Automation Awesomeness: 260 Actionable Affirmations to Improve Testing Skills

Video Transcript

0:00:03.607,0:00:11.597

We are in the home stretch here. So we have a final keynote from

0:00:11.597,0:00:15.008

Joe Colantonio over at Test Guild, I know his name has

0:00:15.008,0:00:18.027

come up a little in some earlier sessions today. And

0:00:18.028,0:00:21.677

Think I’ve saw him poking around the the chat as well. So

0:00:21.677,0:00:26.467

I’m gonna play him in right now, and then we will have some live q and a at the end. So

0:00:26.467,0:00:30.337

feel free to be active in the chat, dropping in questions as they come. And

0:00:30.337,0:00:31.087

the chart

0:00:31.087,0:00:34.628

check you guys in about twenty six minutes, I believe.

0:00:54.888,0:00:59.117

Hey, well, it’s my session.

0:00:59.117,0:01:02.367

Today, I wanna share with you some of the insights I’ve learned

0:01:02.367,0:01:04.267

from writing my latest book,

0:01:04.268,0:01:08.128

automation Au two hundred sixty actionable actual affirmations

0:01:08.128,0:01:11.308

to improve your Qa and automation testing skills.

0:01:11.308,0:01:12.077

So

0:01:12.077,0:01:15.217

in this session, I’m gonna share with you some of the frameworks based on

0:01:15.217,0:01:17.477

insights for some of the smartest

0:01:17.477,0:01:18.797

and end testers

0:01:18.798,0:01:23.767

including folks from Covid, I’ve had the privileged interview on my test podcast.

0:01:23.768,0:01:28.187

And for those that don’t know, I’m Joe Founder of Test skilled, which is an online,

0:01:28.187,0:01:33.127

education platform dedicated to helping testers, succeed with all things

0:01:33.128,0:01:35.157

automation, testing related

0:01:35.158,0:01:39.138

Also four years ago, I decided to sell Everything I had Rhode Island,

0:01:39.138,0:01:41.187

and stop fresh on a hobby farm

0:01:41.187,0:01:42.407

and east Tennessee.

0:01:42.408,0:01:45.428

So to make things fundamental, I want to do some of the concepts

0:01:45.428,0:01:48.657

based on this book and what I’d learned from Hobby farming,

0:01:48.658,0:01:53.628

to some key concepts that can help you with your animation in your Career as software testers.

0:01:53.878,0:01:56.657

But first, a special message by my Ka Bowie.

0:01:58.558,0:02:00.697

More about him later.

0:02:00.697,0:02:03.747

So this is one of my favorite quotes of all time from my pod

0:02:03.747,0:02:07.217

cast that is, nothing is more soul crushing. The haven’t

0:02:07.217,0:02:10.597

suite that is all over the place and just randomly fails.

0:02:10.597,0:02:12.747

Anyone else, here a feel that way.

0:02:12.747,0:02:14.967

Be honest. I know I have.

0:02:14.967,0:02:19.158

So I wanna share with you a framework. I think is gonna help you feel this

0:02:19.158,0:02:23.267

less often And this groundbreaking and framework is called?

0:02:23.267,0:02:25.697

The pig’s framework

0:02:25.697,0:02:27.367

So we’re gonna break down each

0:02:27.368,0:02:29.278

of these areas of the framework?

0:02:29.278,0:02:33.557

So in the first phase of the pig’s framework, think about the goats

0:02:33.558,0:02:37.717

method And the goat method is getting the whole team involved.

0:02:37.717,0:02:42.298

Operational a framework, anticipating and setting expectations,

0:02:42.298,0:02:45.207

test ability and selecting the right tools.

0:02:45.207,0:02:48.227

A common theme throughout many of my interviews on the

0:02:48.227,0:02:52.558

automation and in the book is all around this whole team approach.

0:02:52.558,0:02:57.058

And The quote that probably sums it up best is by Lisa Crisp that says,

0:02:57.058,0:03:00.437

in episode two eighteen that we need a whole team

0:03:00.438,0:03:03.148

we need diverse skill sets and a perspective,

0:03:03.148,0:03:04.707

we need to work together.

0:03:04.707,0:03:09.618

And it sounds simple, but this is one of the hardest things I’ve seen over my twenty five year career as well.

0:03:09.618,0:03:14.418

Is getting the whole team evolve, not just saying this person’s involved for testing neuro animation.

0:03:14.418,0:03:16.987

Again the whole team to take responsibility

0:03:16.987,0:03:21.277

four all aspects of software development with testing being

0:03:21.277,0:03:22.897

of the most critical pieces.

0:03:22.898,0:03:26.967

And so once you have your whole team on board, you wanna stop getting them involved with

0:03:26.967,0:03:30.107

planning the high level part of what your framework is gonna be.

0:03:30.108,0:03:33.697

And this isn’t necessarily the nitty gritty of the tooling yet,

0:03:33.697,0:03:38.668

it’s more the principles of who’s gonna be involved. What the process is gonna look like

0:03:38.668,0:03:42.707

who’s gonna be responsible for remediation if the test fails,

0:03:42.707,0:03:47.138

what teams will be involved, what the expectations are. And I think who measure says it best when

0:03:47.138,0:03:50.247

starting or defining a framework, you should set up some guiding

0:03:50.247,0:03:51.957

principles of

0:03:51.957,0:03:53.707

what it’s all gonna look like

0:03:53.707,0:03:56.737

when Automation is finally implemented.

0:03:56.737,0:04:00.088

Hey, do you know that chickens also make great testers? Why?

0:04:00.088,0:04:04.638

Because they always find bugs. Another quote that summarizes a key

0:04:04.638,0:04:09.427

piece of advice, I would recommend to anyone. It’s a get you boss to invest in

0:04:09.428,0:04:14.007

having an automation architect. So this is someone that sits outside of maybe your Sprint

0:04:14.007,0:04:18.977

teams that doesn’t necessarily do all the automation, but they’re the ones that drive the initiatives

0:04:18.977,0:04:21.407

they look at your teams, they see what

0:04:21.408,0:04:25.957

Each team needs if they need education, they need the right tooling, what that tool looks like,

0:04:25.957,0:04:28.977

And also the processes and best practices

0:04:28.977,0:04:33.948

that’s gonna fit for your team, having an automation architect that drives that from the top.

