TestGuild Automation Podcast

What better way is there to celebrate a milestone than speaking with a living legend? Gerald Weinberg has been developing and testing software for over 50 years, and was one of the engineers who worked on the first American NASA space program (Project Mercury), where he designed and implemented the space tracking network focusing on the first multi-programmed operating systems. Jerry has also written more than 30 books including some of my favorites: Weinberg on Writing: The Fieldstone Method, Perfect Software And Other Illusions About Testing, and Becoming a Technical Leader. You don't want to miss this episode – it'll be like listening to a real Obi Wan Kenobi … or Yoda!

In this episode we’ll be speaking with Neeraj Tripathi about his Principles of Software Quality Management. What I really like about this episode is that Neeraj has a ton of experience with software quality management and has worked across multiple organizations on many cross-functional teams. I think his breadth of knowledge really shines through in this episode. So if you’re having issues with software quality management, prepare to hear some knowledge bombs because Neeraj shares actionable advice for almost all the questions I asked of him.

Do your test automation efforts leave you feeling depressed and bored, like Marvin the Robot in The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy? Do you wonder what the meaning of test automation really is? Good news! In this episode we’ll be speaking with Mark Fink, author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Test Automation, where he’ll reveal the answers to all your burning test automation questions.

This episode is a special treat, because we’ll be speaking with the actual HPE team that tested HPE’s new testing tool, LeanFT. Today we’ll be TestTalking with Hagay Avisar, the leader of HPE’s automation Center of Excellence, Ayelet Dasa a software engineer who focuses on test automation, Aviad Diamant the Lead for LeanFT’s Quality Team, and Malcolm Isaacs a senior researcher at HP. So get ready to get a behind-the-scenes, insiders look at how a functional test tool vendor goes about testing its own products.

Tired of getting crushed by bugs? Learn some testing Kung Fu to help you dominate any defect that comes your way. You need to be quick, and you need to recognize when something's not working. You need to be as Bruce Lee said "like water" so you can change your testing approach quickly. In this episode you’ll discover some new testing techniques to improve your testing efforts with David Greenlees, a black belt tester and author of the Software Testing as a Martial Art – There is no One Style.

Hi its Joe just wanted to quickly let you know that there is no TestTalks interview this week. I’m a deacon for a church and we have all our family over for Easter so I’ve been wicked busy preparing for Sunday festivities.

But hey, don’t worry we’ll be back next week with an awesome interview with David Greenless about his new book Software Testing as a Martial Art . I also have interviews scheduled with Mark Fink author of the book The Hitchhikers Guide to Test Automation and an interview with HPE’s development team to learn about how they used their own tools for their testing efforts.

And If you have an automation success story you’d like to share on an upcoming episode, let’s talk! Send your suggestions to:[email protected]

So stay tuned and as always test everything and keep the good --Peace!

Managers and engineers can often get lulled into thinking automation is easy. After all, how hard can automation be? You record yourself interacting with the application, then play it back. Done. But how many of us have been burned by that type of thinking? I know I have. It’s up to us as automation engineers to educate the people around us about automation best practices and techniques if we are to have a prayer of surviving in this fast-paced, Agile DevOps world.In this episode Jim Hazen, a veteran of the software testing trenches, shares with us his years of experience in succeeding with test automation. Discover what it takes to implement automation and set realistic expectations for your teams, keeping in mind that it's automation, not automagic!

Have you ever had the feeling that you’re running too many tests? Or redundant tests that are causing you to spend too much time maintaining an ever-growing test suite of what seems like wasted test cases? Does your test suite take a long time to run when all you want to do is make sure a small change you made to a specific area in your application didn’t affect anything else? And did it leave you wondering what combination of test cases would give you the verification coverage you need?These are issues I struggle with, as well – which is why last year at HP Discover in London I was interested to learn about a model-based testing using a tool called Agile Designer. Ever since seeing a demo of the product done by Huw Price, I’ve been hoping to get him to appear on my podcast. I’m happy to announce that today, Huw shares with us his thoughts around model-based testing and test data management.

There have been many changes in the software testing industry in the last several years. Those of us who have been testers for a while know that testing is an actual professional craft; nevertheless, many folks coming out of college – and even some of our own developers – have no idea about testing techniques and tools.If you’re anything like me you’ve probably wished there was a way to keep up with and promote the ever-changing tools and techniques needed to succeed with testing.In this episode, you’ll discover how this is all about to change as we speak with Anna Royzman about her new organization, A Quality Leadership Institute. The mission of A Quality Leadership Institute is to become the world’s leading advocate for quality in technology. Anna has big plans for the organization, which include developing innovative programs on software testing quality and leadership for the tech community, as well as the promotion of software testing as a real discipline in colleges around the world.

Many test teams have undergone major changes over the past few years. With more and more companies moving towards Agile and DevOps best practices, companies are scrambling to understand how the role of testers fits into this new way of developing software.

In this episode, Perze Ababa shares with us his experience in running a testing organization in the 21st century, and discusses the tools and techniques that can help anyone improve their testing efforts.