When I'm working on projects where we're testing web services, it often means comparing XML files to determine if our tests passed or failed. I've found that working with that much XML means you're going to have to get good at:

• writing XSLTs to transform your actual response to mask out values you don't care about (server dates for example);


• writing Xpath queries to check for specific values in an XML document;


• learning all the command line options on your favorite diff-tool;


• and ensuring you have at least one person on the team that knows the schema inside and out and can see the entire mapping document in their head when they look at the response files.

In my opinion, one of the biggest success factors for a centralized testing organziation is a clear engagement model. One that starts with new project intake and ends with project closeout, follow-up, and portfolio management. I've tried to tackle this problem at two different organizations, and at each one I struggled to get clear and easy to follow definition around what we did.

Take a look at how HUGE laid out their process. I understand that it's marketing material, so it's obviously going to be pretty, but look past that. They lay out seven clear phases for engagement. Each phase has a summary of the steps that will be undertaken in that phase.

If you're centralized group offers products and services, imagine that your products and services are listed next to those phases. Those are the various products and services teams could expect during each phase. I find it to be a very simple visualization for what your organization might offer to project teams.

Today's tip comes from Chris Wallace. In his post on The last browser testing advice you'll ever need he talks about his coding and testing process, lays out the a-grade list of browsers (from the Yahoo! UI Library), and if you take the time to read the comments you'll see several tips from readers of the site (including this link to the multiple IE installer).

Worth the time, read it if you can.

UX Booth recently did a posting on tools that help with web accessibility. I ran my personal website through all of the tools and found issues. (Special joy.) I particularly found the image analyzer from Juicy Studio to be quite informative. They have some other tools and links available on their website.

Foundstone (a division of McAfee) hosts a bunch of free tools on their website. These include tools that you can use to learn and practice security testing (like Hacme Bank). If you're new to security testing, consider spending some time with these tools and learning utilities.