BDD in Action, Performance Golden Rule and More! TGNS79

Have you seen the new Low Code API testing feature that simplifies the API testing process? Want to know a proven way to really use BDD correctly? And do you know the performance golden rule? Find out in this episode of the Automation and DevSecOps news show for the week of April 30th. So grab your favorite cup of coffee or tea and let's do this. Are you looking to take your automation project to the next level? Look no further than applitools and the Visual AI Validation Testing. Trust me, it is a game changer. Plus you could try it out yourself for free by creating an account using the special link in the comments down below and see the difference for yourself. And while you're there, don't forget to like and subscribe to get alerted every time I release a new episode. First up, Automation News so I was on vacation in sick for most of April. I'm still recovering. So a lot of these news items are from the past weeks of April. And this is actually when I announced on social media a few weeks ago. I want to also cover it on the new show because I think it's going to help a lot of testers. And that is Test Sigma has announced the launch of a new low Code API testing feature. And we had the folks from Test Sigma on the Test Automation podcast last year and they were talking about Test Sigma and all the new features that they're adding. And so this is just the latest in what they're calling a way to help quality teams perform API testing by simplifying the process and making it more accessible to the whole QA team. And also, this low Code API testing feature eliminates the need for multiple tools and scripting knowledge, allowing even non technical users to create and maintain automated standalone and integrated API tests. Users can now easily set up tests by entering their endpoint, selecting the API method, adding header content, and setting a status code. So some key highlights of this feature include a truly scriptless way to do API test assertions, which will help save time on test creation. You can run your API test for multiple data sets without changing the script, has a lot of flexible options for comparing actual response values with the expected API responses. It has enhanced controls and flexibility for capturing runtime data from API responses for reuse and subsequent tests. It also supports validating APIs using different rest API methods and creating data driven API tests from multiple data sources. And you can use it to seamlessly integrate with popular CI CD tools and real time test execution reports to help improve your testing efficiency. I highly recommend you check out this new feature because I think API testing is something a lot of people miss out on and you can find it in the first comment down below. Is Test Automation an Illusion? Well, according to Paul Grisafi, it just might be. How do you know? Let's find out. So once again, Paul has released a must read blog post. Once again, he released this a few weeks ago, but like I said, I've been sick and I've been out, so that's why I wanted to show it on this episode. I also did a podcast interview with Paul all about this. And as always, Paul uses music to kind of show principles in testing to illustrate a bunch of things that he can relate to music in general. And in this article he uses the Stick's classic album the Grand Illusion as a thematic backdrop. So Paul shares his insights on the misconceptions surrounding automation testing, potential pitfalls of blindly following big name company strategies, and the importance of striking the balance between automation and human expertise. He also explores the critical aspects of weighing the cost of benefits when adopting new automation tools and understand the actual value of automation when placed in the hands of experienced professionals. You definitely want to check this out. And also while you're at it, you might as well listen to the podcast interview as well, where I actually pit Paul Grisaffi against ChatGPT to see who wins the battle between music analogies and testing. You definitely want to check that out as well. So another article I found that I think you should definitely check out is by Wayne and it's on test driven development and where he doesn't talk about his automation and illusion, he talks about is test driven development really testing? And so he posted this on LinkedIn once again a few weeks ago. I don't know if anyone's ever read Descartes when he talks about I think therefore I am. So this article kind of reminds me of that where I test, therefore I'm testing. I'm not sure, but really he breaks down what is test driven development, his personal experience working with a coding project using tdd, and he describes the process of writing unit tests before writing the code, which allows the behavior described in the test to drive the design. And throughout the process he kind of ponders whether he is testing or doing something else. And the article goes on to point out other highlights and learnings around TDD and how it can provide moments of learning exploration that is similar to testing or testing activities outside of development activities. So thank you Wayne once again for this awesome resource. All right, as you probably could tell, I love books and so that's why I want to highlight this next book. I love this book. I keep talking about this book. John Ferguson Smart does not pay me for this, but this is the first edition. But I have great news. If you have read this book or if you haven't read this book, you're going to get even better insight from it because John Ferguson Smart just announced that he's released the second version of BDD in Action and this new edition is pretty much a total rewrite of the first edition. So if you like the first one like I do, you're going to definitely love the second edition. Even better, if you haven't read the first one, then you are in for a special treat. A lot of people give BDD a bad rap and it's I think it's because they don't understand VDD correctly or they don't implement it correctly. And if you really want to get benefits out of Behavior Driven Development, you need to do it correctly. And this is like one of the only books I know that actually uses it correctly with a way that integrates with automation that gives you the best of both worlds. So definitely check it out and thank you once again John for this book. Also, while I was out, Selenium announced a new release of Selenium WebDriver and they announced the release of version 4.90 for Java Net, Ruby, Python and JavaScript, as well as the Grid and Internet Explorer driver. And the new version comes with several updates and enhancements to improve your experience and you can see it in the link down below. So I've been kicking around this idea in my head for a while about writing a book and I finally am close to releasing it and I wanted to share my progress with you. So the book is going to be called automation awesomeness 260 actionable affirmations to improve your QA in Automation Testing skills. And if you join below, you'll be one of the first few people to learn when the book launches, get bonuses and you also might get a discount or free copy. But I've just got back the copy of how it's going to be formatted as you can see here, which I think is really cool. So it's just a matter of me now getting it fully formatted. So hopefully you check it out and let me know what you think. So in Performance News I found an article about the Golden Rule of Performance. So this blog post is by Tim who goes over a conversation had on Twitter about the Performance Golden Rule. If you don't know the performance Golden Rule. It states that 80% or 90% of user response time is spent on the front end. But a recent analysis found that this rule still holds strong, with even top sites showing an 85, 15% or a 90 to 10% split between front end and back end. However, the line between front end and backend performance is increasingly blurry with server configurations the JavaScript frameworks affecting both aspects. So instead of focusing on one or the other, experts suggest a holistic approach to performance optimization targeting improvements in user experience metrics such as lodge content, full paint and time to first bite. And this article by Tim actually walks you step by step. This whole process of this whole concept that you definitely should check out and I didn't find anything specific to security testing. I did find an article I think you'll find interesting that deals with security in general. So in this recent Harvard Review article, the author argues that managers should think more like hackers. And by adopting a hacker mindset, managers can work round obstacles, find opportunities across silos, cultivate a culture of pragmatism, and mobilize staff around process and set up end goals. It gives some examples about how Airbnb did this as well as some other companies. And it breaks down even more by by focusing on essential complexity and stripping away accidental complexity, managers become more adaptive to evolving challenges and preserve the dynamism of the organizations. Really a cool read and I like how it takes hackers and security and how you can use different kind of concepts out of that to help you manage any type of project, even automation, security and performance. And so for links of everything of value we covered in this news episode, head on over to links in the first comment down below. While you're there, make sure to check out our sponsor aptlitools free account offer and discover how to take your automation testing to the next level. Leveraging Visual AI so that's it for this episode of the Test Guild News Show. I'm Joe. My mission is to help you succeed in creating end to end full stack pipeline DevOps automation awesomeness. As always, test everything and keep the good. Cheers.