Visual validation - The Missing Tip of the Automation Pyramid

At yet-another-vodQA at ThoughtWorks, this time in the Pune edition on 16th March 2019, I spoke about Visual validation - The Missing Tip of the Automation Pyramid

Abstract:

The Test Automation Pyramid is not a new concept. The top of the pyramid is our UI / end-2-end functional tests - which should cover the breadth of the product.

What the functional tests cannot capture though, is the aspects of UX validations that can only be seen and in some cases, captured by the human eye. This is where the new buzzwords of AI & ML can truly help.

In this session, we will explore why Visual Validation is an important cog in the wheel of Test Automation and also different tools and techniques that can help achieve this. We will also see a demo of Applitools Eyes - and how it can be a good option to close this gap in automation!

Slides are available from here

Visual Validation - The Missing Tip of the Automation Pyramid from Anand Bagmar

Video is available here:

Thanks to Priyank Shah for this pic!

I also received some awesome feedback for the same.

Thanks vodQA Team! Till next time, adios!

Measuring Consumer Quality - The Missing Feedback Loop

I spoke in vodQA at ThoughtWorks, Pune on "Measuring Consumer Quality - the Missing Feedback Loop". 

This talk address the why and how from my earlier blog post on "Understanding, Measuring and Building Consumer Quality". I recommend you read that first, before going through the slides and video for this talk.

Abstract:

How to build a good quality product is not a new topic. Proper usage of methodologies, processes, practices, collaboration techniques can yield amazing results for the team, the organisation, and for the end-users of your product.

While there is a lot of emphasis on the processes and practices side, one aspect that is still spoken about "loosely" - is the feedback loop from your end-users to making better decisions.

SO, What is this feedback loop? Is it a myth? How do you measure it? Is there a "magic" formula to understand this data received? How to you add value to your product using this data?

In this interactive session, we will use a case study of a B2C entertainment-domain product (having millions of consumers) as an example to understand and also answer the following questions:

• The importance of knowing your Consumers 
• How do you know your product is working well? 
• How do you know your Consumers are engaged with your product? 
• Can you draw inferences and patterns from the data to reach of point of being able to make predictions on Consumer behaviour, before making any code change? 

Video:

Slides can be found here.

Pictures:

Why I needed to build my own MAD-LAB

I spoke about "Build your own MAD-LAB - for Mobile Test Automation" at vodQA - The Saga Continues! at Vuclip in collaboration with ThoughtWorks on Sat, 29th July 2017.

Join the vodQA group on facebook / LinkedIn to be part of the vodQA community.

Here are details of the talk:

Description

Building a real-(mobile)-device lab for Test Automation is NOT a common thing – it is difficult, high maintenance, expensive! Yet, I had to do it!


Setting the stage - I am coordinating all Testing activities for VIU - an OTT (over-the-top entertainment) product available on Android, iOS and WAP platforms. This product delivers high quality, popular video content in various different languages for consumers in various different regions. One of the main items in my charter is to implement functional test automation for consumer / user functionalities, and to provide quick feedback to the team and stakeholders on the “true” state of the product on all supported platforms for VIU.


In this talk, using the above set context, I will be sharing the following:

• The automation strategy
• Chosen tech-stack
• How (and why) no cloud-based solution worked for me
• Implementation details - MAD-LAB - which arose from the learnings of the failed experiments - which resulted in setting up my own real-device in-house lab.
• The core implementation (code) of MAD-LAB (already open-sourced)

Takeaways for attendees

• Learning from my experiments (what worked, or didn’t)
• Approach to testing an OTT (entertainment domain) product
• How to build a Test Automation Framework using cucumber-jvm / Appium
• Implementation details to Manage Devices, Optimizing Test Execution via distribution, Appium server, Custom Reporting etc., enabling automatic test execution via CI on each new app build, and more.

Slides

Build your own MAD-LAB - for Mobile Test Automation from Anand Bagmar

Video (talk starts at 04m:45s)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiRbfhOqQuc#t=04m45s

vodQA - The Saga Continues in Pune!

After a long break, vodQA returns to Pune. This time, ThoughtWorks & Vuclip are jointly hosting vodQA.

At vodQA, we have always strived to focus on the art and practice of Testing. This edition of vodQA is no different. Hence the theme for this vodQA - "The Saga Continues". 

We welcome all roles interested in the (Software) Quality to participate in this conference.

