STAREAST 2024 - Test Automation | TechWell

STAREAST 2024 - Test Automation

Monday, April 29

Chris Loder
Rogue Automator
MD

Test Automation: How to Start and Succeed

Monday, April 29, 2024 - 8:30am to 12:00pm

Many organizations invest a lot of effort in test automation at the system level but then have serious problems as their product matures and changes over time. As a leader, how can you ensure that your new automation efforts will get off to a good start? What can you do to ensure that your automation work provides continuing added value? Chris Loder will explain the critical issues you need to know to get a good start, and he will share his extensive experience in building great automation. He covers the most important management issues you should address for test automation success,...

Janna_Loeffler
mParticle
MH

Test Automation Strategies: Navigating DevOps, Agile, and Complex Technologies

New
Monday, April 29, 2024 - 8:30am to 12:00pm

In the era of DevOps, agile methodologies, and the ever-expanding landscape of intricate technologies, the traditional bulky test automation strategy document has rapidly lost its relevance. Testers are grappling with the challenge of succinctly communicating intricate testing objectives. Yet, a beacon of optimism shines through! A streamlined, actionable, and impactful test automation strategy tailored for agile, DevOps, and even the notorious waterfall approach is within reach. Join Janna as she draws upon real-world test strategies from her experience, deconstructing the essential...

Adam_Auerbach
EPAM Systems
ML

Instill a DevOps Testing Culture in Your Team and Organization

Monday, April 29, 2024 - 1:00pm to 4:30pm

The DevOps movement is here. Companies across many industries are breaking down siloed IT departments and federating them into product development teams. Testing and its practices are at the heart of these changes. Traditionally, IT organizations have been staffed with mostly manual testers and a limited number of automation and performance engineers. To keep pace with development in the new “you build it, you own it” environment, testing teams and individuals must develop new technical skills and even embrace coding to stay relevant and add greater value to the business. DevOps really...

Tuesday, April 30

Kristoffer Nordström
Northern Test Consulting AB
TA

Testing in the Cloud From All Four Corners of the World!

Tuesday, April 30, 2024 - 8:30am to 4:30pm

This is a workshop for those of you that have done some sort of scripting or automation before. It’s a workshop where we’ll write a simple test agent using Python for sending traffic to a centralized REST API. You’ll follow up by creating 10,000 items of random test objects for offline test data. You’ll spin up server instances in the AWS cloud using Python. And finally, to top it all off, you’ll deploy your test agent and test data in cloud instances spread out over the four corners of the world, all of them generating simultaneous test traffic toward a single REST API where you’ll all...

Dalton Forbes
Coveros
Phil LaFrance
Coveros
TB

Supercharge Your Workflow: To GitHub and Beyond

New
Tuesday, April 30, 2024 - 8:30am to 4:30pm

Whether you are new or experienced with GitHub this class is for you! Supercharging your workflow caters to anyone who wants to enhance their Agile and DevOps process with the capabilities of GitHub. GitHub has long been the premier site for open-source projects and is now turning a pivotal corner into becoming the predominant platform for all aspects of the development lifecycle. Some examples of this include; protecting company code through various GitHub Products or curating marketplace actions and workflows prior to use. This tutorial will look at how to leverage GitHub Actions (CI/CD...

Tom-Stiehm
Coveros
TF

Web Security Testing: The Basics and More

Tuesday, April 30, 2024 - 8:30am to 12:00pm

Web applications are often security critical or serve as front-ends for security critical applications, making web testing for vulnerabilities an essential part of software testing. Unfortunately, most software testers have not been taught how to identify web security issues while testing applications. Join Tom Stiehm as he shares what you need to know to security test web-based applications as part of your overall testing process. Learn about the most common web security vulnerabilities and how they are introduced into web code and exploited by hackers. Explore test techniques for...

Rob_Sabourin
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
TG

Exploratory Testing in the Heat of the Sprint

Tuesday, April 30, 2024 - 8:30am to 12:00pm

Agile teams are burdened with the challenge of delivering working product increments after short iterations of development. Getting software from an ambiguous terse, incomplete requirement–to a done, working, solid, valuable, high-quality code requires testers to continuously adapt to change in a turbulent context and deliver actionable results. Chris Blain will illustrate how charter-driven session-based exploratory testing techniques can empower agile teams and help them learn quickly and adapt based on what really matters. Testers can design and execute tests on the fly as they explore...

