Next Level Teamwork: Pairing And Mobbing
Discover something new
TESTING AND THE COMMUNITY
Bring Your Documentation to Life with Living Documentation from Hiptest
Take BDD to the next level and unlock the documentation within your Git repository with Living documentation from Hiptest by SmartBear. Create and share key artefacts, ranging from feature files to test results with a common support language your entire organization can leverage.
Next Level Teamwork: Pairing And Mobbing by Maaret Pyhäjärvi
TestBash Australia videos are now live! Maaret’s talk is available for all of our members to watch. Why not have your own online TestBash!
TestBash Essentials Brighton — 3rd April 2019
Are you new to the testing industry? TestBash Essentials has been designed just for you. It’s a one day single track conference designed to cover essential testing topics well, by people who practice it every day. We’re taking you back to the bare necessities of software testing.
Unveiling the New Generation of Selenium IDE — with WebDriver Creator Simon Stewart
Don’t miss this session with Selenium Project’s Lead Committer on 14th November at 6pm, with the creator of WebDriver Simon Stewart, as he unveils the new Selenium including capabilities, features, and roadmap.
Testing Ask Me Anything CI/CD and Delivery Pipelines — Tuesday 13th Nov at 8pm
Our next #TestingAMA will give you the perfect opportunity to find out about Continuous Delivery and Continuous Deployment and everything in between. Register now, ask your question and learn something new.
The Hiring Testers E-Book [Free Download]
The hiring process is a tricky business. Recruiting for such a specialist role as Software Tester is even harder! We compiled all our best hiring advice in one place, so you can learn from our mistakes and experience. Download Now!
How a Recent Experience Made me Examine my Position on #PayToSpeak Conferences in General by Ilari Henrik Aegerter
After careful consideration, I have withdrawn my submission to Swiss Testing Day 2019. I have spoken at the largest testing conference in Switzerland several times in the past years. My experience has always been rewarding and I had a lot of pleasure interacting with the delegates.
State of the blog & 30 Days of API testing by Maciej Wyrodek
November is starting so it is time for another state of blog. We will talk about events, schedule changes and 30 days of API Testing.
Test is a four letter word by Ben Kelly
When you hear the word ‘test’, what does that mean to you? (If you just said ‘it depends’, congratulations, you’ve earned your ‘consultant’s answer to everything’ badge). When folks who aren’t career software testers use the word ‘test’, it frequently comes with a raft of associations that are decidedly different to what many software testers mean when we say test.
Strategies for Dealing with Bugs During Sprint by Kiryl Baranoshnik
Here’s another surprisingly popular topic that confuses a lot of people. What should you do when you find a bug during an iteration. Should you work on it immediately or should you put it off for later?
Quality and effort by Seth Godin
It seems as though the opposite of “careless” ought to be “careful.” That the best way to avoid avoidable errors is to try harder, to put more care into the work.
ISO Multilingual Testers by Amanda Perkins
ISO multilingual tester must be able to translate and interpret business requirements from Project Managers/Business Analysts in order to assist developers in creating software that End Users can use with little fuss and much gratitude.
Get on our radar by submitting your blog to our Testing Feeds or emailing something interesting to community@ministryoftesting.com
BUSINESS BLOG POSTS
Data Warehouse Testing, ETL Testing, and BI Testing: What’s the Difference?by Wayne Yaddow
When referring to business intelligence quality assurance, we often discover that the terms data warehouse (DWH) testing and ETL Testing are used interchangeably as though they are one and the same.
Scaling XCUITests For IOS Devices With Different Screen Sizes by Shashikant Jagtap
While architecting iOS app testing with XCUITests for iOS devices with different screen sizes, we should also consider the scalability and maintainability of our code. We have to make sure XCUITest tests would run flawlessly on all iOS variants without causing a lot of code duplication by architecting XCUITest tests in a proper manner.
Why end user experience is important by Deb Cobb
It’s generally accepted that the end user experience defines the brand. End-user experiences (UX) undergird the value that brands deliver to their customers in the digital world. UX is influenced by a multitude of variables that include visual and navigational design, accessibility and relevance of content, and inherent trust that the brand will protect Personally Identifiable Information (PII) from data breaches and security risks.
How QA Transitioned from Bi-Weekly to Weekly Releases by Katie Hotard
I imagine it went down something like this: the VP of Engineering, director of QA, and some key engineers at Lucid were hanging out in a Star Wars-themed conference room one day when someone said: “Hey, we keep developing really cool features for our users. We should release every week instead of every other week!”.
