Your QA Should Be Your BFF

Developers and QA have historically had an adversarial relationship, but it doesn’t have to be that way! In this talk we’ll go through the various reasons that developers hate QA, why some of those perceptions exist, and how to remedy them so that developers and QA can work better together and maybe even get along! Attendees will take away ideas to help their teams work together more efficiently by understanding where their QA are coming from, helping to level them up, and hopefully getting along better!
Given:
– Great Lakes Area .NET User Group (Southfield, MI 8/13) – lightning talk
– DetroitDevDay Conference (Detroit, MI 11/15)
– Ann Arbor .Net Developers User Group (Ann Arbor, MI 6/8/16)
– CodeStock Conference (Knoxville, TN 5/5-6/17)
– Desert Code Camp (Chandler, AZ 10/14/17)
– KCDC (Kansas City, MO 7/12/18)
– THAT Conference (Wisconsin Dells, WI 8/6/18)

Transcript

1. Your QA Should Be
   Your BFF
   Hilary Weaver-Robb
   SQA Architect @ Quicken Loans, Detroit
   @g33klady
   

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2. I am… Hilary Weaver-Robb
   @g33klady
   @g33klady | Hilary Weaver-Robb
   

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3. What I do
   Software Quality Assurance Architect at Quicken Loans
   Organizer, Motor City Software Testers user group
   @g33klady | Hilary Weaver-Robb
   

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4. Why I’m here
   Developers often see QA as
    Useless
    Idiots
    Enemies
   I want to change that!
   @g33klady | Hilary Weaver-Robb
   

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5. Dev and QA is a partnership
   @g33klady | Hilary Weaver-Robb
   

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6. Why I’m here
   @g33klady | Hilary Weaver-Robb
   

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7. Testers Are Useless
   @g33klady | Hilary Weaver-Robb
   

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8. Testers Are Useless
   “Their bug reports are
   worthless”
   @g33klady | Hilary Weaver-Robb
   

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9. Worthless bug reports
   What if they don’t know what to put in a bug
   report to make it good?
    Checklist or Bug Template
    Exact steps to reproduce
    Environment, Browser, etc
    User/account specifics
    Actual vs expected behavior
    Links to related work items
    Why
    Assign back if info missing
   @g33klady | Hilary Weaver-Robb
   

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10. Worthless bug reports
    What if they don’t know about tools that will help
    them (and you)?
     Introduce them to tools you use
     Fiddler, Wireshark, Browser debugger
     Postman, Swagger
     Logging
     Write some utilities
     Database lookups w/out complex queries
     Midware to backend debugger
     Debug log lookup or data extraction
    @g33klady | Hilary Weaver-Robb
    

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11. Worthless bug reports
    @g33klady | Hilary Weaver-Robb
    What if you had a conversation about each issue
    before a bug report was created?
     Encourage conversation
     Reproduce it together
     Reduce bug ping pong
    

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12. @g33klady | Hilary Weaver-Robb
    BUG
    

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13. Worthless bug reports
    @g33klady | Hilary Weaver-Robb
    What if you had a conversation about each issue
    before a bug report was created?
    Assumptions get in the way
    

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14. Testers Are Useless
    “A monkey could do their
    job (and be better at it)”
    @g33klady | Hilary Weaver-Robb
    

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15. Monkeys bashing on keyboards
    Testing is the process of evaluating a product by
    learning about it through exploration and
    experimentation, which includes to some degree:
    questioning, study, modeling, observation,
    inference, etc. – James Bach
    TL;DR - Testing requires human thought and
    interaction
    @g33klady | Hilary Weaver-Robb
    

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16. Monkeys bashing on keyboards
    @g33klady | Hilary Weaver-Robb
    

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17. Monkeys bashing on keyboards
    What if they are constantly re-checking stuff that
    can be automated?
     Can you automate it for them?
     Can they automate it?
    If it’s something that is mindless, automate it!
    @g33klady | Hilary Weaver-Robb
    

