Preface

Foreword to a TMap Next, by Rex Black

By the 1980s, Fred Brooks and Barry Boehm had explained that the costs and risks associated with bugs are high and increase as projects progress. In the 1980s, Boris Beizer and Bill Hetzel added another essential insight: testing, done properly, must be influenced by, and influence, risk.
Come the 1990s, leading test professionals were striving mightily to put these insights into action. How do we integrate testing into the entire lifecycle to reduce cost and schedule impacts of bugs? How do we use risk to determine the extent and sequence of testing? How can we report test results in terms of risks mitigated and not mitigated? How can we help project teams make rational decisions regarding the optimal amount of time and energy to expend on testing?
I was one of those test professionals. So were the authors of this book, Tim Koomen, Leo van der Aalst, Bart Broekman, Michiel Vroon, and Rob Baarda. In this book, as in my own books, you can see where that synthesis has taken us. And it has taken us a long way.
As you read this book, comprehensive and comprehensible, pause to remember that it was only ten years ago that test professionals were struggling to understand and implement a complete, consistent approach to testing that managed product quality risks and delivered demonstrable business value. Now, test professionals have a number of fully articulated strategies such as those in this book and my own books which we can use to ensure that we are solving the right testing problems.
In this book, you'll find practical ideas for business driven test management and product risk analysis. These two concepts are so central to testing, yet so often ignored and misunderstood. How does testing serve the needs of the organization and project? What are the risks associated with the system under test that can and should be mitigated through testing? These may seem like obvious questions, yet all too often test teams don't know the answers, or, worse yet, they "know" the wrong answers. Getting the right answers to these questions is foundational to a good test effort, and serves to set the direction.
As essential as this direction-setting, foundation-laying material is, there is a lot more to this book than just a means to get the starting point right. Indeed, the authors promise a "full description of the total test process," an explanation of the entire TMap method, from start to finish, and they deliver. Let me mention a few high points.
The chapter summarizing test design techniques is alone a good reason to have this book close at hand if you work as a test engineer. The discussion on bug management is a fine one. There is a wide-ranging discussion of estimation techniques. There is an intelligent discussion of test metrics, one that doesn't make the all-too-frequent mistake of starting with fancy Excel graphs and tables, but rather by discussing what kind of information that management needs from us as testers.
Pick a random spot in this book and you'll find something interesting. Whether you are in the first days or the final days of a test effort, you'll find pertinent ideas in this book. Like my own books, this book was obviously written to sit on your desk, ready to serve as a helpful guide on a regular basis, not to collect dust on your bookshelf.
I have in the past complained that as testers we have not built on the foundations of our profession as well as our brothers and sisters in programming. In fact, this has been a key driver for me as an author of testing books. Similarly, Tim, Leo, Bart, Michiel, and Rob have done a fine job of summarizing in this book a number of foundational concepts in software testing. For that reason, I recommend that this book join the set of ready references available to you as together we practice and improve our profession of software testing.

Rex Black, October 2006
Author of Managing the Testing Process, Critical Testing Processes, Foundations of Software Testing, and Pragmatic Software Testing
President of Rex Black Consulting Services, Inc.
President of the International Software Testing Qualifications Board

Foreword by Luc-François Salvador

It is a great privilege for me to recommend TMap Next to you as a member of the continued growing group of people who are professionally involved in improving the quality of a wide range of business processes.

Test Management Approach (TMap) was published in 1996 as a revolutionary management approach for structured testing. Within a few years, TMap was adopted worldwide by companies searching for a structured way to improve their information systems. The objective is to preserve their business processes and market image from damage.
Today TMap has become the de facto world standard for structured testing.

In the meantime, information technology is developing with an astonishing speed. The complexity of chains of information systems supporting the business is increasing rapidly. Defect tolerance is decreasing at the same speed. Experience gained by practice in the area of software testing and the knowledge of IT issues acquired over the years in professional testing are brought together in this complete update: TMap Next.

This impressive book is an absolute must for the modern business manager, IT manager, and Testing expert. Not only will TMap Next inform you as a manager of how to take advantage of the latest developments in the testing profession, but also, even more importantly, assist you in improving the quality of IT incorporated in your current business processes.

Without hesitation I can say this to the reader - if you practice what you read in this book the dream of predictable software engineering to realize business value is indeed attainable by your organization.

Luc-François Salvador
CEO Sogeti SA
Paris

Foreword by the authors

Introducing a completely revised and updated TMap

Ten years after the first (Dutch) book; five years after the second version; and three years after the English translation, we started with a large-scale renewal of the method at the end of 2005. The result is this new book.

We published this completely new version for several reasons:

• Over time many people have asked us to update the method and suggested ideas.
  
• In 2006, most organisations recognize the importance of testing and are focusing more on the duration, quantity and objects of testing.
  
• In the previous version, testing was described as an autonomous process in the (waterfall) development of new information systems. Current IT trends are much more broadly based: more maintenance than new development, many package implementations and iterative and agile system development. While the method evolved along with practice, the book did not. In this new version, testing is presented as a much more integral part of the big picture.
  
• In many organisations testing is more part of mainstream activities instead of purely as a project-based activity. A variety of line organisation are possible, including complete test factories, each with their specific pros and cons. The literature devotes little attention to this aspect.
  
• And perhaps most importantly: testing should be perceived much more as an economic activity within IT. Time and costs, but the benefits as well, must be made clear to the client. With this information, he or she can manage test work on the basis of the required quantity of time and costs versus the benefits: insight into quality and risks, confidence in the product, and project (management) information. This part of TMap is BDTM, Business Driven Test Management, and represents the main motive of the method.

