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Thursday, June 6, 2013 - 2:15pm - 3:30pm
Testing

How to Survive the Coming Test Automation Zombie Apocalypse

Test automation is software development. To automate tests well, you have to have brains. Unfortunately, the very brains that make you good at your job also make you highly attractive to zombies. Like all zombies, test automation zombies are brainless, insatiable, and relentless. Unlike human zombies, test automation zombies can be difficult to recognize. They don’t look like people at all. Some look like org charts. Some look like best practices. Some you can’t see at all—bad habits that “seemed like a good idea at the time.” Dale Emery has survived numerous test automation zombie attacks with almost no permanent damage. Dale knows zombies, and teaches you to recognize them. Automating only at the end of a sprint? Zombie. Sprinkling fixed delays through your tests to accommodate unresponsive web pages? Zombie. Automating only by record and playback? Zombie. Make no mistake—the test automation zombies are coming. Learn how to spot them before they eat your brains.

Dale Emery, DHE

Since 1980, Dale Emery has worked in both IT organizations and software product development companies as a developer, manager, process steward, trainer, and consultant. He helps people apply the agile values of communication, feedback, simplicity, courage, and respect to software development. Dale's combination of deep technical expertise and extensive organizational development experience makes him particularly effective in working with software teams.

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