Mobile Dev + Test 2017 - Software Testing
Monday, April 24
Agile Tester Certification (2-Day)
Effective Mobile Automation Using Appium® (2-Day)
Mobile Application Testing (2-Day)
Tuesday, April 25
Develop Your Mobile App Test and Quality Strategy
Let’s build a mobile app quality and testing strategy together. Whether you have a web, hybrid, or native app, building a test and quality strategy means first understanding your customers and your competitors and then testing your app under real-world conditions. Most importantly, it means having the data and tools to make quick, agile decisions on feature implementations and bug fixes. Jason Arbon guides you through the latest techniques, data, and tools to ensure you have an awesome mobile app test and quality strategy. Leave this interactive session with a strategy for your very own...
Testing Mobile Apps in the Cloud with Selenium
With the burgeoning number of mobile OSs, browsers, and platform combinations, comprehensive mobile app testing can be a nightmare—but it doesn’t have to be! Brian Hicks demonstrates ways to leverage the open source Selenium (IDE) with cloud services to test mobile apps across multiple browsers and platforms. Through hands-on exercises, experience how Selenium interacts with web browsers below the GUI to test actions, inputs, and expected outcomes. Examine how the Selenium framework works and learn how to expand Selenium tests to improve device and platform coverage. Employing a cloud-...
Wednesday, April 26
Unit Testing Android Apps: A Hands-On Workshop
PreviewWith a global market share of more than 86 percent, Android has taken over the mobile world. Since it’s relatively easy to begin developing Android apps with the free tools available, the Google Play Store has millions of Android applications. Many developers find their apps more frail with each update as adding a feature to one activity breaks something outside it. Unfortunately, it is usually the customer who finds these bugs and then punishes the app with bad reviews. However, Troy Miles says there is a solution—robust unit testing. In this hands-on workshop, Troy shows you how...
Introduction to Testing REST APIs
An API (Application Programming Interface) provides information or content to mobile applications, and in turn, the application presents this content to the end user. The API is a service and a crucial element in the success of any mobile application. Because this is a service, the fundamental question is: How can I test an API behind an application? In this introductory tutorial Marc van’t Veer focuses on what REST APIs are and how to test them. Marc starts with basic concepts of the message architecture in an API and then explains elements like resources, verbs, states, headers, and...
Security Testing Mobile Applications
The sensitive nature of personal information stored on smart devices makes security testing vital when building mobile applications. Alan Crouch explores the unique characteristics of mobile devices—how they store data, the fluid trust boundaries between applications, and the unique aspects of device security models. Learn about the many different threat types and use cases that make security testing mobile applications so challenging. Alan offers hints and tips for comprehensive security testing of mobile applications during the development process, sharing when and where in that process...
Super Rad Brainstorming
Ever had a brainstorming session that failed to produce the quality results you hoped for? Think you already have good brainstorming sessions but know there’s room for improvement? Facilitating Super Rad Brainstorming sessions for eons now, Jaimee Newberry is an industry leader in improving brainstorming skills and surfacing incredible ideas. Work together as Jaimee facilitates a dialogue-based session that highlights tips and tricks for making your own brainstorming sessions more productive. Learn what supplies to bring, how to prepare for a session, and how to handle common sticking...
Harness Artificial Intelligence to Power Your Mobile Testing
NewArtificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are changing the world of software. Jason Arbon explains how to use them as tools to speed up and scale up your testing. The future of mobile and IoT software testing will be a blend of people working alongside AI systems. These AI systems will perform most of the drudgery of software testing so people can focus on the creative and non-obvious testing that is most appreciated by developers and product managers. These AI systems will find insights across large sets of data that human testers simply cannot divine alone. In this interactive...
Advanced Techniques for Testing REST APIs
The Application Programming Interface (API) is a service and a crucial element in the success of any mobile application. Improving your API testing skills allows you to give your development team better feedback in more efficient and effective ways. So how do you test whether the API is easy to use, scalable, performing at an acceptable level, and secure? In this advanced hands-on workshop, Marc van’t Veer explains how to define and implement a dedicated test strategy, use tooling to compare versions of APIs and versions of a resource, use headers with tokens, create Java scripts to...
Testing the Internet of Things
Preview NewThe Internet of Things (IoT) is the next big technology challenge for software testing. IoT testing uses concepts from traditional and mobile environments but has new testing problems and new patterns. Jon Hagar begins by examining how to use data analytics from error profiles and social media to discover the new error patterns in IoT systems. Usage data on IoT devices is growing rapidly and becoming a big data issue. Through hands-on exercises, Jon explains how teams can use data analytics to improve development and testing. Next, he uses the analytics to define real-world test...
