Introduction To Subcutaneous Testing
What’s new in the testing world?
TESTING AND THE COMMUNITY
5 Ways to Time Travel Test [Whitepaper]
Temporal testing is critical for date sensitive business rules such as insurance rates, billing, and enrollment. Efficient time travel testing can increase your test coverage, accelerate development, and improve software quality. Read our whitepaper to learn the 5 ways to time travel software!
Introduction To Subcutaneous Testing by Melissa Eaden
The idea of “subcutaneous testing” has been around for a while. Even before Martin Fowler mentioned it on his blog, it can be seen referenced in a blog post from 2010 by Jimmy Bougard.
Testing Ask Me Anything: Reliability Engineering
Should Performance Testers and Performance Engineers start moving towards a DevOps culture? What is Reliability Engineerings? Join our AMA on Tuesday 9th 8pm UK Time to ask more about Reliability Engineering, what it is in relation to Performance Testing and what impact it might have. Ask any question you might have on the topic now.
Test Automation in 2019: Glimpse of the Future
Test Automation thought leaders will gather for a round-table discussion about the upcoming trends, best practices, tools, and ideas that will shape your work environment in 2019. Wednesday, Oct 10 at 7 pm BST.
Running A Technical Workshop Like A Pro by Bas Dijkstra
I’ve prepared and delivered technical workshops dozens of times and made many a mistake in the process. I would like to give you some advice, pointers and suggestions on how to run a technical workshop like a pro, hopefully helping you avoid the same mistakes I’ve made in the past.
Deep Exploratory Testing by Maaret Pyhäjärvi
There’s a famous saying by Linus Torvalds: “Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow.” Crowdsourcing references often like to quote this, pointing out that out of the bugs we could find in testing, the users in production end up finding over masses all the relevant ones, even if they did not report. A crowd could do well in hitting a bunch of bugs.
The Skills for Agile Testers eBook — Free Download
Keeping pace with the latest tools, skills, and practices can be challenging…Make sure you stay ahead of the Agile testing curve by implementing the latest Agile practices. Download Your Free Ebook Today!
Taking the scrum retrospective to the next level by David Tzemach
The sprint retrospective meeting is one of the most important meetings in the scrum framework and should therefore be treated responsibly. However, planning and running an effective scrum retrospective is much easier said than done.
How To Think Like a Software Tester Part 2 by One Man
A tester doesn’t just compare what happens against the results expected. Testing is not a mindless job, though some parts should be automated. Testing is a creative job where you ponder on the best way on testing, what to test, and what not to test.
Why I Withdrew From a Speaking Commitment by Ali Hill
I have recently withdrawn from an upcoming speaking commitment. I wouldn’t have done this unless I felt it was absolutely necessary.
Chartering for Exploratory Testing by Maaret Pyhäjärvi
As exploratory testing is framed around learning and discovery, done by a person, it is unnatural to split it as per test cases and instead we use time, often referred to as session.
Your users are diverse — Why aren’t your testers? — Big ideas from TestBash Manchester 2018 by Stu
One of the biggest conversations in tech at the moment is increasing diversity in the industry. As a 35 year old white middle class male, I represent a very large percentage of people working in our industry, but a much smaller percentage of the actual users of technology worldwide.
Rethinking JavaScript Test Coverage by Benjamin Coe
You can now expose coverage output through Node.js by setting the environment variable NODE_V8_COVERAGE to the directory you would like coverage data output in. The tool c8 can be used to output pretty reports based on this coverage information.
Testing the UI and API together with my new practice app by g33klady
It’s been a bit quiet lately, and that’s because I’ve been very busy with creating a workshop and new talk for TestBash Manchester! Now that it’s done, I can finally blog about some of the stuff I did to create the workshop, and release an app for folks to practice with!
Get on our radar by submitting your blog to our Testing Feeds or emailing something interesting to community@ministryoftesting.com
BUSINESS BLOG POSTS
Finding Quality Beta Testers: Developing a Solid Recruitment Plan by Chris Rader
The success or failure of every Beta Test is heavily impacted by its team of beta testers. If you’ve ever run a Beta Test with unqualified or disengaged test participants, then you know firsthand how their input (or lack thereof) squanders your resources and skews your results.