Performance and Load Testing Best Practices Guide by Scott Summers
Whether a system is to be used internally by your work force or externally by your customers, it’s stability and performance directly correlates with your success.
6 biggest risks of not updating your app by Lauren Gilmore
The world is going mobile and your app is competing with millions of others. But with great power comes great responsibility. Believing that once your app is released, the work is over, couldn’t be further from the truth.
Top Mistakes To Avoid During Responsive Web Design by Arnab Roy Chowdhury
The relevance of RWD(Responsive Web Design) is not only limited to content or marketing strategy, the number of devices on which your website gets properly rendered matters a lot if you wish your website to rank higher in SERPs(Search Engine Result Pages).
Avoiding Test Script Maintenance Nightmares by Greg Sypolt
Test script maintenance does not top many people’s lists of what makes a good time. Fortunately, however, maintaining software test scripts does not need to be a headache.
PODCASTS
51: Feature Testing by Test & Code
Andy Knight joins me in discussing the concept of feature testing. Feature tests are similar to something I used to call “functional subcutaneous integration test”, but it’s a way better name, and I plan to use it more often.
Getting Started with Gauge Acceptance Testing by Joe Colantonio
I had a great TestTalks interview with Zabil Maliackal a product manager at Thoughtworks about acceptance testing and their open source framework Gauge.
Episode 357 — What Is Application Security? by Security in Five
The term ‘Application Security’ is used as a blanket over a much larger challenge. True application security goes beyond the code. This episode goes into the details and areas around application security and why it’s such an important aspect.
Smart House by The Good, The Bad, and The Buggy
Alex and Bria talk about the modern smart house including doorbells, dog cams, and personal assistants. We discuss why you might want to invest in an all-connected home, and why you might not.
Episode 6 — Stuart Crocker — Crazy Little Thing Called Live by The Guilty Tester
Do you ever feel guilty for not meeting the standards set by others in the Software Testing community? You’re in the right place then. In this episode, I talk to Stuart Crocker. We discuss testing in production, what happens when your ideas are challenging to others, and of course have a little discussion about acting as a gatekeeper.
TECH
You’re using <em> wrong by Facundo Corradini
It’s been a bumpy road that somehow got us misusing one of the most important text-level semantic tags.
No Good, Very Bad UX Writing Mistakes by Melissa Mapes
People do read on the Internet, despite popular dogma. Imagine a digital product with zero words — we’d all be asking, “What does this button do?” and “How the heck do I find what I’m looking for?”.
Keeping simulator sickness down by Mel Slater
“Sickness induced by virtual reality (VR) devices poses a genuine threat to the viability of this new technology and its potential products.”
Cloud Diagrams & Notes by Jerry Hargrove
Cloud Architect shares his visual notes (some of them anyway) on Amazon S3 .
Researchers Created an ‘AI Physicist’ That Can Derive the Laws of Physics in Imaginary Universes by Daniel Oberhaus
Two researchers from MIT have created an “AI physicist” that is able to generate theories about the physical laws of imaginary universes. It marks a major step toward creating machine learning algorithms that are capable of not just finding patterns, but extrapolating from those patterns to make predictions about the future.
The EU plans to test an AI lie detector at border points by Dani Deahl
Trials for AI lie detection at border patrol checkpoints are set to begin soon in the EU. The program, called iBorderCtrl, will run for six months at four border crossing points in Hungary, Latvia and Greece with countries outside the European Union, as reported by Gizmodo.
UPCOMING MOT EVENTS
- TestBash San Francisco — 2 days — Thursday 8th — Friday 9th November 2018 — Tickets On Sale!
- Testing Ask Me Anything — CI/CD and Delivery Pipelines — Abby Bangser — 13th November 2018 — Save you space!
- Usability Boundaries & Why we Need Them — David Greenlees — 20th November 2018 — Register now!
- 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
Webpack Bundle Analyzer
Visualize size of webpack output files with an interactive zoomable treemap.
‘No More ASCII’ Firefox Add-on by Pete Houghton
Many of my clients have a multi-national (and multi-lingual) user base, and their software receives input from a range of devices, not just those configured to UK or US locales. The sites may also need to process and publish content that is ‘non-ASCII’.
WCAG 2.0 Parsing Validation Tools
Tools that filter the results of the W3C’s Nu validator to show only results that are related to accessibility according to WCAG 2.0 Success Criterion 4.1.1 Parsing.
Siteaudit: Generate audit benchmark for your site
Siteaudit will analyze your site and generate audit for: Pagespeed, Lighthouse, A11y.
