Every fifteen minutes or so, in testing blogs, on LinkedIn, at conferences, or on the job, someone raises the question of “why test automation projects fail”. Perhaps the question keeps coming up because there are so many failure modes, and so many possible answers. Here’s one answer, though: “test automation projects” are software development projects, and all software development projects are vulnerable to failure. One of the bigger and more … Read more
A few years ago, a friend introduced me to a recording of the mind-blowing musical Hamilton (if you haven’t seen or heard it, do yourself a favour and check it out). Our whole family was, for a time, obsessed with it. A few months after that, I was preparing for a talk at Xebia in Amsterdam. I was wondering how I could spice up the talk a little by doing … Read more
Expert Panel on Failures of Software Industry around Testing & Quality
Webinar with Anna Royzman, Aprajita M, James Bach and Michael Bolton
FailQonf, 2021
Panel Topic: Inadequate and inefficient software testing practices can contribute to poor quality products released to customers. In this session, we’ll discuss different failures in software testing. We’ll aim to highlight and share experiences from the panel covering failures in both testing process/approach and individual tester level
Instead of asking “What tests should I automate?” consider asking some more pointed questions. If you really mean “how should I think about using tools in testing?”, consider reading A Context-Driven Approach to Automation in Testing, and Testing and Checking Refined. If you’re asking about the checking of output or other facts about the state of the product, keep reading. Really good fact checking benefits from taking account of your … Read more
Fireside chat with Michael Bolton | QA TechTalks Community 0:10 / 55:43
Topic: Would you prefer to test with brains or bots? An interactive short talk & discussion about test with brains or bots or both with best practices, evidence, proofs, examples, and inputs. A weekly fireside chat series to share with the community.
Speaker: Michael Bolton I help people and organizations find product problems and solve testing problems quickly and expertly with Rapid Software Testing. developsense.com / rapid-software-testing.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-b…
Takeaways:
1. Real-time examples
2. Tools & Techniques
3. Rapid Software Testing
4. Best practices and strategies
5. Advantages & disadvantages with manual and automation testing
6. Scope of testing in future
More details here: https://www.tech-talks.info/registration
An amusing video from a few years back has been making the rounds lately. Dad challenges the kids to write exact instructions to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and Dad follows those instructions. The kids find the experience difficult and frustrating, because Dad interprets the “exact” instructions exactly—but differently from the way the kids intended. I’ll be here when you get back. Go ahead and watch it. Welcome … Read more
The Web is abuzz with talk about “automated testing” and “test automation”. Automation comes with a tasty and digestible story: eliminate “manual testing”, and replace messy, complex humanity with reliable, fast, efficient robots! Yet there are many secrets hidden between the lines of the story.
Last week posted a blog entry on automation and coverage, in which I questioned the usefulness of trying to cover “everything” with automated tests, comparing them to the CCTV cameras that are in use all over the place, but especially in Britain. Despite the limitations of such schemes, there might also be some useful aspects. What might they be? For certain areas that we decide to cover with a camera, … Read more
If you don’t read the forums on the Software Testing Club, I’d recommend that you consider it. In my view, the STC is one of the more thoughtful venues for conversation about testing. (I’d recommend subscribing to the Software Testing mailing list, too.) A correspondent recently posted a request for help in recommending an automation approach. I answered something like what follows: Need to get a code coverage of at … Read more