Posted by Albert Gareev on Aug 13, 2018
This article was published on StickyMinds – Is It Worth It for Software Testers to Get Certification?, August, 2018. Note. I said everything I wanted to say about certification schemes here: Fact checking: “Is testing certification worth it for getting a job?” The article below is a “vanilla” version. When I moved to Canada back […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Jun 05, 2018
This article was published on StickyMinds – Getting Started with Business Intelligence Testing, May, 2018. There’s a bit of hype in terms such as business intelligence, data analytics, and data mining. In testing terms, though, it means working with scripts and databases, often without traditional GUI interaction. But core testing skills—analysis, synthesis, modeling, observation, and […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Dec 20, 2017
This article was published on StickyMinds – Lessons Learned Testing Angular Applications, December, 2017. Web applications have evolved from simplistic forms to highly interactive screens. Implementation of all these interactions requires a lot of JavaScript code on the front end—that is, code that is run by the browsers on users’ devices. When there’s a lot […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Sep 15, 2017
This article was published on StickyMinds – Methods and Tools for Data-Driven API Testing, September, 2017. Software testing has many forms and breeds, but one major distinction has always been based on the approach—either working with the code or interacting with the product. The former was typically a prerogative of programmers while testers have concerned […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Jun 07, 2017
Next Wednesday, June 14th, from 4 till 5 PM EST we’re going to have a Twitter conference on testing coverage, traceability, and traceability matrices. Follow #WTBlitz hash tag and join the conversation. That’ll be next Wednesday. In the meantime, let me introduce a traceability document right on the cuff of the suite used on Apollo […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on May 25, 2017
Based on my Quora answer to “What is “Testing in production” as a concept?“ “What is testing in production?” – Follow along.. Product owners and project managers need to make decisions about software and software development process. Effective decision making is informed decision making. Effective testing provides information directly relevant to the risks and concerns […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on May 04, 2017
It certainly does help testers to understand code and be able to code on their own. So I welcome “coding kata” movement. In fact, I can recommend some good ones, like Coding Games. Not only to testers and wanna be programmers, also to teenagers and their parents. Exercises in a context, presented in a spectacular […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on May 02, 2017
Continuing my thoughts on alternative facts in testing and quality assurance. Happy Path? Guilty as charged. I, too, used to say “happy path testing” and “happy path coverage”. What I meant was something like.. eh.. “a typical user entering typical data in a typical way”. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depends on how to look at it) […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Apr 26, 2017
This very phrase “alternative facts” recently has become something. It is used mostly in a sarcastic way. With this post I’m starting a series on alternative facts about testing and quality assurance. Let me begin with a couple of stories from my experiences. Story One Software development team works on a set of features for […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Mar 22, 2017
Preamble Let me begin with a scene from a book of my childhood.. Image text below. Banner reads: “Of the London and Continental Theatres, In their Thrilling Tragedy of “THE KING’S CAMELEOPARD, or THE ROYAL NONESUCH ! ! !” Admission 50 cents. “Then at the bottom was the biggest line of all, which said: […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Feb 28, 2017
This post is a collage from my answers on Quora. What is Agile Testing? James Bach about testing in Agile environments What is agile testing Some people refer to “agile testing” as a very different kind. But there are like hundreds of flavors of agile teams. Some differ so much that the whole label of […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Dec 21, 2016
I had a quick conversation with Michael Bolton on twitter today.. (accessible text alternative below) Michael Bolton: When someone says “testing is taking too long”, ask: Is it the *testing*? Or is it *fixing*? Or unnecessary stuff around the testing? Albert Gareev: Finding out what prompted that conclusion and what are the expectations also helps. […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Dec 06, 2016
“Is manual testing dying?”, “Is manual testing dead?”, “When manual testing will be completely replaced by automation?”,.. These questions come up very frequently. I see them on LinkedIn. I see them on Quora. I see them on Twitter. I’d categorize responses I’ve seen loosely in 3 types. Samples below. “NO! It’s not manual!!! It’s all […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Dec 02, 2016
Earlier this month, Ministry of Testing released an article named “The One Page Test Plan“. Presented, was rather a one page template for a test plan yet the article is good and thought provoking. Coincidentally, a similar question came up on Quora: “How would you define a test plan for this app?“. So I went […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Nov 07, 2016
Another good question on Quora. Answering: What is domain testing? ***** All terms originate somewhere else, by analogy. Here’s the origin for “domain”. Image source: Domain of a function Domain is all possible inputs to the function Range is all possible outputs of the function ***** At the fundamental level, everything is data in computers. […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Oct 31, 2016
