Recorded: May 10th, 2017
In order to choose an appropriate tool to assist in testing, organizations need to consider three major facets of their testing ecosystem: strategy, audience, and technology.
In 1947, the game show You Bet Your Life premiered on ABC Radio, hosted by the inimitable Groucho Marx. The gameplay required contestants to bet some of their bankroll on whether or not they could answer the next question. For our purposes, that question is “What’s the best automation tool?”
It’s a valid question, right? You’ve asked it; I’ve asked it. The concern is not the asking of the question, but rather when the question is asked. The “best tool” question is often the first one asked when planning an automation initiative but perhaps we should have more information before we can judiciously decide upon one tool or another.
In this session, Paul Grizzaffi will explain how information such as test strategy, intended audience, and environment is relevant to tool choice. Attendees will hear prerequisites to asking the “best tool” question so that they have an appropriate context in which to answer it. He will also introduce the notion of “most appropriate in class”.
Attendees will leave this session, set against a whimsical game show backdrop, armed with information that will enable them have a better chance of answering that question and not losing their bankroll.
Note that this session will give you valuable context for making a decision regarding automation tools. This session cannot tell you “the tool to rule them all” or provide a cheat sheet of which tool to match every situation; much like unicorn tears and the Tooth Fairy, those things do not exist.
Takeaways
- Automation tool selection has business and technology facets
- Knowing your intended audience and environment is vital
- “The best” is not always the best – we must always aim to be appropriate
Our Speaker:
Paul Grizzaffi, Principal Automation Architect – Magenic
Paul’s career has focused on the creation and deployment of automated test strategies, frameworks, tools, and platforms. He holds a Master of Science in Computer Science and is a Certified ScrumMaster from Scrum Alliance. Paul has created automation platforms and tool frameworks based on proprietary, open source and vendor-supplied tool chains in diverse product environments (telecom, stock trading, E-commerce, and healthcare). He is an accomplished speaker who has presented at both local and national meetings and conferences. He is an advisor to Software Test Professionals and STPCon, as well as a member of the Industry Advisory Board of the Advanced Research Center for Software Testing and Quality Assurance (STQA) at UT Dallas. Paul looks forward to sharing his experiences and expanding his automation and testing knowledge of other product environments.
Twitter: @pgrizzaffi
LinkedIn: /in/paulgrizzaffi
Blog: ResponsibleAutomation
eMail: paul_grizzaffi@yahoo.com