Data testing areas of focus

Data, Testing, ,
Est Reading Time: 9 minutes

I’ve just recently come off working with a client in the big data space, where we were looking to verify over 9 billions records of data. This was a big undertaking so we had to narrow down the areas of the data that we looked at for verification.

It’s worth saying that I wouldn’t usually recommend verification of all 9 billion records due to the time and complexity involved and I’ll go in to different techniques to ensure you do not have to do this in a future blog. However this client was very concerned about their data and every individual record meant something very specific so they were very insistent on this.

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Musings from a remote pairer

Consultancy, People, Ways of Working, , , ,
Est Reading Time: 5 minutes

Over the past couple of months I’ve been double a lot of remote pairing for obvious reasons (if you are reading this in the future google “COVID-19”..). I feel like I’ve learnt a lot along the way regarding how to get the most out of remote pairing sessions, both individually and for the pair or team. I wanted to share some of the things to do and things not to do with you.

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Why I don’t value test certification

Certification, Testing, ,
Est Reading Time: 3 minutes

Certification for testers seems to have been a hot topic for a while and many testers seem unsure whether it’s the right thing to do for their career or not.

If you want to work in the USA or India as a software tester then you will almost certainly need an ISTQB qualification. In that case it may be useful for your career but it feels very much like a box ticking exercise at that point.

I’ve recruited software testers for many organisations in different industries and countries and I never value certification as part of the application.

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Pragmatism in Testing

People, Testing, Ways of Working, ,
Est Reading Time: 3 minutes

A really important part of being a tester is the ability to be pragmatic when the situation calls for it. It’s important to have principles and values that you are guided by but there are times where you might need to compromise these to get the job done. I don’t think this should be seen as a bad thing, rather an ability to adapt to the situation in front of you. I’m going to examine some of the most common scenarios from my own experience where you may have to compromise and be pragmatic in your thinking.

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Testing your contracts (5/5)

Automation, Contract Testing, Testing, , , , ,
Est Reading Time: 10 minutes

In parts 1-4 of this series, I’ve looked at what contract testing is, introduced the pact framework and showed how you can use it to create consumer side and provider side code to ensure a specific contract scenario.

Now I’m going to look at building pact in to your pipeline and tips on how to achieve this in an efficient way that doesn’t block or slow product delivery.

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Testing your contracts (4/5)

Automation, Contract Testing, Testing, , , ,
Est Reading Time: 5 minutes

If you’ve been ready the parts I’ve written so far, you’ll know we’ve gone through what contract testing is, the pact framework and the consumer side code for a specific scenario.

In this part, we’ll be examining the provider side code of the same scenario. I’d therefore recommend checking out the earlier parts if you haven’t yet, or even for a refresher as this part may not have much context otherwise.

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Testing your contracts (2/5)

Automation, Contract Testing, Testing, , , ,
Est Reading Time: 4 minutes

Pact

In part 1, we looked at what contract testing is and the gap it can cover in an automation strategy. In part 2, we’re going to look at Pact, which is the most widely used contract testing technology and how its framework implements contract testing.

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