European Survey about the tester@work

At EuroSTAR 2011 in Manchester the kick off was given for this first European Benchmark to determine where we stand as testers @ work. This first surveys were completed but it was only a start to get much more respondents.

Where does the survey Tester @ work stands for?

Tester @ work is about the relationship between knowledge and skills of a software tester (given his training, certificates and experience) and what he actually does at work and in what (kind of) organization he is testing.

With the results of the benchmark it is possible tp draw conclusions through comparison. For example: to what extent are the capabilities of the software tester used in organizations? Based on the answers to these questions we can start a discussion where we really stand as testers in Europe or where does testers stand in a certain country compared to other countries.

Another example is what is the profile of a software tester in Europe or a specific European country? The survey was already done in the Netherlands and after more then 300 responds we have drawn some  conclusions. E.g. the Dutch testers is in general has a higher education then members of the Dutch parlement[1]. J

With such a profile it is possible to compair yourself with this tester profile. You can draw your own conclusions how well you are doing and where you can improve compared to ‘the tester’ in the benchmark.

And if we fill out the benchmark again in a few years we can determine the trends for the tester@work.

Collecting the information

But before we can draw some conclusions, we need much more completed surveys from all over Europe.   And for this we need YOUR help! 

You can fill out the questionnaire at www.softwaretesten.nl or at www.estb.nl. It only takes about 10 minutes

Note: Please fill out the questionnaire from the point of view of the test job you are working on right now. For a consultant this can mean that he has to fill out the questionnaire from the point of view of another organization then the one paying his salary.

The results of the survey will be presented in an E-book of EuroSTAR conferences (spring 2012) and if you leave your e-mail address behind we will inform you about presentations and publications about the benchmark.

So grab your chance, fill out the benchmark survey and we all will know where we stand as testers in Europe.

Do you have any questions or comments please mail me: testersbenchmark@testnet.org or give me a call:  Ard Kramer +31 6 14 78 12 68

http://softtesteventjan2012.eventbrite.co.uk/

Overview:

Testing in medium to large organisations is becoming increasingly complex and challenging. Shorter development lifecycles and new development methodologies coupled with rapidly multiplying platforms and a demand for constant updates and renewal is putting a real strain on legacy testing teams. In many organisations testing groups have evolved to cope with demand rather than being designed to deliver quality results. Too often companies are relying on hard work, experience and luck rather than planning and executing tests in an appropriate and focused way. With increasing demands these systems grow to be more inefficient, unreliable, costly and can ultimately become a serious risk to the business.

So how are organisations meeting this challenge head on? The answer is by developing and growing Test Centres of Excellence (CoE). A Test CoE is a professional service organisation that delivers testing services to the IT group and the business. It comprises a dedicated and independently managed team of people with a core competency in testing, operational processes to support testing for the enterprise and supporting tools and technologies.

This Seminar aims to give a tour through the what, why and how of centres of excellence:

What is a centre of excellence?

      What does a CoE look like?

      What problems do they aim to solve?

      What are the key stages in a Test CoE Program?

Why are organisations interested?

      What are the drivers of change?

      What are the benefits and challenges?

How do we go about implementing them?  

      How and what processes are redesigned?

      How is the CoE Supported by the business?

      How does the test function need to change internally?

      How does the organisation need to change to support a test CoE?

      How do we measure success?

Bio:

David Cass

David is a Senior Manager in Strategy and Operations Consulting for Deloitte Ireland with over 9 years experience in software testing, test programme management, test strategy development and organisational change. David specialises in developing organisational test strategies, end to end quality assurance and test organisation planning & optimisation for large organisations. This includes the development and roll-out of test centres of excellence, testing shared services and outsourcing strategies, test tool specification and selection and developing strategies for managed test services. David has recently completed a 12 month program to design and develop a test centre of excellence for a large Irish retail bank.

http://lauralistar.wordpress.com/2011/11/25/free-testing-magazines-end-of-2011/

http://agilistry.com/downloads/WordCountLessons.pdf

SoftTest Ireland would like to announce an upcoming Skillnet funded ISTQB Advanced Level courses.