0:04:33.948,0:04:37.257

To all the teams really is beneficial rather than having

0:04:37.257,0:04:40.847

say, eight sprint teams and each team doing their all their own thing.

0:04:40.848,0:04:44.257

You are the one have a high level architect that is driving the vision

0:04:44.257,0:04:48.358

for what the effort is it gonna look like and kind managing it from the top,

0:04:48.358,0:04:50.957

to make sure everyone’s on board and that

0:04:50.957,0:04:53.057

Any roadblocks, any team member

0:04:53.058,0:04:59.567

Faces is addressed and brought to the tops of the automation architect can work it out with everyone.

0:04:59.567,0:05:02.277

To make sure automation thrive in your environment.

0:05:02.277,0:05:05.567

So here’s my wife’s Shale. So in a hobby ph, you really need

0:05:05.567,0:05:08.307

someone one that knows all the animals, what their needs are, the

0:05:08.308,0:05:12.367

That can tell you, here’s the food they should be fed. This is when they should be fed.

0:05:12.368,0:05:16.467

Is how you clean up all the stalls. This is when they need their shot,

0:05:16.467,0:05:20.747

and what without my wife, this would not happen. So she’s pretty much the

0:05:20.747,0:05:25.658

architect of the farm. She doesn’t necessarily do all the work, She will delegate to myself.

0:05:25.658,0:05:29.788

But I go to her and know what the best practices are, What I should be doing

0:05:29.788,0:05:33.157

to make sure all the animals need to being met.

0:05:33.158,0:05:36.388

And this is one thing that drives me nuts and where I see a lot of teams fail.

0:05:36.388,0:05:41.358

If they try to build their own frameworks, their own solutions rather than looking to

0:05:41.358,0:05:45.247

see a vendor based tool that already has it packaged and ready for them to go.

0:05:45.247,0:05:48.628

Especially if you have team full of testers, not necessarily developers.

0:05:48.628,0:05:52.608

Even if you have developers, they don’t necessarily know how to create a framework that’s gonna be

0:05:52.608,0:05:54.717

successful to help you with automation.

0:05:54.717,0:05:58.128

And this is one thing a lot of studies show as well is that building,

0:05:58.128,0:06:00.138

a custom testing solution,

0:06:00.138,0:06:03.457

Is labor intensive and the world quality report

0:06:03.457,0:06:06.717

suggest sixty three percent of companies struggle to

0:06:06.717,0:06:09.967

quantify their return on investment due to this. So

0:06:09.967,0:06:14.007

don’t spend your time, developing tools, look to solutions,

0:06:14.007,0:06:18.858

does have to be a vendor base. It could be an open trust solution that already is built and ready to go

0:06:18.858,0:06:23.627

for you. Another key aspect of making automation successful in your organization

0:06:23.628,0:06:25.317

is test ability.

0:06:25.317,0:06:30.288

But the problem is if your software is not designed from the beginning to be both test

0:06:30.288,0:06:33.638

or. If the developers is aren’t I’m thinking about test ability

0:06:33.638,0:06:35.617

the beginning when the writing the code,

0:06:35.618,0:06:40.587

So you really need developers from the beginning to have this mindset of how can Make this test?

0:06:40.587,0:06:44.967

How can I make this auto automated? Can I create a unique Id that’s gonna make it easier

0:06:44.967,0:06:48.317

to automate later on? Is there an Api I can expose

0:06:48.317,0:06:53.138

to my testers to make it so they can quickly populate data, Get things and the right

0:06:53.138,0:06:57.957

state before they have to automate it to make automation quicker and faster, and more scalable

0:06:57.957,0:07:01.247

Developers need to be thinking about that while they’re writing the code,

0:07:01.247,0:07:04.638

from the requirement, so that when it finally gets to a tester,

0:07:04.638,0:07:08.717

an automation engineer that it’s already built into b test

0:07:08.717,0:07:11.388

auto. I can’t highlight this enough

0:07:11.388,0:07:14.407

this is something key to any successful

0:07:14.408,0:07:17.477

a project and hopefully, you’ll pay attention to this as well.

0:07:17.477,0:07:22.237

Some other key advice, I’ve heard over and over again from my guest on the podcast don’t jump

0:07:22.237,0:07:25.017

to selecting an automation solution right away.

0:07:25.017,0:07:29.467

Consider which solution can bring the most robustness and automation, given the speed

0:07:29.467,0:07:32.547

that aligns with your goals and your team needs.

0:07:32.547,0:07:37.337

So I always get asked Joe, What’s the best automation tool I should use? Is a vendor? Is it open source?

0:07:37.337,0:07:39.938

Answer is always different because each team

0:07:39.938,0:07:44.027

and each technology stack is completely different from one another

0:07:44.027,0:07:46.987

So where Selena may be a great fit from one team,

0:07:46.987,0:07:50.337

may not be a great fit for another. So if you have, like, more developers,

0:07:50.337,0:07:55.308

that are doing automation that java front end developers, maybe Cypress is a better choice for them.

0:07:55.308,0:07:56.987

If we have more testers

0:07:56.987,0:08:01.567

that have java experience, maybe s with the java binding is the best.

0:08:01.567,0:08:06.477

Maybe have Python developers and maybe using Pie test is the better approach.

0:08:06.477,0:08:08.987

You really need to look at your tech stack

0:08:08.987,0:08:12.937

and your team skills before you decide on a tool. In our

0:08:12.938,0:08:17.418

all this information applies all types of automation frameworks, including

0:08:17.418,0:08:19.418

mobile app testing frameworks,

0:08:19.418,0:08:22.337

And since this is the mobile testing experience summit,

0:08:22.337,0:08:23.067

His

0:08:23.067,0:08:26.717

a piece of advice that applies to frameworks for mobile testing as well.

0:08:26.717,0:08:30.427

By Shannon Lee from Cob. When she said it’s critical to

0:08:30.428,0:08:33.118

choose a mobile app testing framework based on

0:08:33.118,0:08:36.188

your unique needs, and apps, key aspects,

0:08:36.188,0:08:39.217

including its performance on ios any android.

0:08:39.217,0:08:43.957

All frameworks except pros and cons, native frameworks like Ui test and Espresso,

0:08:43.957,0:08:47.727

a fast but can be unstable and challenging to maintain.

0:08:47.728,0:08:50.747

App is ideal for cross platform testing but it

0:08:50.747,0:08:53.198

tends to be slower the need of options.

