mailing list for QA Partner.
To join, send "subscribe QAPUSER <your_name>" in the body of a mail
message to [e-mail].  Send "unsubscribe QAPUSER" to
unsubscribe.  The list uses a digest format.

To join the discussion list about ADL (Assertion Definition Language
system), send your name, affiliation, and e-mail address to
[e-mail].

There is a mailing list for SQA Suite users.  See
<http://www3.dundee.net/scripts/lyris.pl?enter=sqa-suite-users> for
subscription instructions.  For help, contact
[e-mail].

The sw-rel mailing list is dedicated to discussing software
reliability and related issues.  To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a
request to [e-mail].

------------------------------

Subject: 5. World Wide Web resources

Here are a few web sites that each try to connect you to much of the
software testing and quality information that is available on the web.

    The RST Reliability Hotlist
    <http://www.rstcorp.com/rst-web-top.html>

    STORM (Software Testing Online Resources/MTSU)
    <http://www.mtsu.edu/~storm>

    SR/Institute's Software Quality HotList
    <http://www.soft.com/Institute/HotList/>

    The QA Dude - Online Quality Resources
    <http://www.nicom.com/~qadude/qualitylinks.html>

------------------------------

Subject: 6. Netiquette

Did I mention that you should read the FAQs in news.announce.newusers if
you haven't done so lately?  Also, you can reduce the chances of
embarrassing yourself by reading comp.software.testing for a while
before posting.  At the very least, scan all the articles in the group
currently on your server to make sure your question hasn't already been
asked and answered.

If you post an article and later decide you shouldn't have posted it,
please cancel it.  It is much better to correct the problem than to
send *another* post to apologize for the first one.  Situations where
this would be appropriate include posting empty articles, multiple
copies of the same article, and any goof where you'd like to correct
something you posted shortly after it was sent.  Look in your
newsreader documentation for help with cancelling an article; some also
have a "supercede" feature which makes it easy to correct a posting.

While the cancel feature has been common for quite some time, some
newer newsreaders unfortunately do not offer it.  If this is the case,
complain to the author, and consider using a more reasonable
newsreader.  Here's a manual method to cancel an article - start to
follow up to the errant posting.  Change the subject to
"cmsg cancel <message-id>", where message-id is taken from the
References: header or the attribution.  The body of the message is not
important.  Post it, and the news system should interpret it as a
cancel request rather than a real posting.  You can only do this for
an article you posted yourself.

There are classes of postings that are of interest to some readers, but
others don't welcome them at all.  The easiest compromise is to clearly
identify certain types of postings in the subject line.  Decent
newsreaders allow you to automatically delete articles with subject
line patterns that you specify.

Job postings must have a subject line that starts with "JOB:", exactly
as shown, for example:
"Subject: JOB: need an experienced foo tester"

Job postings that are cross-posted to the various job-related
newsgroups should not be posted to comp.software.tesing, since the
subject conventions for those groups do not allow them to be easily
identified as job postings, and the misc.jobs FAQ
(<ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/jobs/welcome-faq>)
specifies that job postings should not be cross-posted between the
job-related newsgroups and non job-related newsgroups.

Some recruiters refuse to follow the job posting policy.  If you don't
want to read job postings, I recommend using a kill file to
systematically kill articles from these recruiters.

Other advertisements and commercial product announcements should
have a subject that starts with "AD:".  For example:
"Subject: AD: foo tester 1.0 released"

Many questions about a particular test tool only interest those readers
who use that tool.  Please make sure to put the name of the test tool
in the subject line so readers can select the articles they read by
looking at the subject.  In general, please use a descriptive subject
line.

People have also expressed concern about postings that are totally
off-topic.  These postings are typically "spam" postings that go to
most of the thousands of newsgroups that exist.  There is very little
that a group can do proactively to prevent them, besides recruiting a
moderator (and I don't think that would be appropriate for
comp.software.testing).  See news.admin.net-abuse.usenet and
<http://www.tezcat.com/~gbyshenk/ive.been.spammed.html> for more
information.

Please don't post test messages to comp.software.testing.  This group
is for discussing software testing, not for testing your news
software.  If you want several automatic confirmations that your post
worked, post a test message to misc.test.  There are other test groups
at various levels of the news hierarchy that all end in ".test".  It's
best to try a local one first.

------------------------------

Subject: 7. What's the difference between QA and testing?

Sharon Codrington asks:
    Please enlighten this young QA person as to the difference between
    QA & Testing.  Am I right in thinking that QA is more a preventive
    thing, ensuring quality in the in the company and therefore the
    product rather than just testing the product for software bugs?

And Bret Pettichord answers:
    DING. DING. DING. You are correct.

    Most testing jobs i see are nevertheless advertised as "QA". Some people
    suggest that QC is a better set of initials to describe testing.

Don Mills writes:
    In my courses and my practice, I stick to the ANSI/IEEE
    definitions, which agree with what is generally held *outside* the
    software arena.  The definitions boil down to:
          *  TESTING means "quality control"
          *  QUALITY CONTROL measures the quality of a product
          *  QUALITY ASSURANCE measures the quality of processes used
         to create a quality product.

------------------------------

Subject: 8. I'm looking for a test tool...

Did you read the Testing Tool Suppliers FAQ (see "What other FAQs are
relevant?" above)  It has a list of many of the available tools, plus a
list of the commercial tools listings.  While every question about test
tools isn't answered there, it's a good start, and it'll at least allow
you to ask a more directed question if you do post a question about
test tools.