We faced a number of challenges while revising the method. The suggested revisions sometimes conflicted heavily with the awareness that many organisations are already using TMap to their full satisfaction and are not very happy about changing their methods. We therefore decided to leave the main components of TMap intact, but incorporate the necessary revisions to the details. We proceeded with the greatest possible care. For you, as our reader, this means that you will recognise many things. We preserved the outline of the process descriptions on the basis of phases, with various activities per phase, and the attention devoted to techniques, organisation and infrastructure. We made several supplemental changes to these elements.

The main changes are:

• BDTM has been traced through the process as a motive to offer the client as many management options for testing as possible.
  
• The performance of a product risk analysis is described in detail.
  
• We have included various estimating techniques for testing.
  
• The management activity has been expanded considerably.
  
• Setting up and managing the infrastructure has become a separate phase, and we added the new role of test infrastructure coordinator.
  
• The description of the test design techniques has been improved significantly and updated. The techniques are now related to various coverage types.
  
• Several supporting processes, such as the permanent test organisation, but also the selection and implementation of tools and management of test environments, are discussed.
  
• Test types for regression, usability, performance, portability and security testing have been added.
  
• The method is described in a much wider context than simply new development in a waterfall programme.
  
• The entire book has been enriched with tips, more detailed information, and practical examples (more than 400).

The new TMap can be summarised by four essential points:

• It is based on a business driven test management approach that enables the client to manage the test process on rational and economic grounds.
  
• It provides a full description of the total test process.
  
• TMap contains a complete 'tool set', i.e. technique descriptions, checklists, procedures, and so on.
  
• It is an adaptive method that can be applied in a versatile manner, making it suitable for all test situations in most development environments, such as new development, maintenance, waterfall / iterative / agile development, customised or package software.

TMap offers the tester and the test manager guidelines to deliver results for the client.

Since the request for renewal came from both Dutch-speaking countries and other countries, the book is published concurrently in both Dutch and English.

We created this new edition without involvement from the original authors, Martin Pol, Ruud Teunissen and Erik van Veenendaal. We are still highly appreciative of their pioneering work in creating a complete test method. TMap would not be what it is without them.

Clearly a large group of people assisted in the creation of this book. Their contributions range from suggesting ideas, sharing experiences and experience products and reviewing chapters, to helping us establish the required preconditions. Whatever their contribution, it proved vital to the quality we achieved. We would like to take this opportunity to thank them. While aware of the risk of forgetting one or more of our valued contributors, we would still like to list their names here.

We first thank the external reviewers who invested their great knowledge, time and attention to reviewing this work. These are:
Jan Blaas (KPN)
Jan Boerman (ICTRO, Ministry of Justice)
Jarmila Bökkerink-Scheerova (Philips)
Heidi Driessen (Rabobank)
Bart Dooms (Acerta, Belgium)
Ed van der Geest (SNS Bank)
Erwin Kleinveld (Rabobank)
Sander Koopman (Fortis Bank)
Ine Lutterman (Interpay)
Marco Maggi (Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food quality)
Benjamin Makkes van der Deijl (PGGM)
Jan Mellema (CIP Police)
Remco Möhringer (Reaal Insurance)
Paul van der Molen (Cordares)
Brian Taylor (FortisBank)
Ubel van Tergouw (UWV)
Sylvia Verschueren (ABN AMRO)
Hans Vedder (Friesland Bank)
Dennis van Velzen (AFAS ERP Software BV)

Naturally our big group of Sogeti colleagues proved immensely helpful. Their contributions vary from membership of the sounding board group to reviewing, contributing ideas and even complete texts:
Richard Ammerlaan, Eric Begeer, Paul Bentvelzen, John Bloedjes, Martin Blokpoel, Hester Blom, Martin Boomgaardt, Raoul Gisbers, Frank Goorhuis, Guy Holtus, Bart Hooft van Iddekinge, André Huikeshoven, Marco Jansen van Doorn, Ralph Klomp, Rob Kuijt as guest author of chapter 7, Peter van Lint, Dominic Maes (Sogeti Belgium), Willem-Jan van der Meer, Henk Meeuwisse, Gerrit Mudde, Guido Nelissen, Bert Noorman, André van Pelt, Elisabeth Reitsma, Ewald Rooderijs, Rob Smit, Gert Stad, Marc Valkier, Thomas Veltman, Johan Vink, Ben Visser, Harm de Vries, expertise group for usability (Kinga Visser, Gina Utama, Ronald Oomen, Wolter van Popta, Robin Klein, Thomas Veltman, Mans Scholten, Mark Schut, Martien Adema, Jeroen Bultje)

Our Sogeti USA colleagues Craig Mayer, Camille Tetta Costanzo and Dan Hannigan reviewed the English language chapters in little time and, where necessary, suggested improvements.

This work would not have been impossible without the support of the Software Control management team. We would like to express our thanks to Wim van Uden and Mark Paap in particular. Their appreciation and interest proved a huge stimulus.

We worked on the book with great enthusiasm. Whether you are an experienced TMap user or an inexperienced tester, we hope this work offers you a clear story on how to best set up the test process in all its aspects and inspire you with many ideas, detailed information and tips. We are proud of the result and hope you, our reader, will agree.

Tim Koomen
Leo van der Aalst
Bart Broekman
Michiel Vroon
Rob Baarda (project leader and editor)

Rotterdam, October 2006