Practical Ideas On Creating Empathy Within Your Team
Your essential weekly software testing news
TESTING AND COMMUNITY
Three Amazing Test Environment Industry Stats!
20%: Average test productivity lost due to Test Environment Issues. 95%: The time IT projects spend in the Non-Production space. 33%: On average 1/3 of all Non-Production Systems are Idle. Deliver Faster and Save Costs. Trial Enov8’s IT & Test Environment Management solution now!
Why Don’t Managers Understand What Good Testing Is? by Pete Walen
Why is it managers keep coming back and asking fundamental questions about what we do, how to evaluate progress, how to look for improvement in quality, how to track customer satisfaction, how to know the software works the way the sales people say it works…
Practical ideas on creating empathy within your team by Rosie Sherry
I feel understanding empathy is what many testers are good at and I wonder how people approach this subject? How do you as software testers help the team become more empathetic with the people who are using the software? Any practical tips?
30 Days of API Testing — Mock, Stub, Fake by Dave Westerveld
Today’s challenge is about explaining mocks, stubs and fakes. The problem is, different teams will use these words in different ways.
My Personal Testing Values by Simon Prior
As I am currently going through a transition in my career of moving companies for the first time since i got a graduate position 12 years ago, it has really become clear to me how important it is to have personal values not just for your life as a whole but equally for your work life. Having values which act as indicators that something needs to change is a way of knowing when and how to adapt, if you need to.
Continuous Security with Find-Sec-Bugs by Sławomir Radzymiński
One of the hardest software quality characteristic to cover in automated tests is security. It doesn’t change the fact that some aspects of security can, or even should be automated.
The One Question to Ask to Improve Your Testing Skills by Kristin Jackvony
We’ve all been in this situation: we’ve tested something, we think it’s working great, and after it goes to Production a customer finds something obvious that we missed. We can’t find all the bugs 100% of the time, but we can increase the number of bugs we find with this one simple question.
Rethinking Velocity by Gregory Paciga
I’ve been thinking about the concept of “velocity” in software development the last few days, in response to a couple cases recently where I’ve seen people express dislike for it. I can understand why, and the more I think about it the more I think that the concept does more harm than good.
It is 2018 and this error message is a mistake from 1974 from Thread reader
This limitation, which is still found in the very latest Windows 10, dates back to BEFORE STAR WARS. This bug is as old as Watergate.
Getafix: How Facebook tools learn to fix bugs automatically from Facebook
Facebook has built a tool called Getafix that automatically finds fixes for bugs and offers them to engineers to approve. This allows engineers to work more effectively, and it promotes better overall code quality.
Ask HN: What’s the largest amount of bad code you have ever seen work? by Hacker News
A wonderful thread of stories around bad code :)
Get on our radar by submitting your blog to our Testing Feeds or emailing something interesting to community@ministryoftesting.com
BUSINESS BLOG POSTS
What It Means to Be a Test Lead — Justin Rohrman
Career paths are a myth — a set of blinders we put on to make navigating an organization feel simple. Someone in tech could jump from development, to testing, to product ownership, back to testing, and then on to something else, and only be better for it.
Test Automation Is Still Testing, But Don’t Go At It Alone by Louise Gibbs
There is a statement that has been discussed throughout the testing community that stirs a great deal of controversy: “Test Automation is not Testing, It’s Checking!”.
Selenium IDE: The Next Generation presented by Simon Stewart
Selenium IDE got a new long overdue overhaul, and Simon Stewart, Selenium Project Lead and Creator of WebDriver, unveiled the new Selenium IDE in a special live session, including capabilities, features, and roadmap — now available on-demand.
PODCASTS
Toilet Tips and Continuous Testing — Testing Bants
In our first episode, Pete invites Stu to share a gripe he has with Continuous Testing. With a little guidance from Pete, Stu takes us on a journey that includes the definition of Continuous Testing, how it fits in to the building and delivery of applications and features and why Continuous Testing maybe doesn’t actually mean Continuous Testing, using students and toilets as an example.
Meaningful Performance by The Testing Show
To talk about the ways that performance impacts testers as well as ways to discuss the broader implications of the changing performance space, Scott Barber and Caleb Billingsley join Matt Heusser and Michael Larsen to chat about ways to have conversations with those who make the larger decisions.
Episode 368 — Post Breach Costs Go Beyond The Check Your Write, What Else Is There To Consider? by Security in Five
A breach is a devastating event for a business. If and when you experience a breach there are immediate costs that a business will have to come up with. There are also other costs that go far beyond the checks you write that you need to consider. This episode goes into what those costs are, some may lead you to bankruptcy.
TECH
Bad Practices on Phone Number Form Fields from UXMovement
Phone number fields, along with birthdate fields, are tricky to get right. There are many phone number formats users can choose from and they’re often unsure which format is valid. Sometimes they’re even unsure if they need to include their country code with it.
A developer’s guide to web design for non-designers by Patrik Krupar
I created my first website as a school project when I was 14. The task was simple: create a very basic site including some text, images, and a table. My usual attitude to school projects was to completely forget about them and later come up with some last-minute solution. But, this time, I went nuts.
Is this AI? We drew you a flowchart to work it out by Karen Hao
The definition of artificial intelligence is constantly evolving, and the term often gets mangled, so we are here to help.
