test automation

Articles

Transition to Agile: Large Technical Debt, Small Project
When you transition to agile and you have a reasonably size codebase, chances are quite good that you’ve been working on the product for a while. You certainly have legacy ways of thinking about the code and the tests. Now learn how to work yourself out of the technical debt you have accumulated.
5 Reasons to Automate Testing by Recording User Interaction
Rich Internet applications with desktop-like functionality can be very beneficial, but they pose special testing challenges. One approach is to start with a closer look at how users interact with the applications.
Five Ways to Make Test Automation Fail
Test automation promises much, but it can deliver disastrous results if implemented poorly. Laura Salazar takes a look at five common practices that can cause automation projects to fail.
Serious Acceptance Checking

Matthew Heusser goes beyond trivial examples to talk about the tradeoffs and ancillary benefits of a large-scale acceptance check automation strategy.

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Better Software Magazine

Lessons Learned from Ancient Wisdom
Lessons learned long ago from reviews and inspection can be effective today, particularly in collaboration within agile teams. Learn how an organization used review techniques as part of its agile collaboration, including the advantages and potential problems of this ancient wisdom.
Simplicity and Precision: Test Planning in Agile Projects
Test planning is often thought unnecessary in an agile project. However, if our mindset is on "planning" rather than "plans," we see that test-planning activities happen throughout the project, taking advantage of levels of precision, i.e., what is absolutely necessary at each level.
7 Core Practices of Test Automation
Software test automation has been around for a while, but it faces some specific challenges in an agile environment. Here are seven practices that will help you get the most out of your test automation within agile's short development cycles.
Increase Quality With Table-Driven Acceptance Tests

Vague or ambiguous requirements can cause loops in development processes. Creating requirements that include acceptance tests cuts down on the looping and increases the flow of working software to the customer.

That's No Reason to Automate!

Automating test execution is supposed to give tremendous benefits, but often gives disappointing results—because it hasn’t met the objectives set for it. The fault may not lie with the automation itself, but with the objectives you are attempting to achieve. Aiming at the wrong target does not bring success! For example, objectives for automation are often confused with objectives for testing, but they should be different. In this article, learn how to avoid the most insidious traps and how to recognize good objectives for automation.

What to Expect When You're Automating Testing
After learning the basics of testing frameworks, writing tests for your existing codebase can be a daunting challenge. Where should you start testing, and what kind of tests will be the most effective? Learn how to kick-start your testing and some solutions to problems teams frequently encounter.
Virtual Realities: Best Practices and Common Pitfalls of Adopting Virtual Lab Automation

Virtual Lab Automation (VLA) is a ground-breaking technology that promises quantifiable benefits for application development and test organizations, including faster lab deployment, less manual setup work, greater resource flexibility and utilization, and easier reproduction of defects. In this article, Skytap's Ian Knox discusses the best practices and common pitfalls associated with adopting a VLA solution. In addition, he outlines the steps to evaluate a virtualization solution for your test organization and provides further resources to help you get started.

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Interviews

Testing the Requirements of Collaboration: An Interview with Jeff "Cheezy" Morgan
Jeff "Cheezy" Morgan informed us in this interview that collaboration is king, and we should end the separation of development and testing, while putting everything under a single development umbrella. Jeff also looks beyond the benefits of collaboration and TDD and takes some stabs at the future.
Automating Content Creation: An Interview with Clark Malmgren

We recently had a chance to speak with Senior Engineering Manager (Applications) for Comcast Video Services, Clark Malmgren, about his role in test automation and how his experience and practices can lead to success in many areas of software testing.

Effective Test Data Design: An Interview with Rajini Padmanaban

At STARWEST 2012, Rajini Padmanaban is delivering a session titled “The Art of Designing Test Data” and she recently spoke with TechWell Editor Noel Wurst to share her knowledge on this topic.

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TechWell Stories
To Estimate or Not to Estimate—That Is the Question
Removing Waste in Software Projects
Create a Vendor Contract While Keeping Agile
How Agile Teams Use DevOps for Deployment
Build a List of Things—But Don't Call It Agile

Recommended Web Seminars

May 23 Key Principles to Mobile Performance Testing
May 29 How to Integrate Performance Testing into Agile and Hybrid Environments
Jun 11 Test Infrastructure Changes as Easy as Pressing Play
Jun 18 Adopting Agile and Moving into the Future
On Demand 7 Habits of Highly Effective Agile Teams

Featured Resources

» Skytap Automation Pack for Microsoft VS Team Foundation Server | Skytap
» An Innovative Approach to Integration Testing | IBM Rational
» Improve Quality and Decrease Time to Market with Requirements Management | PTC
» Cloud-Enabled Software Development and Testing | Skytap
» Performance Testing in the Cloud | J9 Technologies

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