The book is based on my experience of leading and transforming large test engagements and architecting solutions for customer testing requirements, bids, or problem areas. I have been actively blogging in the area of Managed Testing Services, various emerging technologies in the digital world, and how these impact the way quality assurance is carried out.
My continued blogging activity over the last two years, and the inputs and encouragement from my follower base have encouraged me to author this Quality Assurance (QA) practitioners handbook. With each blogpost, I provided a point of view on emerging areas before others.
This book would help QA and other IT professionals keep abreast of industry and technology changes and better adapt to digital transformation. This book would be a valuable source to find points of view, practices, trends, tools, and solutions for QA professionals involved in new-age testing.
Chapter 1, State of Digital Transformation – What Has Changed in the Last Four Years (2013-16)? to Chapter 5, Crowdsourcing – Enabling Flexible, On-Demand Testing COEs: We start with trends in digital transformation in Chapter 1, State of Digital Transformation – What Has Changed in the Last Four Years (2013-16)?. Through Chapter 2, Future of Testing Engagement Models – Are Predictions of Increased QA Spends Justified?, to Chapter 5, Crowdsourcing – Enabling Flexible, On-Demand Testing COEs, we cover the evolution of testing engagement and operating models such as Managed Services, Testing Center of Excellence (TCOE), Digital Factory QA Model, crowd sourcing, weekend testing, and various value levers available through emerging QA engagement operating models.
Chapter 6, Testing Goes an Extra Mile over Weekends, to Chapter 20, Accessibility Test Automation in DevOps Environment, cover testing and automation in Agile/DevOps engagements, covering functional and non-functional (performance, TDM, Test Environment Management, virtualization, and so on) areas. The following are covered in these chapters:
Testing in Agile/DevOps engagements, Trends in agile adoption, (Chapters 6, Testing Goes an Extra Mile over Weekends to Chapter 8, Agile and DevOps Adoption are Gaining Momentum).
We will cover how agile and DevOps complement each other in Chapter 9, Does the Rise of DevOps Undermine Agile?
We discuss the role of automation in DevOps life cycle, present a framework, and analyze the spending in QA as against design, development, and production support. We will cover how agile and DevOps complement each other in Chapter 10, Role of Automation in DevOps Life Cycle, we present a method to assess the state of DevOps adoption through a baselining and benchmarking approach
Chapter 11, Assessing State of Your DevOps Adoption with DevOps Benchmarking Approach, we present a method to assess the state of DevOps adoption through a baselining and benchmarking approach.
Chapter 12, Accelerating DevOps – ChatOps Is the New Cool covers Chat-Ops, an emerging technique to collaborate/communicate in the DevOps environment
Chapter 13, Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) Using Gherkin in Agile/DevOps Environment covers Behavior-Driven Development (BDD), a tool (for example, Gherkin) to script in an English-like language, and the basic features of Gherkin
Chapter 14, Automating Configuration Management for DevOps Test Environments covers automating in DevOps life cycle, for example, automating configuration management
Chapter 15, Automated Test Data Management in the DevOps Environment covers microservice architecture
Chapter 16, Testing in DevOps Life Cycle Using Microservices Architecture covers test environments
Chapter 17, Automated Test Environments for DevOps covers automating in DevOps life cycle, for example, automating configuration management
In Chapter 18, Service Virtualization as an Enabler of DevOps, we cover service virtualization as an enabler of DevOps
Chapter 19, Best Practices in Identifying Regression Test Cases covers guidelines and best practices in identifying regression test cases
Chapter 19, Accessibility Test Automation in DevOps Environment covers automating accessibility tests
Chapter 20, Accessibility Test Automation in DevOps Environment covers test automation in DevOps enviornment
Chapter 21, Performance Tuning of Java Applications to Chapter 34, Blockchain Technology – Assuring Secure Business cover the trends in social media, mobility, analytics, and cloud (SMAC) applications, and the QA considerations for these. The key trends and QA considerations pertain to the following:
Chapter 21, Performance Tuning of Java Applications discusses the need for performance tuning in digital applications and covers tuning using Java utilities for Java applications
Chapter 22, Testing Mobile Applications – Key Challenges and Considerations covers mobile applications
Chapter 23, Testing Analytics Applications – What Has Changed in SMAC World covers analytics applications
Chapter 24, Migrating Applications to Cloud Environments – Key Testing Considerations covers covers migration to the cloud
Chapter 25, How Should a Tester Adapt to Cloud – Call for Change of Mindset among Testers calls for a change of mindset, which is needed for testing applications in the cloud, and the need to understand and prepare for the distance, break communication barriers, application security, platform replication, and the use of appropriate tools
Chapter 26, On-Demand Performance Testing on Self-Service Environments presents performance testing as a service framework with built-in tools, data management, and environments in the cloud for cloud and enterprise applications
Chapter 27, Quality Assurance for Digital Marketing Initiatives presents digital marketing as one of the emerging applications in the digital revolution and QA considerations for the readiness of content, media, and messaging involved in digital marketing applications
Chapter 28, Security Dashboard for the Board emphasizes the importance of securing IT in a digital world and board-level attention being placed on the topic. A security dashboard for the board is presented
Chapter 29, Applying Robotic Automation to Mobile Applications Testing to Chapter 35, Technologies for Digital Supply Chains and QA Considerations cover futuristic technologies, IoT, machine learning, cognitive applied to the business, and how the QA discipline is preparing to test for these technologies and apply these in testing:
Chapter 29, Applying Robotic Automation to Mobile Applications Testing covers the application of robotics technologies to test mobile applications
Chapter 30, Key Considerations in Testing Internet of Things (IoT) Applications covers covers the key considerations in testing IoT applications
