Automated Software QA/Testing?

nailbite writes "Designing and developing software has been my calling ever since I first used a computer. The countless hours/days/months spent on imagining to actualizing is, to me, enjoyable and almost a form of art or meditation. However, one of the aspects of development that sometimes "kills" the fun is testing or QA. I don't mind standalone testing of components since usually you create a separate program for this purpose, which is also fun. What is really annoying is testing an enterprise-size system from its UIs down to its data tier. Manually performing a complete test on a project of this size sucks the fun out of development. That's assuming all your developers consider development as fun (most apparently don't). My question is how do you or your company perform testing on large-scale projects? Do you extensively use automated testing tools, and if so, can you recommend any? Or do you still do it the old-fashioned way? (manually operating the UI, going through the data to check every transaction, etc.)"

Comments

You're not alone.

[irokitt]

However, one of the aspects of development that sometimes "kills" the fun is testing or QA.

I'm sure that quite a few Microsoft employees agree wholeheartedly.

Laugh, it's good for you.

Re:You shouldn't be doing it

[jkubecki]

I once worked with a dyslexic drafer. He generally did very good work, except that his drawings often had spelling errors.

Imagine that. A "drafer" who makes spelling errors.