Mike Harris' Testing and Quality Blog
From time to time, development teams need to replace back-end architecture and when doing so they need to ensure that the application’s front-end functionality remains the same. These projects can vary in size, from short projects to long-running pieces of work. This process contains risk as the backend unit tests passing does not guarantee that …
Continue reading “Using front-end tests for Test-Driven Development”
“The Art of Software Testing” by Glenford J. Myers is a classic book about software testing and I often use it as a reference. In the book, Glenford J. Myers wrote that “test cases that explore boundary conditions have a higher payoff than cases that do not”[1]. Boundary Value Analysis is a widely used testing …
Continue reading “A thought regarding boundary value analysis”
Many teams, create a definition of done to clarify what putting a card in the Done column on a scrum or kanban board means. A good number of teams also have team agreements or ‘ways of working’ which define ways in which the teams work. Also, some teams have checklists of items that need to …
We all need to be able to reevaluate issues and concepts. We have also all heard it said that adapting to change is harder for older people. Dr Joseph Juran is one of the significant figures in quality and he changed how he defined quality when he was over 95 years old. In the third …
Continue reading “It is never too late to reassess how you define quality”
“Architect of Quality”[1] is the autobiography of Dr Joseph Juran. Juran’s autobiography is the moving story of a Romanian immigrant to the USA who rose from poverty to being a world leader in quality and receiving honours from the Emperor of Japan and the President of the USA. Those of us who work in quality …
Continue reading “A review of Dr Joseph Juran’s autobiography: “Architect of Quality””
I use the Five S’s to create a disciplined structure that helps me create and maintain automated tests. Mary and Tom Poppendiek recommend using the Five S’s to create the discipline necessary to develop quality software. They wrote that “the five S’s are a classic lean tool to organise a workspace” [1]. Mary and Tom …
Continue reading “The Five S’s create a structure for test automation”
I have recently automated some tests using Playwright. It is a free-to-use Node.js library created by Microsoft that is designed to be used to automate end-to-end testing. Playwright supports chromium, WebKit and Firefox, and, by default, all tests are run on all three browsers. Tests can be run in headless mode. It supports, Java, .Net, …
Continue reading “First impressions of test automation with Playwright”
Testers and developers can use the Deming Cycle to improve the quality of their testing. The Deming Cycle was initially used in the manufacture of telephones and has had a big influence on software development. The cycle has four steps: The cycle should be repeated with the knowledge accumulated. The Deming Cycle can be described …
Continue reading “Using plan-do-study-act to improve testing”
Creating your first performance test can seem daunting, but it need not be so. This blog post is a guide to resources that you can use to create a simple automated performance test. A good tool to use to create a performance test is Puppeteer. Puppeteer is a node.js library that can be used to …
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I have just been the Programme Secretary for BCS SIGiST’s conference “Testing, Diversity, AI”, and it seems useful to share some of my thoughts on organising the conference. Firstly it was a rewarding thing to do. I have worked in testing for twenty years and it was good to give something back to the testing …
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If we want to make good quality software we need to remove barriers to good work. Dr Deming‘s 14 Points for management were the basis for lessons for top management in Japan. Dr Deming said that “the 14 Points apply anywhere, to small organisations as well as to large organisations[1]”. Point 12 is to “remove …
Cause-effect diagrams are a useful technique that can be used to improve quality. Glenford J. Myers wrote that “a weakness of boundary value analysis and equivalence partitions is that they do not explore combinations of input circumstances”[1]. A technique that can be used to explore and describe combinations of inputs to an issue is a …
Continue reading “Using Ishikawa diagrams to improve quality”
How a company responds to a complaint about quality needs careful consideration. A model that we can use to explore this issue is Dr Deming’s Red Beads Experiment. We can extend the Red Beads Experiment to include a complaint from customers. I explored the Red Beads Experiment in a previous blog post The blog post …
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The Five Whys is a technique for finding the root cause of a problem. Toyota developed this technique and it is now widely used, including in software development. I was introduced to the Five Whys by Tom Gilb as part of a course he ran on Lean QA and have used the Five Whys in …
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