Course Overview
The Non-Functional Testing course provides delegates with an introduction to the important field of specifying and testing the quality characteristics of software-intensive systems. By the end of the course delegates will be confident in their ability to apply industry best practice to support the non-functional testing on their own projects. The course covers the five main quality characteristics of performance, security, usability, dependability and supportability. This two-day tutor-led course includes lectures, exercises and practical work, and uses a hands-on approach based on group exercises and discussions. It is highly-interactive, allowing attendees to learn from the experience of the instructor (and each other), and, owing to its interactive nature, each course is restricted to a maximum of 12 delegates. The course provides delegates with an introduction to non-functional testing as a set of activities throughout the software lifecycle. In traditional testing these areas are often ignored, yet the non-functional attributes of a product are often those that critically affect its success – surveys of users find that these attributes are often rated more highly than the functionality. Delegates will gain an understanding of the breadth of non-functional attributes that should be considered, and an outline of the risks for different stakeholders. It will enable attendees to work more productively with business analysts and developers by showing them how best to combine their respective strengths to ensure that quality requirements are most efficiently defined and met. It draws on a wide range of sources and is intended to help testers to leverage their skills to the mutual good of the business, testing and development. The Non-Functional Testing course is principally aimed at test practitioners who are expecting to be actively involved in the practice and/or management of any aspect of non-functional testing, and who want to ensure that they are fully aware of current best industry practice. This includes people in roles such as system testers, test analysts, test engineers, test consultants, test managers, user acceptance testers and software developers. This course is also appropriate for non-testers who want a deeper understanding of non-functional testing, such as project managers, quality managers, software development managers and management consultants. The course has been found particularly useful by business analysts who have responsibility for specifying non-functional requirements, as it provides them with an insight into the level of detail required for testing, as well as into the difficulties of achieving and testing the different characteristics. Each delegate will be provided with their own manual containing copies of all slides, along with supporting text, and exercise documentation. CDs containing soft copies of the delegate manual, relevant white papers and articles, and a copy of a web-based NFT course will also be provided for future reference. Who is it for?
Course Materials
Dan Price | Associate Engineer | Ordnance Survey –
I thoroughly enjoyed this introduction to non-functional testing, John went through each topic thoroughly, ensured we all understood each segment. and gave us plenty of opportunity to ask questions.
The information that I have obtained from this course will be crucial to my testing going forward, and has encouraged me to try and adhere to some of the principles outlined in the course.
My only feedback of what could be changed in the powerpoint created for this course, is to update some of the examples given as many of them were from 2010. Having more up-to-date examples I feel would’ve given a more accurate scope of how important non-functional testing is for more present tech.
Ayse Saribasak | Data Test Engineer | OS –
It was beneficial and clear explanation
Chris Gibbs | Associate Technician | OS –
A good introduction to NFT, gave us a good grounding on the principles and initial approaches to take which can be applied immediately into our current work.
Perhaps some more information on the current tools which are appropriate to use whilst carrying out tests, even links to them.
John was really good at explaining the concepts and the course ran smoothly with well placed breaks in between.