Machine Data Is Everywhere: Use It for Testing!
As more applications are hosted on servers, they produce immense quantities of logging data. Quality engineers should verify that apps are producing log data that is existent, correct, consumable, and complete. Otherwise, apps in production are not easily monitored, have issues that are difficult to detect, and cannot be corrected quickly. Tom Chavez presents the four steps that quality engineers should include in every test plan for apps that produce log output or other machine data. First, test that the data is being created. Second, ensure that the entries are correctly formatted and complete. Third, make sure the data can be consumed by your company’s log analysis tools. And fourth, verify that the app will create all possible log entries from the test data that is supplied. Join Tom as he presents demos including free tools. Learn the steps you need to include in your test plans so your team’s apps not only function but also can be monitored and understood from their machine data when running in production.
Tom Chavez has more than twenty years of experience as a manager and product manager in the software development tools field. Tom works in product marketing as senior manager of developer marketing at Splunk, the leader in operational intelligence. Tom has worked across the Silicon Valley in California at companies including Apple, Sun, PalmSource, and Intuit, delivering tools for web, Mac, Java, PalmOS, Linux, and Android development and testing. He speaks frequently at industry conferences and meet-ups on topics including web app performance, testing at large scale, mobile continuous integration and testing, automated mobile testing tools, and big data analytics for business value. Follow Tom on Twitter @TomChavez.