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18. Monkeys bashing on keyboards
    @g33klady | Hilary Weaver-Robb
    Types of automation tools
     Record & Playback (generated code)
     Frameworks/packages (“handwritten”)
    What we’re automating
     User Interface
     API/backend
     Both
    

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19. Monkeys bashing on keyboards
    @g33klady | Hilary Weaver-Robb
    .NET Automation Tools
     CodedUI – thin & thick clients (uses MSTest)
     Selenium WebDriver – browser only (works with Nunit)
     WatiN – browser only
     SpecFlow – Cucumber for .NET (BDD)
     Telerik Test Studio – thin & thick clients
     NUnit, MSTest, etc
    Why have the QA use a .NET tool/framework?
     Anyone can work on the automation
     Built-in support network
     No juggling licensing
     Very little context switching
     Same solution == share code
    

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20. Monkeys bashing on keyboards
    @g33klady | Hilary Weaver-Robb
    “Test automation code doesn’t matter”
     It should be as important as prod code
     It should be created with the same practices
     It must be maintained as the software under test
    changes
    

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21. Monkeys bashing on keyboards
    What if we automate everything – can we get rid
    of QA?
    Short answer: NOPE!
    @g33klady | Hilary Weaver-Robb
    

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22. Monkeys bashing on keyboards
    Some types of testing:
     Scripted manual
     Exploratory/AdHoc
     Functional
     Regression
     Boundary
     Security
     (User) Acceptance
     Usability/Accessibility
     Load/Performance/Stress
     Etc. etc. etc.
    @g33klady | Hilary Weaver-Robb
    

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23. Monkeys bashing on keyboards
    “Exploratory Testing” is a style of testing in
    which we learn about the behavior of a
    system by designing a small test, executing
    it immediately, using the information
    gleaned from the last test to inform the next.
    -Elisabeth Hendrickon
    @g33klady | Hilary Weaver-Robb
    

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24. Monkeys bashing on keyboards
    Exploratory Testing
     Start with a broad idea
     Ex: I want to test the pulling credit feature
     Add some scope
     Ex: I want to test the pulling credit feature as a single
    person
     Get some tools to help
     Start exploring the application!
     Don’t limit yourself!
     Get rid of your assumptions
     Let the application lead you
     Take notes!
    @g33klady | Hilary Weaver-Robb
    

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25. Monkeys bashing on keyboards
    What if we automated stuff and they’re still
    mindlessly “checking”, not really testing?
     Help them level up!
     Do some pair testing with them
     Help them find the testing community
     Suggest user groups, conferences, etc
     Get a new QA!
     Sit in on interviews! Ask them to “test” something!
    @g33klady | Hilary Weaver-Robb
    

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26. Testers Are Idiots
    @g33klady | Hilary Weaver-Robb
    

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27. Testers Are Idiots
    “They know nothing
    about the application”
    @g33klady | Hilary Weaver-Robb
    

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28. They know nothin’
    What if they’re not included in planning and
    design meetings?
    Black box testing is great… unless you want white box
    testing
    @g33klady | Hilary Weaver-Robb
    

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29. @g33klady | Hilary Weaver-Robb
    X
    

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30. They know nothin’
    What if they don’t know about, or can’t access,
    architecture diagrams, data and process flows?
     Do these exist?
     Ask the QA to create them!
    What if they don’t know about integrated systems
    and where they connect?
    See above
    @g33klady | Hilary Weaver-Robb
    

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31. They know nothin’
    What if they haven’t ever gotten a “technical tour”
    of the application?
    Show them around!
    @g33klady | Hilary Weaver-Robb
    

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32. Testers Are Idiots
    “They think my job is
    simple, like it takes 2
    seconds to fix a bug”
    @g33klady | Hilary Weaver-Robb
    

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33. They think a monkey could do *my* job
    What if they haven’t ever taken a programming
    class, or had any technical training?
    @g33klady | Hilary Weaver-Robb
    