0:08:53.198,0:08:57.698

You wanna evaluate the pros and cons of bulk types to make an informed decision.

0:08:57.698,0:09:02.667

Okay. So here’s an example of what happened when we didn’t think the raw plans and we said yes,

0:09:02.908,0:09:04.257

to adopting a calf

0:09:04.257,0:09:07.448

that is similar to a team jumping at selecting the tool

0:09:07.448,0:09:10.497

a process before really thinking it through. So

0:09:10.497,0:09:15.328

a few years ago, we adopted a cath named. Her mother had rejected her and the farmer

0:09:15.328,0:09:19.757

was moving and had to sell all his cows? So we asked us, hey, do you wanna adapt her?

0:09:19.757,0:09:23.237

Fortunately, without thinking, my wife and I said immediately

0:09:23.238,0:09:26.747

Yes. Keep in mind, neither of us were raised on a farm.

0:09:26.747,0:09:28.328

Both grew up in a city,

0:09:28.328,0:09:31.598

and we had no idea what taken care of a cow would involve.

0:09:31.598,0:09:33.687

But we fell in love with this calf.

0:09:33.688,0:09:37.078

We fed it with the bottle. We built our makeshift stall.

0:09:37.078,0:09:39.018

B was q intelligent,

0:09:39.018,0:09:42.627

And we sometimes wondered if she believed herself to be a dog rather than a cow.

0:09:42.627,0:09:47.537

She loved kids. Time Nephew you and niece would visit, people would run up to them excited.

0:09:47.538,0:09:49.618

It wants to play with them to everyone’s amusement.

0:09:49.618,0:09:52.358

The problem was Beaches grew.

0:09:57.418,0:09:58.977

How did you gonna fear?

0:10:01.607,0:10:07.787

In grew andrew. The once cute playful us turned dangerous as b’s weight

0:10:07.788,0:10:09.757

shot up to about five hundred pounds.

0:10:09.757,0:10:11.857

Especially to my young niece nephew,

0:10:11.857,0:10:13.768

a five hundred pound cow was trying to

0:10:13.768,0:10:14.667

Play with them.

0:10:14.668,0:10:19.148

Didn’t try a problem because we never plan to get livestock. I property wasn’t fully fence.

0:10:19.148,0:10:23.667

This became an open invitation for b to occasionally wander off our property

0:10:23.668,0:10:26.688

into the streets and really become a nuisance to our neighbors.

0:10:26.688,0:10:30.167

Never still say, oh, you’re the couple to have the pet cow.

0:10:30.168,0:10:31.787

So as she green?

0:10:31.788,0:10:34.418

Hurting her back home became more and more difficult.

0:10:34.418,0:10:37.047

So faced with these challenges, we had a tough decision.

0:10:37.047,0:10:39.198

It was clear, we’d lacked

0:10:39.198,0:10:41.927

the infrastructure to accommodate a full grown cow.

0:10:41.928,0:10:44.737

Selling b was out of the question. She was a pet.

0:10:44.738,0:10:49.227

And not destined into the slaughter house for someone to eat. Luckily, we found a rancher seeking

0:10:49.228,0:10:52.668

kyle for breeding with his bowls, and he promised not eat

0:10:52.668,0:10:53.857

and we seed

0:10:53.857,0:10:57.178

comforted by the thought that she would have a fitting home.

0:10:57.178,0:11:00.917

So what does this have to do with the automation? Well, as I mentioned, the point is

0:11:00.918,0:11:02.977

be careful before choosing a tool.

0:11:02.978,0:11:06.808

We chose an animal for our farm without looking at our situation

0:11:06.808,0:11:10.507

or even seeing if it actually made sense for us to have a cow.

0:11:10.507,0:11:15.307

So the next phase is the initiate phase. So when you

0:11:15.308,0:11:20.797

initiate, think tractor So when it comes to test selection criteria,

0:11:20.797,0:11:23.317

are the two things you should focus on first,

0:11:23.317,0:11:27.658

risk and money. So you focus your automation efforts on the

0:11:27.658,0:11:31.098

pod your application that if they were to fail, would cause your

0:11:31.098,0:11:34.957

customer harm or would cause loss in business

0:11:34.958,0:11:38.787

a loss of money. So those are the areas you wanna focus in on.

0:11:38.788,0:11:42.398

A lot of times I know it was a red flags when I talk to a team, they said, we have

0:11:42.398,0:11:45.857

twenty thousand millennium tests. Right?

0:11:45.857,0:11:50.188

And you look at them and they’re all testing pretty much the same thing.

0:11:50.188,0:11:52.908

They not tied to risk and money.

0:11:52.908,0:11:56.848

You’re not focusing on the areas of the application that a risk based,

0:11:56.848,0:12:00.087

all the areas that make your company money within the application,

0:12:00.087,0:12:03.247

The your animation testing effort is not gonna be successful.

0:12:03.247,0:12:06.497

So why is that a red flag? Of when I speak to someone? They they totally have

0:12:06.497,0:12:08.307

ten thousand s tests.

0:12:08.308,0:12:13.107

And I know they’re not focusing on the risk in the money areas of their application,

0:12:13.107,0:12:14.727

Quick story.

0:12:14.728,0:12:19.418

Few years ago, I thought, hey, it’d be a good idea to get my wife, a egg incubator.

0:12:19.418,0:12:22.388

And what do you they happened with this

0:12:22.388,0:12:25.468

You’re probably right.

0:12:25.468,0:12:29.867

She went on a duck hatching frenzy. It’s just like automation testing. Sometimes

0:12:29.868,0:12:31.047

people get a tool,

0:12:31.047,0:12:34.158

and they start off with one, and then they go

0:12:34.158,0:12:36.517

crazy, just trying to automate everything.

0:12:36.518,0:12:38.697

Without even looking at is this adding

0:12:38.698,0:12:43.667

the company value. If this test fails, is it really giving me a signal that something is wrong.

0:12:58.921,0:13:01.651

Animal on the farm. Their pen

0:13:01.651,0:13:03.711

is nasty, hard to clean,

0:13:03.711,0:13:07.221

just like test when you have too many of them too many automation tests,

0:13:07.221,0:13:10.021

it turns into a maintenance nightmare.

0:13:10.021,0:13:12.881

So you wanna avoid this as much as possible.

