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10-Minute Guide to Git Version Control for Testers
Learn to use Git for work quickly
In my training, one of the early tasks is to teach the manual testers to use Git. Just like programmers’ code, automated test scripts need to be stored in a version control system. Git is the de-facto version control (also known as source control) system for source code.
Besides the obvious benefits of version control, such as
- sharing the updates among the team members
- traceability (who changed what)
- document history (also backups)
- …
For testers in a team, they get the latest automated test scripts (changes from others) via a version control system. There is also a need for automated testers to execute an automated test suite in a Continuous Testing (CT) server, and the CT server gets the latest automated test scripts and supporting data via a version control system like Git.
Tip: Create a separate repository for automated test scripts only, do not mix with the source code, at least initially.
This article will show testers how to use Git to work quickly, in around 10 minutes. Git is applicable for various IT tasks, not just programmers or testers, for example, my daughter has used Git to version control her IT homework since high school.
I suggest you skim through the article (that’s how many youths read anyway 😊), perform the exercise step by step on your computer. Then come back to read the text one more time to understand better how Git works.
Install Git (~90 seconds)
Git is available on all platforms. macOS and some Linux distributions pre-installed Git. Here I will show you how to install Git on Windows quickly.
Google “Git Windows”, which will get you to the Git Download page. Click the “Download for Windows” button. After completing the download, run the installer.
