TestGuild Automation Podcast

Have you even wondered how you could bring agile acceptance test driven development to the front of your development cycle? Sure ATDD and BDD sound great, but how is it really implemented in the real world? In this episode Jeanine Rust a software architect-developer in test shares with us how to bring acceptance testing into our organizations from the ground up. So listen up and hear how Jeanine put test into Dev-Test-Ops

Load testing is an important part of the performance engineering process. However, the industry is changing and load testing should adjust to these changes. A stereotypical, last-moment performance check is not enough anymore. In this episode Alexander Podelko will share with us his views on how to align performance testing to these new industry trends. Listen up and discover how performance testing can still add value in an Agile world.

Do you have a hard time of getting historical data for your test runs? Do you have flaky test, but not sure which test are consistently flaky? In this episode Hugh McCamphill a Principle Software Engineer in Test with Liberty IT in Belfast shares with us how you can instrument your test result information to provide actionable data, paving the way for more robust, reliable and timely test results. Listen now to discover how you can move away from the 're-run' culture and better support your continuous integration goals of having quick, reliable, deterministic tests.

We had an interesting session this year at the Automation Guild Conference with John Ferguson Smart, creator of the Serenity framework on the Screenplay Pattern. It created a lot of interest and conversation among Guild attendees and speakers alike; so much so that someone in the group recommended that I create a separate podcast dedicated to the topic … so here it is!

Is API testing at the top of your list of things to do this year? Not sure where to start? Or are you currently testing APIs but want to know more about mocking or service virtualization? In this episode Bas Dijkstra, founder of the blog ontestautomation and author of the book Service Virtualization: Implementation, Practices, and Trends for On-Demand Test Environments, shares with us some tips, tools and best practices around API testing.

One of the biggest challenges I see many automation engineers experiencing in 2017 is DevOps – and treating automation tests and infrastructure like code. A few of those technologies, like Jenkins, Docker and Vagrant are critical technologies you should know in order to excel in your career in the coming year. In this episode we'll be speaking with Wes Higbee author of multiple Pluralsight courses including Getting Started with Jenkins 2, Docker on Windows and Intro to Vagrant. So if you want to expand your automation efforts beyond functional testing in 2017, you don't want to miss this episode.

Are you looking for an automation tool that allow your testers and developers to create automated tests fast? In this episode we'll Test Talk with the creator of Sahi, Narayan Raman. Discover why Sahi open-source and pro might be the right tool for your team.

Happy New Year! Start your New Year's test automation efforts off right by doing this one thing. Check it out!

Since I'm getting ready to put on my first online conference dedicated to automation, I thought it would be fun to hear about Google's Test Automation Conference (GTAC) from one of its participants – Greg Paskal. Greg is no stranger to TestTalks. This is his 4th appearance, and he brings his awesome GTAC insight (and some lessons he's learned) to another can't-miss episode.

Have you ever wondered how companies like The Huffington Post and Twitter use test automation? Well then, you're in for a treat with today's episode as we test talk with Anil Kadimisetty about the tips and tricks he has used working at both companies as an automation architect. He'll covers a range of topics including distributing load testing, visual validation testing, how to scale up automation teams and much more. Don't miss this episode if you want to discover some of the real-world automation techniques that top companies use to succeed with test automation.

Today we'll be test talking about Pester with Adam Bertram, author of multiple Pluralsight courses on PowerShell, and founder of AdamTheAutomator.com. I'm a big believer in the fact that infrastructure code -- just like test automation code -- should follow the same rigor as your application code. Pester is a unit testing framework that was built for people who want to take their PowerShell scripts and modules to whole different level, and really apply professional unit testing abilities to it. If your or your team is performing any type of PowerShell development, you won't want to miss this episode.

On today's show we'll be Test Talking about keyword-based automation (also known as action-based testing) with Hans Buwalda, CTO of LogiGear and a pioneer in action-based methodologies of testing and automation. Hans will share how using action-based testing practices like modularization and keywords can make your tests easier to create, automate and maintain, as well as simpler to understand.

