April 17, 2008 10:03 AM PDT
Microsoft: Better testing can speed development
One of the reasons that software development takes so darn long is the amount of testing it takes.
A new feature has to be tested to make sure it is better than the old way of doing things and that it doesn't mess anything else up.
Microsoft is hoping a new tool can help make the testing process more methodical and, by doing so, speed things up. The company calls it the Experimentation Platform.
Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet had the scoop on this. Essentially, it is based on the longtime premise of A/B testing, that is giving one set of users one option and a second set another option and seeing which they like better.
Leading the charge on this is Ronny Kohavi, who joined Microsoft from Amazon in 2005.
During her years at CNET News, Ina Fried has changed beats several times, changed genders once, and covered both of the Pirates of Silicon Valley. These days, most of her attention is focused on Microsoft. E-mail Ina.
I alpha and beta test FOSS all the time-- it's easy and I like it. How do you even /do/ that with Microsoft products? What, is the participation limited by like... numbers? ...cause that'll cripple the process pretty fast.
- wrong title
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by slickuser
April 17, 2008 4:27 PM PDT
- EXP sounds like customer driven feature set that will be implemented by the developers.
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(4 Comments)Its not software testing!!
That said, no amount of software testing can save Microsoft/Vista. Its UltimateCrap.!