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Tag: Testing Tips

#35 – “Great Expectations”

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SmartQA Digest

In today’s world of heightened expectations, what does an organisation and end users expect of IT application team? Zulfikar Deen says end users expect application to work 100%, nothing less, and has a contrarian opinion on DevOps. He also says that management expects to showcase business benefits and hence it is necessary to bake-in metrics of adoption, usage & usability into the application… and much more in the SmartBites video Expectations of end users & management from IT team.
 
In the ‘beEnriched’ section I outline 25 things I expect of a great tester like 
(1) Be disciplined, but stay creative (2) Ask questions, find answers (3) Observe well, see things that are hidden and many more.
 
“It is easy to make perfect decisions with perfect information. Medicine asks you make perfect decisions with imperfect information” says Siddhartha Mukherjee in the book “The Laws of Medicine: Field Notes from an Uncertain Science”.  Check out what this wonderful book is about HERE!

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#34 – A special on “Automation in Agile Dev”

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SmartQA Digest

In today’s world of continuous testing, test automation plays a vital part in ensuring the health of released code. It is no more about testing, it is about automating the whole lifecycle of build-test-deploy in the world of Agile/DevOps.
Shivaji Raju outlines the shifts in automation in Agile development and what it takes to accomplish in this week’s SmartBites Video “Automation in Agile Dev“.
 
The article 15 categories of tooling for digital test automation in the ‘beEnriched’ section outlines an interesting visual on automation and tooling and outlines FIFTEEN broad categories that make up the modern digital testing landscape.
 
Have you used Sketchnote to take notes that is more effective and fun? Checkout the nanoLearning section where Anuj Magazine talks about visual thinking and Sketchnotes. And oh, in the “stayInspired” section is THE book on Sketchnote by Mike Rohde. An amazing book that is written by hand using Sketchnotes!

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Featured image of article 15 categories of tooling for digital test automation

15 categories of tooling for digital test automation

October 18, 2019

In this article I have tried picture(ise) the landscape of the plethora of tools for testing software which has moved away from just testing to build-test-deploy in a continuous manner. Keeping the interesting visual I have listed the FIFTEEN broad categories of tools that make up the modern digital testing landscape.

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Featured image for article "Sketchnote"

Sketchnote

August 29, 2019

Sketchnotes are purposeful doodling while listening to something interesting. Sketchnotes don’t require high drawing skills, but do require a skill to visually synthesize and summarize via shapes, connectors, and text. Sketchnotes are as much a method of note taking as they are a form of creative expression.

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#33 – A special on “Build with Quality”

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SmartQA Digest

In this edition of SmartBites Video, Girish Elchuri, Founder & CEO of Smuuth Innovative Solutions shares what it to takes to “Build with Quality” rather than ‘test-out’ quality, He shares his perspectives on design, code, process, organisational attitude and the need to execute every line of code as part of early test.
 
In ‘beEnriched’ section the article What does it take to Build In Quality? outlines set of brilliant ideas curated from four articles on with the first suggesting ten ways to build high quality into software, second one from Scaled Agile framework outlining the clear definition of Done, the third highlighting how lean thinking and management helps, and the last outlining how Poka-Yoke can help in mistake proofing.
 

Enjoy the poster “It is not about finding bugs, it is about being sensitive 

how they can creep in that matters.”
 
In ‘nanoLearning’, Raja Nagendra Kumar outlines four key “Habits to Clean Coding”:  ‘Understand that DONE MOVES'(1), ‘There will be bugs, and for heaven’s sake, LEARN and ADJUST’ (2), ‘It is not just about functionality, constantly focus on NFRs’ (3) and ‘Continually re-factor right so that you don’t get into ‘fire’.(4)

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#32 : A special on “Digital Testing Automation”

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SmartQA Digest

In this edition of SmartBites Video, Shivaji Raju Expert Architect at Allstate Solutions helps us understand as to what test automation is in the new digital world and highlights the key shifts.

