Process
Articles
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A Simpler Way of Using Machine Learning to Shift Testing Left The advantages of shifting left and testing as early as possible are obvious. But as you automate more testing, the test suite grows larger and larger, and it takes longer and longer to run. Instead, just automate the process of finding the right set of tests to run. The key to that is machine learning. This isn't AI bots finding bugs autonomously without creating tests; this is a different way to use machine learning, and it’s far simpler. |
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More Than a Score: Taking a Deeper Dive into Your Metrics One key benefit of metrics is that they can be measured using a standard process; we can explain the numbers, and leadership can understand what that means. The downside is that it is only a measurement, so issues can easily hide until they become problems, and great work can also go unrepresented. Sporting events are a great example: The end score tells you who won, but not the details of the game. We need to look deeper. |
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Inverting the Test Automation Pyramid A growing company was tasked to develop a test automation program from scratch, change its coding practices, and build a continuous testing toolchain. Martin Ivison details how they did it, including realizing that implementing the traditional test pyramid wasn't going to work—it would have to be turned upside down. They found out that small is beautiful, cheap is good, and cultural change matters. |
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Test Everywhere: A Journey into DevOps and Continuous Testing A move to DevOps creates an opportunity to shift the testing process to the left. But what if you went further? DevOps supports continuous testing, so you can advocate for a constant focus on quality, with testing permeating the entire software development process. Here's how you can actually have a faster testing process when the software is tested throughout the lifecycle, by developers, testers, and automation alike. |
Interviews
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Moving to Progressive Web Development: An Interview with Eran Kinsbruner Eran Kinsbruner, mobile evangelist at Perfecto, discusses his new book and how to be successful in continuous and web testing. He talks about the importance of moving from responsive to progressive web development and taking it to the next level. Eran also shares his insights on AI and machine learning and the element of trust involved with each. |
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Prioritizing Security Testing: An Interview with Matt Grasberger
Video
Matt Grasberger, a software consultant with Coveros, talks about how security testing is often put off in the development lifecycle until risks are so embedded that it’s a massive undertaking to fix them. Matt highlights two tools that can be used to automate security testing early in the development lifecycle and gives some resources for requirements that you should have as a baseline for your security testing. |
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Job Security in the Age of Automation: An Interview with Dawn Haynes
Video
In this interview, Dawn Haynes, CEO, testing coach, and consultant for PerfTestPlus, discusses the ever-evolving world of AI and machine learning and the impact on the future of testing. Dawn explains why tools and automation will not be able to replace people, so testers don’t need to worry about job security. |
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8 Ways to Ruin Your One-on-Ones: An Interview with Jason Wick
Video
In this interview, Jason Wick, senior manager at MakeMusic, discusses his STAREAST presentation about eight ways you could be making your one-on-one meetings completely useless. He discusses in depth what he feels is the number one way to ruin these meetings: holding back on feedback. He also offers advice on how you can educate your team leader to avoid the pitfalls that lead to ineffective one-on-ones. |
Better Software Magazine Articles
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Using Agile and DevOps to Achieve Quality by Design When software nears completion, it is the wrong time to focus on quality. Product delivery improves if you invest in a plan, validate in small increments, and focus on continuous testing. |
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QA Is More Than Being a Tester QA testers often take on more of a role than just testing software code. When the team needs help, QA should lend a hand in assisting with business analysis, customer communication, user experience, and user advocacy. |
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All Customers Are Not Created Equal Software developers may not think they have much to do with customers, but it is wise to consider the customer in all you do, from collecting requirements to design and implementation. |
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Building a Test Automation Strategy QA departments always feel the pressure to start testing quickly, even if the ever-changing software being tested isn’t ready. A bought-in test automation strategy can keep a project on track. |
Conference Presentations
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You Say Goodbye, I Say Hello: Bridging the Gap Between Dev and Ops
Slideshow
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. This cultural and organizational mismatch puts transformation success at risk and generates a constant state of “release anxiety.” However, breaking down these silos and implementing new trends in organizational structures, value stream mapping, and pipeline monitoring and tracking can help get development and operations speaking the same language. In this session, Anders will share top lessons learned from large organizations and concrete tips for bridging the gap between Dev and Ops. He will show how you can increase delivery velocity, while also improving quality, security, and auditability at large-scale organizations. |
Anders Wallgren
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See the Forest, Not Just the Trees: Improving Quality and Flow in a Continuous Delivery World
Slideshow
There are many companies today implementing agile and DevOps practices, usually enabled by a microservices architecture. Most of them are focused on continuously delivering value to their customers within the boundary of a time-bound sprint. If you work at one of these companies or want to move in that direction, how does the quality delivered by your team today compare to in the past? Has it improved, stayed the same, or gotten worse? Are you actively using that data to improve quality? Join Ashwin Desai as he reviews how his company implemented a lean-based approach that allowed them to measure quality and flow. You will leave with an understanding of the measurements applicable to an agile organization implementing continuous delivery can be used to improve quality and reduce rework. |
Ashwin Desai
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A Successful DevOps Initiative Starts with Knowing Your Numbers
Slideshow
IT organizations that don’t know their risk factors and exposure are likely to make investments in DevOps that don’t matter. After working with several teams that lost their DevOps funding after making automation investments in areas that were not business constraints, Anne Hungate's “Know Your Numbers” model emerged. Join Anne to learn how to prioritize your DevOps improvements and demonstrate the impact and value you are delivering. After all, DevOps gets traction and funding when teams can show the business impact of doing it, so if you want your DevOps initiative to take off, be prepared to provide some metrics! You'll discover the five key questions you need to be able to answer to show that your DevOps matters, and leave with seven actions you can start taking as soon as you get back to your desk in order to improve the results of your DevOps efforts. |
Anne Hungate
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How to Prevent Catastrophic Doom on Your Next Federal DevOps Project
Slideshow
Trying to achieve real continuous deployments into production is hard for everyone, but it’s especially hard for highly regulated or government projects. These types of challenges range from client-specific, such as a set of manual checks and validations that need to be performed, to more generic problems, like how to version microservices and promote potentially breaking changes. Join Ryan Kenney as he discusses ways that he and his team have overcome obstacles to reaching continuous deployment. First Ryan will give an overview of the project and some of the problems they’ve faced. Then he will discuss how he was able to mitigate the lack of CD to an actual production environment by creating "developer production" and focusing the CD around that. |
Ryan Kenney
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