Passing on some testing knowledge

Not sharing this would be just unfair. 

You may be a highly qualified QA engineer, an experienced IT consultant who has just started learning a new testing strategy, or maybe even a newbie who has just begun automation. Whatever your position may be, hear me out.

We need to be constantly reminded about what consequences we are dealing with when we reach a certain degree of testing.

I had the privilege to expand my perception of test automation by seeing through Stefan Franzen’s eyes 2 weeks ago.

Stefan is a Software Test Engineer at ADDQ who has talent and ambition written all over him. 

He introduced me to an in depth understanding of the maturity levels for test cases. 

As testers, one of our first few questions as test automators are ”what can I automate?” and ”will it be worth it at the end?”. 

He sketched a detailed maturity level structure which would enable us to automate tests in the most efficient way possible. 

As we all know, a small error in a script (or several small errors), when overlooked, could possibly build up to functionality failures,or worse, an unexpected system crash. Keeping track of script changes and testing them immediately has always been one of the simplest ways for catching errors and resolving errors timely.

Stefan emphasized the concept of automating code pushes, which would result in catching bugs faster, and simplifying work for correcting erroneous scripts in good time. This is a brilliant and yet simple way of applying continuous integration to a project.

It was an eye-opener to get an overview of when and why to use several of the useful open-source software tools available online to create tests that will give a high-quality functional system.

Words will not explain how much I appreciated Stefan’s willingness to share his thoughtful ideas with his colleagues and IT network. 

If we can all actively share our creative and structured thoughts about software testing with our surroundings, there will be a greater chance of more qualified testers, high-rated products, satisfied stakeholders, and last but never least, happy customers.