“Automating test execution in isolation ends up being more of a problem than a solution. Any automation solution either to enhance quality and to improve test cycles should encompass the tasks across test discipline. Automation should be considered a lever to meet the business objectives and not an objective itself.” More in the interesting article Automation in isolation is more of a problem! in ‘beEnriched’ section by Vijay Kumar Gambhiraopet, Test Automation Leader for North America at IBM.

“Approximate thinking” is a very necessary skill that allows one to rapidly work out facts quickly and rapidly understand. When I ask the simple question “How many hairs do you have on your head?” to workshop participants, the answers have varied from 5K-5M! Crazy variation, right? “The Art of Profitability” is a brilliant business book that inspired me to delve deeper into this. Read how the book inspired me in ‘expandMind’ section.

In ‘nanoLearning’, Raja Nagendra Kumar outlines four key “Habits to Clean Coding”: ‘Understand that DONE MOVES'(1), ‘There will be bugs, and for heaven’s sake, LEARN and ADJUST’ (2), ‘It is not just about functionality, constantly focus on NFRs’ (3) and ‘Continually re-factor right so that you don’t get into ‘fire’.(4)

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Featured image of article "Automation in isolation is a problem!"

Automation in isolation is more of a problem!

October 3, 2019

Automating test execution in isolation ends up being more of a problem than a solution. Any automation solution either to enhance quality and to improve test cycles should encompass the tasks across test discipline. Automation should be considered a lever to meet the business objectives and not an objective itself.

Read More »

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#31 : A special on “Design for Testability”

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SmartQA Digest

In the beEnriched section is an interesting article “Design for Testability- An Overview” that outlines what testability is, background of testability from hardware, economic value of DFT,  why is testability important,  design principles to enable testability and guidelines to ease testability of codebase, drawing upon five interesting articles on DFT.
 
In this edition of SmartBites Video, Girish Elchuri illuminates us on how Design for Testability is useful in building with quality.
 
“The Art of Profitability” is a brilliant business book. However, I learnt “Approximate thinking” of how to rapidly approximate and get facts to analyse further. Read how the book inspired me in “expandMind”.
 
In nanoLearning, Dr. Arun Krishnan explains why stopping using human intellect would be a mistake in any field. While he is all for AI helping testing, he believes there is  still a role for human intellect.

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#30 : A special on “Human-Machine Dynamics”

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SmartQA Digest

Welcome to an interesting edition that is a special on “Human-Machine Dynamics”. 
 
I find the “manual vs automated testing” discussion seriously flawed. In the article “Dissecting the Human/Machine Test conundrum”, I outline an interesting way how the role of human power and leverage of machines to do testing smartly, rapidly and super efficiently.
 
SmartBites features TED Talk featuring one of the greatest chess players in history, Garry Kasparov who feels, we humans should exploit the machines and not fight it.
 
“The Art of Profitability” is a brilliant business book. However, I learnt “Approximate thinking” of how to rapidly approximate and get facts to analyse further. Read how the book inspired me in “expandMind”.
 
In nanoLearning, Dr. Arun Krishnan explains why stopping using human intellect would be a mistake in any field. While he is all for AI helping testing, he believes it still is a role for the human intellect.

beEnriched

expandMind

Featured image for article "Sketchnote"

Sketchnote

August 29, 2019

Sketchnotes are purposeful doodling while listening to something interesting. Sketchnotes don’t require high drawing skills, but do require a skill to visually synthesize and summarize via shapes, connectors, and text. Sketchnotes are as much a method of note taking as they are a form of creative expression.

Read More »

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#29 : A special on “Understanding”

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SmartQA Digest

The article I wrote “The Buddha story: Good understanding”, is all about how ‘understanding’ is knowing what is required, and learning to discard what is not necessary or deferring to a later stage.
 
On the same context, SmartBites features TEDx video titled “The power of listening” by William Ury. He explains how listening is essential for understanding, and often overlooked, half of communication.
 
The “nanoLearning” smartbits gives Vivek Mathur’s views on the ‘Role of human intellect in QA‘. He thinks understanding the business context cannot be reproduced by AI and will never be.