The event will be held on Sat, 29th July 2017 at Vuclip office in Pune. 

Agenda is as below:

Address:

1st Floor, 

Nanasaheb Gaikwad Information Technology Park, 

Sarjaa Rd, Aundh, Pune, Maharashtra 411007

Above Croma

Link to Map - https://goo.gl/maps/4yWaX6atutw

Slides from vodQA Pune - Less Talk, Only Action! now available

vodQA-Pune - Less Talk, Only Action! was held on on Saturday, 27th Aug 2016, 8.30am - 5.30pm at ThoughtWorks, Pune.

Agenda

Abstracts with Slides

1. Automating Web Analytics - Why? How?

Do you know –

• What is Web Analytics?How does Web Analytics work?
• Why is it important? How to test Web Analytics?
• How can we ensure correct data is sent to the Web Analytics server, every time, for all the actions?

Attend this workshop to learn ‘What is Web Analytics?’ and why it is an extremely important aspect of Software Development & Testing for your product / service to succeed!

We will share some techniques for testing Web Analytics - in a non-automated way - and why that is very challenging and error-prone.

We will learn, via hands-on activity, about WAAT - Web Analytics Automation Testing Framework (https://essenceoftesting.blogspot.com/search/label/waat) - an open-source solution, to automate validation of correct information / tags being sent to the Web Analytic server for different user actions as part of your regular Selenium-WebDriver Test Automation Framework.

Lastly, we will see how the impact of Analytics has changed dramatically with more adoption and spread of IoT (Internet of Things) and Big Data, and what we need to do to be part of the change, if not influencers of change!

Slides: automating-web-analytics

2. Performance testing with Gatling for Beginners

Gatling is a server side performance testing tool. This workshop aims at giving introduction to Gatling and facilitating participants to write their first performance tests using Gatling.

• Brief intro to Gatling
• Using Postman to check stub server(created using mountebank for workshop)
• Write a sample test using gatling (pre set up machines are provided)

Slides: gatling-performance-workshop

3. Game of Test Automation

We are going to use a game to work out the WHY, WHAT and HOW of test automation within the context of consumers, application, skillset, mindset, etc.

4. Security Testing - Operation Vijay

It is now the days of the web. All businesses move their applications online for their customers to use.

Many of these applications contain critical data of the customers such as credit card details, their personal details and so on. These data are very valuable. If these data fall in the wrong hands, they can have disastrous consequences.

Attacks on these systems can destroy the trust that the customers have for the business, they can cause great losses to the customers as well as the business, and so on.

The motivation behind attacks could be different like earning money, earning popularity, destroying a competitor company, etc.

No matter what the intention of the attack is, we need to develop safe applications and we need to know the various vulnerabilities and the consequences of our decisions when we develop applications.

Similarly, we should be aware of the various vulnerabilities before we test the applications so that we can try and exploit it during the testing phase and ensure better quality and safer applications.

Slides: security-testing-operation-vijay

5. Automate your Mobile tests with Appium

• Introduction to Appium.
• Appium design for Android and iOS
• How to locate elements on android and iOS applications(Inspector).
• Hands-on code snippet for android and iOS(Wordpress as sample app)
• Generating reports (ExtentReports)
• Evolve code snippet written above into a Page Object Framework.
  

Slides: mobile-automation-using-appium

6. Increase Automation to REST

• What are web services and why we use them?
• How to test a web service in multiple ways?
• Increased familiarity with automation

Tools used : rest client, postman (mention alternatives), unirest JAVA and requests python

Slides: increase-automation-to-rest, api-webservice-setup-instructions

7. Let's cook Cucumber

In this workshop we will be covering:

• Advantages of BDD through cucumber example.
• Framework setup along with JAVA and Selenium.
• Writing one end to end test case in real world.
• If time permits - will be covering basic Refactoring
  

Slides: lets-cook-cucumber
 

8. Mobile Automation using Espresso

Imagine a situation where every commit spits out a build that can be deployed to production with confidence. In today's startup era, this can be a huge boost to business as it will reduce the time to market. UI Automation for mobile apps, be it native or hybrid, has been painful since long. But with mature frameworks coming up and Google/Apple realizing the importance of such tools, UI Automation is gaining traction in the mobile space. 

This talk is basically to understand what and why of espresso along with automating a simple scenario using espresso.