------------------------------

Subject: 9. Beta testing

Discussions about managing a beta test program are within the scope of
this newsgroup.  However, companies looking for beta testers, and
aspiring beta testers looking for something to test, should go to
comp.sources.testers instead.  A possible exception is test tool
vendors looking for beta testers.

If you are looking for a career in software testing,
comp.software.testing will welcome you.  Just don't call it "beta
testing".  Beta testing is typically conducted by end users of a
software product who are not paid a salary for their efforts.

------------------------------

Subject: 10. How do I find information about testing object-oriented programs?

Information provided by Brian Marick:

Books that include some discussion of testing OO programs:
    Jacobson, _Object-Oriented Software Engineering_
    Marick, _The Craft of Software Testing_
    McGregor, _Object-Oriented Software Development_
    Siegel, _Object Oriented Software Testing_

There are a vast number of articles about testing OO programs.  I
suggest starting with the September 1994 Communications of the ACM,
which is devoted to this topic.  Chase references.   The February 1996
issue of Object has a piece on system testing with use cases.

Conferences like STAR and Quality Week and Pacific Northwest Software
Quality Conference seem to always have papers on this topic.  I
suggest going to a conference and buttonholing people.

Web sites with discussion:
    <http://www.clemson.edu/~johnmc/johnmc.html> (this link is not
    working as of 6/23/96)
    <http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/gmurphy/testSTApp.html>
    <http://www.stlabs.com/marick/root.htm>
    <http://www.toa.com>

Three courses on testing object-oriented code (one by Robert Binder,
one by Ed Berard, and one by Reliable Software Technologies) are
described in the Testing Courses FAQ.  Also, a new addition is an
offering from Software Quality Engineering.

Bob Binder says:

My approach to oo testing is called FREE (Flattened Regular
Expressions) -- see <http://www.rbsc.com/pages/FREE.html>

You might also find the oo testing biblography of interest.
    <http://www.rbsc.com/pages/ootbib.html>

------------------------------

Subject: 11. How do I test web-related applications?

Rick Hower maintains a web page which includes a nice list of web
testing tools, and some guidelines for testing web sites.
<http://www.charm.net/~dmg/qatest/qatweb1.html>  Please contact him at
[e-mail] if you can offer additions or corrections to the
list.

------------------------------

Subject: 12. What is black box/white box testing?

Black-box and white-box are test design methods.  Black-box test design
treats the system as a "black-box", so it doesn't explicitly use
knowledge of the internal structure.  Black-box test design is usually
described as focusing on testing functional requirements.  Synonyms for
black-box include:  behavioral, functional, opaque-box, and
closed-box.  White-box test design allows one to peek inside the "box",
and it focuses specifically on using internal knowledge of the software
to guide the selection of test data.  Synonyms for white-box include:
structural, glass-box and clear-box.

While black-box and white-box are terms that are still in popular use,
many people prefer the terms "behavioral" and "structural".  Behavioral
test design is slightly different from black-box test design because
the use of internal knowledge isn't strictly forbidden, but it's still
discouraged.  In practice, it hasn't proven useful to use a single test
design method.  One has to use a mixture of different methods so that
they aren't hindered by the limitations of a particular one.  Some call
this "gray-box" or "translucent-box" test design, but others wish we'd
stop talking about boxes altogether.

It is important to understand that these methods are used during the
test design phase, and their influence is hard to see in the tests once
they're implemented.  Note that any level of testing (unit testing,
system testing, etc.) can use any test design methods.  Unit testing is
usually associated with structural test design, but this is because
testers usually don't have well-defined requirements at the unit level
to validate.

Definitions of these terms can be found in these references:

Beizer, _Black Box Testing_, p. 8.
Beizer, _Software Testing Techniques_, pp. 10-11.
Daich, et al., _STSC Software Test Technologies Report_, pp. 198, 206.
Mosley, _The Handbook of MIS Application Software Testing_, pp. 68-76.
Myers, _The Art of Software Testing_, pp. 8-11.
Wilson, _Unix Test Tools and Benchmarks_, 298, 306

------------------------------

Subject: 13. Should we discuss bug tracking tools in this newsgroup?

Discussing bug tracking tools is not within the original charter of
comp.software.testing.  The comp.software.config-mgmt newsgroup seems
to have taken this topic under its wing.  That group has a FAQ for
problem management tools.  See the "What other FAQs are relevant?"
section for details.

------------------------------

Subject: 14. What kind of salary should a tester make?

Salary information is available at <http://www.pencom.com/industry.html>.
A nice summary of the various surveys that are available is at
<http://www.ondaweb.com/sti/salary.htm>.

John Tyson writes:
> You could check the May '95 issue of Application Development Trends
> magazine.  The article "Testing moves from purgatory to profession" by
> Linda Hayes [[e-mail]] has an excellent all-around
> (non-technical) article on testing and does include some regional
> salaries (albeit very general).

John also encourages testing consultants to report their rates at
<http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/JanetRuhl/realco96.htm>.

Jennifer Larsen writes:
> You might want to get a copy of QAI's 1996 Information Technology Quality
> Practices and Salary Survey.  Quality Assurance Institute (QAI) has a
> variety of information available collected over a number of years.

Mark McWhinney writes:
> You might not want to use the survey results.  While they are helpful
> for defining an organization's general pay scales, they are not very
> useful on a case by case basis.  There are too many factors involved
> that may push a particular employee's base salary significantly above
> or below the average or outside the range.
>
> For QA and test people, these surveys are even more a problem.  QA and
> test people are second-class citizens.  They are paid less than their
> counterparts in development.  In part this is due to the fact that QA
> and test people tend to be less senior and less experienced, therefore
> deserving of less pay.  I have no problem with that.  However,
> developers and testers with equivalent skill, education, and experience
> are not paid the same.  This is wrong....

