This article provide guidelines for successful implementation of QA and testing in the startup environment.

Free software and open source projects are often perceived to be of high quality. It has been suggested that the high level of quality found in some free software projects is related to the open development model which promotes peer review. While the quality of some free software projects is comparable to if not better than that of closed source software, not all free software projects are successful and of high quality. Even mature and successful projects face quality problems, some of which are related to the unique characteristics of free software and open source as a distributed development model based primarily on volunteers.

Customers have the right to specify and pay for only the features they want. This article addresses whether customers should be able to specify the level of quality they need.

There are a number of methodologies and approaches to agile development. For the sake of this article, the discussion will center on how to handle defect management within the context of a software project that uses an Agile methodology.

While many developers are aware of the threats posed by malicious code, and by SQL injection attacks in particular, there are other forms of code injection that are equally dangerous. Learn more about XPath injection, LDAP injection, and command execution injection and view examples of each type of attack. In addition, learn why many preventative actions that are commonly suggested to developers are not helpful, and discover how the creation of whitelists and blacklists can help to protect an application from malicious code injection attacks.

A brute force attack, also known as a dictionary attack, is one of the more uncomplicated attacks available to a hacker. However, the odds of this type of attack succeeding can be very high if a site is not configured properly. Learn more about what can be done to defend a site against a brute force attack - including implementing incremental delays and carefully wording error messages - and which defensive strategies don't work.

Understanding the factors that influence software quality is crucial to the continuing maturation of the software industry. An improved understanding of software quality drivers will help software engineers and managers make more informed decisions in controlling and improving the software process. Data from the Personal Software Processprovides insight into interpersonal differences between competent professionals as increasingly disciplined processes are adopted. Program size, (empirically measured) programmer ability, and disciplined processes significantly affect software quality. Factors frequently used as surrogates for programmer ability, e.g., years of experience, and technology, e.g., programming language, do not significantly impact software quality, although they may affect other important software attributes such as productivity. An understanding of these factors may help managers implement practices that support high-quality software.

You are the project manager of a large project and testing is uncovering faults, trouble reports are starting to pile up and the release date is coming soon. Are they going to be fixed on time? What could you do to help? Are there any bottlenecks? Where should you assign more resources? Does this scenario sound familiar? Have you been there? This article will explain how you can answer these questions by using an old method called Line of Balance in a new way.

The results of an extensive vulnerability assessment of a Web application can appear extensive on first review. However, it is important to understand that many Web application security holes found by such an assessment may in fact not matter to an organization's specific situation. Learn more about how to weed through such findings to establish which need to be addressed and which are in fact not urgent.

This article is directed toward information technology professionals that enter into contractual agreements requiring service-level agreements (SLAs) that specify availability, reliability, or survivability objectives. Its purpose is to show a relationship between cost, performance, and SLA levels established by the customer.