Data analytics isn’t about Insights. Idexcel Big Data Roundup

1. How To Use Data To Outsmart Your Competitors

The pressure’s on to use data to outsmart your competitors. Here are six ways companies can use data to imagine and even re-imagine what’s possible.

“Business as usual” can be a risky business practice, especially when there’s cultural resistance to change. While some companies are embracing agile practices, there are a number of data-related barriers that keep companies from reaching their potential, most of which have to do with people, processes, and technology. Read more…

2. Ten Ways Big Data Is Revolutionizing Supply Chain Management

Bottom line: Big data is providing supplier networks with greater data accuracy, clarity, and insights, leading to more contextual intelligence shared across supply chains.

Forward-thinking manufacturers are orchestrating 80% or more of their supplier network activity outside their four walls, using big data and cloud-based technologies to get beyond the constraints of legacy Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Supply Chain Management (SCM) systems. For manufacturers whose business models are based on rapid product lifecycles and speed, legacy ERP systems are a bottleneck. Designed for delivering order, shipment and transactional data, these systems aren’t capable of scaling to meet the challenges supply chains face today. Read more…

3. How Data Projects Drive Revenue Goals

The vast majority of organizations have either already implemented a big data project or plan to do so, according to a recent survey from CA Technologies. The report, titled “The State of Big Data Infrastructure: Benchmarking Global Big Data Users to Drive Future Performance,” indicates that a great deal of these projects are integrated throughout the entire organization. Companies are pursuing big data and analytics primarily to improve the consumer experience while adding to their customer base. However, there are formidable challenges, including a lack of trained staffing to make data projects succeed, as well as the inherent complications of such implementations. Read more…

4. Importance of Big Data Analytics for Business Growth

Until recent years companies have always evaded the question of using data analytics for business execution, leave alone big data. Most of the time it was due to cost of analysis that the organisations kept in mind while keeping away from data analytics. With everything going digital, data is pouring in from all kinds of sources imaginable. Organisations are getting inundated with terabytes and petabytes of data in different formats from sources like operational and transactional systems, customer service points, and mobile and web media. The problem of such huge data is storage and with no proper utilisation of the data, collecting and storing is a waste of resource. Earlier it had been difficult to process such data without relevant technology. Read more…

Bug Reporting is an Art – Idexcel Testing Roundup

1. Why Bug Reporting is an Art That Should Be Learned by Every Tester

When it comes down to it, a tester’s primary responsibility is to test an application or project and report back on the issues. But it isn’t here that the responsibility ends, from here, the real work begins. It’s absolutely essential for testers to understand why their bugs are being rejected or being marked as “not reproducible” and how to react in these situations. Read more…

2. How Was This Tested?” Providing Evidence of Your Testing

Many testers have a tendency to minimize the information they record when testing. The challenge comes when problems are found later, possibly after the software is in production. How do we remember what we did, and when? What records do we have to refer to? How do we, as testers, answer the question “How was this tested?” Read more…

3. The Advantages of Utilizing Formal Test Design Techniques

When it comes to test design, there are those who firmly believe in the use of formal test design techniques and those who believe that those same techniques cause rigid thinking and limit creativity. I believe formal techniques have value as a basis for formal analysis and design as well as for creative thinking. Read more…

4. Discussion: Should Trivial Bugs Be Logged?

A poster to the Test Huddle forum referenced this blog from Eric Jacobson in which he argues that reporting trivial bugs tends to waste everyone’s time and that testers shouldn’t log them. The forum poster’s question: Do you agree or should all bugs be logged despite the severity?

Reponses from both sides have already been submitted to the thread. Contribute your own thoughts on the matter here!