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A hybrid social life has begun in the spring of 2023 after the pandemic. We have experts at AUTO1 Tech that have been invited to different public speeches.
\nOn May 25th 2023, our Director of Software Quality Assurance, Alexander Gyulai, gave a session on the topic of MODULAR AUTOMATION at TEST AUTOMATION DAYS 2023, where networking with software testing professionals and learning from the world’s leading test automation experts.
\nHe focused on topics of scaling, architecture and collaboration in automation testing. And the details covered in
\nHow and why to move common components into modules and how to re-use it across the company.
\nHow did we scale testing of our platform with 700+ services and hundreds of releases per month.
\nSetup release and distribution process of the automation modules
\nIntegrate platform modules into automation components
\nBesides technical advantages, he also shared how this approach improved collaboration and communication between developers and quality assurance engineers.
\nFabian Schomm-von Auenmüller, Head of Data Platform, was interviewed in July by the Data For Good Podcast, which is hosted by Zuma, a recruitment agency focusing on data technology professionals in Berlin.
\nIn this interview, Fabian focused on the monitoring and assurance of data quality within data pipelines. He explained that data observability encompasses processes from logging to monitoring, alerting, and ensuring data quality throughout its lifecycle. Fabian emphasized that catching data issues early is crucial for maintaining trust and preventing downstream problems. He recommended initiating data observability practices as early as possible and discussed tools like Elementary that integrate well with DBT (Data Build Tool). He highlighted the benefits of having explicit tests to validate assumptions and being prepared for failures. Fabian anticipates that future trends in data observability might involve leveraging AI and machine learning for pattern recognition and anomaly detection, ultimately enhancing the quality and reliability of data pipelines.
\n\nWe are proud of Alexander and Fabian and their works that provided an insight to the everyday projects and challenges the Technology team at the AUTO1 Group manages. We hope you find these as interesting as we do. We all grow along with the company, as does our data and infrastructure. Let’s work SMARTER instead of harder!
","fields":{"slug":"/back-to-social-life-at-auto1-tech/","tags":["auto1","engineering","social","qa","dataengineer"]}}},{"node":{"id":"a26825f5-bab1-5ad6-bc95-41f8c672ba4c","frontmatter":{"category":"QA","title":"Efficient Testing - Automate Early","date":"2022-06-01","summary":"Early bird gets the worm - or how preparing in time can reduce the effort needed in manual testing.","thumbnail":null,"authorName":"Joanna Tyka","authorDescription":"Joana is a QA Automation Engineer in our Katowice office.","authorAvatar":{"relativePath":"pages/efficient-testing-2/JoannaT.jpeg","childImageSharp":{"resolutions":{"base64":"data:image/jpeg;base64,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","width":50,"height":50,"src":"/static/d453ba1bcdc86e2db725a048eefd13a6/d2d31/JoannaT.jpeg","srcSet":"/static/d453ba1bcdc86e2db725a048eefd13a6/d2d31/JoannaT.jpeg 1x,\n/static/d453ba1bcdc86e2db725a048eefd13a6/0b804/JoannaT.jpeg 1.5x,\n/static/d453ba1bcdc86e2db725a048eefd13a6/753c3/JoannaT.jpeg 2x,\n/static/d453ba1bcdc86e2db725a048eefd13a6/31ca8/JoannaT.jpeg 3x"}}},"headerImage":null},"html":"I don't have time for automation - how often do you say that? I said that once and now I feel a bit ashamed thinking about it. To never repeat this mistake I had to find some solution, to not only have enough time for automation but also to be much faster using it. I realized that when I was repeating the same test case manually for the 5th time, it was incredibly boring and each try was taking 15 minutes of my time. Today I would like to share my experience with you on how to make it faster and more pleasant. In the big picture, it is all about being agile, splitting the job between small pieces, done as fast as possible. Before the feature is fully ready for tests we have so many different opportunities to start working on automation.