First things first. I’m not a big fan of test case based approach, neither I’ve seen testing estimates that weren’t at best guesstimates. But people ask questions, and this is their starting point. Enough been said about smart-ass approach. Instead of critiquing those willing to learn let’s help them understand and let’s help them to […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Aug 30, 2016
Quora is a remarkable resource. To me, it’s like a Wikipedia of personal experiences. People also come there for learning. Of course, software development and testing topics are among popular. So the questions were asked: What is white box testing? What is black box testing? While some answers strive to give formal definitions, I decided […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Aug 17, 2016
These are the points I captured while reading 2nd part of “Organizing Our Homes” chapter of the book “The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload” by Dr. Daniel J. Levitin. Despite of the name of the chapter, many of these points apply to organization in general, be that at home , […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Jul 05, 2016
These are the points I captured while reading 1st part of “Organizing our homes” chapter of the book “The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload” by Dr. Daniel J. Levitin. Many of these points apply to organization both at home and at work. See also my comments and examples below. Working […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Jun 10, 2016
Re: Toronto Testing Meetup, May Workshop: Roundtable on Behavior Driven Development Planning And so it is claimed: When launching a new digital project, there can be a disconnect between: • the business being truly able to define the desired outcomes • the developer’s understanding of what needs to be built, and • the business’ understanding of the technical […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Jun 02, 2016
OK, this is a quick gripe. Know the quote? Of course, the troopers were fooled by the skilled Jedi knight. They were clones, after all; likely, trained to follow direct orders and NOT trained to use critical thinking. For a second, I felt like Obi-Wan, hearing from my team that they’re happy with the all […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Mar 22, 2016
Tweet back! Twitter is a great tool to collect and share information. But retrieving it is a bit tricky. From time to time I go over my tweets archive and grab useful pieces into my notebook and mindmaps, categorizing the information. But why can’t I share it back? – came a thought one day. So […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Mar 07, 2016
“I don’t have birthdays, I level up.” If only it worked that way… No, no. In order to “level up” a skill we must spend time sweating it out. It’s also never a binary ladder. No. It’s actually very messy. Skill levels depend on the context, both external conditions and internal conditions of the bearer […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Jan 06, 2016
These are the points I captured while reading 2nd part of “The first things to get straight” chapter of the book “The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload” by Dr. Daniel J. Levitin. “Daydreaming” or “Mind-Wandering” mode The flow of connections among disparate ideas and thoughts, and a relative lack of […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Nov 23, 2015
Leaders in testing practice are constantly and actively looking for ways to test faster, more efficiently, and more creatively. They also look for ways to find the most relevant bugs, and to tell the relevant story. Personas seemed to be very promising idea, and in the past few years I saw it mentioned here and […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Nov 10, 2015
These are the points I captured while reading 1st part of “The first things to get straight” chapter of the book “The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload” by Dr. Daniel J. Levitin. We live in a world of illusions || These illusions are not external but internal – our perception […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Nov 06, 2015
This writing is a cross-reference to the post Manage Focus Of Your Attention with regards to the concept of Shadow Work. A quick reminder. In economics, shadow work refers to unpaid labor in the form of self service. Shadow work has one or few of the following attributes. Transferring part of the service from company to […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Nov 04, 2015
This writing is a cross-reference to the post Manage Focus Of Your Attention with regards to the concept of Shadow Work. A quick reminder. In economics, shadow work refers to unpaid labor in the form of self service. Shadow work has one or few of the following attributes. Transferring part of the service from company to […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Oct 21, 2015
Leave a comment if you first looked at the pictures before reading this text! As I was putting together notes in my book review I made an entry regarding Attention Filter. Recap: Attention Filter mechanics Change detector Subconscious. Always “on” Registers changes in the flow of information Importance ranking Subconscious. Very personal for everyone Based […] ...
Posted by Albert Gareev on Oct 20, 2015
These are the points I captured while reading 2nd part of “Too much information, too many decisions” chapter of the book “The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload” by Dr. Daniel J. Levitin. I put my points and cross-references next to them. Attention Filter mechanics Change detector Subconscious. Always “on” Registers […] ...