9 Mistakes to Avoid While Optimizing Your Site for Mobile Devices by Arnab Roy Chowdhury
In the current age of digitalization, people are driven towards digital discovery through a mobile-first approach. Keeping that in mind, web developers from big enterprises as well as small businesses, make a note of optimizing a website as mobile-friendly as possible.
7 Holes You Might Have in Your Testing Strategy by Kathryn Nest
How do you feel about your group’s software testing strategy? Do you think that it is bulletproof? Planning a nice relaxing holiday to start the day after your next roll to production?
Service Stubbing with JMeter and Docker — Learn How by Vincenzo Marrazzo
In this article series about Docker I described how Docker adoption simplifies the performance testing process with Apache JMeterâ„¢ and makes it more reliable.
PODCASTS
Episode 337 — Facebook Uses Your Phone Number You Use For 2FA For Ads from Security in Five
Facebook wants to collect every piece of data that can on you. Now they are taking data provided by users to improve their security posture is being used to deliver unwanted ads.
Episode 53 — Communities from Testing in the Pub
In this episode we talk about communities. Inclusive vs exclusive, internal vs external and how the communities have helped us.
Episode 338 — Make Sure Your GIT Repos Are Locked Down from Security in Five
Cloud services are efficient and convenient but they still require security focus from the users. Don’t assume that cloud services will have your security in their best interest.
Deadliest Bugs from The Good, The Bad, and The Buggy
As per the name of the podcast, we talk about software and applications that could be considered good, bad, or buggy. In this episode, we focus specifically on the most expensive, worst, and biggest bug failures of all time as well as recent history.
Episode 339 — Microsoft Declares The End Of The Password, Will It Work? from Security in Five
Passwords alone need to go. We all know it, we agree on it yet we don’t know how to smoothly execute on it.
TECH
How to Delete Your Facebook Account: A Checklist by David Murphy
Let’s talk about that elephant in the room: Facebook’s recent disclosure that attackers got their hands on access tokens for an unknown number of Facebook accounts is a big deal, since it’s the kind of hack that you, a happy Facebook user, could not prevent.
5 Ways GDPR Affects Developers by Shachar Shamir
The General Data Protection Regulation is already affecting companies, threatening legal ramifications if they don’t restructure their privacy standards and protection procedures accordingly. It’s affecting users, giving them more control over how and when their personal data is used. And it’s also affecting developers — those who need to make these technical changes in the first place.
If Statements Should Cost $10,000 Each by Dave Rupert
Estimating project costs is hard. Do a project based bid… uf, it’s prone to your own optimism bias and you end up over a barrel. Hourly? Great. Fair for both parties, but as time drags on mistrust can grow as cost directly relates to the speed of development. In either situation, the likelihood that important features get cut to limit scope is high and ultimately the product suffers.
Developing websites for Apple Watch [Updated] by marcus.io
Apple’s WWDC 2018 keynote was rather boring — at least if you are not a fan of the snapchatification of each and every messenger app.
How browser rendering works — behind the scenes by Ohans Emmanuel
The purpose of this article is to explain, in very simple terms, the steps your browser takes to convert HTML, CSS and JavaScript into a working website you can interact with.
Solid
Solid was created by the inventor of the World Wide Web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee. Its mission is to reshape the web as we know it. Solid will foster a new breed of applications with capabilities above and beyond anything that exists today.
Inside look at modern web browser by Mariko Kosaka
Inner workings of a Renderer Process. This is part 3 of 4 part blog series looking at how browsers work.
UPCOMING MOT EVENTS
- Testing Ask Me Anything — Reliability Engineering — 9th October 2018 — Save your space now!
- TestBash Australia — 1 day — Friday 18th October 2018- Tickets On Sale!
- Masterclass A Software Tester’s Guide to Expertise | Vera Gehlen-Baum — 23rd October 2018 — Save your space!