0:13:12.882,0:13:17.122

Just like the docs the same thing with automation to test, the more tests

0:13:17.122,0:13:19.931

The more code, the more maintenance,

0:13:19.931,0:13:24.541

So this is one of the only ducks that was ever born in the wild. My wife hatch

0:13:24.541,0:13:25.951

every other one of them.

0:13:25.951,0:13:29.961

And like the picture, kinda demonstrates you want also keep you a test

0:13:29.961,0:13:32.611

as atomic test as small as possible.

0:13:32.901,0:13:35.431

And that this also goes to kinda like the

0:13:35.431,0:13:37.091

know it’s overdo, but the

0:13:37.092,0:13:38.461

test pyramid,

0:13:38.461,0:13:42.191

A majority of your test you wanna make them to be unit tests, which is smaller,

0:13:42.191,0:13:45.781

And then only once you say, okay, we can’t test this at the unit level, let’s

0:13:45.781,0:13:47.761

go at an integration test.

0:13:47.761,0:13:49.271

Gets a little bit bigger.

0:13:49.271,0:13:52.661

You say, okay, can I cover this with an integration test?

0:13:52.661,0:13:57.631

If so stop there, if you can’t then move on to the higher level

0:13:57.632,0:14:02.261

and end test flow. You’re not gonna get rid of all and end test You need end end test.

0:14:02.261,0:14:04.771

But if you can handle At a lower level,

0:14:04.771,0:14:08.211

at a smaller type of test, or quicker test, you should go with that.

0:14:08.211,0:14:12.201

Before you develop a full blown end to end automation test for.

0:14:12.201,0:14:16.901

And once again I hear this on my podcast all the time You want to make sure you test our

0:14:16.901,0:14:21.822

time meaning they’re independent and do have any dependencies and other tests

0:14:21.822,0:14:23.572

wanna write tests at atomic,

0:14:23.572,0:14:28.542

simple and fast. You wanna make your test as independent as possible. So no matter where you run it

0:14:28.542,0:14:33.061

what environment it’s self contained it can run on its own because it is

0:14:33.062,0:14:34.852

designed to be resilient.

0:14:34.852,0:14:36.251

Another thing that gets

0:14:36.251,0:14:40.401

testers in trouble when creating automated tests, especially if we’re I hear on.

0:14:40.401,0:14:43.891

A lot of guests on my show, a is two usage.

0:14:43.891,0:14:48.832

You wanna use the right tool for the right job. So if you need to do a full blown performance

0:14:48.832,0:14:52.091

testing effort. I would not use s millennium

0:14:52.092,0:14:55.761

I probably would use more of an enterprise testing performance solution.

0:14:55.761,0:14:58.342

Or a lot of times, they’ll I’ll use a functional tool

0:14:58.342,0:15:02.602

to populate data rather than using an Api testing tool to populate

0:15:02.602,0:15:07.301

So anytime you’re writing a test, make sure Also using the right tool at the right layer

0:15:07.301,0:15:11.281

So if it’s an Api call that can get the job done. Don’t use s to do it.

0:15:11.281,0:15:16.061

Use something like rest assured, a postman or something that was meant to do Api testing.

0:15:16.062,0:15:19.531

So one of the reason why we chose the sheep, this is Dahlia and Dutch

0:15:19.531,0:15:22.711

because the cat dean sheep and this particular type of sheep

0:15:22.711,0:15:27.181

don’t need to be shared. So they just rub up against trees and therefore

0:15:27.181,0:15:29.931

comes off automatically. So we

0:15:29.931,0:15:33.221

Built off from to be as maintain as possible, self may

0:15:33.221,0:15:37.501

eighteen as possible so that we don’t have to do this ourselves that it’s built into the farm

0:15:37.501,0:15:42.411

Same with the test you want make them as maintain as possible and built maintain ability into your framework

0:15:42.411,0:15:43.821

as much as possible as well.

0:15:43.822,0:15:48.701

And so another way to do that is to narrow the scope of what you’re trying to test, you want to divide things up as much

0:15:48.701,0:15:50.851

you can, this

0:15:50.852,0:15:53.882

this is one of things that allow you to have more maintain tests.

0:15:53.882,0:15:55.721

As a quote from Kevin Lamp?

0:15:55.721,0:15:58.741

Some other advice that a lot of people have told me is v things like

0:15:58.741,0:16:02.461

page objects, or screen play patterns of all the type of patterns,

0:16:02.461,0:16:05.251

figure out what those are and start using them.

0:16:05.251,0:16:09.171

They’ll make a test immensely better and more readable and more maintain.

0:16:09.171,0:16:13.541

Another way to make your test more maintain is making them as readable as

0:16:13.542,0:16:19.501

possible And this is one of the most overlooked parts of automation I think is readability. I think it’s

0:16:19.501,0:16:20.181

huge

0:16:20.181,0:16:24.342

a lot of people on my show have mentioned it as well. This is from Corey H who said,

0:16:24.342,0:16:27.711

he had great device that when you writing code right for the reader mind.

0:16:27.711,0:16:31.301

Don’t your code for the computer write your code for your coworkers workers,

0:16:31.301,0:16:35.551

Also, I’ve noticed in my career that I spend most of my time, not writing tests

0:16:35.551,0:16:39.171

but maintain and test, troubleshooting tests to debugging test.

0:16:39.171,0:16:42.231

And one way to help speed that up is to make them more

0:16:42.231,0:16:42.971

readable, readable

0:16:42.971,0:16:44.611

So this might be controversial.

0:16:44.612,0:16:48.231

You probably heard it a lot. Hey, automation code is software development.

0:16:48.231,0:16:49.371

And that’s true.

0:16:49.372,0:16:52.612

But you have to keep in mind it’s not production code.

0:16:52.612,0:16:55.921

There’s a big difference. The way you design production code

0:16:55.921,0:17:00.082

is completely different than the way you would design on animation code. You wanna do the best

0:17:00.082,0:17:03.132

practice. You wanna make sure you’re making things as readable as

0:17:03.132,0:17:06.211

But you don’t have to do over engineer your animation

0:17:06.212,0:17:08.331

way you have to do with production code.

0:17:08.331,0:17:12.611

And Ramona really highlighted this in one of the podcasts when she mentioned herself that

0:17:12.612,0:17:17.051

Test code is a production code. Yet it holds equal value, not seeing a does,

0:17:17.051,0:17:21.982

However, Conventions like don’t repeat yourself principles, and not always,

0:17:21.982,0:17:23.971

suited for test code,

0:17:23.971,0:17:27.501

and also over abstraction can really compromise readability.

