Testing Excellence

Continuous Integration with Django and Hudson CI

We’re always looking for new tools to make our development environment more robust here at Caktus. We write a lot of tests to ensure proper functionality as new features land and bug fixes are added to our projects. The next step is to integrate with a continuous integration system to automate the process and regularly [...]

Effective Test Automation in an Agile Environment

The last five years saw an immense growth in the number of agile and Scrum projects. Additionally, the IT market has changed significantly, not only with various new tools—including Selenium 2, Watir WebDriver, BrowserMob, and Robot Framework—but with approaches that have also completely changed. For example, more focus has been made on cloud-based test automation [...]

Predictive Testing

A common observation in any SDLC process is that the output (Final Product) varies despite well defined resources, references and Guidelines. The output varies because of intangible factors – Tester and Developer. In any Software, one tester can find crucial issues while other cannot. One developer can resolve an issue without impacting other areas while [...]

5 Reasons QA Should be Involved in Requirement Gathering

Most of the focus in managing software requirements has centered on Users and Developers. It seems obvious to do so, doesn’t it? Users are the ones who will use the project, may also be the ones asking for the project, and thus are typically the ones we focus on in requirements elicitation processes. Developers take [...]

TestLodge – a Test Case Management Tool

Introduction TestLodge test case management tool is a relatively new hosted tool that is designed to be a lot simpler than traditional software by only providing the essentials to get the job done well. The system focuses on helping you create your test plans, input your requirements, create and manage your test suites and cases [...]

Should You Really be Doing TDD?

Test Driven Development (TDD), and all of its derivatives (BDD, ATDD) are, in my opinion great methods to drive a team’s development efforts, and raise the quality of the product. But TDD is not a silver bullet. It doesn’t fit every project. The following post lists the top ten reasons not to write automated tests [...]

What is the difference between Acceptance Criteria and Scenarios

Some common confusion I’ve come across recently involves the difference between a Scenario and Acceptance Criteria. I’ll start by defining these two things as I understand them. A scenario is an example of the system’s behavior from one or more users’ perspectives. Acceptance criteria are a set of rules which cover aspects of a system’s [...]

What Exploratory Testing Is Not (Part 2): After-Everything-Else Testing

Exploratory testing is not “after-everything-else-is-done” testing. Exploratory testing can (and does) take place at any stage of testing or development. Indeed, TDD (test-driven development) is a form of exploratory development. TDD happens in loops, in which the programmer develops a check, then develops the code to make the check pass (along with all of the [...]

What Exploratory Testing Is Not (Part 1): Touring

Touring is one way of structuring exploratory testing, but exploratory testing is not necessarily touring, and touring is not necessarily exploratory. At one extreme, a tourist might parachute into a territory for which there is no detailed knowledge of the landscape, flora and fauna, or human culture, with the goal of identifying what’s there to [...]

What’s a Tester without a QA Team?

When a tester joins an agile team, she leaves her Test or QA team behind. Often, her old QA team is disbanded altogether. Without the support of a QA team, she might feel abandoned, especially if she now reports to a development manager. She’s in danger of becoming isolated, having lost the phased and gated [...]

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