------------------------------

Subject: 15. Where can I find sample test plans?

See the following IEEE standards:
     829-1983 IEEE Standard for Software Test Documentation
     1008-1987 IEEE Standard for Software Unit Testing
     1012-1986 IEEE Standard for Software Verification and Validation Plans
     1059-1993 IEEE Guide for Software Verification and Validation Plans

You can contact the IEEE in the US at 800-678-4333.  Also, Requisite
(800-732-4047) sells a Standards Pack with Microsoft Word Templates
for 829, 830, and 1012.  The Software Productivity Centre
(<http://www.spc.ca>, 604-662-8181) sells Word templates, including
a test plan standard and a test plan template.

Several people recommend Kaner's book, _Testing Computer Software_, for
test plan samples.  Also look for the MIL-STD-498 Data Item
Descriptions under <http://www.stsc.hill.af.mil>; the standard in PDF
format is at <http://diamond.spawar.navy.mil/498/mil-498.html>.  You'll
find the ETET test plan in
<ftp:/ftp.ecs.soton.ac.uk/pub/etet/etet1.10.3.tar.Z> under the path
"doc/testplan".  Also see <http://www.acomtech.com/act/testplan.html>
for an adaptation of IEEE 829.

Information in this section was gleaned from posts by: Burt Gearhart,
Wayne Woodruff, Brent Parsons, Castor Fu, Michele Mercer, and others.

------------------------------

Subject: 16. Conferences

Opinions in this section are by Boris Beizer.

All of these conferences have published proceedings.  Generally,
materials presented at these conferences and in their proceedings lead
the publication in regular journals (above) by about 2-3 years.

1.  International Symposium on Software Testing and Analysis (ISSTA)
    theory, academic, leading edge practitioners (see 3b in the
    periodicals section.)  Now transitioning to a summer conference
    that will alternate with ICSE.  Next conference will be March 2-4,
    1998, in Clearwater Beach, Florida.  Sponsored by ACM and ACM's
    SIGSOFT.  The chair is Mary Lou Soffa, [e-mail].
    <http://www.cs.pitt.edu/issta98/>

2.  IEEE Conference on Software Engineering.  Spring, world-wide.
    Technical.  Primary source after ISSTA for leading edge results.

3.  Quality Week.  Annual, San Francisco.  Biggest Conference on
    Testing and QA.  Typically 700+.  Many vendors.  Good balance
    between technical/theoretical and practitioners.  Very broad base.
    Workshops.  End of May.  Sponsored by Software Research Institute,
    [e-mail].  The Tenth International Software Quality Week '97
    (QW '97) was May 27-30, 1997 at the Sheraton Palace Hotel, San
    Francisco, California, USA.  Also, the first Quality Week Europe
    (QWE '97) has been announced, November 4-7, 1997, in Brussels,
    Belgium.  <http://www.soft.com/QualWeek/index.html>

4.  Pacific Northwest Software Quality Conference.  Annual, Portland
    Oregon, October.  Definitely not a regional conference,
    despite the name.  Very broad from technical/research to
    practitioners.  A shade more academic and leading edge
    participation than quality week.  Terri Moore, Conference
    Coordinator.  Pacific Agenda, 2425 NW Overton Str., (PO BOX 10142)
    Portland, OR 97210.  [e-mail]
    <http://www.teleport.com/~pnsqc/>

5.  International Conference and Exposition on Testing Computer
    Software.  Less technical and more practitioner/management
    than Quality Week.  Smaller, 400+.  Workshops.

    15th annual conference is June 9-11, 1998 with workshops June 8 and
    12, in Washington, D.C.  G. Houston-Ludlam, Program Chair,
    [e-mail].  <http://www.uspdi.org/conference>,
    [e-mail], 301/270-1033.

6.  STAR.  Software Quality Engineering.  Also EuroSTAR in Europe.
    May, various locations.  About the same target as the International
    Conference (5) above.  Comparable level and interest.  Workshops.
    STAR'98 will be May 4-8, 1998, in Orlando Florida.
    SQE 1-800-423-8378.  <http://www.sqe.com/star/star.htm>,
    <http://sqe.com/euro/eurhome.html>.

7.  QAI International Software Testing Conference.  More of a
    tutorial/workshop than a conference.  Newbie orientation.  Fall,
    Orlando.  Quality Assurance Institute, 407-363-1111.

8.  IEEE Compsac, world-wide, various locations. Fall.  Typical IEEE
    technical conference with a substantial number of papers of direct
    interest to testing and QA.  Not as many as IEEE Software
    Engineering, though.

There are about a dozen other annual conferences with a substantial
testing content: Korea, Japan, Germany, to name a few.  In addition,
there are about two-dozen "conferences", privately sponsored by various
individuals and organizations.  These are not real conferences in that
there is no formal review process.  Speakers are invited by the
conference organizer.  Often, a heavy tutorial content.  These are
usually small ( under 100 participants, very few vendors).  They range,
depending on the organizer, from superb to fair-value, to outright
rip-off.  Sorry.  I won't play 20 questions on this one.

