Recording of Software Center lunch seminar on May 16th: Test Environments for Large-Scale Software Systems – Intrinsic and Extrinsic Success Factors
Speaker: Torvald Mårtensson, Saab AB (Software Center Project #6)
Based on a study including five Software Center companies, this talk presents intrinsic and extrinsic success factors, critical for successful implementations of test environments for large-scale and complex software systems. We find that successful implementations of test environments for large-scale software systems depend primarily on how they support the company’s business strategy, test organization and product testability (the extrinsic success factors). Based on this, test environments can then be optimized to improve test environment capabilities, usability and stability (the intrinsic success factors). Furthermore, this talk will show how challenges in the test environment are to a great extent related to hardware systems, even though all five case study companies describe themselves as software companies. Finally, we will describe how test environments are a vital part of the continuous integration and delivery pipeline, and must evolve in the same way as new test cases are continuously added to the pipeline. A clear responsibility for this continuously ongoing task (central or distributed) seems to be crucial for successful implementations of efficient and effective test environments for large-scale software systems.