Patterns in Test Automation - Framework, Data, Locators at Agile Noida

On 28th November 2015, I spoke in Agile Noida on "Patterns in Test Automation - Framework, Data, Locators".

I had spoken on the same topic (Patterns in Test Automation) in vodQA Hyderabad - but that was a Testing conference and I knew the attendees were Testing and Test Automation focused. Here, I was skeptic about how this topic would be received by the attendees - given that the conference was focused on Agile, and this topic was core Testing related, and to add to the fact - very technical where I was showing various Java / Ruby code samples.

My skepticism was, thankfully, unfounded. There was a good number of attendees that came to the talk and based on conversations after the talk, I realized that I was able to get the message across to the attendees.

Below is the abstract, slides and video from the talk.

Abstract

Building a Test Automation Framework is easy - there are so many resources / guides / blogs / etc. available to help you get started and help solve the issues you get along the journey.

However, building a "good" Test Automation Framework is not very easy. There are a lot of principles and practices you need to use, in the right context, with a good set of skills required to make the Test Automation Framework maintainable, scalable and reusable.

Design Patterns play a big role in helping achieve this goal of building a good and robust framework. 

In this talk, we will talk about, and see examples of various types of patterns you can use for:

1. Build your Test Automation Framework
2. Test Data Management
3. Locators / IDs (for finding / interacting with elements in the browser / app)

Using these patterns you will be able to build a good framework, that will help keep your tests running fast, and reliably in your CI / CD setup!

Slides

Patterns in Test Automation from Anand Bagmar

Video

Patterns in Test Automation

I spoke in vodQA Hyderabad on Sat, 22nd August 2015 about Patterns in Test Automation - Frameworks, Data & Locators.

The slides are available on SlideShare:

Patterns in Test Automation from Anand Bagmar

The video is available on YouTube:

Abstract

Building a Test Automation Framework is easy - there are so many resources / guides / blogs / etc. available to help you get started and help solve the issues you get along the journey.

However, building a "good" Test Automation Framework is not very easy. There are a lot of principles and practices you need to use, in the right context, with a good set of skills required to make the Test Automation Framework maintainable, scalable and reusable.

Design Patterns play a big role in helping achieve this goal of building a good and robust framework.

In this talk, we will talk about, and see examples of various types of patterns you can use for:

• Build your Test Automation Framework
• Test Data Management
• Locators / IDs (for finding / interacting with elements in the browser / app)

Using these patterns you will be able to build a good framework, that will help keep your tests running fast, and reliably in your CI / CD setup!

Learning outcome

• Patterns for building Test Automation Framework
• Patterns for Test Data Management, with pros and cons of each
• Patterns for managing locators / IDs for interaction with UI

Questions about the Test Pyramid

After watching my presentation on "Enabling Continuous Delivery (CD) in Enterprises with Testing", I recently got asked a couple of questions about the Test Pyramid. Thought it would be good to reply publicly - that may help others who had similar doubts. 

If you have any other questions, please reach out, or add it as comments on this post.

• Why do you talk about a JavaScript Test? I mean, why you don't consider this type of testing inside another? So, what do you mean by JavaScript test.
• JavaScript testing requires different toolset, not the standard xUnit based ones. Hence I classify it separately. Also, there is potentially a lot of logic that can be built in the JavaScript layer - so it is essential to write tests for that too - say using Jasmine.

• What's the difference between View and UI?
• UI test should focus on business / user journey validations. However a view test is different. Consider a journey which has a 5 step / screen workflow. To validate some UI change on the 4th step / screen, you will need to go through, in sequence, from step 1 to 4 and then validate the changes. This is very slow and costly approach. Instead, if you build the right type of stubs / mocks, then you can setup the state in your product which simulates the step 1-3 are completed, and directly open the UI, go to step #4, and validate your changes. This is the difference in View and UI tests.

Agile Testing - Metrics can be fun too!

Metrics are meaningless unless in the right context. In this case, my "right" context is purely a "feel-good-factor". 

In April 2011, I published the "Agile QA Process" paper on SlideShare. I am very happy to see it has received over 30000 views and has been downloaded over 1400 times!

On a similar note, I created a mindmap for Test Insanse - titled - "Agile QA - Capabilities & Skills". That also seems to be hitting a good note - with almost 1000 views in under 25 days!

So in this case - Metrics are fun! I don't mind this ego boost to continue writing more, and sharing more!

