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Sunday, October 11, 2009 4:19 AM

Randomizing static test data in automated tests

A significant percentage of static test data is stored in tabular comma delimited or tab-delimited formats and saved in Excel spreadsheets. Reading in comma or tab-delimited static test data into an automated test is pretty straight forward and there
Posted by I.M.Testy | 0 Comments
Tuesday, August 25, 2009 7:40 AM

Measuring Test Automation ROI

I just finished reading Implementing Automated Software Testing by E.Dustin, T. Garrett, and B. Gauf and overall this is a good read providing some well thought out arguments for beginning an automation project, and provides strategic perspectives to
Posted by I.M.Testy | 5 Comments
Thursday, May 14, 2009 4:26 AM

Programming Paradigms in Test Automation

Regardless of the personal opinions of a few people, the simple fact is that the demand for software testers who can design and develop effective test automation is increasing. Perhaps one reason for the distain by some folks in the industry is due to
Posted by I.M.Testy | 9 Comments
Thursday, March 12, 2009 11:29 PM

GUI test automation is not child's play

There are many approaches to test automation from unit testing to system level testing through the GUI. Of course, the most often discussed approach is the automation approach that drives the GUI to perform some action; or GUI automation. This also happens
Posted by I.M.Testy | 7 Comments
Tuesday, February 17, 2009 6:58 AM

Random string generation…Update!

One of the biggest challenges in input testing is the sheer amount of potential characters and the virtually infinite number of permutations of those characters in different character positions in a string. Even if we know about the myriad of language
Posted by I.M.Testy | 1 Comments
Sunday, January 04, 2009 7:27 AM

Data-Driven Testing

I am generally not a big fan of static data in test automation, but being a pragmatic person, I know there are clearly times when using data-driven testing is just plain common-sense. For example, data-driven testing is an effective automation approach
Posted by I.M.Testy | 1 Comments
Tuesday, September 09, 2008 11:06 PM

Test Automation: Simple Automated Test Case Templates

Templates can be useful tools to help increase individual efficiency and team consistency. Yet, I am sometimes quite surprised that some organizations lack standard templates for such daily routines such as bug reporting, status reporting, and even test
Posted by I.M.Testy | 1 Comments
Wednesday, July 02, 2008 9:31 AM

Test Automation: Programmatic Platform Profiling

Occasionally, the execution or outcome of a test depends on the operating system version on which the test is executed. Platform profiling is important because subtle differences in operating system platforms can affect how certain tasks are carried out,
Posted by I.M.Testy | 2 Comments
Sunday, January 06, 2008 3:59 AM

Automation Foibles Unveiled: Coding Guidelines Part 1 - Basic Layout

It has been awhile since I have written about test automation, so I thought I would start the new year off with a post about test automation. More specifically, I wanted to start talking about coding guidelines. Just as many development teams have adopted
Posted by I.M.Testy | 3 Comments
Thursday, August 30, 2007 6:03 PM

Why we automate

I never really understood why so many people external to Microsoft seem to be against the Microsoft strategy to increase the amount of automation we rely on to test our products. Test automation has become sine qua non at Microsoft for many valuable reasons.
Posted by I.M.Testy | 2 Comments
Wednesday, August 01, 2007 5:54 PM

Emoting software: more thoughts on simulating emotions...

I am fascinated with the advances computing, and have always approached computing from the perspective of what can this tool do for me to make my life easier. As a professional tester I have a lot more work to do then I can reasonably accomplish in the
Posted by I.M.Testy | 5 Comments
Wednesday, July 25, 2007 5:16 PM

How long will it take?

When getting close to shipping a product and the team discovers a critical defect that must be fixed one of the first questions asked by the management team is, "how long will it take?" From a testing perspective they generally want to know 2 things;
Posted by I.M.Testy | 3 Comments
Thursday, June 21, 2007 4:44 AM

Test Automation Foibles: Hard coded paths

Anyone who has listened to me talk about automated test design knows that I loathe hard-coded strings in test automation. Yes, I know that static test data is important, but it is almost never a good practice to hard-code strings or other test data in
Posted by I.M.Testy | 9 Comments
Friday, June 08, 2007 4:12 PM

Emotional Test Automation

In April I hosted a session at the Software Testing and Performance conference entitled Why Test Automation Fails . I actually tried out a new delivery style for me similar to a town hall format where I attempted to elicit participation from the attendees.
Posted by I.M.Testy | 5 Comments
Wednesday, May 30, 2007 9:42 PM

Random test data generation

I am not a big fan of static test data, so this month's issue of Software Testing and Performance magazine published an article I wrote outlining one approach for generating random string data (although the basic concepts can be used for generating other
Posted by I.M.Testy | 3 Comments
 
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