I don't think there's a more popular topic in test automation nowadays than DevOps. While many folks I speak with have a process in place for most of their applications, one area some are struggling with is how to apply DevOps best practices to their mobile app initiatives. That's why I was happy to speak with Guy Arieli, CTO of Experitest -- a company that provides a bunch of cool quality assurance tools for mobile DevOps. If you're involved with mobile development of any sort, you won't want to miss this episode.

When you work for a large company, you sometimes need to expand your automation efforts beyond Selenium browser-based testing. What happens when you also need to create automation for applications like Embedded Systems, SaaS or ERP? In today's episode you'll discover how to automate embedded, SaaS and ERP systems, so prepare to learn some useful tips and best practices as we Test Talk with Ali Khalid, a test automation expert and enthusiast who has a ton of consulting experience working with all kinds of automation projects.

I'm excited to announce that registration for the Automation Guild Conference 2017 is now open! If you're involved in test automation on any level, you won't want to miss this one-of-a-kind, online event. Anyone who is familiar with test automation knows how difficult it is to create automated tests that are reliable and maintainable. Most automation project don't succeed – but you can do better. Automation Guild will save you valuable time and headaches, because you'll discover from some of the top automation engineers in the industry what works for their successful projects. In fact, the goal of the Automation Guild conference is to help YOU perfect the craft of creating automation awesomeness and accelerate your automation career. With over 25 speakers, many in-demand automation skills and topics will be covered, including Selenium, GitHub, Continuous Integration, DevOps, REST testing, visual validation testing and more. Whether you're currently involved in automation or just beginning, we've got you covered with either a new tool, technique or best practice that will improve or jumpstart your current testing situation and help you avoid common mistakes that can ruin any automation effort. So are you ready to accelerate your automation efforts and career? Register NOW and join us to make this an epic conference of automation awesomeness!

On this show we'll address an extremely common problem most automation engineers have to deal with – running cross-browser tests. Meaghan Lewis a test automation engineer at Lever and a former employee at Thoughtworks (the folks that gave us Selenium). She'll be giving us a sneak peek at her Selenium Conference presentation: Making Cross-Browser Tests Beautiful.

Communication skills are critical for succeeding in anything you do. This is especially true for folks that work in teams that are involved in the creating and testing of software. On today's show we'll test talk with Damian Synadinos about his presentation Workshop: Commutication – An Exploration of Idea Transfer with Words. Damian will share ways in which you can improve your communication skills and avoid the misunderstandings that may be preventing your team from creating automation awesomeness.

I'd like to make a big announcement! It was announced late last week that Selenium 3.0 has been officially released. This is huge. In this week's episode, I'll break down everything you need to know about Selenium 3, as well as give you a glimpse into Selenium's future. After listening, you will know how Selenium 3 will impact your automation efforts, as well as some things to watch out for -- so don't miss it!

Sure -- you might be working really hard, doing everything that is needed for testing your software, but is what you're doing really the most efficient way to test? In this episode Melissa Tondi, head of SQE at ShopatHome.com (and one of the best-known thought leaders in the quality engineering space) breaks down the testing process and helps us identify areas that traditionally cause the highest number of inefficiencies within test teams. So listen in and hear what it takes to build a world-class testing organization.

In this episode, we'll be test talking with Dave Cadwallader, a senior engineering manager in automation infrastructure, about a fleet of proven, open-source test automation tools developed by WalmartLabs that can help you succeed with automation. Get ready to discover lessons learned about building and maintaining code and infrastructure that support massive- scale testing at Walmart, as well as tips for working with front end web development teams on making them successful.

Have you ever wondered how gaming companies test their video games? If so, this episode is for you. Amber Race, a senior test developer at Big Fish Games, gives us an insider's peek at how she approaches game testing. Amber shares some of her favorite testing techniques and tools like Postman, which helps her to leverage APIs to automate many back-end testing activities. So if you ever wanted to know what it takes to become a tester at a gaming company you won't want to miss this episode.

Metasploit is a cool open-source framework for conducting penetration tests. Not only does it help you conduct your tests, but it has a bunch of modules that can help you scan a target system looking for vulnerabilities. In this episode Keith Watson, author of the Introduction to Penetration Testing Using Metasploit Pluralsight course will give us a high-level overview of how to get started with Metasploit, as well as some best practices for penetration testing. Get your white hats on and listen up!