(end of Beizer's comments)

Also of note:

    The 7th International Conference on Software Quality (7ICSQ),
    sponsored by the Software Division of the ASQ.  October 6-8, 1997,
    Montgomery, Alabama.  Contacts: [e-mail],
    [e-mail].   <http://www-biz.aum.edu/~tgriffin/7icsq/>

    The Eighth International Symposium on Software Reliability
    Engineering (ISSRE) will be at The Sheraton Old Town Inn, Albuquerque,
    New Mexico, U.S.A.  November 2-5, 1997.  Chair is Bill Everett,
    [e-mail], [phone].
    <http://admin.ONE2ONE.com/issre97/97-cfp.html>

    Automated Software Test & Evaluation Conference (ASTE), Washington,
    DC.  Sponsored by The Education Foundation of the Association of
    Information Technology Professionals in cooperation with The
    American Society for Quality-Software Division, Society for
    Software Quality, Software Technology Support Center, and the
    Defense Systems Management College.  7th annual is March 19-21,
    1997.  Contact: Technology Training Corporation, [phone],
    [e-mail].  <http://www.ttcus.com/aste-c>

    COMPASS (COMPuter ASSurance) is an annual conference with the
    purpose of bringing together researchers, developers, integrators,
    and evaluators interested in problems related to specifying,
    building, and certifying high-assurance systems.  Sponsored by IEEE
    IEEE Aerospace & Electronic Society.  12th annual is June 16-19,
    1997, in Gaithersburg, MD.  <http://hissa.ncsl.nist.gov/compass/>
    [e-mail]

------------------------------

Subject: 17. Periodicals

Comments in this section are by Boris Beizer

1.  IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering.  (monthly)
    The most prestigious journal for testing stuff.  Volume 1 number 1
    published the landmark article by Goodenough and Gerhart.  Almost
    every issue since has had papers on testing and quality
    assurance.  I have all the issues back to V1 #1.  Much of that
    stuff is still relevant.

2.  ACM TOSEM (Transactions on Software Engineering Methodology)-Quarterly.
    Relatively new journal  (1992).  Has prestigious editorial
    board.  Somewhat more theoretical than IEEE SE.  In all ways,
    equivalent.

3a.  ACM SIGSOFT Software Engineering Notes.  (Special Interest group on
     Software Engineering)  (Monthly)
     Goes back to May 1976.  This is the place where people publish
     stuff to stake out claims.  It is not as strictly refereed as IEEE
     SE or TOSEM, but some overview is provide to keep out the obvious
     crap.  Important because there is a two or three year waiting list
     for publication in IEEE SE or ACM TOSEM.  People who know this
     field read ACM SIGSOFT for advanced information on what will
     be published "officially" in IEEE SE and ACM TOSEM.  You read an
     article and contact the author directly for more information.

3b.  Annual ISSTA conference proceedings.  ISSTA is the annual theoretical/
     Academic conference devoted to testing.  This is the most
     prestigious place to publish new results in testing theory and
     software reliability theory.

4.  IEEE Software.  (Six times a year).
    Rarely the latest stuff.  More like surveys and overviews once a
    subfield has become established.  Refereed, generally high
    standards.  Mostly overviews, but occasionally new stuff.

    Additional comments from Scott Killops:

    "You might mention in your blurb about 'IEEE Software' the
    regular "Quality Time" feature.  This is wide ranging and
    generally quite useful.  I've often thought that a collection
    of all of the 'Quality Time' articles published to date would
    make a worthwhile book."

5.  Software Testing, Verification, and Reliability.  Quarterly.
    International journal published by John Wiley and Sons.
    Prestigious international editorial board.  High quality original
    articles and excellent surveys.  Comparable in scope to IEEE SE
    and ACM TOSEM, but sharply focused on testing, verification, and
    reliability.  ISSN 0960-0833.

    http://www.csc.liv.ac.uk/users/mrw/stvr.main.html
    http://www.wiley.com/
    [e-mail]
    John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
    Professional, Reference and Trade Group
    605 Third Avenue
    New York, NY  10158-0012

6.  ACM Computing Surveys.  (Quarterly).
    Not specific to testing and QA, but contains the most prestigious
    survey articles in the field.  Typically, only when a subfield is
    well established.  The authors are usually authorities.  Articles
    are long and comprehensive.  When an ACM Survey on a topic
    appears, it usually means that the field has matured to the point
    where it is possible to write meaningful books.

7.  Communications of the ACM.  (Monthly)
    Survey articles and overviews.  Sometimes (rarely) original stuff.
    More academic and foundational/theory oriented than IEEE Software,
    but generally same level.

8.  American Programmer.  Monthly, Cutter Information Corp.  37 Broadway,
    Suite 1, Arlingon MA 02174-5552 (617-648-8702).
    Private journal with prestigious editorial board (Larry
    Constantine, Bill Curtiss Tom DeMarco, Capers Jones, Ed Yourdon.
    Non technical, philosophical and overviews.  Management
    orientation. Essentially a good newsletter.

9a. Software Maintenance News.  (6 times a year)  Software Maintenance News
    Inc.  B10, Suite 237, 4546 El Camino Real, Los Altos CA, 94022.
    General on testing and quality assurance and not just
    maintenance.  Invited articles, usually in an overview/survey
    style with minimal technical prerequisites by authors who may have
    previously published more advanced versions of this material in
    IEEE SE or TOSEM.  Essentially a good newsletter.

9b. Software Management Technology Reference Guide (annual)
    Editor same as Software Maintenance News--Nicholas Zvegintzov.  A
    superb guide to tools, vendors, resources, edited by the unique
    Nicholas Zvegintzov in his inimitable style.  Really packed.
    Probably the  highest signal to noise ratio in the industry.
    [e-mail]

10. Software QA Magazine.   (Bi-monthly).  Subscriptions: Software
    Quality Engineering, [e-mail], 800-423-8378, fax [phone].
    Published by Ridgetop Publishing, Ltd., [e-mail],
    phone [phone], http://www.teleport.com/~ridgetop/
    QA, testing,   Practitioners, management.  Somewhat conservative.
    Myers' The Art of Software Testing (1978) was reviewed in Winter
    1994 issue.