Enabling CD & TTA in Discuss Agile 2015

I had the opportunity to speak in Discuss Agile Delhi 2015 on 2 topics.

Here are the details on the same:

Enabling Continuous Delivery (CD) in Enterprises with Testing

Abstract:

The key objectives of any organization is to provide / derive value from the products / services they offer. To achieve this, they need to be able to deliver their offerings in the quickest time possible, and of good quality!

In such a fast moving environment, CI (Continuous Integration) and CD (Continuous Delivery) are now a necessity and not a luxury!

There are various practices that organizations need to implement to enable CD. Changes in requirements (a reality in all projects) needs to be managed better. Along with this, processes and practices need to be tuned based on the team capability, skills and distribution.

Video:

Slides:

Enabling CD in Enterprises with Testing from Anand Bagmar

To Deploy, or Not to Deploy? Decide using Test Trend Analyzer (TTA)

Abstract:

The key objectives of organizations is to provide / derive value from the products / services they offer. To achieve this, they need to be able to deliver their offerings in the quickest time possible, and of good quality!

In order for these organizations to to understand the quality / health of their products at a quick glance, typically a team of people scramble to collate and collect the information manually needed to get a sense of quality about the products they support. All this is done manually.

So in the fast moving environment, where CI (Continuous Integration) and CD (Continuous Delivery) are now a necessity and not a luxury, how can teams take decisions if the product is ready to be deployed to the next environment or not?

Test Automation across all layers of the Test Pyramid is one of the first building blocks to ensure the team gets quick feedback into the health of the product-under-test.

The next set of questions are:
    •    How can you collate this information in a meaningful fashion to determine - yes, my code is ready to be promoted from one environment to the next?
    •    How can you know if the product is ready to go 'live'?
    •    What is the health of you product portfolio at any point in time?
    •    Can you identify patterns and do quick analysis of the test results to help in root-cause-analysis for issues that have happened over a period of time in making better decisions to better the quality of your product(s)?

The current set of tools are limited and fail to give the holistic picture of quality and health, across the life-cycle of the products.

The solution - TTA - Test Trend Analyzer

TTA is an open source product that becomes the source of information to give you real-time and visual insights into the health of the product portfolio using the Test Automation results, in form of Trends, Comparative Analysis, Failure Analysis and Functional Performance Benchmarking. This allows teams to take decisions on the product deployment to the next level using actual data points, instead of 'gut-feel' based decisions.

Slides:

To Deploy or Not-To-Deploy - decide using TTA's Trend & Failure Analysis from Anand Bagmar

vodQA Pune - Innovations in Testing

vodQA Update - Agenda + Slides + Videos

Here is an update of the vodQA that went by at supersonic speed!

We had an intense and action-packed vodQA in ThoughtWorks, Pune on Saturday, 6th June 2015 - with the theme - Innovations in Testing!

Here are some highlights from the event:

• You can find the details of the agenda + links to slides & videos from here or here.
• After a record breaking attendee registrations (~500), we frantically closed off registrations. This meant around 140-180 people would show up based on historic attendance trends. 135 attendees made it to vodQA - the first person reaching office at 8.30am - when the event was supposed to start at 10am! That is enthusiasm!
• We had 45+ speaker submissions (and we had to reject more submissions because the registrations had already closed). After speaking to all submitters, and a lot of dry-runs and feedback, we eventually selected 6 talks, 4 lightning talks, 4 workshops from this massive list.
• We were unfortunately able to select only 2 external speakers (but it was purely based on the content + relevance to the theme). One of these speakers travelled all the way from Ahmedabad to Pune on his own for delivering a Lightning Talk.
• We had a few ThoughtWorkers travelling from Bangalore (2 speakers + 1 attendee) and 1 (speaker) from Gurgaon
• We had around 30-40 ThoughtWorkers participating in the conference. 
• No event in the office can be possible without the amazing support from our Admin team + support staff!
• Overall - we had around 200 people in the office on a Saturday!
• For the first time, we did a live broadcasting of all the talks + lightning talks (NO workshops). This allowed people to connect with vodQA as it happened. Also - usually the last and most cumbersome thing from a post-event processing - uploading videos - was now the the first thing that was completed. See the videos here on youtube. This update got delayed because we still have to get the link to the slides :(
• We celebrated the 5th Birthday of vodQA!
• Even though most projects in TW Pune are running at 120+% delivery speed, we were able to pull this off amazingly well! This can only happen when individuals believe in what they are contributing towards. Thank you all!
• We wrapped up most of the post-event activities (office-cleanup, retro, post-vodQA dinner and now this update email) within 5 days of the vodQA day - another record by itself!
• Some pictures are attached with this email.