Favicon Checker
Compare your favicons on all major web browsers, including native dark and light modes.
Sitespeed.io
Sitespeed.io is a set of Open Source tools that makes it easy to monitor and measure the performance of your web site.
Healthchecks.io
Healthchecks.io monitors the heartbeat messages sent by your cron jobs, services and APIs. Get immediate alerts you when they don’t arrive on schedule.
PERFORMANCE
Web Performance 101 by Ivan Akulov
This is an introduction to the modern web loading performance. Learn why performance is important, what performance optimizations exist and what tools help to understand if your app is doing well.
SECURITY
30 Days of Security Testing — Day One by Michael Clarke
WeTest are putting a spotlight on Security Testing over the months of October and November. As a part of the discussion, we’re re-visiting the 30 Days of Security Testing Challenge designed by the Ministry of Testing — although we’re not doing weekends so it’ll take a little longer!
What Companies Do With Your Personal Data And How Blockchain Protects Itby LetKnowNews
Shiru Café has established a branch near Brown University with a unique pricing model: here, students receive “free” coffee in exchange for name, emails, phone numbers and majors.
New Android Malware Turns Your Mobile Devices into Hidden Proxies by SwiftSafe
Cyber criminals distributing new Android malware via Phishing email campaign that turns infected smartphones into hidden mobile proxies. This malicious app installing a fake voice-message app and turns it as a network proxies without users knowledge.
Private messages from 81,000 hacked Facebook accounts for sale by Andrei Zakharov
Hackers appear to have compromised and published private messages from at least 81,000 Facebook users’ accounts.
The Data Big Tech Companies Have On You (Or, At Least, What They Admit To) by securitybaron
Have you ever asked yourself, “What does Google know about me?” The answer is uncomfortable.
ACCESSIBILITY
Designing accessible web with privacy — when web browsing reveals informationby Lukasz Olejnik
Soon every website will be able to know if its visitors have a disability, or not. Well, not quite. That will relate to those who use assistive technologies (i.e. screen readers for vision-impaired), and who gave access for this feature.
Negative Impacts of Withholding Form Labels by Lindsey Kopacz
Back in fall of 2016, I spoke for the first time about accessibility. While planning my presentation and looking for a relevant case study, I stumbled upon something that was quite relevant for the time — the presidential candidates’ donation sites. Considering Section 508 applies to government agencies, I figured that their sites would be super accessible. Boy, was I wrong.
How to Use the Contrast Checker in Chrome DevTools by Kezz Bracey
One of the most important aspects of creating accessible websites is ensuring you have readable text. And in turn, creating readable text means ensuring you have adequate color contrast between your text colors and your background colors.
A guide to color accessibility in product design by InVision
There’s a lot of talk about accessible design, but have you ever thought about color accessibility?
WordPress Accessibility Team Delivers Sobering Assessment of Gutenberg: “We have to draw a line.” by Sarah Gooding
WordPress’ accessibility team has published a statement on the level of overall accessibility of Gutenberg. The team, largely a group of unpaid volunteers, collaborated on a detailed assessment that publicly challenges Gutenberg’s readiness for core in a way that no other WordPress team has done through official channels to date.
AUTOMATION
Pop Quiz, Hotshot. Is It Automated? by pgrizzaffi
Probably the most famous line from the 1994 movie Speed, “Pop quiz, hotshot”, got me thinking about testing and automation. Specifically, regarding whether something is automated or not.
Under the Hood — Learning APIs by Anne-Marie Charrett
New to API’s and want to learn how to test them? Here’s some learning strategies to help you get started on your way.
JOBS
Exploratory Tester (London, UK)
If you want to work in an Agile environment, enjoy collaborating with others and want to constantly learn, then our high performing Technology team could be the place for you.
Technical Tester (Amsterdam, Noord Holland. Netherlands)
We’re spriteCloud, an independent software testing and test automation services provider located in the Amsterdam. We offer a unique service for website test automation.
MEETUPS
Meetups happening soon!
- Ministry of Testing #04 — Rio De Janeiro
- Pre TestBash Meetup — San Francisco
- SWTC Belfast — Become a Mentor — Belfast
- Lightning Talks! — Boston
- #NottsTest — UNiDAYS: a modern testing retrospective — Nottingham
- Software Testing Clinic London — Testing Requirements — London
- November Meetup: Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) — Cork
- Post TestBash Meetup — San Francisco
- Coffee Shop Meetup | Open Talks — Kansas City
- Ministry of Testing — #TestersMeetupKHI — Karachi
- Are Your Integrated Tests A Scam?! — Phoenix
