A large and growing segment of the software market now is found in handheld, mobile, and “smart” devices. We have apps for everything and everyone while the number of devices such as smart phones are growing to the billions. Additionally, embedded software is found in many modern electronic products, such as cars and trucks, diagnostic devices for the automobile industry as well as the medical industry, to name a few. Software driven devices impact our everyday lives and bugs in those devices can maim–even kill. They also have high costs in time and money, not always to the user, but sometimes to the app owner (e.g. a company doing marketing). A common objective in testing software systems is to show that they actually work. This can be done quickly for single benign cases (happy path green light situations), but then the system may fail in the real world because a test to show something works may be necessary but not sufficient information to demonstrate a successful product. In addition to showing that the software works, we must try to show it does not work by attacking it and using different test techniques. This attack approach can be applied to mobile and embedded software devices.
Jon D. Hagar is an industry recognized mobile and embedded systems testing expert and offers his wealth of 30 years experience. He practices context based testing (how you test depends on your context). Jon travels and teaches software and systems testing for conferences and private tutorials. He is sought by various government agencies and private industry for advice and direction on testing embedded and handheld software. He constantly learns the latest technologies through personal research as well as through worldwide networks of like-minded thinkers who devise innovative approaches such as that of “attacking” software to find bugs.
Jon has published many articles, presented at many conferences, and contributed to several books. Google him, find him on LinkedIn, TechWell, catch him one of the many testing conferences, or if you have questions for him directly, or would just like to consult with Jon about breaking embedded software for any embedded device, contact him directly 303/903-5536.
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