You can see the tweets and comments in the vodQA group on facebook. 

Again, A HUGE THANKS to ALL those who participated in any way!

On behalf of the vodQA team + all the volunteers!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[UPDATE]

Detail agenda, with expected learning and speaker information available here (http://vodqa-pune.weebly.com/agenda.html) for vodQA Pune - Innovations in Testing.

NOTE;
- Each workshop has limited # of seats.
- Registration for workshop will be done at the Attendee Registration Desk between 9am-10am on vodQA day.
- Registration will be on first-come-first choice basis.
- See each talk / workshop details (below) for pre-requisites, if any.


----------------

vodQA is back in ThoughtWorks, Pune on Saturday, 6th June 2015. This time the theme is - "Innovations in Testing".

We got a record number of submissions from wannabe speakers and HUGE number of attendee registrations. Selecting 12-14 talks from this list was no small task - but we had to take a lot of tough decisions.

The agenda is now published (see here - http://vodqa-pune.weebly.com/agenda.html) and we are looking forward to have a very rocking vodQA!

Experiences from webinar on "Build the 'right' regression suite using Behavior Driven Testing (BDT)"

I did a webinar on how to "Build the 'right' regression suite using Behavior Driven Testing (BDT)" for uTest Community Testers on 18th Feb 2015 (2pm ET).

The recording of the webinar is available here on utest site (http://university.utest.com/recorded-webinar-build-the-right-regression-suite-using-behavior-driven-testing-bdt/).

The slides I used in the webinar can be seen below, or available from slideshare.

Build the "right" regression suite using Behavior Driven Testing (BDT) from Anand Bagmar

Here are some of my experiences from the webinar:

• It was very difficult to do this webinar - from a timing perspective. It was scheduled from 2-3pm ET (which meant it was 12.30-1.30am IST). I could feel the fatigue in my voice when I heard the recording. I just hope the attendees did not catch that, and that it did not affect the effective delivery of the content.
• There were over 50 attendees in the webinar. Though I finished my content in about 38-40 minutes, the remaining 20 minutes was not sufficient to go through the questions. The questions itself were very good, and thought provoking for me.
• A webinar is a great way to create content and deliver it without a break - as a study material / course content. The challenge and the pressure is on the speaker to ensure that the flow is proper, and the session is well planned and structured. Here, there are no opportunities to tweak the content on the fly based on attendee comments / questions / body language.
• That said, I always find it much more challenging to do a webinar compared to a talk. Reason - in a talk, I can see the audience. This is a HUGE advantage. I can understand from their facial expressions, body language if what I am saying makes sense or not. I can have many interactions with them to make them more involved in the content - and make the session about them, instead of me just talking. I can spend more time on certain content, while skipping over some - depending on their comfort levels. 

Reading does help bring about fearless change ...

[Update] The link to the article was wrong :( Corrected it now
 
I have shared my experience on How I Turned My Idea Into A Product on ThoughtWorks Insights. This proves (to me) that reading does help.

Start 2015 by Celebrating Selenium in vodQA Hyderabad

ThoughtWorks, Hyderabad is proud to host its first vodQA, also the first vodQA of 2015 and start 10 Years of Selenium Celebration. This event will be held on Saturday, 31st Jan 2015.

Look at the agenda of this vodQA and register soon. Given that we have mostly workshops in this vodQA, seats are going to be limited!

Here is the address and direction to the ThoughtWorks office.

UPDATE:

Slides for my talk on the "Future of Testing, Test Automation and the Quality Analyst" are now available here:

Perils of Page-Object Pattern

I spoke at Selenium Conference (SeConf 2014) in Bangalore on 5th September, 2014 on "The Perils of Page-Object Pattern".

Page-Object pattern is very commonly used when implementing Automation frameworks. However, as the scale of the framework grows, there is a limitation on how much re-usability really happens. It inherently becomes very difficult to separate the test intent from the business domain.
 
I want to talk about this problem, and the solution I have been using - Business Layer - Page-Object pattern, which has helped me keep my code DRY.

The slides from the talk are available here. The video is available here. 

Video taken by professional:


Video taken from my laptop:


Slides:

Perils of Page-Object Pattern from Anand Bagmar

If you want to see other slides and videos from SeConf, see the SeConf schedule page.