Are you looking for an awesome mobile grid solution like Sauce Labs, but don't yet have a budget for this type of service? Although using an existing Cloud-based service is optimal, there are times when -- and reasons why -- having your own in-house mobile grid setup can be useful. In this episode Justin Ison, a senior software engineer at Microsoft, will walk us through the tools, best practices and pitfalls to avoid when setting up your own Selenium mobile grid. You'll want to listen up, because Justin works on the popular and cool app Wunderlist -- a simple task management app that can be used across loads of devices -- so he knows how to get mobile automation done.

Feeling hungry? Have you ever binged on tacos? Do you remember how the first one tasted and thought it couldn't get much better? But by the time you got to your third and fourth you may have started to tire of the tacos. (You'll have to listen to this show to find out how this analogy translates to testing!) In this episode, Gregory Schmidt serves up some testing tamales in the form of optimum marginal utility as applied to test value that will help you take your testing "YUM" factor all the way to 100.

Today we'll be test talking with the founder of Performance Wisdom, Rebecca Clinard, about performance testing and the most frequent rookie mistakes folks make with performance testing. Do you have a web or mobile application you need load tested to determine its scalability limitations? Are you unsure of your tool, technology or skill set requirements? If you're thinking about getting into performance testing or want to know how you can help your teams with performance-related tasks, you won't want to miss this episode.

On today's show we'll test talk with Andy Tinkham, a software testing expert with over 20 years' experience, about his views on modern testing. Andy will discuss how testing has evolved, what we as testers need to know, and how we are all responsible for helping to shape the future of testing. Within the philosophy of modern testing there are a series of principles that Andy has broken down into four pillars: Context First, Testers are Not Robots, Using Multiple Lenses for Test Design, and Providing Useful and Timely Information. If you're a tester who wants to continue being a tester in the 21st century, you'll want to listen up! Check it out.

On today's show I'll be test talking with Maaret Pyhajarvi, a collaborative software specialist with emphasis on testing, all about mob testing, pair testing, exploratory testing and more. Maaret has a soft spot for hands-on testing, and for helping teams grow and build successful products and businesses. Maaret shares a bunch of knowledge in this episode to help us think with a more Agile, Lean startup mindset. Check it out!

Are you struggling with managing you BDD efforts? Wishing you had a central location for your BDD where everyone can contribute to creating a common, domain-specific language as well as help refactor changes across multiple teams spread out across the globe? If so, Hiptest might be the tool for you. Hiptest is an open-source, modern test management collaborative platform for Agile teams that was designed to help you deliver better software faster. On today's show we'll be speaking with Laurent Py, co-founder and product manager at Hiptest, all about how to create more collaborative BDD.

Today we'll be test talking with Angie Jones about why we need more women and minorities in tech, as well as automation with Java. Angie is a consulting automation engineer at LexisNexis and an inventor with more than 20 patented inventions. On top of all that, she has been featured in Ebony magazine as one of the country's top young leaders under the age of 30, you definitely don't want to miss this show.

It's the middle of 2016 – a good time to take a mid-year pulse of what's going on in the test automation community. In this episode we'll TestTalk with Greg Paskal, author of Test Automation in the Real World and Director of Quality Assurance-Automation at Ramsey Solutions, A Dave Ramsey Company, all about his latest "testing in the real world "survey to find out what folks are currently succeeding and struggling with in their test automation efforts.

What is pair testing? It's exactly what it sounds like -- two people on the same machine, trying to complete a test together. On today's show, Katrina Clokie shares with us all the benefits her organization has enjoyed since starting pair testing, as well as how it's helping to change culture through testing. If your Agile sprint teams are struggling with testing, you won't want to miss this episode.

Coming up with a solid plan for the right test coverage mix for your mobile app testing efforts can sometimes feel like a black art. And like with all black arts, you usually end up paying the price with bad results. On today's show we'll test talk with Eran Kinsbruner, Director and Mobile Technical Evangelist from Perfecto, about mobile testing coverage optimization using a free online resource called Digital Test Coverage Optimizer. Eran will also share some of his best tips to ensure you're consistently creating mobile testing automation awesomeness.