Chapter 31, Algorithmic Business – In Need of Model-Based Testing discusses businesses being driven by algorithms and introduces Algorithmic Business and how Model-based Testing is leveraged in these businesses
Chapter 32, Making Testing Adaptive, Interactive, Iterative, and Contextual with Cognitive Intelligence covers applying cognitive intelligence to testing in order to carry out testing in an adaptive, interactive, iterative, and contextual manner
Chapter 33, FinTech – A New Disruptor in Industry and Implications for Testing and QA presents FinTech as a disrupter in the Financial Services industry and the QA considerations for this
Chapter 34, Blockchain Technology – Assuring Secure Business presents Blockchains to assure a secured business and the QA considerations
Chapter 35, Technologies for Digital Supply Chains and QA Considerations presents the upcoming technologies in the supply chain domain (connected autonomous vehicles, drones, AR/VR, 3D printing), and the QA considerations
Chapter 36, Potential Innovations in eHealth-Care – Implications for Testing and QA to Chapter 41, Testing Airline Digital Applications – Case for Responsive Design covers specific domains—how digital transformation is impacting these domains, specific business challenges, QA challenges, and a way to address them. Specific industries/domains covered include e-healthcare:
Chapter 36, Potential Innovations in eHealth-Care – Implications for Testing and QA covers testing and QA implications
Chapter 37, Trends in the Global Automotive Sector – Implications for Testing and QA, covers consumer products and retail
Chapter 38, Digital Transformation in Consumer Products and Retail Sector – QA Considerations covers Energy and Utilities
Chapter 39, Digital Transformation Trends in Energy and Utilities – QA Considerations covers Smart Meters and Smart Grids
Chapter 40, Smart Energy and Smart Grids – In Need of Effective Testing covers Airlines
Chapter 41, Testing Airline Digital Applications – Case for Responsive Design covers testing airline digital applications.
Chapter 42, Orthogonal Array Testing (OAT) – an Application in Healthcare Industry to Chapter 46, Robotics and Machine Learning Combined with Internet of Things – What Could This Mean for Indian Services Industries conclude the book with four chapters on the impact of digital transformation, robotics, machine learning, IoT, and other emerging technologies presented in this book on IT, consulting, and testing:
Chapter 42, Orthogonal Array Testing (OAT) – an Application in Healthcare Industry we will discuss challenges facing the H&LS industry, the need for robust testing, and use of the Orthogonal Array Testing (OAT) technique to optimize testing, and use of the OAT tool
Chapter 43, Future of Consulting in the Era of Digital Disruption covers the future of the consulting industry
Chapter 44, Future of Testing in the Digital World covers the future of testing
Chapter 45, Future of Testing – Career Opportunities covers the future of testing careers in the face of a digital transformation
Chapter 46, Robotics and Machine Learning Combined with Internet of Things – What Could This Mean for Indian Services Industries concludes with a point of view on what robotics and machine learning, combined with IoT, have in store for the future of the services industry
This book is meant for practicing population in QA and testing area, but other professionals in IT services and businesses would equally benefit. It covers the latest trends and practices that testing and QA professionals should keep abreast of, given the advancements in digital technologies. The book does not contain the basics of testing that a QA professional practices in daily life, for example, how to write a test plan or test case, and so on.
In this book, you will find a number of text styles that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles and an explanation of their meaning.
Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: " we can use this.gender == FEMALE; instead of this.gender.equals("Female");."
A block of code is set as follows:
Boolean t1 = new Boolean (true); System.out.println(t1=!Boolean.TRUE); System.out.println(t1.==(Boolean.TRUE)); produces the output: False OR True
New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, for example, in menus or dialog boxes, appear in the text like this: " After logging in, the user can navigate to Test Centre "
Feedback from our readers is always welcome. Let us know what you think about this book—what you liked or disliked. Reader feedback is important for us as it helps us develop titles that you will really get the most out of.
To send us general feedback, simply e-mail <[email protected]>, and mention the book's title in the subject of your message.
If there is a topic that you have expertise in and you are interested in either writing or contributing to a book, see our author guide at www.packtpub.com/authors.
Now that you are the proud owner of a Packt book, we have a number of things to help you to get the most from your purchase.
Although we have taken every care to ensure the accuracy of our content, mistakes do happen. If you find a mistake in one of our books—maybe a mistake in the text or the code—we would be grateful if you could report this to us. By doing so, you can save other readers from frustration and help us improve subsequent versions of this book. If you find any errata, please report them by visiting http://www.packtpub.com/submit-errata, selecting your book, clicking on the Errata Submission Form link, and entering the details of your errata. Once your errata are verified, your submission will be accepted and the errata will be uploaded to our website or added to any list of existing errata under the Errata section of that title.
To view the previously submitted errata, go to https://www.packtpub.com/books/content/support and enter the name of the book in the search field. The required information will appear under the Errata section.
Piracy of copyrighted material on the Internet is an ongoing problem across all media. At Packt, we take the protection of our copyright and licenses very seriously. If you come across any illegal copies of our works in any form on the Internet, please provide us with the location address or website name immediately so that we can pursue a remedy.
Please contact us at <[email protected]> with a link to the suspected pirated material.
We appreciate your help in protecting our authors and our ability to bring you valuable content.
If you have a problem with any aspect of this book, you can contact us at <[email protected]>, and we will do our best to address the problem.