Large-scale and complex testing projects can stress the testing and automation practices we have learned through the years, resulting in less than optimal outcomes. However, a number of innovative ideas and concepts are emerging to better support industrial-strength testing for big projects. Hans Buwalda shares his experiences and presents strategies for organizing and managing testing on large projects. Learn how to design tests specifically for automation, including how to incorporate techniques like keyword testing and BDD. Discover what roles virtualization and the cloud can play—and the potential pitfalls of such options. Hans also describes the major challenges with global teams including time zones and cultural differences, and offers seven common problem “patterns” in globalization and what you can do to address them. Among the other takeaways from this class are tips to make your automation more stable and recommendations on how to deal with the numerous versions and configurations common in large projects.
Hans Buwalda
Hans Buwalda has been working with information technology since his high school years. In his career, Hans has gained experience as a developer, manager, and principal consultant for companies and organizations worldwide. He was a pioneer of the keyword approach to testing and automation, now widely used throughout the industry. His approaches to testing, like Action Based Testing and Soap Opera Testing, have helped a variety of customers achieve scalable and maintainable solutions for large and complex testing challenges. Hans is a frequent speaker at STAR conferences and is lead author of Integrated Test Design and Automation.
When automated tests are cumbersome to maintain, we often view this as a technical problem. However, an often-overlooked factor is the role that testers play in making automation scalable and maintainable. Test design can help or hurt how automation engineers can implement tests efficiently. If tests are too detailed or lack focus, good automation becomes virtually impossible. In this tutorial—for both testers and automation engineers—Hans Buwalda addresses what it means for test design when tests are to be automated. See why successful automated testing is not so much a technical challenge as it is a test design challenge. Hans shares a template that you can follow to get your tests organized and ready for efficient automation. Whether you work on a traditional or agile project, join Hans to learn how techniques including action-based testing, behavior-driven development, and exploratory testing will help you achieve better test design and great automation results.
Many functional tests of dialogs and web pages are done through the user interface, and the expected results of each test are clear. However, Hans Buwalda recognizes that some applications are “special” and pose challenges for automated testing. For example, oil exploration applications frequently produce complex 3D graphics output that is not easy to describe in a test case, let alone write the automation code. A game may implement randomized behavior, and a test must know where that behavior is in that game and where it needs to go next. Other examples of special applications are unstable base data, multi-station tests, and tests involving APIs or protocols. Join Hans as he discusses several of these special cases and provides suggestions on how to deal with them. The material presented is based on insights from a variety of projects, but since each situation is different, you're encouraged to bring your own challenges and experiences to share with your fellow delegates.