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Featured image for article "Sketchnote"

Sketchnote

August 29, 2019

Sketchnotes are purposeful doodling while listening to something interesting. Sketchnotes don’t require high drawing skills, but do require a skill to visually synthesize and summarize via shapes, connectors, and text. Sketchnotes are as much a method of note taking as they are a form of creative expression.

Read More »

SmartBites

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#28 : A special on “Structure”

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SmartQA Digest

SmartBites features another great TEDx video titled “Applying the principles of biomimicry to business” by Wiebke Liu. Biomimicry is inspiring businesses, architecture and manufacturing by designing solutions, structures and products that simulate processes that occur in nature. The article I wrote titled “The Power of Geometry” is all about how structure(or organisation) of elements play a key to doing more with less.
 
The “nanoLearning” smartbits gives Sudhir Patnaik’s views on the ‘Role of human intellect in QA‘. He thinks intelligent systems and humans will have to share the roles.
 
Hope you found inspiration to use Sketchnotes. As I mentioned last week, it stimulates visual thinking. If you have not already read it, please read about this brilliant book “Sketchnote handbook” featured in “expandMind” section.
 
Have you had a chance to read the complimentary ebook  “Raise your QANSCIOUSNESS – Test effortlessly”? Do share your thoughts.

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The Power of Geometry

September 6, 2019

A good running form, a great cycling geometry becomes essential to delivering higher performance with no increase in power output in running and cycling respectively.

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Featured image for article "Sketchnote"

Sketchnote

August 29, 2019

Sketchnotes are purposeful doodling while listening to something interesting. Sketchnotes don’t require high drawing skills, but do require a skill to visually synthesize and summarize via shapes, connectors, and text. Sketchnotes are as much a method of note taking as they are a form of creative expression.

Read More »

SmartBites

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#27 : A special on “Thinking”

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SmartQA Digest

This features a great TEDx video titled “How to think, not what to think” as this week’s SmartBites. This is complemented with an interesting article that I wrote titled “Do brilliantly ‘right’ after taking a ‘left’!”.  After all a logical left-brained thinking complemented with a creative right-brained thinking will result in brilliant testing, right?
 
The “nanoLearning” smartbits gives you a quick overview of “Systematic Inventive Thinking”, a problem solving method that enables you to find innovative solutions to problems bounded by hard constraints.
 
The typical way in how we take notes is linear, with text from left to right and lines following each other. Do you know that Sketchnote is a creative way of note taking that stimulates your visual thinking? Read about this brilliant book “Sketchnote handbook” featured in “expandMind” section. I was blown away by this book where each page is a Sketchnote produced by hand!
 
I am very keen to expand the readership of SmartQA digest and transform the way how people perceive and do QA. I seek your help in forwarding this email to passionate engineering & QA colleagues. I am sure that they will enjoy the complimentary ebook  “Raise your QANSCIOUSNESS – Test effortlessly” on signup. Have you had a chance to read this?

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Featured image for article "Sketchnote"

Sketchnote

August 29, 2019

Sketchnotes are purposeful doodling while listening to something interesting. Sketchnotes don’t require high drawing skills, but do require a skill to visually synthesize and summarize via shapes, connectors, and text. Sketchnotes are as much a method of note taking as they are a form of creative expression.

Read More »

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#26 : “CIO special”

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SmartQA Digest

Thank you for your patronage. This is our Silver edition, yes the 25th ! Welcome to a special XXV SmartQA Digest!
I have made a lovely eBook for you and a special SmartBites video.
May the poster fill you with bliss.

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CIO Views on Quality Featured Image

CIO views on Quality

August 23, 2019

SummaryThis article is about views on quality from CIOs curated from a list of interesting articles. It is felt that solution quality is one of

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The power of checklist

August 24, 2019

Recently I read the book “The Checklist Manifesto” by Atul Gawande.  “An essential primer on complexity in medicine” is what New York Times states about

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