- TestBash San Francisco — 2 days — Thursday 8th — Friday 9th November 2018 — Tickets On Sale!
- TestBash Essentials Brighton — 1 day — Wednesday 3rd April 2019 — Subscribe to launch list
- TestBash Brighton — 1 day — Friday 5th April 2019 — Subscribe to launch list
- TestBash Netherlands — 2 days — Thursday 23rd — Friday 24th May 2019 — Submit your talk or Subscribe to the launch list
TOOLS
Re:consent
re:consent allows you to view and change the consent you have given to websites for data processing. It works for websites that adhere to the IAB’s Transparency & Consent Framework, as well as for Google and Facebook.
Tugboat
Tugboat is engineered to build your website as fast as possible.
Project Explorer
Create a tree visualization of any project with this CLI tool. With this tool, you can generate a visualization of any project, as well modify certain directories to be open, or have notes that people can read through easily.
Ferret
Ferret is a web scraping system aiming to simplify data extraction from the web for such things like UI testing, machine learning and analytics.
ekill
It’s like xkill, but for annoying web pages instead. Chrome and Firefox plugin for quickly getting rid of elements on a web page.
Visual Regression Testing, flexible, powerful, easy
VisWiz.io is a visual regression testing tool that helps with catching unwanted UI changes, by integrating with your testing framework and analyzing any visual differences on your project.
Introducing RealtimeBoard Mind Map
As an infinite virtual whiteboard, RealtimeBoard helps teams get any visual task done, such as user story mapping, agile planning, design iteration or visual project management.
SECURITY
5 Security Tips for Your Open Source Creative Tools by Ronan Mahony
As a budding creative professional, there is often a discrepancy between what you can afford and what the de facto proprietary tools/software are in your industry. Open source creative tools are not only often free, but they can often offer comparable basic functionalities and features to their proprietary counterparts.Opting for open source apps is a wise decision, however, it’s imperative to understand the importance of open source security.
Chegg Hack Hit 40M Customers by PYMNTS
Chegg, a technology giant specializing in textbook rental, suffered a data breach affecting around 40 million customers. According to CNBC, Chegg’s shares fell more than 12 percent on Wednesday (September 26) after the news broke. The breach, which happened in April but was only discovered a week ago, was revealed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Google Adds New Rules To End Malicious Chrome Extensions by Lawrence Abrams
In an announcement today, Google has stated that they are dropping the hammer on malicious extensions and will no longer tolerate ones that ask for powerful permissions for no reason, use external scripts, or obfuscate their code.
Security vulnerability in Apple’s Device Enrollment Program could allow full access to corporate networks by Ben Lovejoy
A security vulnerability discovered in Apple’s Device Enrollment Program (DEP) could allow an attacker to gain full access to a corporate or school network.
New Linux Kernel Bug Affects Red Hat, CentOS, and Debian Distributions by Mohit Kumar
Security researchers have published the details and proof-of-concept (PoC) exploits of an integer overflow vulnerability in the Linux kernel that could allow an unprivileged user to gain superuser access to the targeted system.
Google Adds New Rules To End Malicious Chrome Extensions by Lawrence Abrams
Whether it is because of a overworked reviewers, obfuscated code, or the use of external scripts, Malicious Chrome extensions have become a huge problem for Google with new ones being added to the Chrome Web Store every day.
Security vulnerability in Apple’s Device Enrollment Program could allow full access to corporate networks by Ben Lovejoy
A security vulnerability discovered in Apple’s Device Enrollment Program (DEP) could allow an attacker to gain full access to a corporate or school network.
Keep your data secure with mozillas newest tools by David Murphy
Mozilla has been on a tear for data security and privacy lately, and we applaud that. Keeping your information safe from the prying eyes (and hacks) of others should be at the top of your mind every time you sign up for a new service or mess around on the web.
ACCESSIBILITY
A guide to color accessibility in product design by Justin Reyna
There’s a lot of talk about accessible design, but have you ever thought about color accessibility?
A11Y Style Guide
This application is a living style guide or pattern library, generated from KSS documented styles…with an accessibility twist. No matter your level of development or accessibility expertise, there are ways to help contribute.