Andrew Knight
Cycle Labs
TI

Modern Web Testing with Playwright

New
Tuesday, April 30, 2024 - 8:30am to 12:00pm

Everybody gets frustrated when web apps are broken, but testing them thoroughly doesn’t need to be a chore. Playwright, a new open-source browser automation tool from Microsoft, makes testing web apps fun! Playwright offers a slew of nifty features like automatic waiting, mobile emulation, and network interception. Plus, with isolated browser contexts, Playwright tests can set up much faster than traditional Web UI tests. In this session, we will automate concise yet robust web app tests for a Kanban board web app with Playwright in TypeScript. You'll learn to test modern web apps of any...

Jeff Payne
Coveros
TL

Integrating Automated Testing into DevOps

Tuesday, April 30, 2024 - 1:00pm to 4:30pm

In many organizations, agile development processes are driving the pursuit of faster software releases, which has spawned a set of new practices—DevOps. DevOps stresses communications and integration between development and operations, including rapid deployment, continuous integration, and continuous delivery. Because DevOps practices require confidence that changes made to the code base will function as expected, automated testing is essential. Join Jeffery Payne as he discusses the unique challenges associated with integrating automated testing into continuous integration/continuous...

Melissa Benua
mParticle
TO

Test Smarter, Not Harder: How to Design Test Suites for Continuous Delivery

Tuesday, April 30, 2024 - 1:00pm to 4:30pm

Imagine: as soon as any developed functionality is submitted into the code repository, it is automatically subjected to the appropriate battery of tests and then released straight into the wild. Setting up the pipeline to do just that has become commonplace, but most organizations hit the same stumbling block: just what IS the appropriate battery of tests? Automated build pipelines don't always lend themselves well to the traditional stages of testing. In this hands-on tutorial, Melissa will introduce testers to the key principles of test case and test suite design that apply to...

Filip-Hric
Replay.io
TP

Modern Web Testing with Cypress

New
Tuesday, April 30, 2024 - 1:00pm to 4:30pm

The web has evolved. Finally, testing has too. Cypress is a modern testing tool that answers the testing needs of modern web applications. It has been gaining a lot of traction in the last couple of years, gaining worldwide popularity. If you have been waiting to learn Cypress, wait no more! Filip Hric will guide you through the first steps on how to start using Cypress and set up a project on your own. The good news is, learning Cypress is incredibly easy. You’ll write your first test in no time, and then you’ll discover how to write a full end-to-end test for a modern web application.

Wednesday, May 1

Stacy Kirk
QualityWorks Consulting
K1

Fast Not Furious: The Next Era of Test Productivity

Wednesday, May 1, 2024 - 8:30am to 9:45am

The next era of testing is here, and it's crazy fast. So fast, it would no doubt infuriate those who are not ready for it. In this talk, Stacy will discuss how testing professionals should build a responsive culture without sacrificing quality or customer experience to speed. She will detail how automation and AI must be incorporated into the new industry standard. Stacy will address how expanding our impact to areas like Data Quality, FinOps, and Ethics will usher in faster advances for business value. She will define how productivity has been and should be measured so that teams...

Kevin Pyles
O.C. Tanner
W1

An AI-Partnered Testing Future—It’s Here!

Wednesday, May 1, 2024 - 11:30am to 12:30pm

Let’s be real, we are quite a ways out from AI taking over the world. AI doomsday apologists stay home! On the other hand, AI is changing everything about software creation. In this presentation, Kevin Pyles will take you on a walk down memory lane through waterfall, agile and DevOps practices, and will then introduce you to the future of software creation known as AI-Partnered Development. Let’s get practical with real-world examples of AI assisting designers, solving coding challenges and testing software right next to human testers. We will explore how AI is also involved today in...

Perficient Inc
W3

API Testing Automation and CI/CD Integration

Wednesday, May 1, 2024 - 11:30am to 12:30pm

API Testing is a critical component of modern software development, ensuring the reliability and functionality of applications programing interfaces. However, integrating API testing into a robust CI/CD pipeline poses unique challenges with maintaining consistency and accuracy in test results across various environments and versions of the API. Changes in API endpoints, data formats, or authentication methods often result in test failures that will be difficult to trace and troubleshoot. To address these challenges, API versioning and automated API testing needs to be implemented. This...