Slides: getting-high-on-espresso

WAAT 2.0 (BETA) available for use

Very excited to share that I, along with a few collaborators of WAAT did a workshop in vodQA, Pune on Sat, 27th Aug about Automating Web Analytics - Why? How?. 
We implemented the automation using WAAT.

Also, am very excited to announce that WAAT v2.0 BETA for Java is now available from the WAAT project.

The slides from the workshop are available here

Automating Web Analytics from Anand Bagmar

Here are some details of the workshop:

Abstract

Do you know –

• What is Web Analytics?

• How does Web Analytics work?

• Why is it important? How to test Web Analytics?

• How can we ensure correct data is sent to the Web Analytics server, every time, for all the actions?

Attend this workshop to learn ‘What is Web Analytics?’ and why it is an extremely important aspect of Software Development & Testing for your product / service to succeed!

 
We will share some techniques for testing Web Analytics - in a non-automated way - and why that is very challenging and error-prone.

 
We will learn, via hands-on activity, about WAAT - Web Analytics Automation Testing Framework (https://essenceoftesting.blogspot.com/search/label/waat) - an open-source solution, to automate validation of correct information / tags being sent to the Web Analytic server for different user actions as part of your regular Selenium-WebDriver Test Automation Framework.

 
Lastly, we will see how the impact of Analytics has changed dramatically with more adoption and spread of IoT (Internet of Things) and Big Data, and what we need to do to be part of the change, if not influencers of change!

Pre-Reqs

• JDK 1.8
• IDE (Eclipse / IntelliJ Idea / etc.)
• Git (and add it to path)
• Gradle 2.3 (and add it to path)
• Firefox browser compatible with Selenium v2.53.1 (v46)
• Also refer here for steps to run Appium tests using WAAT 

 

Sample Code

- Create a directory WAAT-Workshop and run
git clone git@github.com:anandbagmar/waat-sample-java.git
- If Using any existing framework: download WAAT-all-v2.0_BETA.jar
http://goo.gl/8bfyaJ
- To run sample code - from waat-sample-java directory - run the command -
gradle clean build 

Please reach out if you need help in using WAAT!

vodQA Pune - Less Talk, Only Action - Agenda, Abstract and workshop pre-requisites

vodQA-Pune - Less Talk, Only Action!

When? - Saturday, 27th Aug 2016, 8.30am - 5.30pm

Where? 

ThoughtWorks, Pune 
6th Floor, Binarius Building, 
Beside Sales Tax Office, Shastrinagar, Yerawada 
Pune, Maharashtra 411006 

Map: http://goo.gl/maps/KfuJG

What?

vodQA Pune - Less Talk, Only Action! 
- Registration - 8.30am- 9.15am
- Welcome note - 9.15am

Agenda

Abstracts

1. Automating Web Analytics - Why? How?

Do you know –

• What is Web Analytics?

• How does Web Analytics work?

• Why is it important? How to test Web Analytics?

• How can we ensure correct data is sent to the Web Analytics server, every time, for all the actions?

Attend this workshop to learn ‘What is Web Analytics?’ and why it is an extremely important aspect of Software Development & Testing for your product / service to succeed!

We will share some techniques for testing Web Analytics - in a non-automated way - and why that is very challenging and error-prone.

We will learn, via hands-on activity, about WAAT - Web Analytics Automation Testing Framework (https://essenceoftesting.blogspot.com/search/label/waat) - an open-source solution, to automate validation of correct information / tags being sent to the Web Analytic server for different user actions as part of your regular Selenium-WebDriver Test Automation Framework.

Lastly, we will see how the impact of Analytics has changed dramatically with more adoption and spread of IoT (Internet of Things) and Big Data, and what we need to do to be part of the change, if not influencers of change!

Pre-Reqs:

• JDK 1.8
• IDE (Eclipse / IntelliJ Idea / etc.)
• Git
• Firefox browser compatible with Selenium v2.53.1 (v46)
• Also refer here for steps to run Appium tests using WAAT

2. Performance testing with Gatling for Beginners

Gatling is a server side performance testing tool. This workshop aims at giving introduction to Gatling and facilitating participants to write their first performance tests using Gatling.

> Brief intro to Gatling

> Using Postman to check stub server(created using mountebank for workshop)

> Write a sample test using gatling (pre set up machines are provided)

Pre-Reqs:

• Participants should know at least one programming language well (Gatling tests are written in Scala. But participants need not know Scala)
• Prior knowledge of what 'Performance testing is?' would help.

