A Bright Vista for Microsoft Computer Training Grads

by Sonja Albrecht
sonja.albrecht@CareerSchoolGuide.com
Career School Guide Columnist

As recently as August, Vista, Microsoft’s five-year effort to overhaul its Windows operating system, seemed a lost cause. Last week, the software titan announced it would make its December release date after all. What happened?

Microsoft Training for the Ultimate Software Test

Credit for the spectacular turnaround goes to Microsoft’s software testing engineers, who used their computer training to stage a vast quality control effort in just a couple months. The key to their success was the sheer volume of crash data they amassed and analyzed. The second beta release of Vista alone generated 5.5 petabytes of information—the equivalent of the storage capacity of 690,000 home PC’s.

How Did Microsoft Do It?

Here are some of the tactics Microsoft’s testing specialists used to ensure Vista’s compatibility with existing hardware and software.

• User Testing—Vista ran on half a million computers and Office 2007 on 3.5 million.
• Automated Testing—The ‘Big Button Room’ and the ‘Windows Test Technologies’ center both ran special software to exercise programs rapidly and automatically, looking for errors.
• Data Analysis—A team of 5,000 engineers relied on their Microsoft computer training to analyze crash data
• Partner Liaisons—Microsoft’s trained testing team was able to collaborate with other companies to resolve compatibility issues within days.

Using Your Microsoft Computer Training to Test Software

Sometimes it’s more fun to break things than build them. Microsoft’s Software Testers draw on their extensive computer training to find bugs and loopholes in the code. They test new software from every possible vantage point: customer scenario, stress testing, negative testing, and more.

With your Microsoft computer training, you could join the effort to keep the world’s operating systems running smoothly. 845 million computers depend on it.

Source

Microsoft.com

About the Author

Sonja Albrecht works as a writer and editor for an online media company. She has also taught college writing and completed a Ph.D. in English.