    Formerly called Software QA Quarterly.

11. The Software Practitioner (news letter, 6 times a year).
    Computing Trends, 350 Dalkeith Avenue, Los Angeles Ca. 90049
    310-440-9982.  Excellent newsletter.  Non technical, management,
    overviews.

12. Crosstalk. Journal of Defense Software Engineering.  Software Technology
    Support Center, Ogden AFB UT 84056.  801-777-8057.
    (6 times a year) Heavy DoD orientation.  Practitioner/Management/
    Philosophical.  Broad based on software engineering, including IV&V.
    http://www.stsc.hill.af.mil/www/crostalk.html

13. Other Journals.  I'm sure I've offended several editors.  There are
    Journals concerned with Testing, QA, and Software Engineering
    published in Japan, Korea, Germany, and Australia.   Other
    Journals, such as IEEE-Transaction Computers, ACM SIGPLAN, ACM
    SIGARCH, ACM SIGSIM, ACM SIGMETRICS, ACM OOPSLA,  all publish
    material of interest to testing, especially insofar as hardware
    testing results and theory apply to software testing; also
    language issues vis-a-vis testing.

(end of Beizer's comments)

commercial newsletters-

    STL Report: A Newsletter about Quality Assurance for Market-Driven Software
    bi-monthly, subscriptions are free
    for subscriptions: Trina Primitivo [phone], ext. 138,
               [e-mail]
    editorial concerns: Prue Cuper at [phone], ext. 137,
            [e-mail]

    TESTING TECHNIQUES NEWSLETTER
    Free.  TTN/Online published monthly, in electronic form only.
    Software Research, Inc.
    [phone], (800) 942-SOFT, FAX: [phone]
    Back issues - http://www.soft.com/News/ttn.html
    Send "subscribe <address>" in the body of a message to [e-mail]

    The Outlook
    McCabe & Associates, 800-638-6316

------------------------------

Subject: 18. Books

The book list has been growing quite a bit lately, to the point that
it's hard to decide which ones to start with.  Based on votes from
comp.software.testing readers in answer to the question "What books
should every software tester read?", the following books were
suggested most often, with the number of votes in parentheses:

    Testing Computer Software, Kaner et al. (14)
    The Art of Software Testing, Myers (12)
    Software System Testing and Quality Assurance, Beizer (9)
    The Craft of Software Testing, Marick (8)
    Software Testing Techniques, Beizer (6)
    SafeWare, Leveson (5)

The votes will be maintained and the list will be periodically
adjusted as necessary.  To add or change your vote, send email to the
FAQ maintainer.  Please note that this ranking is based on a very
small statistical sample.

Below is a book list originally based on one posted by Scott Killops
quite a while ago.  See also <http://sqe.com/single/single.htm> for
Software Quality Engineering's SingleSource guide, which has a list of
recommended books and useful summaries.  See the misc.technical.books
FAQ <ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/news.answers/books/technical> for
contact information for technical book publishers.
Comp.software.testing readers have recommended Reiter's Scientific and
Professional Books <http://www.reiters.com> and the Computer Literacy
Book Shop <http://www.clbooks.com/>.


Arnold, Thomas R.  NuMega's Practical Guide to Software Testing with
Visual Test 4.0.  Indianapolis, IN: IDG Books Worldwide, 1996.
ISBN 0-7645-8000-0.

Beizer, Boris.  Black Box Testing.  New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1995,
ISBN 0-471-120904-4.

Beizer, Boris.  Software System Testing and Quality Assurance.
New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1984.  ISBN 0-442-21306-9,
1-85032-821-8.  http://zelda.thomson.com/cgi-bin/plweb/search.cgi

Beizer, Boris.  Software Testing Techniques, Second Edition.
New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1990.  ISBN 0-442-20672-0,
1-85032-880-3.  http://zelda.thomson.com/cgi-bin/plweb/search.cgi

Bourne, Kelly C.  Testing client/server systems.  New York: McGraw
Hill, 1997.  ISBN 0070066884.

Browne, Dermot.  STUDIO: Structured User-Interface Design for Interaction
Optimisation.  New York: Prentice Hall, 1994.  ISBN: 0130147214.

Bryan, William L. and Stanley G. Siegel.  Software Product Assurance:
Techniques for Reducing Software Risk.  New York: Elsevier, 1988.
ISBN 044401120X.

Daich, Gregory, Gordon Price, Bryce Ragland, and Mark Dawood.  STSC
Software Test Technologies Report.  USAF Software Technology Support
Center, 1994.

DeMarco, Tom.  Controlling Software Projects: management, measurement
& estimation.  New York, NY: Yourdon Press, 1982.  ISBN 0917072324.

DeMillo, R.A., W. M. McCracken, R. J. Martin, and J. F. Passafiume,
Software Testing and Evaluation.  Menlo Park, CA: Benjamin/Cummings,
1987.  ISBN 0-8053-2535-2.

Deutsch, M.S.  Software Verification and Validation - Realistic
Project Approaches.  Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1982.
ISBN 0-13-822072-7.

Dunn, Robert H.  Software Defect Removal.  New York: McGraw-Hill,
1984.  ISBN: 0070183139.

Dunn, Robert H.  Software quality: concepts and plans.  Englewood
Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1990.  ISBN 0-13-820283-4.

Friedman, Michael and Jeffrey M. Voas.  "Software Assessment:
Reliability, Safety, Testability".  New York: Wiley Press, 1995.
ISBN 0-471-01009-X.  <http://www.rstcorp.com/book.html>

Hetzel, Bill.  The Complete Guide to Software Testing, Second Edition
Wellesley, MA: QED Information Sciences, 1988.  ISBN 0-89435-242-3.

