Microsoft Internet Explorer

W3C Workshop on Quality Assurance

Microsoft Internet Explorer
Markus Mielke, Program Manager
Jason Brittsan, Software Test Engineer

Microsoft is a leading producer of browser technology and supports many different standards in its products. We have played an important role in the development of the HTML, CSS and DOM W3C recommendations and continue to help drive these rich client technologies forward. Microsoft is committed to the standards process as a key method of providing customers with the functionality they need to build powerful solutions.

Experience in the Areas:

Through the development of several versions of Internet Explorer and implementation of W3C recommendations, the Microsoft Windows Internet Explorer development team has gained extensive experience testing browser functionality and internet technologies.

The Microsoft Windows Internet Explorer development team's notable investment in quality assurance efforts and technologies ensures the best possible browsing experience for our customers. The test team performs manual testing of the product and produces automated test suites to guard against regressions--ensuring that new versions of the product continue to render content compatibly while powerful new capabilities and features are introduced. Test team activities include writing test cases that verify functionality, guard against regressions, measure performance, and enhance the stability of the browser. Our test team has invested an enormous amount of time in creating automated testing tools and processes that support our methodical approach to testing.

Needs in the field of Web/W3C QA:

We'd like to help ensure that implementations of standard recommendations are accurate and will interoperate with other interpretations of a recommendation. With early participation in the process of the W3C, we'd like to identify parts of the standard which need further clarification.
To accomplish reliable and solid conformance testing, the W3C QA working group needs to establish a frame-work for:

• a formalized testing process,
• providing source control to reduce overhead in test management,
• establish an automated process for test cases,
• defining a modularized set of test cases, which addresses exceptions provided in the recommendations.

What are your general expectations on the final outputs of the workshop?

We would like to see a robust, complete test suite for each recommendation covering all aspects to ensure interoperability of different implementations. To ensure this goal we want to participate in the process of test suite development. We'd like to learn about the conformance activities at the W3C or related to W3C specifications and contribute our expertise in developing, testing and shipping products to the group effort of the W3C.

Contributions:

Microsoft has automated and manual tests to ensure compatibility between versions of the browser. Using our experience in building these tests and interpreting the standard recommendations we can contribute test cases and guidance to the formation of a fully independent test suite.