0:17:27.502,0:17:29.422

So you wanna aim for clarity,

0:17:29.422,0:17:31.941

not over engineering, your automation test.

0:17:31.942,0:17:34.962

Also when you’re running a task here four key areas to fall

0:17:34.962,0:17:38.221

These are the four big causes for failures. The first

0:17:38.221,0:17:43.192

is not having a good strategy. The second one is not understanding synchronization.

0:17:43.192,0:17:47.551

The third is Test data, not having the proper test date of your test,

0:17:47.551,0:17:50.661

and environments not having the right environments to run your test.

0:17:50.661,0:17:55.071

Another piece of great advice I got was from Jonathan. Right? I’m one of my podcasts and he

0:17:55.071,0:17:58.001

rolled out what he called an automation scorecard,

0:17:58.002,0:18:01.471

and this is how you could tell how you’re doing with your automation.

0:18:01.471,0:18:03.712

To check whether is it maintain?

0:18:03.712,0:18:07.241

Is a irrelevant to the business? Does have clear trace ability?

0:18:07.241,0:18:10.291

Is a reusable, is a manageable and scalable.

0:18:10.292,0:18:12.652

And can it be accessed across the company?

0:18:12.652,0:18:18.051

Don’t have time to go over this automation scorecard card, but to make it easier, what I did is I created a free,

0:18:18.051,0:18:22.062

calculator it for you to actually calculate how well you’re doing

0:18:22.062,0:18:27.031

And what areas you may help with is along with tips All you need to do is go to test skill dot com.

0:18:27.031,0:18:31.551

Go to tools and then click on that automation score quiz, and this will walk you through each area of the

0:18:31.551,0:18:35.051

scorecard, rate yourself and at the end, you’ll get a score that you can

0:18:35.051,0:18:40.022

monitor over time to see if you’re getting better and also tips on how to achieve a better

0:18:40.022,0:18:42.261

score based on how you answered

0:18:42.261,0:18:44.342

each of these particular areas.

0:18:44.342,0:18:49.312

Alright. So let’s dive into the third stage, which is the donkey method

0:18:49.312,0:18:52.621

which we’re gonna go over each of these areas as well to help you test

0:18:52.621,0:18:54.581

with the execution piece,

0:18:54.581,0:18:59.551

So you really wanna make your test so the almost act like safety nets. So when a developer

0:18:59.551,0:19:02.051

checks and code. They have confidence to know that pe

0:19:02.051,0:19:07.022

If the test fails, it’s failing for a real reason and that they better look at the code that they checked in and

0:19:07.022,0:19:08.902

fix it before it actually picks

0:19:08.902,0:19:11.231

gets committed to production,

0:19:11.232,0:19:15.181

developers don’t have this confidence if justice don’t have this confidence then

0:19:15.181,0:19:17.342

This is something do you need to look at?

0:19:17.342,0:19:20.481

Here’s a quick example. I know beginning the last year.

0:19:20.482,0:19:24.982

There was a run on eggs. Prices soared sixty percent.

0:19:24.982,0:19:29.351

We have a bunch of chickens that free range, and we get eggs every morning.

0:19:29.351,0:19:34.152

So while this was going on and people were complaining, all I had to do is, walk out my jaw grab an egg.

0:19:34.152,0:19:35.691

And then cricket it because

0:19:35.991,0:19:38.621

basically, these chickens act like a safety net,

0:19:38.621,0:19:42.291

if we ever have a shortage, I don’t have to worry about it.

0:19:42.292,0:19:46.391

Because I have a plan in place and that they’re giving me good value

0:19:46.391,0:19:49.681

they’re give them good results. Same we attest, they should be giving you

0:19:49.681,0:19:53.871

and a feeling of safety that if something fails, they’re failing for a real reason.

0:19:53.871,0:19:56.981

You also wanna to observe and listen to your test

0:19:56.982,0:19:59.831

If something fails, that you pay attention to it.

0:19:59.831,0:20:03.962

For some reason, you have a test that’s filling all the time and everyone ignores it, I would just delete it.

0:20:03.962,0:20:07.551

Because obviously, it’s not adding value. Your test should be

0:20:07.551,0:20:11.081

adding value so that when they feel of they’re flaky,

0:20:11.081,0:20:15.451

You go oh, let me look into that because probably is highlighting a real issue.

0:20:15.451,0:20:20.531

So Don’t know if you ever seen an a pack, anytime in A pack is nervous they’ll start humming.

0:20:20.531,0:20:25.431

And I always listen and go, okay, there’s something going on, that’s making them nervous or

0:20:25.431,0:20:30.491

These are Guinea falls and Guinea falls when they’re in the yard with the chickens,

0:20:30.491,0:20:34.771

Time they see a hawk or fox or something, they start making the loudest

0:20:34.772,0:20:38.212

noise in the world and the chickens will stop getting cover and hiding.

0:20:38.212,0:20:42.402

The chickens didn’t listen to the guinness, these chickens probably allow of them would die

0:20:42.402,0:20:46.131

due to a predator. But because they’re listening to their guinea files,

0:20:46.131,0:20:49.861

They’re actually taken the alarm or they’re taking it seriously.

0:20:49.861,0:20:54.121

They’re saving their life, same with test when a test fails, they need to be

0:20:54.121,0:20:59.091

Enough confidence in them to let your developers and your testers take them seriously. So

0:20:59.091,0:21:00.861

listen your test with they fail,

0:21:00.861,0:21:05.321

And that’s is one indicator whether or not your test really adding value that if they do feel

0:21:05.321,0:21:10.161

everyone does listen because they know they’re adding real value and that something is probably really wrong.

0:21:10.511,0:21:14.591

Another area of the execution phase, a lot of people miss out on is the

0:21:14.591,0:21:19.431

ability to include non functional tests with your automation suite

0:21:19.431,0:21:21.431

and a lot of times feel just focused on

0:21:21.431,0:21:24.721

extreme end end functional test, and that’s great. But

0:21:24.721,0:21:28.641

you’re missing out on probably sixty percent of the value of other types

0:21:28.641,0:21:32.511

a touch you should be running, like performance testing, security testing.

