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The TERMS for Test Automation Risk or Success[article] Automation is a service to testing—a tool that may prove to be useful or turn wasteful. When approaching test automation, there are five main areas to focus on, expressed in the acronym TERMS: Tools and Technology, Execution, Requirements, Maintenance, and Security. Here are some examples of how these factors are involved in defining automation success or failures. |
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Emotional Intelligence in Testing: An Interview with Julie Gardiner[interview]
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Julie Gardiner, head of QA at Testing Rainmaker Limited, discusses the STAR conferences Test Lab she leads, which allows people to attend virtually and even win prizes for best test report and best bug report. She also talks about her upcoming book, and why emotional awareness, self-management, empathy, and relationship building are important skills for testers. |
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3 Testing Practices We Should All Stop[article] Testing evolves, and it becomes clear that some concepts we’re all used to doing are no longer applicable today. It’s important to periodically take stock of our testing practices and cull the ones that no longer make sense—or are downright harmful. Here are three common testing practices it’s in our best interests to stop doing. |
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Data Visualization in Test Automation: A Conversation with Greg Paskal[interview]
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Greg Paskal, test automation lead at Ramsey Solutions, talks about data lakes and how to effectively use data visualization. Done well, data visualization should help practitioners, managers, and stakeholders easily consume, understand, and act on the information the visual displays. |
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Get Your Poker Face On: How to Effectively Use Planning Poker to Slay Project Estimations[presentation]
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How long will that take? It’s a question we’ve all either asked or been asked, and it can be a challenge to answer accurately. How long will it take to get that feature out the door? How much time would you need to build this kind of software? |
Laura Janusek
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The Eroding Agile Test Pyramid[article] The test pyramid is a great model for designing your test portfolio. However, the bottom tends to fall out when you shift from progression testing to regression testing. The tests start failing, eroding the number of working unit tests at the base of your pyramid. If you don't have the development resources required for continuous unit test maintenance, there are still things you can do. |
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Taste-Testing: Cooking Up Good Software[article] Think about what we do while cooking food to make it the best dish possible. We taste the food first, make necessary adjustments and add a few more ingredients, taste the food again, and repeat until the dish is how we want it. This is just like building a software product. If you don’t taste the food before serving it—or test the software before rolling it out—there will be a risk that the quality isn’t up to your standards. |
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Simplify Continuous Operation Tests with a Periodic Reboot[article] Continuous operation tests find important bugs, partly as a result of their long operation and partly by increasing the probability of finding statistical bugs. However, CO tests have their own downsides. Mandating a periodic reset or reboot can work around these issues, as well as save time and cost for testing, reproduction, debugging, and fix verification. |
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Getting Restarted in Test Automation: A Conversation with Chris Loder[interview]
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Chris Loder, automation architect at InGenius, talks about being a self-taught automation developer, why learning new skills is so important, and the synergy between manual testers, automation testers, and developers. |
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Testing Challenges in Creating Wearable Technology: An Interview with Janna Loeffler[interview]
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In this interview, Janna Loeffler, senior manager of experience quality standards at Carnival Corporation, discusses new technology being implemented on Carnival Cruise Lines to facilitate payments and security. She details the testing challenges of implementing wearable devices. |
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You Say Goodbye, I Say Hello: Bridging the Gap Between Dev and Ops[presentation]
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Getting quality software into production quickly and efficiently is a major priority for organizations of all types. Yet many find that development teams’ focus on “innovation and experimentation” conflicts with Ops’ mandate to mitigate risk and increase predictability. |
Anders Wallgren
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Tests as Documentation[article] It’s important that test authors keep in mind the inherent authority their tests possess. After all, an application’s tests are sometimes the first lines of code a new developer will read when acclimating to a new codebase. Tests aren't the only kind of documentation you need, but automated tests in a CI environment can provide a lot of useful information. |
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Do We Still Need Testers? An Interview with Hans Buwalda[interview]
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In this interview, Hans Buwalda, the CTO at LogiGear, talks about whether you need developers in test, pure testers, or domain experts, based on what you are testing. He also talks about where you should spend your time and how many tests should be at what levels. |
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The Value of Attending a Live Virtual Conference: An Interview with Dawn Haynes[interview]
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In this interview, Dawn Haynes, CEO, testing coach, and consultant for PerfTestPlus, discusses the value of attending the live virtual conferences. She also talks about her upcoming book with the topic yoga for testers, about how you can apply yoga poses to your testing practices. |
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The Difference between Structured and Unstructured Exploratory Testing[article] There are a lot of misunderstandings about exploratory testing. In some organizations exploratory testing is done unprofessionally and in an unstructured way—there's no preparation, no test strategy, and no test design or coverage techniques. This leads to blinds spots in the testing, as well as regression issues. Here's how one company made its exploratory testing more structured. |
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