In the not-too-distant past, the only viable options for testing complicated web-based applications were commercial (i.e., expensive) tools. These tools were well designed but difficult to scale without significant investment in both human capital and licensing costs. Now, a number of open-source tools are available, allowing for rich, robust, expressive testing against applications as complicated as any in the world—and they’re free. However, your savings in licensing and support fees can potentially be eclipsed by the cost of maintaining a team of developers to support these "free" tools. But as the tools progress, the industry is starting to shift toward open-source test frameworks to help manage these tools, allowing their support and maintenance to be done through the “community.” This leaves your team with only the challenge of modeling your application. Marcus Merrell presents one such framework, which allows for quick modeling and implementation of a robust, low-maintenance test suite that requires minimal Java skills.
Marcus Merrell
RetailMeNot, Inc.
A test architect at RetailMeNot, Inc., Marcus Merrell has written UI and API test frameworks for several products since 2001. Marcus is obsessed with code design and holds sacred the philosophy that test frameworks should be approached, developed, and tested just as carefully as the production software they seek to examine. The successful demonstration of these principles has led to an intense focus on collaboration between testers and developers, and to a deep appreciation for code that is at once simple and sophisticated―an API for testers which is reusable, interface-agnostic, and universal to many problem sets.
Speaker Presentations
Wednesday, April 9, 2014 - 2:00pm
Test Automation
Getting Started with Open Source Testing Tools
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