0:21:32.511,0:21:36.131

Accessibility testing, resilience testing, chaos engineering.

0:21:36.131,0:21:39.901

All these other tests, you should be including in your test suites as well.

0:21:39.902,0:21:44.721

And a lot of companies now are coming with solutions that actually leverage some of your

0:21:44.721,0:21:47.831

Ui test to add some extra functionality

0:21:47.831,0:21:50.851

so that it’s a functional test, but it also can give you some

0:21:50.851,0:21:52.871

performance data. It can use

0:21:52.871,0:21:56.581

you can use that to give you some security information. You can use that to give you

0:21:56.581,0:21:59.051

some performance test, information,

0:21:59.051,0:22:01.491

also wanna have some way to measure your team

0:22:01.491,0:22:06.461

not something is arbitrary or something that’s like, ninety percent automation. Something ridiculous like that.

0:22:06.461,0:22:11.081

You need the measurements to demonstrate the right things your organization.

0:22:11.081,0:22:15.121

So all organizations have different metrics, different things that matter to them.

0:22:15.121,0:22:19.401

Same thing for you, not all test business intelligence means, everything to all people

0:22:19.402,0:22:23.451

So make sure you also have some really actionable Kpis that are

0:22:23.451,0:22:26.741

encouraging the right behaviors for the right

0:22:26.741,0:22:29.621

things that your organization needs to measure to know

0:22:29.621,0:22:31.241

let you know how you doing from so

0:22:31.241,0:22:34.771

sprint to sprint build to build. It really should be used

0:22:34.772,0:22:37.991

to make efficient, guided business decision making.

0:22:37.991,0:22:42.312

Not overhead or overwhelm or unnecessary data.

0:22:42.312,0:22:45.991

So another thing people struggle with the hair over and over again on my hot

0:22:45.991,0:22:49.581

past is environment. A lot of times people try to run a test

0:22:49.581,0:22:54.161

I’m an environment that isn’t just like production or it doesn’t have the test either

0:22:54.161,0:22:58.651

or they’re using a environment that is shared across teams so sales

0:22:58.652,0:23:03.171

teams, are doing a demo within an environment that developers are pushing to or testers test

0:23:03.171,0:23:07.511

which causes chaos, save yourself a lot of time and invest

0:23:07.511,0:23:10.581

in the right environments for your test to run,

0:23:10.581,0:23:14.112

one way to do that is to use a fe environment. So ep omelette

0:23:14.112,0:23:16.401

solve the problem if it works on my machine,

0:23:16.402,0:23:19.482

So one suggestion a Hillary, if you’re not doing already is using

0:23:19.482,0:23:23.131

something like an ep environment they could spin up and spin down, something

0:23:23.131,0:23:30.821

So a lot of times people have a known good state of a Infrastructure that when they automated test runs, they start up a new instance of all these

0:23:30.821,0:23:33.901

fe environments, the test runs, it uses all the data,

0:23:33.902,0:23:38.571

And then when the test is done, it chairs down the environment. And so when the next test run comes,

0:23:38.571,0:23:43.541

as a fresh environment from a known good state. This necessarily you a lot of

0:23:43.542,0:23:46.421

time when maintenance and liability issues

0:23:46.421,0:23:47.151

as well.

0:23:47.152,0:23:50.991

So having on demand environments help you with a lot of things, like scalability,

0:23:50.991,0:23:55.961

environment, consistency, isolation of different things, version control and mold back and also

0:23:55.961,0:23:59.402

simulating different scenarios. You can also use these environments for

0:23:59.402,0:24:03.821

destructive testing but without impacting anyone else. So if you’re doing chaos engineering,

0:24:03.821,0:24:07.021

our liability engineering, type activities,

0:24:07.022,0:24:08.782

This is a great solution for you.

0:24:09.461,0:24:12.181

And so examples of how to get a good

0:24:12.181,0:24:15.081

Roi on your tests is look to speed,

0:24:15.081,0:24:19.601

cost savings, enhanced productivity and improved test coverage.

0:24:19.601,0:24:24.292

Alright. The last phase of the pig’s framework is the rake

0:24:24.292,0:24:28.411

method, and that’s gonna focusing on ref, analyzing

0:24:28.411,0:24:31.141

keep learning and enjoying automation Os.

0:24:31.141,0:24:35.301

So here’s a common theme on the podcast as well is make sure

0:24:35.301,0:24:38.381

You’re ref or you deleting tests adding value,

0:24:38.381,0:24:42.691

So anytime you’re writing a test you should always ask yourself, is this test adding value?

0:24:42.692,0:24:46.401

Or is this older test still adding value? Not just a checkbox box.

0:24:46.402,0:24:50.091

And so ask yourself, is this actually adding business value?

0:24:50.091,0:24:51.711

If it’s not delete it,

0:24:51.711,0:24:55.631

because it’s not adding business value. It’s only gonna add more noise

0:24:55.631,0:25:00.031

and more effort with maintenance, so make sure you delete eight and that’s not adding value.

0:25:00.031,0:25:03.951

So always ask yourself is this adding value? Anytime you’re running a test

0:25:03.951,0:25:05.251

or writing a test

0:25:05.252,0:25:11.741

Melissa Tan, mention as well, always look for ways to improve, so you should always be analyzing your tests

0:25:11.741,0:25:14.761

So a lot of times I see companies having a process

0:25:14.761,0:25:17.781

place and they never change the process. It’s static.

0:25:17.781,0:25:21.761

Processes are meant to grow with information you’re learning from production,

0:25:21.761,0:25:25.711

and building it back into the Sprint teams, and you’re slowly changing things

0:25:25.711,0:25:30.681

to get better and better over time. And the only way to do that is to analyze. Always look for ways to improve

0:25:30.681,0:25:35.562

So if you find yourself repeating a task also, that’s adding, say data manually,

0:25:35.562,0:25:38.531

or testing the same type of scenario over and over again.

0:25:52.576,0:25:56.466

All test, but anything to make your software development life cycle quicker,

0:25:56.466,0:26:00.516

faster that you can automate. I highly recommend automating that as well.

0:26:00.516,0:26:04.015

And as testers you know, we always need to keep learning Angie Jones

0:26:04.016,0:26:07.686

this and many other people in my podcast have highlighted it.