W5

Enabling Reliable Test Automation Though Isolation: Mocking HTTP Services Using Mountebank

Wednesday, May 1, 2024 - 11:30am to 12:30pm

Have you ever found yourself at a time when you have no control over an internal or external service and while your automation was running it failed due to instability in that service? Well, to automate tests in a safe and reliable way, you need to have control of the environment. When not available, one option is to isolate your application by creating mocks of the services. In this talk, Júlio will go through a use case scenario using Mountebank (mbtest.org), an open-source tool that enables us to create HTTP mocks, to remove the dependencies related to an external HTTP service in order...

Chris Loder
Rogue Automator
W6

Automation Face-Off

Wednesday, May 1, 2024 - 11:30am to 12:30pm

What do you think about when you hear the words "test automation"? Are you considering developing your own tools to help you probe the product deeply, or will you apply a commercial tool for automated checking? Are you excited by new, powerful, enabling technologies, or do you worry that a robot will replace you? One thing is for sure: when we apply tools, we fundamentally change the context and the nature of the work we do.Our panelists are software testing experts who will discuss all this and more with you! Together, we'll probe what people mean by automation, the power that tools can...

melissa-daley
Orca Intelligence
W7

Empowering Robust Testing Frameworks: Leveraging AI-Generated Requirements for Unparalleled Quality Assurance

Wednesday, May 1, 2024 - 1:30pm to 2:30pm

Join Melissa as she explores the fusion of AI and quality assurance in software development. Discover how AI-generated requirements can revolutionize testing strategies, enhancing application quality. She will cover AI's role in requirements generation, and you will learn how AI automates the creation of diverse use case scenarios, ensuring comprehensive coverage, including edge cases. She will discuss traceability and alignment to outline how AI-generated requirements establish a robust traceability matrix, verifying all aspects of software functionality. Additionally, the session will...

julia-pottinger
QualityWorks Consulting Group
W9

Next Level API Automation: Testing the Boundaries

Wednesday, May 1, 2024 - 1:30pm to 2:30pm

APIs are an essential part of an increasingly large number of applications that we use daily. APIs enable applications to exchange data and functionality easily and securely. As testers, we want to ensure that our APIs do not break and provide the expected functionality. In this workshop, Julia Pottinger will get you started with automating APIs, creating a checklist of things needed to automate an API, automating workflows and negative tests for your API as well as checking that your APIs handle errors appropriately, follow the specified schema, and don't reveal data that it shouldn’t or...

Technical Systems Integrators
W10

AgileWARE Test Automation for DoD Network Testing

Wednesday, May 1, 2024 - 1:30pm to 2:30pm

Join Charles Reynolds as he walks you through the experience of delivering test automation to the DoD (DISA) to facilitate rapid deployment of new releases of software and firmware for networking devices used to provide DoD networks. Additionally, the goal was to provide rapid infrastructure deployment for tier 3 support engineering to address new issues as they arose. At one point the DoD was several revisions behind in deploying to the field allowing for significant vulnerabilities in our nation’s networks. See how AgileWARE (a custom Agile Workflow And Resource Enablement COTS tool) was...

Filip-Hric
Replay.io
W11

Test Like a Developer, Develop Like a Tester

Wednesday, May 1, 2024 - 1:30pm to 2:30pm

Developers and testers seem to be pulling against each other sometimes and yet, both try to reach the same goal—great software. Their focus is on different parts of the development process, but there are actually quite a few things they can learn from each other! Filip will shed some light into how developers can apply a testing mindset in order to write better code and what can testers learn from developers to enhance their process. He will cover why it’s important that testers get a basic understanding of the app they are testing and why developers should care about flakiness. Learn...

Dmitriy Gumeniuk
EPAM Systems
W13

Unlocking the Future: Real-World Applications of 3 Open-Sourced ML Powered Tools for Test Automation

Wednesday, May 1, 2024 - 2:45pm to 3:45pm

In an era where Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing various industries, the field of test automation is no exception. This talk aims to shed light on how ML can be practically applied in test automation using open-source tools that are readily available for implementation. Join Dmitry as he explores three popular tools—Healenium, ReportPortal and Visual Regression Tracker—that leverage ML to offer innovative solutions in self-healing capabilities, testing results analysis and visual testing, respectively. You will learn about the rise of AI and ML in...

