Software Testing and Development Blog Posts

TLDR; When you learn to manipulate the DOM with JavaScript you can create simple tools and automate from within the browser and use bookmarklets to make the code easy to execute and sync across different machines.

Let’s Test 2017

I will speak at the Let’s Test 2017 in Stockholm on May 15th - 16th 2017 and present Evil Tester’s Testing Games of Evil Testing.

What exactly is a “Testing Game”?

Some people would have you believe it is an off the shelf card game involving wiggly lines, or a ‘fun interactive’ conversation game telling stories, or some other ‘game mechanism’ related to logical reasoning. Or perhaps a party game with dice, optional blindfolds, and random plastic paraphernalia, but never knives. Other people might show you a board game or two, perhaps for 1-4 players of ages 12+ or any age but with adult supervision, two or more dice and possibly involving kittens.

OdinSTAR 2017 - EuroSTAR and NCS Oslo May 11th 2017

EuroStar in collaboration with the Norwegian Computer Society, are hosting a one day conference on 11th May in Oslo.

OdinSTAR 2017

I presented a workshop, and a keynote.

• Keynote: Real World Automating To Support Testing
• Workshop - Title: “Technical Web Testing and Automating From the Web Developer Tools”

Keynote: Real World Automating To Support Testing

Very often we talk about “Test Automation” when we should be talking about how we automate to support our test strategy and testing process. We can support our strategy and process by tactically automating tasks or by adopting a more strategic approach to our automated execution. In this talk we will explore the difference between automating tactically and strategically so you don’t get fooled by tactics that look like strategy. We will also cover concepts that help you create robust and easy to maintain automated solutions, and the techniques to implement those concepts, to support your all testing: regression, functional, performance, end to end, and exploratory.

TLDR; It still has moments of well worth reading but it also has sections where you hope no-one follows the instructions.

TLDR; Frameworks implement an abstraction layer so we don’t have to bother about it. But, what if the implementation is doing stuff you don’t want? How do you know? Find tools that let you observe inside. WebPageTest.org does that for web pages.

TLDR; Abstractions are not new, have never been easy, and have always been important when architecting our Systems.

TLDR; Bookmarklets are an easy way to have custom javascript to support your testing that sync across browsers.

TLDR; Learn your skills and techniques. Then learn your tools. Mastery of tooling can lead to new techniques and new ideas. Continue to learn your theory, skills and techniques. Continue to master your tools.

TLDR; war is horrible. Lessons can be learned from it. Would a distinction between defensive measures and pursuit, help your testing? I often see many test strategies that are highly defensive, but low on pursuit.

TLDR; if you blindly copy an expert you do not learn context, you replicate mannerisms and lose their subtlety. Consciously analyse their actions, learn their skills, and apply them individually in a coordinated fashion.