[comp.software-eng] Automated Software Testing Tools in Japan

jng@well.sf.ca.us (James N. Gershfield) (05/27/90)

The Japanese are well-known for the high quality of their products.
The question that I am directing to developers of software products
in Japan is the following: What kinds of tools are you using to
improve the quality of your software products? In particular, are
you using any automated testing tools, such as automated regression
testing tools, source code test coverage analysis tools, bug tracking
tools (i.e., bug management systems), etc.?

Please send me E-Mail and I will post a summary article to the net.

Please indicate the following information about any testing tools that
you are using:

	Test Tool Name and Manufacturer
	Hardware and Software Platform
	Type of Test Tool

Thank you very much, in advance, to all those who respond.

nancy@ics.uci.edu (Nancy Leveson) (05/28/90)

In article <18172@well.sf.ca.us> jng@well.sf.ca.us (James N. Gershfield) writes:
>
>The Japanese are well-known for the high quality of their products.
>The question that I am directing to developers of software products
>in Japan is the following: What kinds of tools are you using to
>improve the quality of your software products?

You are probably asking the wrong question -- which reflects the bias in the
U.S.  I was at an invited workshop in Japan last year on the subject of
software quality.  What I continually heard was that they felt the U.S.
thought the answer to getting high quality was tools while the Japanese
felt that other factors were more important, e.g., motivation of individuals.
There is a man at the Sloan School at MIT named Cusamano [probably spelled
wrong] that has written a book and articles on the subject -- you should
get hold of them if you are willing to look for a "non-magic" solution
("if I could only get the right tools, my software will be great").

nancy leveson

--
Nancy Leveson

shimeall@cs.nps.navy.mil (Tim Shimeall) (05/30/90)

There is a book out:
  Matsumoto, Yoshiro and Ohno, Yutaka, _Japanese_Perspectives_in_
  _Software_Engineering_, Addison-Wesley, 1989, ISBN 0-201-41629-8.

It covers theoritical, practical and managerial issues in software
engineering from a Japanese perspective.  I haven't had time yet to
get into it in detail, but chapters 7 and 8 deal with testing/quality
assurance issues, including some description of testing tools.
					Tim