Testing and Beyond: An Interview with Ben Kelly

Published on July 19, 2017 by Simon Knight

Over the 15+ years Ben Kelly has been testing he has built and led teams in Australia, Japan and the UK at companies ranging from small start-ups to enterprise level multinational corporations, including heading up software testing for the European Product Development department at eBay. Ben’s view of testing and software development is heavily influenced by his martial arts background, holding a 5th Dan in Kendo and having represented Australia several times at the world Kendo championships.

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Teaching Software Testing With Games

Published on July 16, 2017 by Kathryn Nest

Programming skills can be taught through repetition. Pick a programming language. Pick an exercise, for example, the bowling kata. Then, perform that exercise once a day for a few weeks, trying to get the code a little more concise, readable, and efficient each time. If only it were that easy to teach testing. Sadly, you can’t un-find a bug.

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The Dynamics of Outsource Testing

Published on July 14, 2017 by Kathryn Nest

The metaphor most people think about for software projects, is one of driving results with pressure. If things are going poorly, get everyone in a room, yell at them a bit, and tell them to fix this schedule problem. I’m pretty sure that’s not the most helpful way of thinking about it.

Personally, I prefer to think in terms of trade-offs.

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Announcing TestRail 5.4 Platform Release with PHP 7.0 Support, Windows and SQL Server Updates

Published on July 12, 2017 by Dennis Gurock

Making sure that our test management tool TestRail works great in all environments and that TestRail can easily be installed and maintained has a high priority for us. So today we are happy to announce the availability of TestRail 5.4, a new platform release that introduces full support for PHP 7.0, Windows Server 2016, SQL Server 2016 and other enhancements as well as bug fixes.

5 Software Testing Podcasts to Entertain, Educate, Inform and Inspire You

Published on by Kathryn Nest

If you’ve worked with testers or programmers, or are one yourself, you’ll likely have noticed that they spend a lot of time with their headphones on. I’m a tester and I have my headphones on right now!

I’ll often listen to something to help me concentrate on my work. Music helps me to block out external distractions and focus.

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Tester’s Diary – It’s Just a Bug Report

Published on July 7, 2017 by Kathryn Nest

It seems like I’ve become known as ‘the one who knows how to create bug reports’ around the Dev room. Today is the third time I’ve been asked how to create a bug report by a developer. However, this time the developer got a little more than they bargained for.

Typically, when a developer asks, “How do I create a bug?” they mean “What buttons do I click?”

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How APIs Change the Testing Game

Published on July 5, 2017 by Kathryn Nest

Testers working in agile or scrum like to talk about the benefits of being involved in the development cycle earlier. They imagine smooth sprints with no last-minute regression testing, and burn down charts that gracefully approach zero instead of looking like a steep plateau. They envision features that can be delivered as soon as they are committed to the code repository.

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6 Technical Testing Skills that Aren’t Automation

Published on June 29, 2017 by Kathryn Nest

When testers hear the words “technical testing”, our minds immediately jump to “automation.” Testers are often unaware that many highly valuable technical testing skills have nothing to do with automation. It is invaluable for any tester to be able to skillfully use the different tools that help build software. There are hundreds of tools, free and paid, that can be in the tester’s arsenal; here, we look at six of the most popular tools and skills that aren’t automation.

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Testing is Not Dead: The Future of the Software Testing Role

Published on June 21, 2017 by Kathryn Nest

At least once a year, I see a presentation at a software conference proclaiming “Testing is Dead”. The speaker talks about modern software development techniques such as test automation, micro-services, continuous integration, delivery systems, production monitoring systems, and build rollback capabilities. The presentation will suggest that in the future, modern software development techniques will make testers obsolete. Shortly after, the testing world has a collective existential crisis.

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Where has the Test Manager Gone?

Published on June 14, 2017 by Kathryn Nest

From 2006 to 2010 I worked for a company that consisted of distinct testing and development groups. Each group had their own hierarchy, including staff contributors, leads, a manager and maybe an architect. Our Software Test Manager was the Battle Master general. Every new sprint started with contention. The development groups would have meetings to prepare for the sprint. The testing group I worked in would hear about these meetings a day or two later.

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