Writer's Guidelines

Software Test & Performance is written for software and application development managers, project managers, team leaders and test and QA managers. The magazine is not written for the entry level tester running test scripts all day, but rather has a larger more strategic view of the entire application life cycle.

The Software Test & Performance reader is a decision-maker within an enterprise IT department or at an ISV. Articles in the magazine should provide useful information to help him/her understand trends and emerging technologies, come to grip with new and timeless challenges, adopt new "best practices" concepts and ultimately make better decisions to improve software quality.

For example, the reader may be involved in setting policies and procedures, choosing development and test methodologies, determining requirements, hiring and managing staff, solving quality and performance problems and proactively implementing new technologies. The reader may also interface with other development and information-technology teams, line-of-business users, business managers, and clients/end users.

Write articles to offer practical solutions, tips and techniques for improving enterprise software quality and post-deployment performance. Authors should be experienced practitioners in the field of software development, test management and performance management.

ARTICLES FROM VENDORS

Software Test & Performance accepts proposals for technical articles submitted by vendors serving the software test and performance industry. However, our emphasis is on publishing articles written by hands-on test and development managers and independent experts. Thus, ghost-written articles will not be considered for publication in the magazine.

Vendor-proposed articles may not be marketing-driven. Proposals and manuscripts that promote the author's employer, products, services or technologies will not be accepted.

Also, Software Test & Performance will not publish articles demonstrating the author's commercial tools, or which present the author's specific commercial solutions as the best way to address the reader's test, QA and performance problems.

Software Test & Performance does not publish product reviews. It also does not publish case studies or white papers submitted by vendors.

Articles in Software Test & Performance will focus on topics such as quality metrics, improving processes and team collaboration, "best practices" for addressing test and QA issues, and other platform-neutral topics. Topics of interest include improving process at the requirements stage, and from development through testing to deployment and beyond.

The magazine will also publish articles that focus on improving the quality and performance of software written for popular deployment platforms. For example, the editors welcome article proposals covering testing and improving software written for J2EE or .NET or SQL databases generically, or BEA's WebLogic, IBM's WebSphere, Oracle 9iDB or Windows Server 2003 specifically.

Presentation

Articles should be in the range of 2,500 to 4,000 words and be written for practitioners in the field, with a style that is down-to-earth, practical, interesting and original. Avoid jargon, speculative theory and abstract concepts; instead, focus on practical information that can help our readers today or in the near term.

The purpose of an article is to transfer useful knowledge to the magazine's readers, rather than to promote the author's accomplishments or the products, services and technologies offered by the author's employer.

Software Test & Performance is a magazine, not an academic journal. Therefore, we recommend that authors use a colloquial, informal writing style. Passive voice should not be used. Instead, authors should use active voice.

Do not start the manuscript with a long fancy anecdote, a "first-the-earth-cooled" historical timeline or an academic-style abstract that says "This article will do such-and-such." Just get right into the subject matter. Also, do not include footnotes or references. Refer to other sources, such as books, magazine articles or Web sites, within in the main body of the article. Be sure to define terms and acronyms that may not be familiar to the reader; in case of doubt, define.

Include annotated source code only when it helps explain the concepts in the article. Also, add copious figures, tables, listings, screen captures and other graphics to make the article easier to understand. Please avoid bulleted points within your prose; it's hard to read such lists. If you feel that a list can best be expressed using bullets, consider pulling it into a separate table or text box.

Do not assume that the reader has specialized experience or knowledge about particular methodologies, platforms or tools. If the article is written about a specific methodology, platform or tool, present that dependency in the initial proposal. In the manuscript, include a short introduction or overview of prerequisite background concepts, if appropriate.

Submissions

Proposals. Submit article proposals to Edward J. Correia, Editor, ecorreia@bzmedia.com Do not submit a manuscript until requested to do so upon acceptance of the article proposal. The proposal should clearly explain what you want to write, your credentials in that topic area, and what the reader will learn from the article. It should also provide an estimated word count for the article. The more detail in your proposal, the better.

Manuscripts. Final manuscripts should also be submitted to Edward Correia. The document format should be plain ASCII text, RTF or Microsoft Word. All tables and listings should be submitted as separate text, RTF, Word or Excel documents.

Screen captures. Submit screen captures in BMP, TIFF or another lossless native file format. Do not send screen captures as JPEG or GIF files, or embed them into Word or PowerPoint documents, because they will not be suitable for publication. Be sure to include meaningful captions for all screen captures.

Graphics. Send other graphics, including diagrams and pictures, in BMP, TIFF, JPEG, EPS or PNG formats. Submit each figure in a separate file, and include a reference and caption to it in the main manuscript. Do not embed graphics within the manuscript document itself. The magazine's art department can (and probably will) redraw most line art, so feel free to scan and e-mail a hand-drawn sketch. For more details, see our photo guidelines.

Author Information. Include a short bio of the author(s), as well as photograph(s) of the author(s). Photographs should be in TIFF or JPEG format and at least 1024 x 768 pixels in resolution.

Editing. All manuscripts for Software Test & Performance will be edited for length, style, relevance and clarity. The article will also be edited to remove promotion of the author's company and its products, services and technologies.

Article Reviews

All proposals and manuscript submissions should be sent to the magazine by the article's author. If there are multiple authors, one author should be designated as the lead author. The editors of Software Test & Performance will work directly with the sole author or lead author on acceptance and revisions to the article.

The editors may send article proposals and finished manuscripts for peer review. In some cases, the editors may ask perform a peer technical review of the manuscript.

While the feedback gained by peer reviews is helpful, the editors will make the final decision regarding acceptance and editing of article proposals and manuscripts.