Daily Posts

JIRA or TFS or other tools?

To be honest, there hardly is any one tool that does all those things best

Either you compromise synergies and ease by using multiple tools

Or settle with one that does most things reasonable well

My vote is surely for JIRA in with that criteria.

Works great with issue tracing, decent agile management and lots of integrations supported

Back in the day TFS never had a great issue tracking mechanism

Agile management was not there probably

For Agile management there are other tools which might be better than JIRA

But then deciding between multiple licences and using synergies plays an important role in decision making.

More here:
https://lnkd.in/fGkJks9

Unconscious Thought Theory (UTT) – Complex problems are better solved by the subconscious

We are often faced with problems involving lots of variables, in other words complex tasks

Spending hours pondering over the data, which is a good thing

But to leave it to our subconscious to solve the problem is more effective rather than trying to get an answer from deliberate thought

Ever worked on a problem for days returning home in dismay

And surprised how one fine morning the solution is boiling out of your head just after a good night sleep?

What I learned:
Get the facts and data, go over it, but let the details to ‘mull over’ your subconscious for some time and wait for ‘the best computer ever’ to bring back a solution.

Are they good, bad, a necessary evil?

The good:
“Talk is cheap”, the employer has a right to know if a candidate actually can spur that coding magic

The Bad:
Most tests have nothing to do with practicality. Solving mathematical equations is useless IMHO

How to make it all good:

1. Give ACTUAL problems RELATED to the job allowing a demonstration of technical depth, problem solving skills and forming an algorithm for the solution

2. Walk through with them how they solve the problem, do they enjoy the process?

If you are looking for an automation engineer, the only constant should be new challenges.

The ‘technical’ skills I look for to deal with this:
– Apptitude for designing algorithms
– “Testing Acumen”

More here:
https://lnkd.in/fdzfjy2

Specially is ‘automation in test’ going to fall under the AI realm?

From what I read and see AI is still in its infancy

It might be a while before we start seeing tangible results

Moreover on automation, I think automation itself is not mature enough yet

As a community we are still figuring out how to do it well

Since we are ourselves are not 100% clear on how to do it

It’s going to be hard to teach a machine, or for a machine to learn iteslf..

A better question would be how to help testing of AI products at this point, not the other way around

Lesson – Let’s get mature in testing and automation, I feel we still have a long way to go

#RedefiningSoftwareQuality

positivity attracts positivity, just like negativity attracts negativity

Unfortunately the world is filled with more negative than positive

We trick ourselves into thinking being negative is being practical

The truth is 90% of the things we worry about never happen

According to this study, Susan Jeffers argues in the book “feel the great and do it anyway”, being positive is far more practical

Stay positive, you will attract positive towards you

As a tester too, stay positive,

Finding an issue is not negative,

Letting it slip and getting it back from a customer is the real negative..

#RedefingSoftwareQuality

But how to get the whole testing team on the same page?

I have to mention James Bach and Michael Bolton here, they are right

Not using the right words does have this effect, ideally we shouldn’t even be talking about this as a problem

However the reality is at times it takes some effort to bring folks not using automation tools to get on the same page

And help them understand “they” are the brains of the operation, not the tool guy

A question that came up in the #AutomationGuild 2018 conference

Here is my response:
https://lnkd.in/fWPS-j5

#RedefiningSoftwareQuality

Traditionally it does not, It’s about time we do..

Each technology stack used has its own strengths and weaknesses

For instance using classical ASP vs Java Spring have their own advantages

Testing should consider strengths and weaknesses of the architecure

We all know everything cannot be tested and look for the weak spots..

After all isn’t this what hackers do to find vulnerabilities?

I’d argue that is a type of testing as well..

So let’s start learning to ‘hack-testing’!

#RedefiningSoftwareQuality

Horrible automation success measurement metrics like

Traditional Automation ROI calculators
Number of tests automated
Execution time of the batch

What they all don’t show is how many bugs are we preventing to get into the field, how much are we affecting the bottom line

Not to say they don’t have any use at all, but do not suffice to prove automation’s actual contribution

P.S.
Yes, I don’t have the perfect answer yet, but I am anxiously trying to solve it, and I do believe this is a problem worth solving
For more reading generally on metrics try ‘Deep Work’ – and the term he coined ‘The Metric black hole’

Synopsis of the discussion here:
https://goo.gl/mvMR6d

Besides if test cases are good or evil, automation needs good scenarios to begin with.

The purpose of automation is to help testers

If a check automation is running will never be used, what’s the point of automating that?

To get that scenario right, you need to know exactly steps to automate

More on that here:
https://lnkd.in/fBa9553

#RedefiningSoftwareQuality

Apparently, they might seem like a harmless and friendly application

Truth be told, sometimes they have a vicious bite

Front ends have lots of custom made JavaScript running around

Hard to find test hooks in, especially with API

Across the whole stack, it might look like an impenetrable fortress

But all is not lost, so long as you understand what you are up against

More on that here:
https://lnkd.in/eY7zq-z