Software Requirements Free Format
Published May 10th, 2011 Under Numbers | Leave a Comment
The last Methods & Tools asked the following question: “Which format is used to express requirements in your organization?”
| Free text | 36% |
| User Stories | 23% |
| UML Use Cases | 20% |
| Other format | 7% |
| Requirements are not formalized | 14% |
Participants: 325
Ending date: April 2011
Source: Methods & Tools Requirements Survey
The positive result is that 86% of the participants have some mechanism to document their requirements, even if it is only in the form of free text. This is not a surprise as previous surveys on the same topic reported that around 80% of their participants were using basic office software to manage requirements. The combined result for formal formats is 50% with user stories being used by 23% of participants. The adoption of Agile practices is visible, even if UML use cases can also be used within an Agile approach.
Load Testing Tools Usage
Published February 1st, 2011 Under Numbers | Leave a Comment
The last Methods & Tools survey wanted to determine the level of adoption of load testing tools in organizations. It asked the following question: “Do you use a tool for load / performance testing?”
| I use tools for load testing | 48% |
| My organization has tools, but my project or I do not use them | 20% |
| My organization has no tools for load testing | 32% |
Participants: 182
Ending date: January 2011
Source: Methods & Tools Load Testing Tools Survey
Additional resources:
* IT World Article: Developer Tools You Don’t Use – And Why You Don’t Use Them
* Load Testing Section of the Software Development Articles Directory
* Load Testing Section of the Software Development Tools Directory
* Load testing tools directory
Continuous Integration: Continuous Build or Continuous Quality Control?
Published September 14th, 2010 Under Numbers | 1 Comment
The last Methods & Tools poll wanted to determine the level of adoption of continuous integration tools in organizations. We asked the following question: “Do you use a tool for continuous integration (automated build and unit testing)?”
| I use tools for continuous integration | 66% |
| My organization has tools, but my project or I do not use them | 13% |
| My organization has no tools for continuous integration | 21% |
Participants: 130
Ending date: September 2010
Source: Methods & Tools
A large majority of the participants is using continuous integration tools, but it remains to see how continuous is the continuous integration used by participants. It is easy to understand that this practice is one of the easiest to put in place as it is basically a pure technical issue of combining the build process with the unit testing tools. However, previous Methods & Tools unit testing execution surveys performed in 2006 and 2008 on showed that between 50% and 60% of participants were not using unit tests or were doing them in an informal way. Continuous integration could thus be considered by organizations more as a continuous build process that a continuous testing of the code quality.
Resources:
* Continuous Integration Feature Matrix
* Continuous Integration: The Cornerstone of a Great Shop
* Continuous Integration Tools directory
Unified Modeling Language (UML) Still Widely Used
Published May 25th, 2010 Under Numbers | Leave a Comment
In 1997, the Object Management Group (OMG) made the UML a standard modelling language for object-oriented applications. Has the Agile adoption changed the way organizations use UML? Read more
Can Developers and Testers Love Each Other?
Published March 15th, 2010 Under Numbers | Leave a Comment
After the results of a previous poll focused on functional testing automation, I wondered if there was still a great divide between the worlds of development and functional testing. So I did this follow-up question to check who was performing the functional testing. Read more
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