Toine | Software testing, test automation & agile testing

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desk-with-robot

2019 – a year filled with ambition

Happy 2019! Is this another new years resolutions post? Let’s not call it that since those seldom stick for me (or anyone for that matter I think). This is the first year I start off as a freelancer. From what I read and hear around me, that means uncertainty, anxiety...

Jan 1

reflecting-monkey

Wrap up of a big year – 2018

Now that it is the last day of 2018 I want to reflect on the past year. Reflecting on the past year is something I have done for the past few years and I find it very valuable. It helps me to appreciate what I achieved and it also tells...

Dec 31

reading-book

#30daysoftesting – What I learnt from ‘Java for Testers’

One of the first challenges in #30daysoftesting was to pick a book related to automation in testing. I picked ‘Java for Testers by Alan Richardson‘. As I found out it was not the easiest pick. It requires a lot of work at the computer, writing tests. This is also what...

Aug 1

help-reach-higher

#30daysoftesting – if I create a test tool

#30daysoftesting day 30! Yes, the last day (although there is a bonus challenge after this which I want to take as well. If you could create any test tool, what would that tool do? The test tool I would want to create is actually not directly a test tool. Automation...

Jul 30

#30daysoftesting – Managing test data for automation

The #30daysoftesting challenge is almost complete, today is day 29 and the challenge is: Share how you manage test data in your automated checks First and foremost: Test data should be separated from your test framework. As mentioned in yesterday’s challenge where a developer on my team reviewed my automation...

Jul 29

feedback

#30daysoftesting – Reviewing automation code with a developer

Pair with a developer and review some of your existing automation. This time I checked ahead of time and actually did this challenge in time (before the weekend). Quick summary of the feedback I received (I still have to implement some of these recommendations). Don’t repeat yourself (DRY). Some tests...

Jul 28

mobile-devices

#30daysoftesting – mobile testing tool

Find, use and share your thoughts on a mobile testing tool Already on day 26 of 30 days and still going strong. A mobile testing tool. I have some prior experience with mobile testing, both with apps and mobile websites (responsive and adaptive). Mobile testing tools I use are mostly...

Jul 27

framework-libraries-tools

#30daysoftesting – Tools in my automation suite

Day 27 of #30daysoftesting: Share all the tools, frameworks and libraries currently used in your automation along with why. Tools SoapUI Postman Jenkins Framework Java based Libraries jUnit 5 – Unit testing Selenium Webdriver – Browser automation Cucumber – BDD Rest-Assured – Testing REST interfaces

Jul 26

clean-up

#30daysoftesting – Making your automation maintainable

#30daysoftesting day 25. Today’s topic: Share what actions you take to make your automation maintainable. There is actually a great thread on this on the Club of Ministry of testing, check it out here. First thing that comes to mind when it comes to maintainability of automation is separating your...

Jul 25

team-discussing

#30daysoftesting – Discuss your automation strategy with your team

Day24 of #30daysoftesting and the challenge is: Discuss your automation strategy with your team. OK, will do. Happy testing! Just kidding. Determining the automation strategy always starts with the why question which I will share with my team tomorrow 😉 In short the automation strategy has a focus on regression...

Jul 24

galen-framework

#30daysoftesting – A visual testing tool

Find, use and share your thoughts on a visual testing tool. This is the challenge for day 23 of #30daysoftesting. In previous posts I referenced SikuliX and Applitools Eyes for visual testing. For the sake of adding more value with this post I will go with another tool. It just...

Jul 23

frustration

#30daysoftesting – my biggest frustration with automation in testing

Share your biggest frustration with automation in testing! Ok, so I do not have an immediate answer to this question. I can actually say I have no real big frustrations, but for the sake of the challenge I will try. Let’s start with a list of possible top frustrations around...

Jul 22

rocket

#30daysoftesting – speed up your automated tests

Day 21, this is not an easy challenge: Try and speed up your automated checks execution time, and share what you tried First thoughts that come to mind are: Run tests concurrently to speed up the total test runtime. Run tests on a lower level (move UI to API or...

Jul 21

visualization

#30daysoftesting – Visualization of test automation

Day 20, means 2/3 into the #30daysoftestingchallenge by Ministry of Testing and Smartbear. Today’s challenge: Find a visual way of representing your automated checks e.g. a diagram, heatmap etc. Another topic I have no experience with yet apart from a recent SikuliX workshop. For this session I am going with...