System requirements:

• Homebrew (Package Manager for Mac)
• Java 8
• Gradle
• Intellij IDE(Add Scala plug in)

3. Game of Test Automation

We are going to use a game to work out the WHY, WHAT and HOW of test automation within the context of consumers, application, skillset, mindset, etc.

Pre-Reqs: None

4. Security Testing - Operation Vijay

It is now the days of the web. All businesses move their applications online for their customers to use.

Many of these applications contain critical data of the customers such as credit card details, their personal details and so on. These data are very valuable. If these data fall in the wrong hands, they can have disastrous consequences.

Attacks on these systems can destroy the trust that the customers have for the business, they can cause great losses to the customers as well as the business, and so on.

The motivation behind attacks could be different like earning money, earning popularity, destroying a competitor company, etc.

No matter what the intention of the attack is, we need to develop safe applications and we need to know the various vulnerabilities and the consequences of our decisions when we develop applications.

Similarly, we should be aware of the various vulnerabilities before we test the applications so that we can try and exploit it during the testing phase and ensure better quality and safer applications.

Pre-Reqs:

• Java
• Modern Browser like Firefox/Chrome

5. Automate your Mobile tests with Appium

Introduction to Appium.

Appium design for Android and iOS

How to locate elements on android and iOS applications(Inspector).

Hands-on code snippet for android and iOS(Wordpress as sample app)

Generating reports (ExtentReports)

Evolve code snippet written above into a Page Object Framework.

Pre-Reqs:

• IntelliJ
• Java 1.8
• MAVEN
• Node
• Adb - android debug bridge
• Appium installed through node(npm install -g appium). Once the installation goes well. Hit command “appium” without quote and you should see Welcome message from appium.
• Download & install Virtual Box from here
• Download the basic version on Genymotion Android Emulator from here
• Make sure you chose the basic version which is free for use(Go to individual tab).
• You will be asked to create account with Genymotion before downloading the Genymotion package/installer
• Confirm your account by pressing the link sent to your registered email id
• Once you download, install Genymotion Android Emulator by following the instructions here
• Once you install, open/start Genymotion and click on Add(+) link to add a new virtual device and press Signin and login
• Select Android Version 6.0.0 and Device model Google Nexus 5 or 6. For more details follow the instruction mentioned here
• Select from available option, Press Next and wait till download finishes.
• Press start button & you should see emulator running.

6. Increase Automation to REST

What are web services and why we use them?

How to test a web service in multiple ways?

Increased familiarity with automation

Tools used : rest client, postman (mention alternatives), unirest JAVA and requests python

Pre-Reqs:

• IntelliJ
• MAVEN
• CHROME and POSTMAN

7. Let's cook Cucumber

In this workshop we will be covering:

• Advantages of BDD through cucumber example.
• Framework setup along with JAVA and Selenium.
• Writing one end to end test case in real world.
• If time permits - will be covering basic Refactoring

Pre-Reqs:

• IntelliJ
• Java 1.8
• Maven
• Firefox 46

8. Mobile Automation using Espresso

Pre-Reqs:

• Ensure you have Java 7 or beyond, installed on your box. If not you can download it from here 
• Download & install Virtual Box from here
• Download and install Android Studio from here. 
• Also kindly download the android command line tools from the above link.
• If you open android studio, it will ask you download & setup Android API and build tools which is useful for debug & compile our apps so please follow the steps. Ensure you have following things installed before you come for workshop and downloading it takes lot of time. 
  • Android SDK build-tools v23.0
  • Android API 5.0 or above
  • Install Android Support library from Extras. 
  • Please google in case of any issues while installing SDK
• Download the basic version on Genymotion Android Emulator from here
  • Make sure you chose the basic version which is free for use(Go to individual tab).
  • You will be asked to create account with Genymotion before downloading the Genymotion package/installer
  • Confirm your account by pressing the link sent to your registered email id
  • Once you download, install Genymotion Android Emulator by following the instructions here
  • Once you install, open/start Genymotion and click on Add(+) link to add a new virtual device and press Signin and login 
  • Select Android Version 6.0.0 and Device model Google Nexus 5 or 6. For more details follow the instruction mentioned here
  • Select from available option, Press Next and wait till download finishes.
  • Press start button & you should see emulator running.
  • You’re all set for the event.