Jorgensen, Paul.  Software testing: a craftsman's approach.  Boca
Raton: CRC Press, 1995.  ISBN 084937345X.
<http://www.crcpress.com/PRODS/7345.HTM>

Ince, Darrel.  An introduction to software quality assurance and its
implementation.  London, New York: McGraw Hill, 1994.  ISBN
0-07-707924-8.

Jacobson, Ivar, etc. al.  Object-oriented software engineering: a use
case driven approach.  New York:ACM Press, Wokingham, Eng.; Reading,
Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1992.  ISBN 0201544350.

Gause, Donald C. and Gerald M. Weinberg.  Exploring Requirements:
quality before design.  New York, NY: Dorset House Pub., 1989.  ISBN
0932633137.

Goglia, Patricia A.  Testing client/server applications.  Boston: QED
Pub. Group, 1993.  ISBN 0894354507.

Grady, Robert B. and Deborah L. Caswell.  Software Metrics:
establishing a company-wide program.  Englewood Cliffs, N.J.:
Prentice-Hall, 1987.  ISBN 0138218447.

Gunther, Richard C.  Management Methodology for Software Product
Engineering.  New York: Wiley, 1978.  ISBN: 0471336009.

Howden, William E.  Functional Program Testing and Analysis.  New York:
McGraw-Hill, 1987.  ISBN: 0070305501.

Jain, Raj.  The Art of Computer Systems Performance Analysis:
techniques for experimental design, measurement, simulation, and
modeling.  New York: Wiley, 1991.  IBSN 0471503363.

Jones, Capers.  Software Quality: Analysis and Guidelines for Success.
Boston: International Thomson Computer Press, 1997.  ISBN: 1850328676.

Jorgensen, Paul.  Software Testing: a craftsman's approach.
Boca Raton: CRC Press, 1995.  ISBN: 084937345X.

Kaner, Cem., Falk, J., Nguyen, H.Q.  Testing Computer Software, Second
Edition.  New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1993.  ISBN 0-442-01361-2,
1-85032-847-1.  <http://zelda.thomson.com/cgi-bin/plweb/search.cgi>

Kaplan, Craig, Ralph Clark, and Victor Tang.  Secrets of software
quality: 40 innovations from IBM.  New York: McGraw-Hill, 1995.  ISBN
0079117953.

Kit, Edward.  Software Testing in the Real World: Improving the
Process.  ACM Press/Addison-Wesley, 1995.  ISBN 0-201-87756-2.

Knight, Peter and James Fitzsimons.  The Legal Environment of
Computing.  Sydney; Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley Pub. Co., 1990.
ISBN 0201417014.

Leveson, Nancy G.  Safeware: System Safety and Computers.  Reading,
Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1995.  ISBN 0-201-11972-2.
<http://www.cs.washington.edu/research/projects/safety/www/book.html>

Lyu, Michael R., ed.  Handbook of Software Reliability Engineering.
New York: McGraw Hill, 1996.  ISBN 0070394008.
<http://www.research.att.com:80/orgs/ssr/book/reliability>

Marick, Brian.  The Craft of Software Testing.  Englewood Cliffs,
NJ: Prentice Hall, 1995.  ISBN 0-13-177411-5.
<http://www.prenhall.com/013/177410/17741-0.html>

Marks, D. M.  Testing Very Big Systems.  New York: McGraw Hill,
1992.  ISBN 0-07-040433-X.

McConell, Steve.  Code Complete: a practical handbook of software
construction.  Redmond, Washington: Microsoft Press, 1993.  ISBN
1-55-615484-4.

McGregor, John D. and David A. Sykes.  Object-oriented software
development: engineering software for reuse.  New York, N.Y.: Van
Nostrand Reinhold, 1992.

Miller, Edward, ed.  Automated Tools for Software Engineering.  New
York: IEEE Computer Society, 1979.

Miller, Edward and William E. Howden.  Software Testing and Validation
Techniques, 2nd ed.  New York: IEEE Computer Society Press, 1981.

Mosley, Daniel J.  The Handbook of MIS Application Software Testing:
methods, techniques, and tools for assuring quality through testing.
Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1993.  ISBN 0-13-907007-9.
<http://www.prenhall.com/013/907006/90700-6.html>

Musa, John D.  Software reliability: measurement, prediction,
application.  New York: McGraw-Hill, 1990 professional ed., 1987.
ISBN 007044093-X (1987) 0070441197 (1990).

Myers, Glenford J.  The Art of Software Testing. New York: John Wiley
and Sons, 1979.  ISBN 0-471-04328-1.

Nielsen, Jakob.  Usability engineering.  Boston: Academic Press,
1993.  ISBN 0125184050.

Ould, M.A., Unwin, C., eds.  Testing in Software Development.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.  ISBN 0-521-33786-0.

Parrington, Normal and Marc Roper.  Understanding Software Testing.  Ellis
Horwood Limited, 1989.  ISBN 0-7458-0533-7 (Ellis Horwood Limited), ISBN
0-470-21462-7 (Halsted Press).

Paulk, Mark C., et al.  The capability maturity model: guidelines
for improving the software process.  Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley
Pub. Co., 1995.  ISBN 0201546647.

Perry, William E.  Effective Methods for Software Testing.  New York:
Wiley, 1995.  ISBN 0471060976.

Perry, William E.  How to Test Software Packages: a step-by-step guide
to assuring they do what you want.  New York: Wiley, c1986.  ISBN:
0471817848.

Perry, William E.  A standard for testing application software.
Boston: Auerbach Publishers, 1992.  ISBN 0791309754.

