Simple, Effective and much less Stressful Software Management. — A recent tweet by Elon Musk sparked a debate about whether managers should be technically excellent, not just technically competent. In particular, Elon singled out “Managers in software must write great software”. I agree with Elon! I will share my understanding and experience on this. You might have noticed that…

Learning and practising test automation is a must for good programmers. — Over my 20+ years of work in software development, I have met a few programmers with big egos who claimed that his/her code was 100% bug-free in the previous projects, during the interview or on the first day at work. Obviously, it was not true, actually far from it. Most…

How to fake geolocation to assist in web test automation — A repost of my daughter’s article with permission. I added a few notes. This is also included in my “How to in Selenium WebDriver” series. Many web apps use location-based information (e.g. find the nearest restaurant). To test this feature, you need to simulate the browser’s geolocation. Tests can be…

Ruby is easy to learn and pleasant to use, and the best choice for scripting automated end-to-end tests. — Table of Contents: · 1. Ruby is one of the five official Selenium binding languages · 2. Ruby was the preferred language for automated testing, and still is · 3. Why is Ruby less used in Test Automation now? ∘ Why did so many go for Protractor or other Java/JS library? ·…

Test Automation = Automation + QA — This article is one of the “IT Terminology Clarified” series. Test Automation, according to Wikipedia, “is the use of software separate from the software being tested to control the execution of tests and the comparison of actual outcomes with predicted outcomes”. This definition is correct but too general. This article…

Object Oriented (OO) simplified by examples — A repost of my daughter’s article with permission. I added a few notes. This is also included in the 10-minute guide series: 10-Minute Guide to Git Version Control for Testers 10-Minute Guide to Set up Test Automation using Selenium WebDriver with Ruby 10-Minute Guide to Object Oriented Programming Most modern…

Higher capability is required to manage more. — This article is one of the “Chinese Idiom Stories for Software Professionals” series. The Story Han Xin is one of the most famous generals in Chinese history. One day, the emperor asked Han Xin casually, “How many soldiers do you think that I could command”. Han Xin replied: “Your Majesty, you could…

Test Automation can help manual testers conduct better manual testing; Ambitious manual testers can learn and grow to be automated test engineers — In the previous article, I explained how developers and testers could collaborate with automated testing. This article will focus on the collaboration between test automation engineers and manual testers. Table of Contents: · Test Automation is not a total replacement for Manual Testing · Automation Helps Manual Testers greatly · Make Data-Preparation Automation…

A software professional should have responsibility and integrity. Do software functional and load testing properly and professionally. — Chengdu, a Chinese city with 21 million residents, was put in lockdown on 2022–09–1 and the residents were required to do mandatory daily PCR tests due to the country’s zero-COVID policy. However, the software system used to assist in recording PCR tests “seriously failed” the next day.