W15

Automated Mobile App Testing on Various Physical and Virtual Devices

Wednesday, May 1, 2024 - 2:45pm to 3:45pm

Many organizations face the issue today whereby their customers have a wide range of mobile devices upon which their application runs making it challenging to find all potential defects. To accomplish testing of various devices would require an organization to purchase many physical devices and maintain them. Join Alanzo as he walks you through how his team validated the functionality and compatibility of their mobile app in various environments and on various mobile devices through use of a robust test environment. He will outline how developing automated scripts, implementing a...

Everfi, a Blackbaud company
W17

A Crash Course In Getting Started with Cypress

Preview
Wednesday, May 1, 2024 - 2:45pm to 3:45pm

In 2024, the amount of new technologies and practical applications to software testing principles can leave any software tester looking to advance their career in test automation feeling overwhelmed. In this interactive session, Anna will share the applied learning models that she has developed over her 10+ years of experience in the field to empower you on your test automation learning journey. You will gain a deeper understanding of Cypress, a user-friendly framework, to help you write your first automated test, as well learn practical tips and tricks on how to further develop...

Thursday, May 2

Tom-Stiehm
Coveros
T1

Prompt Engineering for Mere Mortals

Thursday, May 2, 2024 - 9:45am to 10:45am

Prompt Engineering is a skill that anyone can develop, even mere mortals. While Generative AI can produce amazing results, it isn’t magic. You don’t need to be an AI Wizard to learn to craft effective prompts that help you leverage Generative AI in a way that helps you complete your tasks and achieve your goals and objectives. Tom will break down the terms and use everyday examples to illustrate Prompt Engineering best practices so that you can more easily navigate the nuances of Generative AI. In this session, you will learn what Prompt Engineering is and how to use it to get the best...

TapHere! Technology
T4

Test-Driven Development in Agile/DevOps

Thursday, May 2, 2024 - 9:45am to 10:45am

On agile teams, development moves quickly. This makes it especially easy to fall into the trap of initially ignoring the crucial component of testing. In order to add confidence to the product Stephanie's team outputs, they have modified their workflow to lean on Test-Driven Development. Test-Driven Development pushed Stephanie to be a better developer by: helping define her requirements in code, use tests as a guideline for completion, and easily incorporate automated testing into pipelines in her merge requests. Test-Driven Development has also enabled her team to be more effective by:...

Tariq King
Test IO
T6

AI in Testing: A Moderated Panel Discussion

Thursday, May 2, 2024 - 9:45am to 10:45am

Artificial intelligence is the newest trend in software testing. But what is it, and how will it impact the tester's role, both today and in the future? What do you need to do to embrace this emerging technology? Tariq King will moderate this panel discussion to give you an opportunity to hear the opinions of industry leaders about AI in testing. You will have a chance to drive the debate, so come prepared with all your AI questions.

Curiosity Software
T7

Adversarial Testing for AIs: Get Ready to Fuzz Things Up!

Thursday, May 2, 2024 - 11:15am to 12:15pm

With the “AI Boom”, testing AI will be a vital skill for every tester. But, how can you test a system with few expected results or test oracles? This talk will discuss the vital skills that Quality Engineers offer to AI/ML development as well as different tools and techniques that you can use to start testing AI. Ben will discuss how you can automate “Adversarial Testing”, a technique which provides inputs to see if an AI produces undesirable responses. You will learn a technique known as “Fuzzing”, in which testing provides an array of inputs to see if a program produces a result that is...

Lockheed Martin
Lisa Allman
Lockheed Martin
T10

DevOps and Airplanes: A Match Made in the Clouds

Thursday, May 2, 2024 - 11:15am to 12:15pm

DevOps principles can be applied to various industries, including aviation, to enhance the development, testing, and deployment of software systems used in aircraft. These software systems are critical for various functions such as navigation, communication, and monitoring. It's important to note that the aviation industry has unique safety and regulatory requirements that do not to apply to commercial products, so DevOps practices must align with these standards to ensure the safety and reliability of aircraft software systems. Join Aly and Lisa as they take off and discuss how DevOps...

