Test Data Generation Framework

This might be worth a spike to evaluate: http://www.canoo.com/blog/2011/09/26/testdata-generation/

So how does it work? Simple, its entry point is a method interceptor that you can wrap around anything you want, it doesn’t even have to be an implementation. So that DAO you want to use, but the database is still empty, just let the framework step into place and all the methods return the data that you want.

Application Security Testing Techniques

This article is full of links to various articles ordered by topics. Very cool.

This learning guide breaks testing down into several categories, although there is inevitably some overlap. Use these papers, expert opinions, articles, news and tips to refine your application security testing strategy.

http://searchsoftwarequality.techtarget.com/tutorial/Learning-Guide-Application-security-testing-techniques

Tests in an Agile Context: Charters

Very interesting article about the Exploratory Texting ("ET") and its usage of the "Charter" concept:

See: http://searchsoftwarequality.techtarget.com/tip/Chartering-exploratory-test-efforts-in-Agile

ET is a skilled and disciplined approach to testing. And one of the skills exploratory testers master is the ability to manage the scope of testing so that the software is tested in a thorough and appropriate manner. Testers manage the scope of exploratory testing using a concept called a "charter."

Charters are statements of what aspects of the system are to be tested. Charters, unlike what are called "scripts" in scripted testing, do not specify how the system is to be tested, only that some aspect of the system is to be tested.

ALM Imperative

This is a great article on ALM: https://jazz.net/blog/index.php/2011/09/27/five-imperatives-for-application-lifecycle-management/

Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) is the discipline of overcoming organizational silos to realize a whole-team, whole-view approach to the software delivery cycle by coordinating lifecycle activities across requirements, design, project planning, change and configuration management, build, and quality management.

The five imperatives for an ALM according to this article are:

• Maximize product value with In-context Collaboration to create a collective intelligence
• Accelerate time to delivery with Real-time Planning by riding the waves of ever changing project demands
• Improve quality with Lifecycle Traceability by surfing the web of linked lifecycle artifacts
• Refine predictability with Development Intelligence that helps you steer teams to successful, ontime delivery
• Reduce costs with Continuous Improvement

The key to Application Lifecycle Management is collaboration and transparency among all of the stakeholders, which is supported by an open, extensible, integrated platform.

Identity lifecycle

Event without considering the philosophical issues associated with this topic, Identity management is surprizingly complex!
Taken from http://www.digitalidnews.com/2011/09/27/id-lifecycle-101-credential-management

Issuing a credential is only the start of the identity lifecycle. As an individual moves around an organization, controlling and adjusting the systems he can and cannot access is equally important to the initial identity vetting. Throughout the ID lifecycle, this identity and credential management function is essential.

Tasktop Sync

Taken from: http://www.infoq.com/news/2011/09/tasktop-sync

Sync allows IT organizations to synchronize existing ALM servers to connect different artifact types like tasks, work items, defects, requirements and tests that are created during the various phases of a software development lifecycle process. Organizations that have different ALM stacks like HP ALM, HP Quality Center, and IBM Rational Team Concert can achieve traceability across the tools using the Sync tool.

 Taken from: http://www.impacsystems.com/blogengine/post/PLM-is-still-not-Mainstream.aspx

The Aberdeen Group says that adoption of PLM is far from universal.  Maybe only 1 in 5 companies have fully implemented a PLM solution.[...]

Without a data management solution, engineers will spend about 25% of their time looking for information.  A PLM solution will give them back that time – time that can be used to engineer a better product, improve quality, etc.