Testing techniques plotted on a speed, value, environment axis

Exploratory and Automated testing: Using the right techniques in the wrong contexts

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Exploratory testing is about testing in an unpredictable context and therefore detecting unpredictable failures in our software. Automated testing is about testing in a predictable context and therefore detecting predictable failures. The mistake we make with automation is we try to apply it to the wrong context
Picture of a takeaways at night in Margate

My biggest takeaways from AgileTD 2020: The future of testers isn’t in automation or testing

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I was lucky enough to speak at AgileTD this year and also attend some of the talks. These are my main takeaways from the conference based on the talks that I was able to make. My confirmation bias sense is tingling with this but…   The…

Building a quality culture: Is it quality assurance or quality awareness?

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A way to see if the work your are doing in your team is about building team awareness or team assurance of quality
Three questions of unit testing

How to document Unit Testing

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Whenever you talk about unit testing with teams they never tell you what it means to them. They go straight to of course we do and show you 100s of passing tests. Interesting thing is by calling it unit testing everyone thinks they are talking…

What is Contract Testing?

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And Consumer-driven contract testing This is a follow on from Contract testing: Why do it First some quick definitions: Consumer Is someone (a dev team for instance) that makes use of a third party component or a combination of components…
flat lay photography of circuit board by Robin Glauser

Contract Testing, Why do it?

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I’ve been thinking a lot about contract testing lately and trying to explain why it’s a good idea.  I thought I’d start by getting my initial arguments for it down and go from there. Got an opinion then let me know. Note:…
Wrong way sign

The unintended consequences of automated UI tests

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Whenever I see people talking about automated testing I always wonder what type of testing they actually mean? Eventually someone will mention the framework they are using and all too often it's a UI based automation tool that allows tests…
Floating orb in front of wooden panelling.

UI Automation, what is it good for? 

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TL;DR: What automation at the UI level does and doesn't give you. UPDATE: I originally wrote this back in March 2015, lost it in my drafts and found it again recently so thought I get it out there. Don’t agree then let me know in the comments. Automation…
image of desk with lots of phones running auto test

The Do’s and Don’ts of Mobile UI Automation

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(...from my experience) Original posted on Medium My name is Jitesh 'Jit' Gosai and I’m a Senior Developer in Test (DiT) at the BBC working in Mobile Platforms, Digital. I originally wrote this post well over a year ago (2014!) and recently…
image of desk with lots of phones running auto test

Automating BBC iPlayer mobile testing part three: legacy vs new features

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Originally posted on the BBC website 30 June 2014 This is the third and final part my series of posts about how the BBC iPlayer Mobile team automate their user interface testing. You can find the first part here as well…