T11

Integration Testing with Cypress

Thursday, May 2, 2024 - 11:15am to 12:15pm

Running tests on a live environment (as opposed to a mocked one) is generally an anti-pattern within the Cypress community. You won’t find many (if any!) articles explaining how to do so, or how to do so successfully. However, live app testing can sometimes be critical when it comes to integration testing; as it helps you find bugs your mocked tests just won’t find. These bugs are usually critical and can make or break your production deployments. Stephanie McSwain has seen it work first hand and it’s been eye opening. Join this session and Stephanie will show you how, when, and why to...

Slalom, Inc.
T12

Managing Test Data in Enterprise Environments

Thursday, May 2, 2024 - 11:15am to 12:15pm

Managing test data is hard. Managing test data in complex, distributed, poorly documented, and organization-spanning enterprise software is substantially harder. In enterprise systems test data is convoluted, hidden, and hard to synthesize, the test environments it flows through are shared and unstable, and the test scenarios dependent on it are long and complex. These challenges combine to cripple many test automation efforts in enterprise software. In this talk Blake Norrish will describe what an optimal test data management strategy looks like, how the nature of enterprise software...

Iterable
T14

Navigating the Testing Career Labyrinth: From Intern to Director

Thursday, May 2, 2024 - 1:30pm to 2:30pm

Navigating a successful career in software testing presents formidable challenges, especially when striving to climb the career ladder. Whether you're aiming to transition from manual testing to becoming an SDET or contemplating roles in people management and organizational leadership, forging your path can feel overwhelming. Join Jeff Sing, as he draws upon his personal journey, starting as a QA Intern and progressing to his current role as a Director of Engineering. Through anecdotes and insights, you will learn the strategies and decisions that can significantly propel your career...

T15

Let’s Get Serious About Testing

Thursday, May 2, 2024 - 1:30pm to 2:30pm

You want to go faster, your business wants to go faster, frankly the market is forcing you to go faster. Your organization has no choice, you go faster or you get left behind! All that speed cannot come at the expense of quality though, you must maintain or improve quality as you increase velocity. If you are going to speed up to meet demand and maintain quality, you need to automate testing. To automate you need a solid plan and architecture. Join Tony to explore unit, functional and regression testing—why each one is needed and where to implement. Understand the differences between...

Deepika Kale
Guardant Health
T17

Kafka and Kafka Testing: Streamlining Real-time Data Processing

Preview
Thursday, May 2, 2024 - 1:30pm to 2:30pm

In today's data-driven landscape, real-time data processing is the backbone of modern applications. Kafka, a distributed event streaming platform, has emerged as a critical component in building data-intensive systems. This presentation provides an in-depth exploration of Kafka and the essential practice of Kafka testing, offering attendees valuable insights into harnessing the power of real-time data streams while ensuring robust system reliability. You will be introduced to Kafka and to understanding Kafka's architecture and core components, as well as the importance of Kafka...

Grigori Trofimov
Parasoft
T18

Stressed About Performance Testing? Simulate It!

Thursday, May 2, 2024 - 1:30pm to 2:30pm

Preparing your software application to handle peak loads and high-volume conditions is vital, whether your business is seasonal operations like e-commerce during holiday seasons, a ticketing system for big events, a live streaming service hosting the World Cup, or a financial institute that must provide seamless transactions. Load and performance testing, along with the creation of a simulated environment for testing, is your key to success. This combination provides the understanding of how your application will behave under high-stress circumstances and ensures stability and performance...

Insider Intelligence
T21

Crafting Excellence: Optimizing Test Case Design with Domain Analysis

Thursday, May 2, 2024 - 3:00pm to 4:00pm

In today's fast-paced software development landscape, the pressure to deliver code rapidly is unrelenting. However, this doesn't mean that our applications are becoming simpler or that testing is less critical. On the contrary, the software environment has grown more diverse, and applications are constructed in increasingly intricate ways to meet evolving business demands. In this session, we draw inspiration from the craftsmanship of master swordsmiths who meticulously forged swords to perfection. Quality, in their world, meant the difference between life and death. Similarly, in software...