Jul 20

#30daysoftesting – About testability

For day 19 of #30daysoftesting, the challenge is: Share a resource on testability along with your thoughts about the topic. As a resource I want to go with something from James Bach: http://www.satisfice.com/tools/testability.pdf I feel that this resource covers a solid amount of what testability is about. There are so many...

Jul 19

video

#30daysoftesting – useful automation in testing video

Already day 18 and today’s challenge is: Find and share a useful video about automation in testing. Let’s go with a video that is helpful early on in the automation in testing proce:. Which tests should we automate – Angie Jones To finish this post I want to share two...

Jul 18

study

#30daysoftesting – Getting started with automation in testing

New day, new challenge. Today I get to give out advice: What advice would you give to someone looking to get started with automation in testing? So you want to get started with automation in testing, that is great! There are so many ways to approach this. In my experience...

Jul 17

gold

#30daysoftesting – The most valuable piece of automation

For day 16 of #30daysoftesting, this is the challenge: Share the most valuable piece of automation being used by your team. I am going to go with all automatically generated reports. Why? Because this determines how we start our day. Is there anything that should be further investigated or delegated?...

Jul 16

devtools

#30daysoftesting – a JavaScript testing tool

This post marks 50% of #30daysoftesting done, excellent! Today’s challenge is: Find, use and share your thoughts on a JavaScript testing tool This is a tough one because honestly, I have very little JavaScript knowledge. I am going with a recommendation on Twitter for this, the Developer Tools (F12 in...

Jul 15

#30daysoftesting – Find 5 automation in testing experts to follow on Twitter

The challenge for day 14 of #30daysoftesting is one that does not warrant a long blogpost. Find 5 automation in testing experts to follow on Twitter I chose the following 5, in random order: Christin Wiedemann Michał Krzyżanowski James Whittaker Ewelina Wilkosz Alex Schladebeck I should mention that I...

Jul 14

web

#30daysoftesting – My favourite automation tool

Interesting question today in the #30daysoftesting challenge. Not something I have really given much thought until now. For me the added value of this question comes from the answers of others who are taking this challenge. Anyway, the challenge (or question) of the day is: Share your favourite automation tool...

Jul 13

thinking

#30daysoftesting – Read and share an interesting blog on Automation

New day, new challenge. Today I get to share some joy: Read and share an interesting blog on Automation In the past couple of days I have already linked various interesting blogs. I want to share a blog I only recently discovered and more specifically I will link an article...

Jul 12

#30daysoftesting – Compare and contrast mocking, stubbing and faking

The first topic in the #30daysoftesting challenge that I know very little about is today’s topic. Compare and contrast mocking, stubbing and faking. Since I take this #30daysoftesting challenge with the purpose of learning, it is OK that I know so little about some topics. I was happy to read...

Jul 11

eraser

#30daysoftesting – Delete an automated check

This challenge just keeps flying by. I cannot believe it is 10 days already. Today’s task: Delete an automated check from your current checks and share why you chose the one you deleted. As they say, ‘less is more’. So let’s apply that to the suite of automated checks. These...

Jul 10

rest_assured

#30daysoftesting – An API testing tool

Testing API’s is something I have done with SoapUI, Postman and Rest-Assured. Out of these 3 I am least experienced with Rest-Assured. Since I already used Rest-Assured for yesterday’s #30daysoftesting challenge I want to expand on that a little bit for today’s challenge, let’s call that ‘efficiency’. Anyway, the challenge...

Jul 9

demo-automation-code

#30daysoftesting – demo your automation code

Today’s #30daysoftesting challenge is more time consuming than some of the previous challenges. Also for me this challenge is on a Sunday which means I cannot demo it immediately. That will have to wait a few days. I can however prepare everything I want to demo and share a blogpost...

Jul 8

idea

#30daysoftesting – choosing your test tools

It is weekend, but the #30daysoftesting challenge goes on! Today is day 7: How do you choose which tools to use in your testing? Interesting question and I am sure there are many different opinions! Looking at different testing projects I often see job descriptions that specify a specific tool...

Jul 7

teamwork

#30daysoftesting – Team skills to succeed with automation in testing.

I am genuinely enjoying myself with the #30daysoftesting challenge. Today is day 6 and today’s task is: Share what skills a team needs to succeed with automation in testing Let’s keep this post short. In random order I think the following team skills are important to succeed with automation in...