0:26:07.686,0:26:11.035

If you’re a tester, stay covering an up to date on your skills

0:26:11.036,0:26:15.976

It’s really critical. Make an effort to try out different tools and techniques to keep your knowledge current,

0:26:16.206,0:26:19.676

can experiment with new tools and techniques stirring a ninety five job

0:26:19.676,0:26:22.305

create personal projects and your free time.

0:26:22.306,0:26:24.076

Great advice by Andy Jones,

0:26:24.076,0:26:26.715

and By you just watching this session,

0:26:26.716,0:26:28.346

By watching this event,

0:26:28.346,0:26:32.386

already know you one of the top one percent of people that are always learning, so keep it up.

0:26:32.386,0:26:35.435

So that is the pig framework

0:26:35.436,0:26:38.335

plan, initiate, go would streamline

0:26:38.336,0:26:43.306

So next action, hopefully, you enjoy the session. If you did, I highly to recommend you check out the book.

0:26:43.525,0:26:47.545

Automation awesome, you can get it on Amazon at the automation book dot com, or

0:26:47.545,0:26:51.015

you can get a Pdf version if you don’t have Amazon in your country,

0:26:51.016,0:26:52.876

at tu dot com

0:26:52.876,0:26:55.175

automation book, Pdf,

0:26:55.176,0:26:59.506

Thanks again for joining and as always, test Everything and keep the good cheers.

0:27:08.565,0:27:12.126

It’s a great session. I love the…

0:27:12.126,0:27:16.075

All the analog and dad jokes thrown and derek. I love it. Great.

0:27:16.076,0:27:20.056

Yeah. As as you kinda touched on at the end, if anybody is interested

0:27:20.056,0:27:23.345

it in the docs tab here. We do have a link to Jones book as well

0:27:23.346,0:27:27.626

some other test skilled resources. So please check those out. Joe has

0:27:27.626,0:27:31.995

been working with us and I’ve worked with him in past lives as well at other companies and and it’s

0:27:31.996,0:27:33.196

some good stuff over there.

0:27:33.196,0:27:37.925

So, Joe, I know there’s there’s one question in here. I see so far and if anymore

0:27:37.926,0:27:41.966

come through. Please pop them in the Q and A and we’ll be sure to

0:27:41.966,0:27:46.545

get those answered, but your buddy, Chris, test ability is a huge

0:27:46.545,0:27:51.186

topic. So do you have any words of wisdom for getting buy into

0:27:51.186,0:27:55.165

allow time for that, especially when there’s layers of integration that are needed.

0:27:55.166,0:27:56.476

Yeah. You know,

0:27:56.476,0:28:00.516

The biggest way to do is to demonstrate how much value it’s gonna give you

0:28:00.516,0:28:04.255

I I could just stick of when I was working for a company that had, like, really old

0:28:04.255,0:28:06.636

tech stack with the mainframe in the back,

0:28:06.636,0:28:10.496

Just made friends with the developer and I got to open up an Api to do something

0:28:10.496,0:28:12.076

the make it easy automate for me,

0:28:12.076,0:28:16.355

a little piece. And once I created a test to demonstrate how that’s able to

0:28:16.356,0:28:19.036

make me automate meet things and make their lives easier,

0:28:19.036,0:28:22.325

started out more and more hooks into the code in the back end.

0:28:22.326,0:28:25.346

Make it more test. So if you could do like a small Po

0:28:25.346,0:28:29.146

see or or, like, get a quick win to show people because that’s a hot

0:28:29.146,0:28:33.495

the hottest thing to do with the culture is. If you could show someone how you can help them,

0:28:34.226,0:28:38.865

and you show that value. Once you do that, It’s like, it ends up to me, my my

0:28:38.866,0:28:40.966

Experience really opening things up.

0:28:41.446,0:28:44.966

So let’s… I know it sounds low tech, but make friends three developers

0:28:44.966,0:28:48.076

and try to get some buy in and show them the value and

0:28:48.076,0:28:52.445

shown that it’s not only benefiting you, but it’s benefiting them as well. Possible.

0:28:52.446,0:28:57.085

I think that kinda goes back to your whole farm as well as like, sometimes it helps to

0:28:57.086,0:29:01.516

start with little things first. Like, you can start with thirty animals you started with

0:29:01.516,0:29:03.885

a couple here and there and kinda built up

0:29:03.886,0:29:06.126

Exactly. Exactly great point.

0:29:06.126,0:29:08.685

And also I want to point out a lot of this is

0:29:08.686,0:29:12.725

also relates to mobile testing and unless is the summit for mobile testing, but

0:29:12.726,0:29:14.726

This is for any kind of testing.

0:29:14.726,0:29:18.586

Any any of these principles would still apply even if it’s mobile testing.

0:29:18.586,0:29:22.656

Yeah. Absolutely. I know you have a nice library of a bunch of people you spoke

0:29:22.656,0:29:26.036

there. So I’m sure if people do check out the book I know Chris,

0:29:26.036,0:29:31.005

look like he shouted it out in the chat. But Chris there’s a lot more tips in there. I’m

0:29:31.005,0:29:38.665

sure. Excellent. Any other questions from the team. I know this was a great session and and

0:29:38.876,0:29:41.415

Joe never disappoint. So

0:29:41.416,0:29:45.695

Thank you for that Well. I thank you, Woody. Woody said thank you, Na

0:29:45.696,0:29:47.686

Thank you. Matt,

0:29:47.686,0:29:51.646

Good crowd, Adrian? Awesome. Derek,

0:29:51.646,0:29:53.195

Good to hear from you all.

0:29:53.196,0:29:57.085

Any questions, let me know. But like I said, there’s a lot of stuff in this book.

0:29:57.086,0:30:00.346

What I was surprised by a lot of it is soft skills.

0:30:00.346,0:30:03.365

So a lot of people always think technical when they own

0:30:03.366,0:30:05.716

bank in a lot of times, the answer

0:30:05.716,0:30:10.625

surprisingly, and I’ve spoken with a lot of people at all levels tends to be more

0:30:10.626,0:30:14.866

culture or or getting the team evolved. So it’s kind of interesting

0:30:14.866,0:30:17.345

that one of the key findings was it tends to be

0:30:17.346,0:30:21.496

necessarily type that syncs people, but a lot of times the culture or the team

0:30:21.496,0:30:26.836

effort type deal Yeah. That was actually something that came out of the blue beam since

0:30:26.836,0:30:29.435

we had earlier doing the breakouts too was, like,

0:30:29.436,0:30:34.406

they were able to figure out a solution for their support issue because their called

0:30:34.406,0:30:36.746

allowed them to kinda collaborate and be

0:30:36.746,0:30:38.625

innovative like that. So yeah, those

0:30:38.626,0:30:40.456

their soft skills and that ability

0:30:40.456,0:30:42.746

to to work together is super important.