Today's show is all about how to improve your Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) efforts as we TestTalk with Matt Angerer, an SR Solutions Architect for Results Positive. In this episode Matt shares with us a methodology called RPALM that will help you improve you ALM efforts. If you're struggling with managing and creating traceability between your requirements, tests and defects, or if your results lack visibility to your team, this episode is for you -- check it out.

The testing dead have risen, and they're hungry…consumed with an unnatural desire for bad automation practices to feast on. Your test automation efforts are crumbling, and they're coming for you next. What do you do? Matt Barbour, Senior Director of Engineering at Comcast Silicon Valley, shares with us some lessons learned about end-to-end testing from Zombieland. Listen up and discover how to escape the coming test automation zombie apocalypse.

Are you just starting off with Appium and not sure where to begin? Not sure which tool to use for your mobile testing automation efforts? In this episode, James covers the basics of how to get started with mobile testing using Appium.

Today we'll be test talking with Derick Baily, a software developer and founder of watchmecode.net , a community dedicated to learning JavaScript, Node.js RabbitMQ and more. He is also one of the co-hosts of my favorite podcast, Entreprogrammers. In this episode we'll discuss Testing Javascript and RabbitMQ applications from a developer's perspective, so if you're either a developer or a tester and need to get up to speed quickly with JavaScript, this episode is for you.

On today's show we'll be test talking about data strategies in testing with Paul Merrill, Principle Software Development Engineer in Test and Found at Beaufort Fairmont, a consulting company dedicated to ridding the world of bad code. Many of the testers I know have a testing or automation framework strategy, but most seem to overlook having a data strategy in place. It doesn't matter what automation framework you're using; if you haven't planned how you will manage the data your tests need in order to interact with the system(s) under test, you're in trouble. A data strategy is a combination of procedure and infrastructure that affects the way tests interact with data to simulate your systems under test. That's what today's show is all about. Check it out.

One of the top issues I find when trying to automate applications is how to test custom controls. I know I'm not the only one; one of my most popular posts is on what to do when UFT doesn't recognize an object. I believe one of the most overlooked solutions is to actually contact the custom control vendor to ask whether they have a solution to the problem.. In this episode we'll speak with Michael Germann from Infragistics about custom control automation using IG TestAutomation. Michael will share all kinds of tips for testing unrecognizable objects with UFT and RFT as well as general extensibility best practices for testing custom controls.

Today we'll be test talking with Paul Grossman, AKA the "Dark Arts Automation Engineer" about his five secrets of test automation. I've been following Paul for a long time on Linkedin, Facebook and other automation boards. He's always posting useful test automation tips and tricks to help out the testing and automation community, so it was great to finally speak with him -- and he did not disappoint. I think you're really going to enjoy this episode. Check it out!

I love open-source tools. Sometimes, however, a team might not have the skills needed to create a proper test automaton framework, or else the technology the team is working with doesn't lend itself to being a good fit for an open source test tool. I'm a big believer in teams using the right tool for their projects, even if it means the tool they select is a vendor tool. One vendor-based tool I've been hearing a lot of good things about is Ranorex. In this episode we'll be speaking with Roland Enzinger and Christoph Preschern about test automation for those who use Ranorex.

In this episode we'll Test Talk with one today's most well- respected testing authors and speakers, Lisa Crispin. Lisa shares with us some of her favorite Agile testing techniques, including how mob testing can help your team rub out bugs one defect at a time, as well as how your team can benefit from testing group hugs. Lisa's mission is to bring Agile joy to the software testing world and testing joy to the Agile development world, and I think it really comes through in this episode.

What better way is there to celebrate a milestone than speaking with a living legend? Gerald Weinberg has been developing and testing software for over 50 years, and was one of the engineers who worked on the first American NASA space program (Project Mercury), where he designed and implemented the space tracking network focusing on the first multi-programmed operating systems. Jerry has also written more than 30 books including some of my favorites: Weinberg on Writing: The Fieldstone Method, Perfect Software And Other Illusions About Testing, and Becoming a Technical Leader. You don't want to miss this episode – it'll be like listening to a real Obi Wan Kenobi … or Yoda!

