daily post

And if someone knows how to code, it does not mean they know designing algorithms

At the core of programming is thinking, thinking of the best way how a machine can do a task

Often you would come across folks who can write some code, but cannot think of a process themselves

And try jamming in pieces of code from different places instead

Taking a solution from how we’d do it in our head to getting it right in the code is sometimes easier said than done

To learn this skill, it’s best to follow some basic steps until this becomes second nature, in short which are:

– Solve problem on paper
– Write solution steps in detail
– Write pseudo code
– Script in desired language

More on that in a separate article.

#QsDaily

I call it debugging the Sherlock style

Once something unexpected has happened, evaluating the evidence to find the actual story

This is particularly true for long automation batch runs where a script passes in a single run, but consistently failing in the batch

I’ve observed people mostly just hope running the script again and again will reveal the problem itself

Taking a moment to understand what might have gone wrong, and doing some targeted debugging can save a lot of time

My thoughts on why to analyze and how to do it:

#QsDaily

Teaching devs testing or testers learning programming?

And if you feel there is no need for testers to be technical, that’s another discussion entirely

I feel teaching devs testing is more of an attitude training

That’s the difference between testers and developers, how they approach the problem and the end goal

Naturally there’s a lot of fundamentals, techniques and concepts but what’s more difficult is the attitude

For testers learning programming, mostly its acquiring another skill, rather revisiting a skill they tried to learn before

For some it’s easier said than done, but in the end it is a skill like any other

And in case programming is frightening for you, that’s another discussion too.

Personally I’ve always felt changing an attitude is much harder than acquiring a skill, probably this would depend on a lot of other things as well

#TestersBecomingTechnical #RedefiningSoftwareQuality

After the #AutomationGuild2018 (expert round table) and #PSQC2018 (Asim’s journey to becoming a technical tester”)..

Listen to the next exciting story of Billy at #TetingGuild2018 https://testingguild.com/

A story of when a testing team took responsibility instead of hiding behind excuses and the results it had for the product

Some very important lessons learned which have been a driving force for me since then

If you want to work on #RedefiningSoftwareQuality and are passionate about evolving testing, this is THE presentation for you

P.S.
Will be sharing a teaser (hopefully) in a few days.

(Asim’s) Journey of becoming a technical tester:
https://lnkd.in/fJaiaXb

Other community engagements:
https://lnkd.in/ffFWrcs

And it’s implications for automation learners

It goes like this, place a marshmallow on the table, tell the child if they don’t eat this marshmallow for another x minutes, they’ll get a second one, then leave the room.

The jist of it is, kids who can delay gratification will probably be more successful.

And I feel this holds very true for automation learners.

Starting and staying with very basic automation concepts and trying to squeeze every opportunity sitting at that level is not helpful.

Learn to do the grind today and wait for the rewards later on.

Invest in learning how to do automation well instead of doing just the bare minimum and hoping to succeed.

Yes the industry does need automation engineers, but far greater is the need for excellent ones!

#QsDaily #LearningAutomation

Here are the few places I’ve used it in:

Create isolated AUT instances
– We have separate DBs for different AUT versions
– Using docker can instantly create multiple AUT instances
– Different approaches to do it, one can be to just hook up multiple DB versions to the same app server

Multiple execution environments

– Selenium grid(s)?
– If your automation tool allows, can create multiple execution environments
– Can hook them up with Jenkins and everything will be done on the fly

I’m sure there are other uses where the AUT is NOT containerized and we can still leverage docker.

Have you tried something different? would love to hear..

Deciding what to Automate?

First let’s talk about what to test

Often when teams talk about what to automate they jump straight to regression tests

I like to start with ‘Do we have a good set of scenarios to test’ to choose from?

What to test would depend on changes, features inmportant for product positioning, most sought out features by clients, features with most bugs from the field and so on..

Once we have that list, we can talk about what to automate.

Here’s the discussion on the subject:

#QsDaily #QsEpisodes

Does verifying ethical boundaries of a product come under testing, E.g. Data privacy?

If it’s expected by management then off course, if not then?

In this age I feel we’ll have to face more ethical problems than ever before

As technology’s reach increases, more possibilities open, creating more social challenges as a by-product

As a tester, Identifying and factoring end user’s needs and wants is paramount

Keeping a moral high ground has always been tough

The decision would boil down to every person’s core values I guess

Felt this is a question many of us might face in the coming years (if not already)

Thoughts?

#QsDaily

We all learn in different ways, lessons that stick usually have more effort and emotion involved

This is one such story of debugging an automation framework problem

There were quite a few lessons we learned and have been vital in our success

If I’d have to mention just one, “Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong” (Murhpy has a lot to answer for..)

So try to figure out what can go wrong and prepare for it

For a brief summary of the story:
https://pos.li/29s544

The complete TechBeacon article here:
https://pos.li/29s545

Perhaps one of the most common and used among the Java community

For automation engineers, specially working with object oriented languages like Java and Python this is important

These will create clearner, less complex and reduced coupling in you framework

The principles might be a bit complex to understand at first,

But are very useful and worth the time spent

#QsDaily #TestersGoingTechnical