0:30:42.746,0:30:45.565

Absolutely. Often overlooked for sure.

0:30:45.565,0:30:49.726

I was also surprised by some of the… I I forgot session was. I think it was mobile

0:30:49.726,0:30:51.916

custom trends, how they talked about how

0:30:51.916,0:30:53.076

a lot of people think

0:30:53.076,0:30:58.065

manual testing will go away with Ai and I was just surprised by that. You know,

0:30:58.065,0:31:02.666

interesting. Yeah. So a lot of things like Ai once again, we have a lot of people like Jason Ar.

0:31:03.416,0:31:06.796

That talks about Ai. Even though Ai is great, I don’t think it’s gonna

0:31:06.796,0:31:09.005

anyone, I know it’s a common question.

0:31:09.005,0:31:12.266

Probably all get asked also, Adam, when you do these type sessions.

0:31:12.266,0:31:15.706

Yeah. Absolutely. I know that’s something. I mean, Frank could

0:31:15.706,0:31:20.295

talk me under the table with Ai all day, but it’s one of those things where it’s, like,

0:31:20.296,0:31:23.945

it’s gonna turn you into a super tester rather than, like,

0:31:23.946,0:31:25.625

take over because

0:31:26.525,0:31:27.966

Ai is really good at like

0:31:27.966,0:31:32.935

tiny little tasks, but when you tell it to be, like, hey. Go look at this whole app, like, it has challenges. So

0:31:33.226,0:31:36.676

think kinda taking some of the mundane nature of

0:31:36.676,0:31:39.855

some of the task can help you guys focus on on more

0:31:39.855,0:31:42.336

interesting testing scenarios. Absolutely

0:31:42.336,0:31:48.935

Saw on my main mis there, they any cool features in a In Cope with Ai that’s coming out or is gonna help

0:31:48.936,0:31:53.415

specifically in mobile testing? Oh, yeah. It’s setting me up here.

0:31:53.416,0:31:57.716

Yeah. There are definitely a few features that that we have on our side. So

0:31:57.716,0:32:00.975

I know one we actually had released previously is like the

0:32:00.976,0:32:05.646

self healing functionality. I know that’s been big in the testing world for a while, especially

0:32:05.646,0:32:09.595

when you’re trying to run across multiple different devices, like,

0:32:09.596,0:32:13.185

if you’re testing on a Galaxy twenty one, and then you run that test

0:32:13.186,0:32:14.766

on a pixel six. It’s, like,

0:32:14.766,0:32:18.956

different screen relative solution, the element may move around. So that sort of thing

0:32:18.956,0:32:21.336

being able to identify that. And then

0:32:22.086,0:32:26.975

like I said, frank and our S ses can probably talk about this better than I, but it’s one of those things where

0:32:26.976,0:32:31.676

using Ai to do some of the validation work while you’re doing

0:32:31.676,0:32:34.926

manual test, I think is beneficial as well. So

0:32:34.926,0:32:39.746

if anybody was able to join the tips and tricks session earlier from Billy,

0:32:39.936,0:32:43.275

he touched on accessibility, but there’s also

0:32:43.275,0:32:47.155

functional testing and performance testing and things like that that

0:32:47.156,0:32:48.476

ai can kinda help. Ai

0:32:48.476,0:32:52.275

run for you simultaneously while you’re going through your normal

0:32:52.275,0:32:53.885

manual session. And I know there’s

0:32:53.886,0:32:56.235

a lot out on the horizon as well, but

0:32:56.235,0:33:00.336

Oh. Cool. So it just be doing an exploratory testing in the background.

0:33:00.336,0:33:04.885

Given insight hey. I noticed there’s accessibility issue or something like that. Sounds like

0:33:04.886,0:33:06.475

Very nice. Exactly.

0:33:06.476,0:33:10.125

Yeah. There’s there’s Billie in the chat, self healing scripts.

0:33:10.126,0:33:11.626

Love it. Love it.

0:33:11.626,0:33:16.416

Excellent. I know we have about a minute and a half here, and I I saw you poking around some of the chats

0:33:16.416,0:33:18.535

earlier today as well. Any

0:33:18.536,0:33:21.976

other takeaways you have in general from from the event or just

0:33:21.976,0:33:24.586

a feedback for anything other session you saw?

0:33:24.586,0:33:28.895

No. I… Just like I said of I I was surprised by some of the trends with They.

0:33:28.896,0:33:32.915

Good to see that as something in mobile. It always seems like mobile is lagged a little bit behind

0:33:32.916,0:33:37.625

general functional automation, but based on what I’ve seen in a lot of these sessions, it looks like.

0:33:37.626,0:33:40.726

Mobile automations catching up, so that was kind of

0:33:40.726,0:33:45.336

nice to see. And I’m happy to see that you all are invested in that, because I think it’s something a lot of people

0:33:45.336,0:33:46.435

song with the shore.

0:33:46.436,0:33:51.076

Yeah. Absolutely. And I think that’s something just from looking around the industry, you’re definitely seeing a lot

0:33:51.076,0:33:53.926

more people dipping their toes into mobile. So

0:33:53.926,0:33:57.246

Yeah. Being able to do that well, I think is is always important

0:33:57.246,0:33:59.685

and and tricky as Frank mentioned. But

0:33:59.686,0:34:02.695

becoming easier. The show,

0:34:02.696,0:34:06.616

Excellent. Well, thank you again, Joe. If any other

0:34:06.616,0:34:11.525

questions do pop up I know you’re hanging out in the chats. And and feel free to

0:34:11.525,0:34:14.875

jump around, any of the booths as well. We have our closing remarks,

0:34:14.876,0:34:16.896

coming up here. And

0:34:16.896,0:34:20.875

Yeah. Couldn’t be happy have with us, Joe. Thank you. Good to be here. Should.

0:34:20.876,0:34:25.846

There. Love to sounds. It’s still Thank you.

0:34:25.846,0:34:26.965

Awesome. Thanks show.