Grigori’s interview of me on Spec Explorer for Visual Studio is online at TechEd Online Tech talks (Search for “stobie”).  Although the score for my TechEd talk, , and Q&A Session, , rate only just below and above average, they generated some excitement.   Several found the talk interesting and one person said “this session really was revolutionary for me.”  The video of the talk won’t be publicly available for about 6 months.  We also get several people interested and apply for the Spec Explorer for Visual Studio Early Adopter Program (EAP).

I just visited Microsoft’s Development Center Copenhagen (MDCC) and presented Model-Based Testing and Spec Explorer to many or our Dynamics testers.  Several of them have already explored MBT and some have dabbled with Spec Explorer already.  

Today I met with Thorkil Sonne from Specialisterne whom I heard speak and met at StarWest 2008.   I first heard about his company many months ago and sniggered at their use of “software testers” being almost the opposite of what I and most of Microsoft looks for in software testers.  However, my narrow view was, of course, misguided.   There will always remain mundane manual tasks in software testing (e.g. verifying the installation instructions work correctly – you must very carefully and precisely follow the instructions – not an automation task).  Everything about the company, from the name through logo has been carefully chosen.   I can only hope he succeeds in franchising one million of his testers worldwide.

I will be presenting at TechEd EMEA 2008 Developers this year in Barcelona, Spain.

Grigori Melnik will interview me about Spec Explorer 2007 in the Fish Bowl for a recorded TechTalk on Tuesday, 11 November 16:00 - 16:30.  We will be discussing What’s new about Spec Explorer for Visual Studio vs older versions (SE 2004)? How have people been successful using it?

Thursday, 13 November 9-10:15 in DVP302:  Automating Test Creation I’ll be introducing Spec Explorer 2007.  Here is the abstract:

Most unit tests, functional tests, etc. are hand crafted by people anticipating expected results. With model-based testing (MBT), developers use their skills to create a model that generates both the sequences of calls and their expected results. Models also allow analysis for expected properties and behaviors before the production code is written. Just as test first development can help expose testability issues, model-based approaches can show design issues up front. This talk will show the Spec Explorer plug in for Visual Studio that has been used to verify over 50 of the Windows Protocols and the experiences of product teams using MBT. Come to this session to learn how to find unexpected consequences up front.

I follow that up on Thursday afternoon, 13Nov 15:15-16:30 with an interactive session DVP01-IS Model Based Testing with Spec Explorer

Building on the Automating Test Creation break out session, this session will go into more depth about the Visual Studio Team System plug-in, Spec Explorer. Spec Explorer can be used for both model exploration (e.g. checking Liveness or Safety properties with anit-scenarios) and for automatic test generation. Details about parameter generation, state comparison and debugging, and best patterns and practices for adapter design will be covered. Pitfalls new modelers frequently stumble over will be demonstrated with plenty of time for Q&A. In this session, discover through theory, demonstration and best practices discussion, how to enrich the design of any model.

The Visual Studio plug in, Spec Explorer 2007, is using an Early Adopter Program (EAP) to get feedback.  For more information about the EAP you can mail to speccon at microsoft.com.