Perry, William E.  A structured approach to systems testing.
Wellesley, Mass.: QED Information Sciences, 1988.  ISBN 0894352334.

Pressman, Roger S.  Software Engineering: a Practitioner's Approach,
4th ed.  New York: McGraw-Hill, 1997.  ISBN 0070521824.

Rakitin, Steven R.  Software Verification and Validation: a
practitioner's guide.  Boston: Artech House, 1997.  ISBN:
0890068895.

Roper, Marc.  Software testing.  London; New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994.
ISBN: 0077074661.

Royer, Tom C.  Software Testing Management - Life on the Critical
Path.  Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1993.  ISBN 0-13-532987-6.
<http://www.prenhall.com/013/532986/ptr/53298-6.html>

Rubin, Jeffrey.  Handbook of usability testing: how to plan, design,
and conduct effective tests.  New York: Wiley, 1994.

Siegel, Shel.  Object Oriented Software Testing: a Hierarchical
Approach.  New York: Wiley Computer Pub., 1996.  ISBN: 0471137499

Sharp, Alec.  Software Quality and Productivity.  New York: Van
Nostrand Reinhold, 1993.  ISBN: 0442012187.

Taylor, Frederick W.  The Principles of Scientific Management.  W.W.
Norton & Company. 1911, 1939, 1947, 1967.  ISBN 0-393-00398-1
    Should be required reading for anyone who uses the word "system"
    to describe what he does.  OOP and structured programming owe much
    to the work of this man, and yet he is seldom credited.
    -Charles Nichols

Weinberg, Gerald M.  Quality Software Management, vol 1-3.  New York, N.Y.:
Dorset House Pub., 1991.  ISBN: 0932633226.

Wiener, Lauren.  Digital Woes: why we should not depend on software.
Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley Pub. Co., 1993.  ISBN 0201626098.

Wilson, Rodney.  UNIX Test Tools and Benchmarks.  Prentice Hall, 1995.
ISBN 0-13-125634-3.

------------------------------

Subject: 19. Bibliographic resources

Comments by Boris Beizer.

1.  ACM Reviews -- Montly.  the primary review journal.  Most good papers on
testing and quality assurance are eventually reviewed here.  Extensive
evaluations and criticisms by excellent reviewer pool.

2. ACM Guide to Computing Literature.  Annual.  Does not contain reviews.
Most comprehensive published literature guide for authors, titles, and
subject.

3.  Key Abstracts in Software Engineering.  Published by INSPEC, but
available through IEEE membership.  Monthly.  About halfway between ACM
Reviews and ACM Guide to the literature.  Thorough, best articles.  However,
only author abstracts and no evaluation or criticism.

------------------------------

Subject: 20. Organizations

National/International
----------------------

American Society for Quality
    611 E. Wisconsin Ave.
    P.O. Box 3005
    Milwaukee, WI 53201-3005
    800-248-1946, [phone]
    <http://www.asq.org>

    The ASQ (formerly ASQC) administers the CQE (Certified Quality
    Engineer) designation.  Also, the software division of the ASQ is
    developing the CSQE designation which is specific to software
    quality.

    The ASQ press has many titles that may be of interest to software
    testers.  Stolen from a conference announcement:

    > Founded in 1946, the American Society for Quality (ASQ)
    > provides a variety of professional, educational, and informational
    > programs reflecting the changing needs of business and industry.
    > Headquartered in Milwaukee, WI, ASQ has been the leading quality
    > improvement organization in the United States for almost 50 years.
    > The Society is composed of more than 135,000 individual members and
    > 1,000 sustaining members worldwide. ASQ's vision is to be the
    > world's recognized champion and leading authority on all issues
    > related to quality.  The mission of ASQ is to facilitate
    > continuous improvement and increased customer satisfaction by
    > identifying, communicating, and promoting the use of quality
    > principles, concepts, and technologies.
    >
    > ASQ's Software Division
    >
    > ASQ's Software Division is comprised of [sic] more than 5,000 members
    > including software quality professionals and software engineers
    > interested in applying quality principles to the field of software
    > development.  The Division develops a software engineer
    > certification program, publishes a quarterly newsletter, works with
    > the Software Quality System Registration Committee on establishing
    > an ISO 9000 Software Registration Program in the United States,
    > interacts with other professional software organizations such as
    > the IEEE and the ACM (Association for Computing Machinery), and is
    > involved in many other activities.

National Quality Month
    October is National Quality Month (in the U.S.), as decreed by
    Ronald Reagan in 1984.

    The ASQ sponsors the National Quality Forum during this month.
    Many local sections set up local events that receive a live
    broadcast from the Forum.

Quality Assurance Institute
    7575 Dr. Phillips Blvd., Suite 350
    Orlando Florida  32819
    Phone: [phone]
    Fax:   [phone]

    The QAI publishes The Journal of the Quality Assurance Institute
    monthly.

    They provide CQA certification.  Steve Driscoll wrote:

    > The CQA is someone who has demonstrated a mastery of the Common
    > Body of Knowledge(CBOK) for ensuring the quality of systems (which
    > often include software).  While ISO-9000 is considered part of the
    > CBOK, it's actually independent of the CQA designation (there is a
    > certification program for ISO auditors).
    > ...  while my life is still pretty much the same as it was prior to
    > obtaining the CQA designation, I found that the reading and
    > studying to prepare for the exam extremely beneficial in my duties
    > as a Quality Analyst.  I recommend it to anyone who is interested
    > in producing quality software (which includes developers as well
    > as quality analysts).

