Whenever I ask people (and I really don’t get tired of asking), what is CI, or Continuous Integration, I get Jenkins. Or TFS. Or another tool. And this is a teachable moment! CI is not a tool. These tools are great, don’t get me wrong, but listen to the words. Read more…
We all know about clean code (I’m assuming). Clean code is great! Clean tests are great, too. Here’s the truth about it. We don’t really want clean code. But we do need it. If we would write code once, and never need to look at it again, we could write Read more…
It doesn’t matter, if we’re doing it in once a quarter, or for a two-week sprint – test planning is crucial. But if you start by jumping into specific testing scenarios, I promise you, it’s going to bite you in the end. Even earlier. Effective planning starts with a Top-level Read more…
Did you know that September 9th is Tester’s day? Apparently, the first bug was found on 9/9/1947. Note that we’ve been writing programs before that. So if that’s the first time a bug was found, I’d say it’s a bit late. They should have done some exploratory testing around the Read more…
If you’ve been through some kind of an agile transformation you’ve probably heard of the “Definition of done”. Now, let’s talk about that, since we all have a dictionary. I mean, should we define words that we learned when we were kids? Apparently we have to. Anyway. There are all Read more…
Let’s talk about the testing pyramid. And since it’s a pyramid, I’ll also throw in a tip (see what I did there?) You may have seen the test pyramid with different steps,or levels, in it.It used to be called the “Automatic test pyramid”, but you might have seen it with Read more…
Data-driven tests are like the early promise of Java: Write once, run many. With some side effects. Just like Java. Here’s a very VERY simple example. This is an API for authentication: Without looking at the code behind it, you probably think it’s a good idea to test this API. Read more…
When we’re testing an application, features, or APIs, we usually think about what they do, the functional stuff. But today, it’s even more important to address how well they do that functional stuff. Enter NFRs: Non-Functional Requirements. Testing NFRs requires a different mindset, separate skills and tools. More than before, Read more…
Today I want to talk about a special kind of tests: Verification tests. What do we want from our tests? Not a lot, really. We just want to know that everything’s ok (when they pass), and when they fail – that there’s something wrong (and hopefully where). When our tests Read more…
Fragile tests are a scourge on technology. And testing technology. Sometimes they pass, sometimes they fail, and to make life interesting, sometime they just stop, and on the odd case, come up with a very unusual result. “Fragile tests” is what we call tests that we can’t trust. And we Read more…