Testing should be considered as equal the development process. Each step during an engineers programming activity has a corresponding testing activity. While each logical module adds to the growth of the software, these parts and integrations must be tested in different ways, following different approaches. The first part of the “Testing Life Cycle” series covers component and integration tests. more »

As software development techniques have advanced during the last decades, some basic principles of testing have also been established. Describing theoretical ideas and practical hints, these principles can be seen as a basic guideline for both, testing and coding. more »

The iPhone and Android OS have created a huge market for mobile applications and services through the last two years. If you take a closer look at the most successful Apps (games not counting) you can see that there are six major characteristics they have in common. These attributes are based on a service design level and, if used with thought, make the difference between some playful stuff and a real useful App covering the users needs. more »

Requirements for a system don’t appear from nowhere but must be identified systematically. The successful definition of the systems border and the resulting identification of relevant context aspects build the foundation for a professional evaluation of the requirements for the new system. If the context is not defined properly within the process of requirements engineering, the system relies on incomplete and inaccurate assumptions which might lead to a faulty behaviour. more »

The importance of Requirements Engineering (RM) for the succesfull, customer satisfying development of software systems can not be ignored by now. It must be considered as an key discipline of system development and is material for the success of a project. more »

PHP provides a strong toolset with immense power. Used carefully and with attention to detail, it allows the creation of complex, flexible and robust applications. A drawback of this powerful functionality is, that without this attention, malicious users can use open doors to attack your site in various ways. In order to prevent this atttacks, there are some basic rules a serious programmer should follow. These guidelines neither make your application totally immune nor is it a complete list – but they aggravate the work of hackers and contribute to a more secure coding style. more »