Online Video Accessibility
For video to be fully accessible, its audio content must be accessible to people who are unable to hear (solution: captions), its visual content must be accessible to people who are unable to see (solution: audio description), and both audio and visual content must be accessible to people who are deaf/blind or unable to access the video for technical reasons (solution: transcript).
Bad Practices on Birthdate Form Fields by Anthony
Asking users for their birthdate on a form is complicated. Birthdates have formats that vary depending on the country and they consist of three separate data strings. It’s easy to confuse and frustrate users if the birthdate field doesn’t use simple controls and isn’t in a clear format.
The Basics and Importance of Color Contrast for Web Accessibility
For digital accessibility, the concept of color contrast is as critical as it is simple. Color contrast refers to the difference in light between font (or anything in the foreground) and its background. By using sufficiently-contrasting colors, a website’s font visibility is stark enough to distinguish — meaning the great content you’ve developed for your website can be read by everyone.
PERFORMANCE
‘What’ and ‘Why’ of moving from Performance Testing to Performance Engineering
Global enterprises and brands have been working towards ensuring performance and functional excellence for their digital propositions. Implementing a robust Performance Testing strategy has been a conscious and strategic decision for all kinds of enterprises operating across diverse businesses.
Accurately measuring layout on the web by Nolan Lawson
We all want to make faster websites. The question is just what to measure, and how to use that information to determine what’s “slow” and what could be made faster.
Designing with real data by Justin Tran
Earlier in 2018, I wrote about desktop prototyping and how setting plays an important role in designing for desktop interfaces. But the desktop kit lacked one crucial component — real data.
Image Performance by Mat Marquis
To solve the most critical performance problems with the biggest impact, start with images.
AUTOMATION
Visual testing with BackstopJs by Justin Holsgrove
There are many visual testing tools out there these days. In this article, we will have a look at BackstopJs, which is the closest opensource project I’ve come across that matches what Applitools do with regard to the way visual regressions are presented to the user.
Use waits as assertions for your selenium tests by imALittleTester
Selenium tests tend to make a lot of use of assertions, to check that some actions have been performed on the front-end or that some WebElement properties are the expected ones.
Introducing Automation in Testing Online by Mark Winteringham
Automation in Testing is about giving people the skills on how strategise, create, use and educate others around how to successfully utilise automation to assist testing.
4 Automated Testing Pain Points (and How to Solve Them) by Chris Riley
If you’re like most QA teams, you’ll discover that adopting automated testing requires clearing some hurdles.
JOBS
Test Automation Manager (London, UK)
Our London based client, an industry-leading provider of digital lifestyle benefit products and customer loyalty, supplying the credit card and travel sectors, requires a Test Lead/Manager with a working knowledge of Java automation and solid experience running QA teams and squads in a truly agile environment.
Software Test Designer (Eindhoven, Noord-Brabant. Netherlands)
ASML’s Applications products are critical elements in the semiconductor manufacturing process. These products are largely software driven. Wafer Fab Applications (WFA) is the part of the Application products responsible for developing and delivering products that improve the performance of ASML’s scanners by translating large amounts of performance data into scanner correction profiles.
Software Test Engineer (Fort Lauderdale, Florida. US)
You’ll be embedded on an agile development team where you will write code to test the code written by the developers, using both your specialized testing knowledge of multiple tools, techniques and best practices as well as your development experience and knowledge of good technical architecture and design.
MEETUPS
Meetups happening soon!
- Why is Testing so Popular? — Copenhagen, Denmark
- Contributor’s Meeting — North West Tester Gathering
- Testing Adolescence: Anthony McDonald’s Coming of (Testing) Age Story — Phoenix US
- October #MidsTest Roadshow With Gem Hill — Coventry, UK
- Talks: Doug Sillars: Mobile Performance / James Thomas: When Support Calls — Cambridge, UK
- Software Testing Clinic London — Taking Notes — London, UK
- 1st Ministry of Testing Meetup in Austin! — Austin, US
- October Meetup — Testing Topics (Testability) — Cork, Ireland
