vodQA - The ABCs of Testing

I am late in writing about this, but if I do not share this, I am sure I will be feeling very bad later on.

I am very happy to write the next vodQA is happening in Bangalore on Saturday, 8th Sept 2012. The theme for this event is "The ABCs of Testing (Automation, Big Data Analytics, Could Testing)". Also look at our vodQA group on facebook for more information.

There are great topics lined up by great speakers. There are going to be sessions across multiple tracks, fish bowl sessions and am sure a lot of thought-provoking interactions.

I will write an update with links to presentations, pictures and videos after the event. See you all there!

Google Has Open Sourced Octane, a New JavaScript Benchmark Suite

Posted from: Google Has Open Sourced Octane, a New JavaScript Benchmark Suite

Should now make it easier to test for performance more seamlessly and regularly.

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Google has open sourced Octane, a JavaScript benchmarking suite consisting of 13 tests measuring browser performance.

Google has open sourced Octane, a JavaScript benchmarking suite consisting of 13 tests meant to measure the performance of browsers loading and executing complex and large JavaScript applications such as games, interactive and rich web pages and online tools. Octane consists of 8 tests found in the initial V8 Benchmark Suite plus the addition of 5 new ones – pdf.js, Mandreel, GB Emulator, Code Loading, Box2DWeb - that are meant to measure performance areas not covered yet by other tests:

• Richards - OS kernel simulation benchmark, originally written in BCPL by Martin Richards (539 lines).
• Deltablue - One-way constraint solver, originally written in Smalltalk by John Maloney and Mario Wolczko (880 lines).
• Raytrace - Ray tracer benchmark based on code by Adam Burmister (904 lines).
• Regexp - Regular expression benchmark generated by extracting regular expression operations from 50 of the most popular web pages (1761 lines).
• NavierStokes - 2D NavierStokes equations solver, heavily manipulates double precision arrays. Based on Oliver Hunt's code (387 lines).
• Crypto - Encryption and decryption benchmark based on code by Tom Wu (1698 lines).
• Splay - Data manipulation benchmark that deals with splay trees and exercises the automatic memory management subsystem (394 lines).
• EarleyBoyer - Classic Scheme benchmarks, translated to JavaScript by Florian Loitsch's Scheme2Js compiler (4684 lines).
• pdf.js - Mozilla's PDF Reader implemented in JavaScript. It measures decoding and interpretation time (33,056 lines).
• Mandreel - Runs the 3D Bullet Physics Engine ported from C++ to JavaScript via Mandreel (277,377 lines).
• GB Emulator - Emulate the portable console's architecture and runs a demanding 3D simulation, all in JavaScript (11,097 lines).
• Code loading - measures how quickly a JavaScript engine can start executing code after loading a large JavaScript program, social widget being a common example. The source for test is derived from open source libraries (Closure, jQuery) (1,530 lines).
• Box2DWeb - Based on Box2DWeb, the popular 2D physics engine originally written by Erin Catto, ported to JavaScript. (560 lines, 9000+ de-minified)

The benchmark runs in Chrome 14+, Firefox 13+, IE 10, Opera 12 and Safari 5.1.7+ on the desktop, and in the mobile versions of Chrome, Firefox and Opera. It does not run in IE 9 because Microsoft’s browser does not implement WebGL's Typed Arrays, and in several mobile browsers which fail to execute some of the tests: Android Browser, Chrome on iOS 4 (due to iOS restrictions), and Safari on iOS 4.

Octane is more comprehensive than other JavaScript benchmarking tests such as V8, SunSpider, Kraken or Dromaeo. Google mentioned their intent to keep improving the test suite, inviting users to fill in issues reporting performance areas or applications that can be used as a base for more comprehensive JavaScript testing.

The source code of the Octane benchmark is available under a New BSD License.

Do we have rules for story writing?

I came across this interesting article from Pixar - The 22 rules of storytelling, according to Pixar. 

It got me thinking - this applies to our Agile world of Software Development too! 

• Anyone writing story cards - do you have certain rules / criteria in mind? I think quite a few things from the Pixar article apply in our world too!
• For us Testers, do we think about the functionality in the story cards based on these rules? Or, simply put, do we think about the new functionality in the story card affects the end-product? Do we think about the big picture enough?

Interesting way to create graphs and tables

Seems like a great way to create graphs and tables programmatically using ruby:


http://jordanhollinger.com/2012/07/23/introducing-graphene

BA / QA collaboration anti-pattern

A classic case of the BA-QA anti-pattern.

Source: http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2012-07-25/

How will you test this?

How will you automate the testing of something like this? ... no - not the video, but the wonders they have achieved in the "Miniatur Wunderland"!

WAAT-Ruby crosses 300 downloads

I was very happy to see that WAAT-Ruby (Web Analytics Automation Testing framework) has crossed 300 downloads on rubygems.org.

Rewarding innovation

Rewarding innovation


Source: http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2012-07-20/

Behavior Driven Testing (BDT) in Agile - slides uploaded

I spoke in SiliconIndia's SoftTec 2012 in Bangalore on 14th July on Behavior Driven Testing (BDT) in Agile. 


It was a pretty big conference - with the Test Technologies / Methodologies track having an attendance of about 250 people, and the People / Process / Business track having an attendance of about 150 people. There were good interactions with the attendees and fellow speakers during the break times.

The topic of my talk was Behavior Driven Testing (BDT) in Agile. Off late, I have been speaking on this topic at various different places in some form or the other. Click here for all information related to BDT.

Here is the abstract of this talk: 

In this talk, I will explain Agile Testing and how a technique called "Behavior Driven Testing (BDT)" can make your testing more effective. I will also cover the differences between BDD (Behavior Driven Development) and BDT, how BDT affects the Test Pyramid, and the value proposition of using BDT. 

The slides from this talk are available in the vodQA group on facebook and on SlideShare.net. 

vodQA Geek Night - Behavior Driven Testing (BDT) update

We hosted a vodQA Geek Night focussing on Behavior Driven Testing (BDT) at ThoughtWorks, Pune on 5th July 2012. The workshop itself was very intense and saw great participation and interactions with the attendees and the workshop facilitators.


There were many firsts for this workshop:

• The first vodQA Geek Night
• Event was announced, marketed and registrations done purely as a Facebook event
• 95% attendance

Pictures and slides have been uploaded on the vodQA group in Facebook.

Contact me or the vodQA Pune team for more information / questions.