Jul 6

workshop

Testnet Summer Workshops

July 4th I participated in 3 different workshops at the Testnet Summer Workshops event. I previously shared a blogpost about attending the event. In this post I will give you a brief overview of the 3 workshops and the tools they revolved around. CI/CD Pipeline with Jenkins and automated...

Jul 5

#30daysoftesting – A web UI testing tool

Day 5 of #30daysoftesting today and the task is: Find, use and share your thoughts on a web UI testing tool I am going to go the unoriginal route and pick the following stack: Selenium Webdriver, jUnit & Cucumber. Only Cucumber is a new tool for me here, so that...

Jul 5

cleaning

#30daysoftesting – What type of testing can benefit from automation

Already day 4 of 30 days of automation in testing, time flies when you are having fun! What types of testing can automation support you with? Share an example. In my humble opinion it can be used with any type of testing. If you consider automation to be any use...

Jul 4

cents

#30daysoftesting – Contribute to the automation thread on The Club

Today’s task in #30daysoftesting: Explore the automation thread on The Club and contribute to the conversation. I decided to respond on the ‘evergreen’ question ‘Manual tester looking to move into automation – help required!‘ My response to the thread is below: For the sake of adding more value to this...

Jul 3

stack of books

#30daysoftesting – Read an automation related book

Begin reading an automation related book and share something you’ve learnt by day 30. This is the task for today for the #30daysoftesting challenge. Luckily I kept a (short) list of ‘books to read’. I’ll pick one of the following books to read this month: Experiences of test automation –...

Jul 2

dictionary

#30daysoftesting – Definitions of ‘automation’ vs ‘test automation’

Day one of the #30daysoftesting challenge is today! A fairly simple start, to grow into the challenge I guess. Let’s put in some genuine effort regardless. The day 1 challenge is as follows: Look up some definitions for ‘Automation’, compare them against definitions for ‘Test Automation’. A search engine and...

Jul 1

30 days of automation in testing

Hooray, another 30 days of testing event by ministryoftesting.com is coming up! I have never actually fully done any of their 30 days of testing sessions. This seems like a great time to join in on the fun, especially since it is about automation in testing this time. (I really...

Jun 29

workshop

Testnet summer workshops

Next week on July 4th the Testnet summer workshops take place in Nieuwegein, the Netherlands. With a varied programme of industry experts it looks to be a promising event. After having missed some interesting events earlier this year due to holidays (test automation day being the main one) I am...

Jun 27

freelance life

From today onwards I am a freelance software tester

I am very excited to announce that from today I work as a freelance software tester. After nearly ten years at various companies, I am ready to take this next step. This adventure was not planned carefully, it just ‘happened’. It came down to being ready for it, motivation, freelance...

Apr 12

operators_java

Learning Java operators

After completing my previous lecture on Java collections, I had time left to also watch the lecture on Java operators. I have been at this ‘learning’ Java thing for a little while now. Operators do not intimidate me (anymore). < > != == && || and some more, are things...

Nov 6

lists

Learning Java collections

Currently working through some lectures on collections in Java. Definitely not the easiest subject in my opinion and apparently also an important subject for programming in general. The interfaces for collections that are discussed are: (in brackets the possible implementations that are discussed in the course) List (f.e. ArrayList...

Nov 2

Tell me your (user) story

As a software tester you need enough information to be able to design your tests and to verify whether the outcome is correct. One of the sources to use for this are, of course, user stories. There are many rules, best practices and principles on how a user story should...

Sep 5

Podcasts for software testers

If you spend a fair amount of your time on the road, traveling to and from work, you can make great use of that time by listening to podcasts. I do not always feel like listening to the radio or Spotify. At these times a podcast is a great alternative....

Aug 30

Leergang Future Proof Testing – Polteq

Dit artikel heb ik samen met mijn collega Tineke Dannenberg geschreven naar aanleiding van de kick-off van de Future Proof Testing leergang bij Polteq. Dit artikel is eerder verschenen op het Polteq blog. “Elke reis begint met een eerste stap” – Lao Tse Dinsdag 9 mei jl. vond de kick-off...

Lees dit artikel op de Polteq website

May 16

Certified Agile Tester

In November and December 2016 I followed a training to prepare myself for the Certified Agile Tester (CAT) exam from iSQI. My motivation to take the training and taking the exam is to improve my testing work in agile teams so I can add more value. What sets this training...

Jan 3

Hello world!

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start writing! Congratulations, you just witnessed a miracle. I actually wrote and published a post on here! After years of thinking about starting a blog it is finally here. Topics I intend to write about on here...

Jan 1