In this episode we’ll be speaking with Neeraj Tripathi about his Principles of Software Quality Management. What I really like about this episode is that Neeraj has a ton of experience with software quality management and has worked across multiple organizations on many cross-functional teams. I think his breadth of knowledge really shines through in this episode. So if you’re having issues with software quality management, prepare to hear some knowledge bombs because Neeraj shares actionable advice for almost all the questions I asked of him.

Do your test automation efforts leave you feeling depressed and bored, like Marvin the Robot in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy? Do you wonder what the meaning of test automation really is? Good news! In this episode we’ll be speaking with Mark Fink, author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Test Automation, where he’ll reveal the answers to all your burning test automation questions.

This episode is a special treat, because we’ll be speaking with the actual HPE team that tested HPE’s new testing tool, LeanFT. Today we’ll be TestTalking with Hagay Avisar, the leader of HPE’s automation Center of Excellence, Ayelet Dasa a software engineer who focuses on test automation, Aviad Diamant the Lead for LeanFT’s Quality Team, and Malcolm Isaacs a senior researcher at HP. So get ready to get a behind-the-scenes, insiders look at how a functional test tool vendor goes about testing its own products.

Tired of getting crushed by bugs? Learn some testing Kung Fu to help you dominate any defect that comes your way. You need to be quick, and you need to recognize when something's not working. You need to be as Bruce Lee said "like water" so you can change your testing approach quickly. In this episode you’ll discover some new testing techniques to improve your testing efforts with David Greenlees, a black belt tester and author of the Software Testing as a Martial Art – There is no One Style.

Hi its Joe just wanted to quickly let you know that there is no TestTalks interview this week. I’m a deacon for a church and we have all our family over for Easter so I’ve been wicked busy preparing for Sunday festivities. But hey, don’t worry we’ll be back next week with an awesome interview with David Greenless about his new book Software Testing as a Martial Art . I also have interviews scheduled with Mark Fink author of the book The Hitchhikers Guide to Test Automation and an interview with HPE’s development team to learn about how they used their own tools for their testing efforts. And If you have an automation success story you’d like to share on an upcoming episode, let’s talk! Send your suggestions to:[email protected] So stay tuned and as always test everything and keep the good --Peace!

Managers and engineers can often get lulled into thinking automation is easy. After all, how hard can automation be? You record yourself interacting with the application, then play it back. Done. But how many of us have been burned by that type of thinking? I know I have. It’s up to us as automation engineers to educate the people around us about automation best practices and techniques if we are to have a prayer of surviving in this fast-paced, Agile DevOps world.In this episode Jim Hazen, a veteran of the software testing trenches, shares with us his years of experience in succeeding with test automation. Discover what it takes to implement automation and set realistic expectations for your teams, keeping in mind that it's automation, not automagic!

Have you ever had the feeling that you’re running too many tests? Or redundant tests that are causing you to spend too much time maintaining an ever-growing test suite of what seems like wasted test cases? Does your test suite take a long time to run when all you want to do is make sure a small change you made to a specific area in your application didn’t affect anything else? And did it leave you wondering what combination of test cases would give you the verification coverage you need?These are issues I struggle with, as well – which is why last year at HP Discover in London I was interested to learn about a model-based testing using a tool called Agile Designer. Ever since seeing a demo of the product done by Huw Price, I’ve been hoping to get him to appear on my podcast. I’m happy to announce that today, Huw shares with us his thoughts around model-based testing and test data management.

There have been many changes in the software testing industry in the last several years. Those of us who have been testers for a while know that testing is an actual professional craft; nevertheless, many folks coming out of college – and even some of our own developers – have no idea about testing techniques and tools.If you’re anything like me you’ve probably wished there was a way to keep up with and promote the ever-changing tools and techniques needed to succeed with testing.In this episode, you’ll discover how this is all about to change as we speak with Anna Royzman about her new organization, A Quality Leadership Institute. The mission of A Quality Leadership Institute is to become the world’s leading advocate for quality in technology. Anna has big plans for the organization, which include developing innovative programs on software testing quality and leadership for the tech community, as well as the promotion of software testing as a real discipline in colleges around the world.