UPCOMING MOT EVENTS
- TestBash Essentials Brighton — 1 day — Wednesday 3rd April 2019 — Super Early Bird Tickets on Sale!
- TestBash Brighton — 1 day — Friday 5th April 2019 — Super Early Bird Tickets on Sale!
- TestBash Netherlands — 2 days — Thursday 23rd — Friday 24th May 2019 -Subscribe to Launch List
TOOLS
Sentry
Stop hoping your users will report errors — Open-source error tracking that helps developers monitor and fix crashes in real time. Iterate continuously. Boost efficiency. Improve user experience.
Accessibility Scanner App on Android
Accessibility scanner is an accessibility testing tool available for Android devices. No technical knowledge required to use it. It is a easy to use and self-explanatory mobile accessibility testing tool.
PERFORMANCE
CSS and Network Performance by Harry Roberts
CSS is critical to rendering a page — a browser will not begin rendering until all CSS has been found, downloaded, and parsed — so it is imperative that we get it onto a user’s device as fast as we possibly can. Any delays on the Critical Path affect our Start Render and leave users looking at a blank screen.
Fast Load Times by Web.Dev
When you’re building a modern web experience, it’s important to measure, optimize, and monitor if you’re to get fast and stay fast. Performance plays a significant role in the success of any online venture, as high performing sites engage and retain users better than poorly performing ones.
Performance Rule #1: Do What You Need to Do — But Not More by Jens Oliver Meiert
Web Performance has over the age of the Web not only turned into a discipline by itself, but also a complex one at that (and one that can but shouldn’t be seen in isolation).
Up to speed with web performance by Hidde de Vries
On Thursday and Friday I learned all sorts of things about making sites faster at the performance.now() conference in Amsterdam. I frantically took notes at each talk, so here’s my summary of the event.
Web Performance Made Easy from Google I/O 2018 edition
We’ve been pretty busy over the past year trying to figure out how to make the Web faster and more performant. This led to new tools, approaches and libraries that we’d like share with you in this article.
SECURITY
Design for Security by Serena Chen
Applying design thinking to security practices can create a better, more secure experience for your users.
15 Security TED Talks You Might Want To Watch by Rosie Sherry
Come watch some TED talks on security! Then perhaps volunteer to discuss one from a testing perspective?
WordPress GDPR compliance plugin hacked — Sophos
WP GDPR Compliance is a plugin that allows WordPress website owners to add a checkbox to their websites. The checkbox allows visitors handing over their data to grant permission for the site owners to use it for a defined purpose, such as handling a customer order. It also allows visitors to request copies of the data that the website holds about them.
SuperProf private tutor site massively fails password test, makes accounts super easy to hack by Graham Cluley
SuperProf, which claims to be “the world’s largest tutoring network”, has made its newest members’ passwords utterly predictable… leaving them wide open to hackers.
Open Sesame” Bug Allows Anyone to Hack Windows 10 Using Just Their Voice by SwiftSafe
A vulnerability called Open Sesame allows hackers to execute arbitrary code on a Windows 10 computer using just their voice.
ACCESSIBILITY
Simple recommendations for writing text descriptions that make a big difference by Léonie Watson
Really good accessibility takes a strong strategy, thoughtful design, and robust technical implementation, but often it’s the small things that make all the difference to the person consuming your content.
A web of anxiety: accessibility for people with anxiety and panic disorders by David Swallow
“Unethical”, “misleading” and “exploitative” are the words used by the Norwegian Consumer Council to describe the use of dark patterns and privacy-intrusive default settings by Facebook, Google and Microsoft. The council’s report, titled Deceived by Design (PDF, 3.2MB), documents the “deceptive” and “manipulative” techniques that companies use to nudge users towards disclosing as much information as possible.
Keyboard Testing Basics by Robert Jolly
Keyboard testing is one of the most efficient, impactful, and easy tasks that any team member can do to find accessibility issues. Unfortunately, it’s often not done — perhaps because people simply don’t know about this. Ignorance is bliss until it comes back to bite you later on.
The Business Case for Digital Accessibility by W3C
This article examines the rationale for organizations to address accessibility. It includes tangible and intangible benefits, and the risks of not addressing accessibility adequately.
JOBS
ENOVIA Software Quality Engineer — MA, USA
We are seeking an ENOVIA Quality Engineer who will perform best-in-class Quality Assessments of Dassault Systemes products and ensure that the quality of products meets our criteria.
Test Automation Engineer — Norwich, UK
In this role you will join our Edge Product team where we are in the early stages of developing an innovative, cloud-based solution which will form the next generation of Tribal’s market leading student management systems.
Software Quality Engineer — Nice area, PACA. France
Member of the Software Quality Assurance Team, with departments in France and Brazil, you play a key role in providing confidence in the level of quality of either internally developed or contracted projects.
MEETUPS
Meetups happening soon!
- Access Yourself — AccTESTability — North West Tester Gathering
- November Meetup — Newcastle
- Automation in testing — Software Testing Clinic 1.9 — Brighton & Hove
- Test Automation with WebdriverIO & Mobile Automation with Appium — Berlin
- Testers’ Bouldering Social — London
- DevOps Introduction & Continuous Testing — KSA
