A Rapid Testing Approach to Test Automation
There are many wonderful ways tools can be used to help software testing. Yet, all across the industry, tools are poorly applied, which adds terrible waste, confusion, and pain to what is already a hard problem. Why is this so? What can be done? Michael Bolton thinks that the fundamental problem is a shallow, narrow, and ritualistic approach to tool use. This is encouraged by the pandemic, rarely examined, and absolutely false belief that testing is a mechanical, repetitive process. Good testing, like programming, is instead a challenging intellectual process, and tools play a significant role in it. However, we cannot reasonably say that testing can be automated, any more than programming, management, medicine, or research can be automated. Join Michael Bolton to unpack the meaning of “test automation” and discuss the relationships between skilled testers and their tools.
Michael Bolton is a consulting software tester and testing teacher who helps people solve testing problems that they didn’t realize they could solve. He is the co-author (with senior author James Bach) of Rapid Software Testing, a methodology and mindset for testing software expertly and credibly in uncertain conditions and under extreme time pressure. With twenty-five years of experience testing, developing, managing, and writing about software, Michael has led DevelopSense, a Toronto-based testing and development consultancy, for the past fifteen years. Previously, he was with Quarterdeck Corporation where he managed the company’s flagship products and directed project and testing teams both in-house and worldwide. Contact Michael at [email protected], on Twitter @michaelbolton, or through his website.