If you are interested please indicate your interest ASAP as we need to get numbers soon so we can confirm with our training partner that we have enough to run the course.

Please contact susan@isa-skillnet.com if you are interested in attending this course.

ISTQB Advanced Dates

31^st Oct – 4^th Nov 2011:

ISTQB Certified Tester Advance Level: Technical Test Analyst – €1,150 (this includes the certification)

21^st – 25^th Nov 2011:

ISTQB Certified Tester Advance Level Test Manager – €1,150 (this includes the certification)

12^th -16^th Dec 2011:

ISTQB Certified Tester Advance Level:  Test Analyst – €1,150 (this includes the certification)

If you are interested please indicate your interest ASAP as we need to get numbers soon so we can confirm with our training partner that we have enough to run the course.

The total course cost will be 425 euro.

Please contact susan@isa-skillnet.com if you are interested in attending this course.

Only companies in the Republic of Ireland are eligible for the grant aid on these Skillnet courses

SS278 Selenium Training

Level: Introduction

Location: Online

Course Overview:

This course is designed to familiarize testing professionals with testing web applications using Selenium.  Testers can build, enhance, and maintain scripts in the Eclipse IDE Editor. Hands-on instruction is provided for those who want to explore the power of using Selenium. The Selenium IDE plug-in builds effective and resilient test scripts using a wide variety of current programming languages. The focus is on the practical application of Selenium to resolve common web automated testing challenges. This course focuses on getting started with Selenium.

Trainee Group

The target audience are software testers who are seeking to automate the testing of web applications using Selenium. This basic course is designed primarily for testing professionals who will be using the automation tools. These testers are new to test automation and may be new to testing. The audience might also include quality assurance practitioners, managers, or team leaders who are responsible for interacting with testers or who need to ensure that the tools are being implemented fully and appropriately.

Course Objectives

At the end of the course, delegates will be able to:

• Describe the function and purpose of Selenium.
• Record automated scripts.
• Play back automated scripts.
• View and analyze results.
• Modify scripts to extend the capability to test the application.
• Configure Selenium Remote Control with Eclipse.
• Configure Custom Log Files Prerequisites.

Pre-Requisites

To benefit from this course, delegates should have:

• General understanding of web-based applications (desired).
• Knowledge of Java programming is not a prerequisite for this course, but such knowledge is beneficial.

General Content:

Module 1

• Delegates will be taken through the basics of the Selenium
• IDE test tool.
• Its record and playback features
• How to debug the test scripts.
• How to create verification points and insert comments (Verify
• commands).
• Using alternative Selenium locations strategies
• Building test suites and using test runner.
• Use of complementary tools such as Web developer and
• Firebug.

Module 2

• XPATH and different technique –
• Extending the IDE’s functionality and making use of user extensions.
• The constraints on the IDE and how to fully extend Selenium.
• Creating test suits in IDE

Module 3

• Running TC is selenium RC server command line.
• Running selenium server on different ports
• Understanding different command options for RC server
• How to export the test script into Selenium RC

Module 4

• The install and execution of Selenium RC using the Java client driver
• The next steps: extending Selenium.
• Installation and running of Selenium RC using the Java driver within the Eclipse IDE
• Making use of Selenium IDE java format exports
• Use of complementary tools such as Web developer and Firebug
• Why move to Selenium RC
• How Selenium RC works

Module 5

• Exporting from the Selenium IDE into a Java JUNIT test framework
• Adding new function to Junit
• Witting loops and if condition eg while statements
• Selenium IDE and Selenium RC compatibility
• Selenium RC constraints and known issues

Module 6

• Saving Junit Results
• Work around for Parameterization
• The next steps: the Selenium RC roadmap
• Running test on different browses

Module 7

• Using RC as grid
• Setting up selenium Grid
• Grid as collection of RC Servers

Module 8

• Framework(JUnit Details )
• Case Study

SoftTest Ireland would like to announce an upcoming Skillnet funded JMeter course starting this October.

If you are interested please indicate your interest ASAP as we need to get numbers soon so we can confirm with our training partner that we have enough to run the course.

The total course cost will be 425 euro.