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34. They think a monkey could do *my* job
    What if they haven’t ever taken a programming
    class, or had any technical training?
     Give ‘em suggestions!
     Pluralsight, MS Virtual Academy, etc
     Lunch & Learns
     Hands on, pair together
     Bring them to user groups!
     Encourage them to attend conferences
    @g33klady | Hilary Weaver-Robb
    

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35. They think a monkey could do *my* job
    What if they just need to shadow you to
    understand?
     Fix a bug together
     Show in-depth troubleshooting
     Show complexity of finding and fixing a bug
    @g33klady | Hilary Weaver-Robb
    

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36. They think a monkey could do *my* job
    What if they aren’t involved in task breakdown?
     Show them how things fit together
     More exposure = better understanding
     QA is part BA, part dev
    @g33klady | Hilary Weaver-Robb
    

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37. Testers Are Enemies
    @g33klady | Hilary Weaver-Robb
    

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38. Testers Are Enemies
    “They keep calling my
    baby ugly ”
    @g33klady | Hilary Weaver-Robb
    

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39. That baby *is* kinda ugly
    What if they seem insensitive because they don’t
    understand the process?
    We devalue what we don’t understand
    What if they just need to see it for themselves?
    Pair on automation
    @g33klady | Hilary Weaver-Robb
    

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40. That baby *is* kinda ugly
    What if they’re still insensitive?
    They’re probably just jerks
    @g33klady | Hilary Weaver-Robb
    

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41. Testers Are Enemies
    “They put bugs in for
    every.little.thing and it
    drives me crazy!”
    @g33klady | Hilary Weaver-Robb
    

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42. So many bugs…
    What if your company monetizes number of bugs?
    @g33klady | Hilary Weaver-Robb
    

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43. So many bugs…
    What if the bugs were grouped to make your life
    easier?
     Group by type of bug
     Group by page or function
    @g33klady | Hilary Weaver-Robb
    

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44. Testers Are Enemies
    “They always seem to try
    to make me miserable”
    @g33klady | Hilary Weaver-Robb
    

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45. They hate me…
    What if they get the shit end of the stick with
    deployment schedules?
     Can dev schedules slip but QA can’t?
     Are they in on the weekends more?
     Does everything wait until the last minute, because “QA
    isn’t important”?
    @g33klady | Hilary Weaver-Robb
    

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46. @g33klady | Hilary Weaver-Robb
    

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47. They hate me…
    What if they’re told they’re being given “ job
    security”?
     If I can’t even launch the app when you hand it over…
     No unit tests == BORING
    “It builds” != “It’s ready for QA”
    @g33klady | Hilary Weaver-Robb
    

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48. They hate me…
    What if they’re treated like they’re worthless
    idiots?
     Is their time as valuable as yours?
     Are they respected members of the team?
    @g33klady | Hilary Weaver-Robb
    

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49. Let’s wrap this up
    @g33klady | Hilary Weaver-Robb
    

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50. Dispelling misconceptions
    Anyone can test
    QA just need a checklist to test everything
    QA knows the info I need to fix a bug
    QA shouldn’t talk to dev
    QA is paid to break the software
    If testing passes, there aren’t any bugs – quality
    has been assured!
    @g33klady | Hilary Weaver-Robb
    

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51. Testers can be your friends!
    Testers are not useless
     Maybe they need some tools
     Maybe they never got any formal training
    Testers are not idiots
     Maybe they need some guidance on the development process
     Maybe they need to understand the architecture of the app
    Testers are not your enemy
     Maybe they don’t understand what you go through
     Maybe they’re just trying to play the game the company created
     Maybe they aren’t treated well
    @g33klady | Hilary Weaver-Robb
    

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52. @g33klady | Hilary Weaver-Robb
    

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53. Hilary Weaver-Robb | @g33klady
    @g33klady | Hilary Weaver-Robb
    https://g33klady.com/testing-resources/
    

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