WeTest Workshops

http://www.meetup.com/WeTest-Workshops/

The brain child of Aaron Hodder and Katrina Edgar… and thanks to Richard Robinson and David Greenlees for sharing their experiences on setting up a meet up group for software testers….

For testers in Wellington who are interested in testing discussions with other practitioners.

Monthly workshop events of a similar format to KWST – a presenter introduces a topic to the group, and attendees are then encouraged to discuss, question, challenge, and share ideas on that topic. Participation is expected, so come prepared to contribute!

Meet thinking testers in the Wellington testing community, engage in practical discussion, and eat pizza.

Continue reading →

Advertisement

KWST2 – The NZ Peer Conference On Real Testing

The Kiwi Workshop on Software Testing is a dream come true for New Zealand testers. It represents an opportunity for the thought leaders and community-driven testers to gather and share war stories. But it’s so much more than that. James Bach has attended for the 2nd year running which adds the momentum and rich test ideas that gets the minds of the participants revved up.

KWST lets us debate on friendly turf. Through using turn-taking coloured cards, heated testing topics can be fully explored, and talking turns can be controlled. As a facilitator, I thoroughly enjoyed watching heated discussions progress until the deep issues came to the surface.

Continue reading →

KWST#2 Test conference is coming!

The second KWST or Kiwi Workshop on Software Testing  with be held on the 15th and 16th of June 2012, Wellington, New Zealand. KWST is modelled on the LAWST style peer conferences and is the only testing peer conference in New Zealand. There are a number of things that make this conference unique:-

  • It is an invite only conference – we are looking for industry thought leaders
  • James Bach will again be back as content owner and helping grow the core of professional test leadership in New Zealand
  • Some of the brightest, insightful test thinkers down under will be there
  • Unlike any other conference held here, this is a CONFERence where ALL participants participate!
  • The theme is Ethical challenges faced by testers which is relevant considering the prevalence of dubious practices and certifications in our industry

The twitter hash tag will be KWST2 and we will be tweeting all of the great thoughts and ideas that will flow from this conference. See http://bjosman.wordpress.com/2011/06/28/kwst-kiwi-workshop-on-software-testing/ and http://bjosman.wordpress.com/2011/07/08/kwst-kiwi-workshop-of-software-testing-day-2/ for details of last years event.

Author: Brian

Sikuli – for all those hard to reach places!

Ever had the scenario in automated testing, that you had something to automate that really didn’t fit any of your tools? Something that was as bristly as an Echidnea?

Normally I try and steer away from anything that doesn’t use standard protocols and/or interfaces. Things like Flash, Silverlight and others. Not that there aren’t test tools that handle these things but it’s just that it’s messy to say the least. For open standards like HTML or SOAP there are gazillions of ways to automate.

So I got surprised by having to test an application on -or should I rather say through- Citrix.

Continue reading →

Web Page Analysis Basics for Testers

I usually move in the performance testing realm and one of the things I regularly do, is check for obvious omissions in website design before I get into the low down with testing.

What do I mean by that?

There is such a thing as (and I am having difficulty writing this) Best Practice, when it comes to web page development. These are technological imperatives that can be easily checked by using simple tools. You don’t need to be an HTML guru to use these or to gain more knowledge about your website under test.

Continue reading →

A rookie tester’s guide to making the arrest

Bug Investigations

Thousands of words have been written about the investigation part, and it’s usually where the information ends.  You’ve got a crack bug investigation procedure.  You’ve clearly identified your oracles, you’ve mapped your coverage, you know your quality criteria.  You’ve been patrolling the mean streets of your pre-release build, and you’ve noticed something out of the ordinary.  The adrenaline starts pumping, and you’re ready to reach for the red and blues.  We wanna take this perp down.  But hold up, bronco.  Before we grab the pepper spray, let’s talk about what happens after you have a suspect in your sights.  You’re pretty sure you want to make the arrest, but we don’t want to compromise the sentencing later.

Continue reading →

Test Script Madness: Is there any value of documenting test scripts after execution

I spoke with a tester recently about capturing tests to be reused. I had a discussion with them on what they thought about the process. I will outline their task, what they were supposed to do, what they did, and the questions and comments that came from the discussion afterwards. Some valuable lessons and insight were uncovered.

Continue reading →

Fun, IT and Quality

A couple of days ago I had one of my epiphanies. (I’m not a genius so something probably just dawned on me ;-))

The question in my mind was “Why do we keep on producing such cr*p software that people just don’t like to use?“. I need to caveat that a little as I solely focus on bespoke development for larger organisations here.

There’s lots of rational reasons why this happens. Examples are:

  • Overly aggressive timelines
  • No well-defined quality criteria
  • Poorly understood requirements/no understanding of solution
  • Bad SDLC
  • Politics
  • People
  • Budget
  • …

But there’s one that I actually never thought of listing….. FUN.

Continue reading →