Thursday, April 27
A Screenless Future Is Closer Than You Think
Somewhere near you is a device with a screen. You can’t live without that device. In fact, you are reading this right now on that—or another—device. Within a few years, the screens that we so depend on today will begin to disappear. After all, we are analog creatures, and we are meant to experience the world without the confining boundaries of two-dimensional screens. What is this “screenless future,” and what tech advancements are being made right now to make it real? Dona Sarkar is experiencing first-hand this new future in her role as principal product manager at HoloLens, working to...
IoT—Let’s Code Like It’s 1999!
Everyone is drawn to the cool new ways to connect devices to the Internet and make life easier—and a little more futuristic. But, do you know that IoT has been around since the past century? Theresa Lanowitz is one of the early advocates of what is now IoT and is thrilled that the pace of acceptance is accelerating—rapidly. This level of acceptance and understanding of IoT was not always the case. Theresa shares the early ideas, vision, and concepts of the Sun Jini project, the pre-cursor to IoT, and offers advice for developers and testers on how to succeed with IoT. Whether you are part...
Vulnerabilities and Bugs in Mobile Apps with Quick Tours
PreviewAs mobile devices, tools, operating systems, and web technologies rapidly evolve, testers in this changing domain must quickly adapt their thinking. Testers often struggle to find critical vulnerabilities and bugs in mobile applications due to lack of guidance, experience, and the right resources. Raj Subramanian was a tester in that very situation. While working at Orbitz and now at CSG International, he started categorizing these bugs and came up with a mind map, which helps do a quick tour of your mobile application and find vulnerabilities as quickly as possible. The mind map...
Mobile Testing: What To Automate and What Not to Automate
PreviewThe rapid move of companies into mobile technology has significantly increased the demand for testing mobile applications. Naturally, companies are turning to automation to help ease the workload, increase potential test coverage, and improve testing efficiency. But should you try to automate all things mobile? Are there any pitfalls to consider? David Dang says that unfortunately the answers are not always clear-cut. Mobile has its own set of complications, compounded by a huge variety of devices and OS platforms. Learn what mobile testing activities are ripe for automation,...
Testing Transformation in the IoT Era
In the next few years, when more than 20 billion devices will be connected to the Internet, many of us will be IoT testers—in one way or another. Jennifer Bonine explores new areas you will need to address in your testing, new testing skills required in the IoT era, and ideas for how to innovate your technology strategies and processes to account for new vulnerabilities. Jennifer addresses current IoT trends that are taking shape and what you need to do to enhance your testing skills—and even your career. She explores the real game changers—data security, “things” test labs, open APIs,...
Android System Testing at Google
Testing an operating system is a complex affair given the highly interconnected nature of the product. This talk will discuss general tools and practices Google uses for testing the Android OS, and take a deep dive into one of the product verticals - system updates - that highlights some of the more unique challenges that an OS test strategy can face. Update testing faces many hurdles from the logistical, centered around the handling of multiple versions simultaneously, to the technical, involving the update process's deep integration with every level of the system.
A New Approach to IoT Safety, Risk, and Vulnerability Analysis
The ugly truth is that the interconnection of devices with IoT systems can lead to failures which result in physical injury, unacceptable risk, or cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Preventing such accidents requires identifying hazards, risks, and security vulnerabilities during development. Traditional hazard analysis techniques—failure modes and effects analysis, fault tree analysis, and root cause analysis—were developed for simple hardware controllers and are based on single-point failures. However, software fails differently than hardware. Most accidents, system failures, and many cyber...
IoT Software Testing Challenges: The IoT World Is Really Different
PreviewThe Internet of Things (IoT) is poised to become the next growth area—and biggest challenge—for software development and testing. Although many traditional test techniques and strategies remain viable, IoT testing includes working with huge amounts of data, multiple communication channels, device protocols, resource limitations (battery or memory), sensors, controllers, cloud-hardware-device integration, and security concerns. Jon Hagar says that successful IoT testers must develop new knowledge and skills and apply them based on real data and proven test design methods. Testing...
A Coded Mind: From Ideas and Assumptions to Applications
We tend to imagine code as a construct wholly separate from the subjectivity of the human mind. However, time and time again we prove that systems and applications are extensions of our thought process—for better and for worse. Our assumptions and our ideas are magnified when captured in code—for better and for worse. TJ Usiyan asserts that overlooking this idea has led to unfortunate expectations of the software that we write and poor results for those meant to use it. Join TJ as he describes tools you can employ to reveal overlooked audiences, avoid unforced errors in products and...
