Topic: New to testing have several Questions for You

The company I work for has established a new software testing department and I am its sole member .  Previously I have been the companies unofficial tester on the side but I am new to structured testing and I really want to get a good thing going here.

Although I know basic level programming and have access to the source code I plan to start out with Black Box testing.  We have a limited set of test scripts, use cases, and work flows that I am currently refining to be more complete.  I currently fill in the gaps personally with my 9 years of expereice as a user of the software.

Our product is a java based application for use in the IE 7 browser platform that uses a SQL or Oracle database on back end with Crystal reports built.  The software has several integrated modules that have a screen by screen workflow of seperatre department business processes that integrate into a whole data set for executive reporitng.  For all intents and purposes it is an ERP system but nowhere near the size of an Oracle, SAP, or QAD.

I am trying to find out what I don't know about "real" testing to help me get started on the right foot, so any advise is apprechiated also if anyone can reccomend an automated tool for black box testing that will help with regression testing after patch releases and upgrades and maybe support auttomated performance and load testing I would be greatful.


Edited by fuji9991 - 31Jul2008 at 3:58pm