Society for Software Quality
    > Vision - To be recognized as the Society for those interested
    > in promoting "quality" as a universal goal for software.
    >
    > Mission - Promote "quality" as a desirable attribute of software.

    PO Box 86958
    San Diego, CA 92138-6958
    619-297-1544
    <http://www.ssq.org/>

Software Process Improvement Network
    > The Software Process Improvement Network is comprised of
    > individuals who want to improve software engineering practice. The
    > individuals are organized into regional groups called "SPINS" that
    > meet and share their experiences initiating and sustaining software
    > process improvement programs. They meet annually at the SEPG
    > (Software Engineering Process Group) Conference, which is
    > co-sponsored by the SEI and a regional SPIN.
    (from the web page)

    <http://www.sei.cmu.edu/participation/spins.html>

Association for Software Testing Australia
    ASTA means Association for Software Testing Australia
    and is a Special Interest Group within the Australian Computer Society.
    It is a non-profit organisation, and you don't HAVE to be a member in
    ACS to be able to join ASTA.
    (from Sigrid Eldh)

    <http://www.acs.org.au>, phone [phone], Membership
    Services Manager is Mr. Bob Hobart, [e-mail].

British Computer Society
    Software Testing BCS Specialist Group
    > The Group has a number of full-day meetings per annum and is host
    > to the international conference on software testing - EuroSTAR. It
    > is producing a standard on component testing and has a sub-group on
    > Statistical Testing Methods. A full library of testing-related
    > material is available at meetings.
    >
    > It promotes awareness of testing, competence in the field, and
    > encourages research.
    (from the web page)

    <http://www.bcs.org.uk/siggroup/sg55.htm>

Chinese Association for Software Quality (CASQ)
    This association is formed to share information and experiences
    amongst its members and people on software quality engineering.

    <http://www.ncl.ac.uk/~n4521677/casq>
    [e-mail]


Local organizations
-------------------

Most of the organizations above sponsor local organizations.  Contact
them to find local organizations near you.  In this section I'll list
local organizations that don't appear to have a national affiliation.


The Software Quality Institute At UT

    (stolen from a conference announcement)
    > The Software Quality Institute (SQI) at The University of Texas at
    > Austin is a multidisciplinary partnership between UT-Austin and the
    > software and information systems industries in Texas.  It is
    > recognized as a leading authority on and champion for software
    > quality.  SQI was founded in 1993 for the purpose of strengthening
    > organizations to compete more successfully in global markets
    > through sponsorship of seminars and conferences. An advisory group
    > of 24 industry and academic representatives guides the Institute.
    > Its popular programs include: a 13 week long Software Project
    > Management Certificate Program, one- and two-day seminars offered
    > to the public and as in-company contract courses, our "Software
    > Quality Matters" quarterly newsletter that addresses issues of
    > concern relative to quality issues, sponsorship of monthly forums
    > for discussion of software issues (including the Software Process
    > Improvement Network (A-SPIN), the Austin Software Executives' Group
    > (ASEG), and the Austin Forum for Object-Oriented Technology
    > (AFOOT), and on-line services which include a Worldwide Web
    > Home Page and topical newsgroups.

    The web page is <http://www.utexas.edu/coe/sqi/>.  The newsgroups
    seem to be reachable only at UT.  For information on newsletter
    subscriptions, contact [e-mail].

Central Ohio Quality Assurance Association

Australian Software Quality Research Institute
Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia
<http://www-sqi.cit.gu.edu.au/>

Triangle Information Systems Quality Association (North Carolina)
contacts - Dennis Brandel [e-mail]
       David Wood  [e-mail]

Triangle Quality Council (North Carolina)
    "A membership organization that fosters the understanding and
    implementation of quality management principles.   It is a
    non-profit organization affiliated with N.C. Quality Leadership
    Foundation and Triangle Area Chambers of Commerce"  (paraphrased
    from Laura Rose)

    Mission:  To promote quality management principles and practices
    through networking, experience sharing and education - providing
    a complete and diversified quality management resource for the
    Greater Triangle Area.

    contact - Margaret O'Brien  [e-mail]

North Carolina Quality Leadership Foundation
    [phone]

New England Software Quality Assurance Forum (NESQAF)
    Monthly meetings in Cambridge, MA.
    contact - Jill Hanson ([e-mail], 617-272-7393)

Software Testing Institute
    Offers industry research, surveys, publications, online services
    and seminars to software development and testing professionals.  A
    list of software testing product vendors, including web site and
    e-mail links, is available from our web site:

    http://www.ondaweb.com/sti

    contact - Susan Archer, Director ([e-mail])
    726 Loganwood Ave., Richardson, TX  75080
    [phone]  Fax [phone]

Centre for Software Reliability
    The Centre for Software Reliability (CSR) is a research centre
    within the Department of Computing Science at the University of
    Newcastle upon Tyne; it conducts research on how to achieve
    improved levels of dependability from computing systems.

    [e-mail]
    http://www.csr.ncl.ac.uk/

------------------------------

Subject: 21. Contributors

My thanks to the people who have contributed to the FAQ in various
ways.  Email addresses for some of those mentioned herein are listed
below.

Boris Beizer - [e-mail]
Bob Binder - [e-mail]
Steve Driscoll - [e-mail]
Sigrid Eldh - [e-mail]
Danny Faught - [e-mail]
Rick Hower - [e-mail]
Scott Killops - [e-mail]
Jennifer Larsen - [e-mail]
Brian Marick - [e-mail] or [e-mail]
Mark McWhinney - [e-mail]
Don Mills - [e-mail]
Charles Nichols - [e-mail]
Bret Pettichord - [e-mail]
Laura Rose - [e-mail]
John Tyson - [e-mail]