Friday, April 28
Enterprise IoT: Solving the Challenges of the Smart City
The Internet of Things is bringing unprecedented levels of instrumentation and insights, drawing from the vast advances brought about by the industrial, mobile, and internet revolutions. While people are already comfortable with connected fitness devices, thermostats, and home security, IoT for urban environments and the enterprise is still in its infant stage and evolving quickly. Gary Garcia maintains that the digitalization of enterprises and the cities where they reside will fundamentally change the way businesses interact with their employees and customers—and how governments interact...
Leverage Node.js for Mobile Test Automation
With more than 1.4 billion Android and 475 million iOS combinations with active users, high quality mobile apps require high levels of test automation. Join experienced Node.js QA architect and nodeqa.io founder Stacy Kirk as she explains how to properly test mobile web apps for functionality, usability, and consistency—and why Node.js can make it easier. Stacy shares how to combine mobile automation best practices using Appium with the best Node.js frameworks to create powerful mobile front-end testing solutions. Mobile app testers can benefit from these tools and technologies to simplify...
The IoT: Internet of Threats?
PreviewFrom connected elevators to smart cars, the Internet of Things (IoT) is all around us, even in ways we're not aware of. The devices make our lives easier, encourage us to exercise, and save time and resources--but at what cost? With current computer and mobile technology, the main threat is to our data and our accounts, with phishing and ransomware topping the charts; however, the IoT introduces risk to our personal safety and compromises our privacy in ways we can't even yet imagine. Join Chris to...
Building and Testing Secure Mobile Apps
Mobile application development is now a mission-critical component of IT organizations and a big part of the software industry’s landscape. Due to the security threats associated with mobile devices, it is critical we build our apps—from the ground up—to be secure and trustworthy. However, many application developers and testers do not understand how to build and test secure mobile applications. Alan Crouch discusses the risks associated with mobile platforms/applications and describes proven practices for ensuring the safety of your mobile applications. Alan delves into the unique nuances...
Testing the Next Generation of Technologies: IoT, Mobile, and Cloud … Oh My!
Testing technology, tools, and methods are always playing catch up with the latest—and the next greatest—consumer and business applications and software-intensive products. Now with IoT, mobile, and the cloud, almost EVERY new product has a software testing aspect. Costa Avradopoulos explores the bewildering challenges and recent trends in testing IoT, mobile, and cloud applications. He outlines the necessary elements of test strategy for each of these technologies: building a test lab, test coverage, test data, test management, tools, and automation. Bringing it all together with a...
Ensuring the Happy Path: Automated Developer Testing for Mobile Apps
PreviewIs there anything worse than trying to fix that one small bug, declaring it fixed, and then realizing “the fix” caused another bug somewhere else in your app? And there it is, one more bug and you are at it again. The small voice in your head says if only you had automated tests. We know we should invest more in testing because it can save us headaches down the road. Josiah Mory says that although getting started can be an uphill climb, automated testing does not have to be all or nothing. Josiah introduces approaches for automating developer tests along with test-driven...
Internet of Fun: Winning Ways for an IoT Hackathon
PreviewThe very first time Alexander Andelkovic and his team entered an IoT hackathon, they were awarded second place for their IoT app due in large part to the early and continuous QA testing. Their IoT solution was based on combining different public data sources—such as a Minecraft map of Stockholm and real-time subway system data—to create a fun presentation of the IoT data. Join Alexander as he describes the preparation it took to get ready for the hackathon. He discusses the work that was done on the team composition, how they came up with an approach to add QA testing roles at the...
The Present and Future of Mobile Test Automation with Appium
PreviewMobile testing has moved forward in leaps and bounds in the past few years. With frameworks like Appium, it has never been easier to scale automated testing and integrate it with continuous integration. While new automation technologies proliferate with device and platform upgrades, Appium provides a singular, consistent automation protocol on top of the best automation technologies,. In the past year, the Appium open source community has added support for new kinds of automation, including XCUITest for iOS, UiAutomator 2 for Android, and even Windows apps. With demos and code...
Prepare for IoT with a Mature Test Strategy
As IoT devices increase the ways we personalize our digital world, they add the complexity of the conditions we encounter in the real world. How do we know that our devices will work as expected if we don’t even know how people will use them? A comprehensive test strategy that covers all aspects of your customers' user experiences, including mobile app and API services, helps prepare for the unknowns in new IoT technologies and devices. Paul Bruce explores ways to optimize automated test coverage for continuous integration so that you isolate and minimize defects before they impact IoT...
Rooting Your Devices to Test Outside the Box
The mobile landscape has changed how companies think of information technology. However, many organizations have failed to make the most of the mobile testing tools available. Alan Crouch explores how rooting your devices can help you break past your mobile testing block and allow you to test in more exciting, creative, and different ways. Rooting, or jail-breaking as it is called in the iOS world, is the process of allowing users of smartphones, tablets, and other devices to attain privileged control—or root access—over various subsystems. Rooting is often performed with the goal of...