\nAn hour of planning can save you 10 hours of doing - Dale Carnegie
\nAs soon as test scenarios are prepared, you can select candidates for automation and choose which ones should be executed on API level and which on UI. It should be a part of a well-prepared automation strategy (more about test automation strategy here https://auto1.tech/efficient-testing-1/ ). Check whether all necessary API calls are available for you (maybe you need to ask developers to create new endpoints?), what will be the steps to prepare the environment for the test, explore existing automation infrastructure and recognize how many new methods and classes you will need to prepare. Sometimes our features are settled on some other pages or we need to go through other features or applications to do our tests. As these parts already exist, it is a great time to cover it with automation if nobody hasn't done that before. It is also a great time to consider which tools will be needed and find new libraries that will be more effective.
\nTest data means all that needs to be prepared before your real test will start. When you are sure that you know all the preconditions and steps required to arrange the system before beginning the testing, you can recognize how to prepare it just when the first version of the specification is written. For example, let's take an order in the shop. When developers write their code you can write your own which will prepare test data via API, so following our example the order in specified state. To make it more efficient you can store example of the order in the queue (read more about it here https://auto1.tech/faster-automation-tests/). It will be so helpful when you will need to execute the first most basic test and speeds up the whole process significantly. Developers in your team will be also very grateful for the created test data that they can take and quickly test their changes on.
\nIf you use Page Object Pattern you can create a page objects skeleton just now based on the design. Prepare all classes storing variables with empty locators, write all methods which will use these locators to interact on the page and prepare bigger steps that will do your manual work. When the front end part of the feature will be implemented you can just fill in locators one by one look at the DOM and adjust steps easily. With unique locators added by developers, it will be almost a pure pleasure.
\n
Let's take this design of the saved searches page as an example and imagine a test scenario that verifies that saved searches are displayed on the proper page and the user can use a saved search to view the current results of searching. We know that to be able to execute this scenario we need the signed-in user so we can prepare this user just now. Looking at this picture we already know that we have an upper menu that should be already covered with automation (if it isn't covered, the time to do it is just now) and we need to use it to open my account view. We have also a side menu to open the saved searches page from my account context. We know how the saved search will look and which button we will need to click to open search results. Having all this information we can prepare the saved search page class, empty locators for all elements and methods that will interact with the page.
\nMany times I saw this approach to automation. I will do everything manually and leave the automation creation at the end or it doesn't make any sense to create automation now, because I will have to change it. Have you seen something similar? But how much time will be needed then to write all automated tests? Two weeks, or more? Who will give this time, when a new urgent feature is upcoming? From my perspective, it is really hard to find that person and it is well-argued. That's why in my humble opinion it is much better to split your time into small sessions before the feature is ready for tests and then have all automation components already done, then just write tests on demand. Isn't it beautiful having valuable tests from the start and be able to use them as regression tests at any time?
\nI will give you my example: I was testing integration between two systems. Requirements were very agile, five teams were engaged in this feature and multiple layers of integration were created, so we had many bugs by the way. I had to repeat every test scenario 10 times on average. Manually test data preparation for each took 10 minutes, the real testing part between 5 and 10 minutes. After the third attempt, I was tired and frustrated. The more tired and frustrated I was - the more mistakes I made. It was a critical point for me to start writing automated tests. Of course, I had to spend a few hours to have it ready, but what a relief I felt when the 15 minutes scenario was done by my automation in 3 minutes. The other big benefit was that automation doesn't make mistakes and I could run my tests how many times I needed so I've stopped caring about the number of repetitions. I was able to share these tests with my colleague that needed them for testing the other part of this integration. My rough calculations show that I saved a few days and so many hairs which I would have ripped out of my head if I had to do all these tests manually to the end. When I was asked about regression I needed only a few minutes of my effort.
\nWe have so many opportunities to be well prepared for upcoming features and to reduce the effort needed in manual testing. Creating smart automation will develop our coding skills and help to save time and frustration. I am sure that there are many other ways to receive significant benefits by automating early, we just need to use them.
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