Teams everywhere are looking to speed up testing without sacrificing quality, so once again, some of the top articles last year were about continuous integration, machine learning, and—of course—how to best implement and use test automation. But readers were also interested in what they shouldn't be doing, with two high-ranking articles about test practices we should stop and a tool you may be misusing.
10. Inverting the Test Automation Pyramid
A growing company was tasked to develop a test automation program from scratch, change its coding practices, and build a continuous testing toolchain. Martin Ivison details how they did it, including realizing that implementing the traditional test pyramid wasn't going to work—it would have to be turned upside down. They found out that small is beautiful, cheap is good, and cultural change matters. By Martin Ivison
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9. Leveraging Machine Learning to Predict Test Coverage
Test coverage is an important metric within test management, and as technology evolves, we‘re able to leverage new trends to predict coverage. Weka, an open source suite of machine learning software, can take your test management beyond spreadsheets to the latest AI technologies, letting you predict your test coverage earlier with greater accuracy. By Bhavani Ramasubbu
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8. Clean Coding Practices for a Scalable Test Automation Framework
Many organizations are looking to expand their automation abilities by designing and developing test automation frameworks. However, we often abandon good coding practices in favor of working as fast as possible. We need to treat this project like any other application development project. Here are three of the most important clean coding practices to keep in mind in order to make a scalable test automation framework. By Sumon Dey
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7. The Difference between Structured and Unstructured Exploratory Testing
There are a lot of misunderstandings about exploratory testing. In some organizations exploratory testing is done unprofessionally and in an unstructured way—there's no preparation, no test strategy, and no test design or coverage techniques. This leads to blinds spots in the testing, as well as regression issues. Here's how one company made its exploratory testing more structured. By Jan Jaap Cannegieter and Gerben van Oene
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6. 6 Ways Testers Can Add Value (Other Than Functional Testing)
Many testers spend their time doing functional testing and don't come out of this cocoon. But software testing is all about discovering quality-related information to assist stakeholders in making informed decisions, and there are multiple ways to discover information in addition to functional testing. Here are six actions that will help you add more value to your projects. By Ajay Balamurugadas
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5. 3 Testing Practices We Should All Stop
Testing evolves, and it becomes clear that some concepts we’re all used to doing are no longer applicable today. It’s important to periodically take stock of our testing practices and cull the ones that no longer make sense—or are downright harmful. Here are three common testing practices it’s in our best interests to stop doing. By Ajay Balamurugadas
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4. Who Should Set Up Continuous Integration for Automated Tests?
If you want to trigger long-running, end-to-end automated tests, you must integrate the test execution system with the continuous integration system. But this job falls in a fuzzy area that meets at the nexus of feature development, test automation development, quality assurance, and build and release engineering. Here's how to decide who should be responsible for the setup. By Ajeet Dhaliwal
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3. 6 Steps for Succeeding with Test Automation in Agile
Lots of test automation efforts in agile software development fail, or at least do not maximize their potential. This article looks at two main reasons test automation may not live up to the expectations that testers and other stakeholders in the agile development process have, then outlines six steps to avoid falling into these traps. Here's how to succeed with test automation in an agile environment. By Bas Dijkstra
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2. A Beginner's Guide to Test Automation
If you’re new to automated testing, you’re probably starting off with a lot of questions: How do I know which tests to automate? Why is automated testing useful for me and my team? How do I choose a tool or framework? This article answers a lot of those questions—and gives you some more to consider!—so you have an excellent foundation for beginning your automation endeavors. By Angela Riggs
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1. Why You Shouldn't Use Cucumber for API Testing
Many people misunderstand the purpose of Cucumber. Because it seems to yield clearer, plain-language test scripts, testers want to use Cucumber as a general-purpose testing tool, including for API tests. But its true purpose is as a BDD framework. You may be thinking, what’s the harm? Here’s why it makes a difference—and why you should choose another tool for API testing. By Byron Katz
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