Please contact susan@isa-skillnet.com if you are interested in attending this course.

Only companies in the Republic of Ireland are eligible for the grant aid on these Skillnet courses

SS277 JMeter Training

Level: Introduction / Intermediate

Location: Online

Course Overview

After completing this course, delegates should be able to:

• Identify what information needs to be gathered for load testing.
• Identify the components of JMeter.
• Apply the workflow recommended for creating a basic JMeter scenario.
• Assign scripts, run-time settings, load generators and Vusers to a JMeter scenario based on your load testing goals.
• Load test an application by running a scenario.

Trainee Group

The programme is intended for beginners or intermediate testers, leads who need to develop or improve automation techniques using JMeter.

Pre-Requisites

Your target audience should have the following:

• Knowledge of various software applications
• Regression testing concepts
• Knowledge of different OS environments
• Knowledge of different web browsers

General Content:

Introduction

• History
• The Future

Requirements

• Java Version
• Operating System

Running JMeter

• JMeter’s Classpath
• Using a Proxy Server
• Non-GUI Mode
• Distributed Mode
• Overriding Properties via the Command Line
• Logging and Error Messages

Building a Test Plan

• Adding and Removing Elements
• Loading and Saving Elements
• Configuring Tree Elements
• Running a Test Plan
• Scoping Rules
• Element of Test Plan
• Thread Group
• Controllers
• Samplers
• Logic Controllers
• Listeners
• Timers
• Assertions
• Configuration Elements
• Pre-Processor Elements
• Post-Processor Elements
• Building a Web Test Plan
• Adding Users
• Adding Default HTTP Request Properties
• Adding Cookie Support
• Adding HTTP Requests
• Adding Post-Processor for Correlation
• Adding a Listener to View/Store the Test Results
• Saving the Test Plan
• Running the Test Plan
• Building an Advance Web Test Plan
• Handling User Sessions with URL Rewriting
• Using a Header Manager
• Building a Database Test Plan
• Adding Users
• Adding JDBC Requests
• Adding a Listener to View/Store the Test Results
• Saving the Test Plan
• Running the Test Plan

Building a Web Service Test Plan

• Adding Users
• Adding Web Service Requests
• Adding a Listener to View/Store the Test Results
• Saving the Test Plan
• Running the Test Plan
• Building a Monitor Test Plan
• Adding Server
• Adding HTTP Auth Manager (Works only for Tomcat5 Build)
• Adding HTTP Requests
• Adding Constant Timer
• Adding a Listener to View/Store the Test Results
• Adding Monitor Results
• Saving the Test Plan
• Running the Test Plan
• Listeners
• Assertion Results
• BeanShell Listener
• Distribution Graph
• Graph Full Results
• Graph Results
• Monitor Results
• Simple Data Writer
• Spline Visualizer
• Aggregate Graph
• Aggregate Report
• Summary Report
• View Results in Table
• View Results Tree

Best Practice

• Limit the Number of Threads
• Where to Put the Cookie Manager
• Where to Put the Authorization Manager
• Using the Proxy Server to record test scripts
• User variables
• Reducing resource requirements
• BeanShell server

Sign up for Dublin 6th October – 6.30 pm to 8.30 pm –>>

http://dublinacceptancetestinggojkoadzic.eventbrite.com/

Sign up for Belfast 7th October – 12pm to 2pm –>>

http://belfastacceptancetestsgojkoadzic.eventbrite.com/

Most of the discussion on automated acceptance tests focuses on immediate benefits in development and defect detection or regression testing. But that’s not nearly all you can get from your tests. While working on his new book, Gojko interviewed more than 50 teams that got big pay-offs from automated acceptance tests, including some that have been using agile acceptance testing for six or seven years.

In the long term, most of these teams got quite unexpected benefits, such as being able to support their system easier, significantly change their business models or survive the absence of key business people. Gojko will talk about these long term benefits of acceptance tests and what you need to do to get them.

Speaker Biography

Gojko Adzic is a strategic consultant, helping ambitious software teams improve the quality of their products and processes. He is the author of books Specification by Example, Bridging the communication gap and Test Driven .NET Development with FitNesse.