Testtalks | Automation Awesomeness | Helping You Succeed With Test Automation

On today’s show we’ll test talk with Andy Tinkham, a software testing expert with over 20 years’ experience, about his views on modern testing. Andy will discuss how testing has evolved, what we as testers need to know, and how we are all responsible for helping to shape the future of testing. Within the philosophy of modern testing there are a series of principles that Andy has broken down into four pillars: Context First, Testers are Not Robots, Using Multiple Lenses for Test Design, and Providing Useful and Timely Information. If you’re a tester who wants to continue being a tester in the 21st century, you’ll want to listen up! Check it out.

On today’s show I’ll be test talking with Maaret Pyhajarvi, a collaborative software specialist with emphasis on testing, all about mob testing, pair testing, exploratory testing and more. Maaret has a soft spot for hands-on testing, and for helping teams grow and build successful products and businesses. Maaret shares a bunch of knowledge in this episode to help us think with a more Agile, Lean startup mindset. Check it out!

Are you struggling with managing you BDD efforts? Wishing you had a central location for your BDD where everyone can contribute to creating a common, domain-specific language as well as help refactor changes across multiple teams spread out across the globe? If so, Hiptest might be the tool for you. Hiptest is an open-source, modern test management collaborative platform for Agile teams that was designed to help you deliver better software faster. On today’s show we’ll be speaking with Laurent Py, co-founder and product manager at Hiptest, all about how to create more collaborative BDD.

Today we’ll be test talking with Angie Jones about why we need more women and minorities in tech, as well as automation with Java. Angie is a consulting automation engineer at LexisNexis and an inventor with more than 20 patented inventions. On top of all that, she has been featured in Ebony magazine as one of the country's top young leaders under the age of 30, you definitely don’t want to miss this show.

It’s the middle of 2016 – a good time to take a mid-year pulse of what’s going on in the test automation community. In this episode we’ll TestTalk with Greg Paskal, author of Test Automation in the Real World and Director of Quality Assurance-Automation at Ramsey Solutions, A Dave Ramsey Company, all about his latest “testing in the real world “survey to find out what folks are currently succeeding and struggling with in their test automation efforts.

What is pair testing? It’s exactly what it sounds like -- two people on the same machine, trying to complete a test together. On today’s show, Katrina Clokie shares with us all the benefits her organization has enjoyed since starting pair testing, as well as how it’s helping to change culture through testing. If your Agile sprint teams are struggling with testing, you won’t want to miss this episode.

Coming up with a solid plan for the right test coverage mix for your mobile app testing efforts can sometimes feel like a black art. And like with all black arts, you usually end up paying the price with bad results. On today’s show we’ll test talk with Eran Kinsbruner, Director and Mobile Technical Evangelist from Perfecto, about mobile testing coverage optimization using a free online resource called Digital Test Coverage Optimizer. Eran will also share some of his best tips to ensure you’re consistently creating mobile testing automation awesomeness.  

Today’s show is all about how to improve your Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) efforts as we TestTalk with Matt Angerer, an SR Solutions Architect for Results Positive. In this episode Matt shares with us a methodology called RPALM that will help you improve you ALM efforts. If you’re struggling with managing and creating traceability between your requirements, tests and defects, or if your results lack visibility to your team, this episode is for you -- check it out.

The testing dead have risen, and they’re hungry…consumed with an unnatural desire for bad automation practices to feast on. Your test automation efforts are crumbling, and they’re coming for you next. What do you do? Matt Barbour, Senior Director of Engineering at Comcast Silicon Valley, shares with us some lessons learned about end-to-end testing from Zombieland. Listen up and discover how to escape the coming test automation zombie apocalypse.

Are you just starting off with Appium and not sure where to begin? Not sure which tool to use for your mobile testing automation efforts? In this episode, James covers the basics of how to get started with mobile testing using Appium.

Today we'll be test talking with Derick Baily, a software developer and founder of watchmecode.net , a community dedicated to learning JavaScript, Node.js RabbitMQ and more. He is also one of the co-hosts of my favorite podcast, Entreprogrammers. In this episode we’ll discuss Testing Javascript and RabbitMQ applications from a developer’s perspective, so if you’re either a developer or a tester and need to get up to speed quickly with JavaScript, this episode is for you.

