Testing Google Mashup Editor Class

Posted by Patrick Copeland, Test Engineering Director

Wanted to let you know about a partnership Google Test Engineering is doing with the University of California, Irvine. We've teamed up with Professor Hadar Ziv to sponsor a course that focuses on preparing students for industry (code.google.com and several other companies are also participating). Naturally, our project focuses on testing. George Pirocanac is heading up this work and recently went down to Irvine to talk about how they will test our mash-up editor. Here's the basic project outline if you are curious.

Class Project Plan: Testing Google's Mash-up Editor

Overall Class Goal: To understand the basic software functional testing concepts through the experience of a case study of testing the Google Mash-up Editor and to provide meaningful feedback to Google about the effectiveness and usability of the tool.

Phase I - Gaining Domain expertise and Exploratory Testing (four months)
Goals: Be able to explain what a mash-up is and why it is becoming important in today's internet. Be able to code a simple mash-up using a javascript api. Be able to code that same mash-up using Google Mash-up Editor tags. Be able to outline the basic features of the Google Mash-up editor. Be able to identify the essential elements of a functional test plan. Create a functional test plan outline for the Google Mash-up editor.

Phase II - Test Plan Execution over time (Keeping in step with development) (three months)
Goals: Be able to identify the major challenges in executing a test plan during the life of a software project. Be able to identify testing technologies for dealing with these challenges. Be able to identify the effectiveness of a testing approach. Execute the test plan and provide feedback to Google.

Phase III - Usability & Competing Technologies Survey (two months)
Goals: Be able to identify the essential elements of a usability study. Apply the topic of usability to programming. Compare and contrast the GME with three other industry mash-up editors.

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