On today’s show we’ll be test talking about data strategies in testing with Paul Merrill, Principle Software Development Engineer in Test and Found at Beaufort Fairmont, a consulting company dedicated to ridding the world of bad code. Many of the testers I know have a testing or automation framework strategy, but most seem to overlook having a data strategy in place. It doesn’t matter what automation framework you’re using; if you haven’t planned how you will manage the data your tests need in order to interact with the system(s) under test, you’re in trouble. A data strategy is a combination of procedure and infrastructure that affects the way tests interact with data to simulate your systems under test. That’s what today’s show is all about. Check it out.

One of the top issues I find when trying to automate applications is how to test custom controls. I know I’m not the only one; one of my most popular posts is on what to do when UFT doesn’t recognize an object. I believe one of the most overlooked solutions is to actually contact the custom control vendor to ask whether they have a solution to the problem.. In this episode we’ll speak with Michael Germann from Infragistics about custom control automation using IG TestAutomation. Michael will share all kinds of tips for testing unrecognizable objects with UFT and RFT as well as general extensibility best practices for testing custom controls.

Today we’ll be test talking with Paul Grossman, AKA the “Dark Arts Automation Engineer” about his five secrets of test automation. I’ve been following Paul for a long time on Linkedin, Facebook and other automation boards. He’s always posting useful test automation tips and tricks to help out the testing and automation community, so it was great to finally speak with him -- and he did not disappoint. I think you’re really going to enjoy this episode. Check it out!

I love open-source tools. Sometimes, however, a team might not have the skills needed to create a proper test automaton framework, or else the technology the team is working with doesn’t lend itself to being a good fit for an open source test tool. I’m a big believer in teams using the right tool for their projects, even if it means the tool they select is a vendor tool. One vendor-based tool I’ve been hearing a lot of good things about is Ranorex. In this episode we’ll be speaking with Roland Enzinger and Christoph Preschern about test automation for those who use Ranorex.

In this episode we’ll Test Talk with one today’s most well- respected testing authors and speakers, Lisa Crispin. Lisa shares with us some of her favorite Agile testing techniques, including how mob testing can help your team rub out bugs one defect at a time, as well as how your team can benefit from testing group hugs. Lisa’s mission is to bring Agile joy to the software testing world and testing joy to the Agile development world, and I think it really comes through in this episode.

What better way is there to celebrate a milestone than speaking with a living legend? Gerald Weinberg has been developing and testing software for over 50 years, and was one of the engineers who worked on the first American NASA space program (Project Mercury), where he designed and implemented the space tracking network focusing on the first multi-programmed operating systems. Jerry has also written more than 30 books including some of my favorites: Weinberg on Writing: The Fieldstone Method, Perfect Software And Other Illusions About Testing, and Becoming a Technical Leader. You don’t want to miss this episode – it’ll be like listening to a real Obi Wan Kenobi … or Yoda!

In this episode we’ll be speaking with Neeraj Tripathi about his Principles of Software Quality Management. What I really like about this episode is that Neeraj has a ton of experience with software quality management and has worked across multiple organizations on many cross-functional teams. I think his breadth of knowledge really shines through in this episode. So if you’re having issues with software quality management, prepare to hear some knowledge bombs because Neeraj shares actionable advice for almost all the questions I asked of him.

Do your test automation efforts leave you feeling depressed and bored, like Marvin the Robot in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy? Do you wonder what the meaning of test automation really is? Good news! In this episode we’ll be speaking with Mark Fink, author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Test Automation, where he’ll reveal the answers to all your burning test automation questions.

This episode is a special treat, because we’ll be speaking with the actual HPE team that tested HPE’s new testing tool, LeanFT. Today we’ll be TestTalking with Hagay Avisar, the leader of HPE’s automation Center of Excellence, Ayelet Dasa a software engineer who focuses on test automation, Aviad Diamant the Lead for LeanFT’s Quality Team, and Malcolm Isaacs a senior researcher at HP. So get ready to get a behind-the-scenes, insiders look at how a functional test tool vendor goes about testing its own products.