STAREAST 2025 - Testing for Developers
Monday, April 28
Testing from the Inside: Unit Testing Edition
Do you want to take your testing and/or development skills to the next level? Are you working in an agile team where you are trying to shift-left so that your organization can reap the full benefits of testing earlier? In software testing, you're generally taught to think outside the box, from a user's perspective. However, sometimes great ideas can be sparked from inside the box, by looking at the underlying code and using that knowledge to identify various ways to break the software. Join Tariq King as he walks through the fundamentals of program-based testing so that you can find bugs...
Test Smarter, Not Harder: How to Design Test Suites for Continuous Delivery
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...
Towards Healthier Apps Through Observability
Observability has exploded onto the software engineering zeitgeist over the last five years, and for a good reason. However, it suffers from being misunderstood and sometimes equated with a closely related subject—monitoring. This confusion is compounded by the fact that some of the existing tools and frameworks just adopted a lot of the observability terminology in just the letter of the word, not the intent. Not having a solid grasp on the basics of observability is becoming unacceptable in the world of effective software quality engineering. Kaushal Dalvi shares his experiences in the...
Tuesday, April 29
Modern Web Testing with Cypress
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, April 30
SQL Server Indexing Strategies Using Query Store for Improved Performance in Retrieving Data
In the realm of database management, optimizing query performance is crucial, especially for SQL Server environments dealing with large datasets. The challenge lies in identifying and implementing effective indexing strategies that can significantly enhance data retrieval performance. During her talk, Navya will address the common issues of slow query performance and inefficient indexing, often exacerbated by the complexity of modern data systems and the dynamic nature of query patterns. To tackle this problem, she leveraged SQL Server's Query Store feature, which provides a powerful tool...
Thursday, May 1
Redefining Quality: Empowering Autonomous Teams for SaaS Excellence
Traditional roles within software development teams are being redefined in today’s fast-paced world of cloud platforms and Software as a Service (SaaS). The rise of DevOps has blurred the boundaries between development and operations, emphasizing speed, agility, and continuous delivery. Amid this transformation, the debate about whether to have a separate QA team is becoming increasingly irrelevant. Instead, the focus should shift to building autonomous, cross-functional teams equipped with the skills and ownership required to deliver high-quality SaaS products efficiently. Ronit...
Harnessing the Power of Large Language Models: Automatically Generating High-Quality, Readable, and Maintainable Unit Test Cases for Java and Python
In this talk, Lisa Waugh will discuss the challenges in delivering high-quality software due to manual testing and the need for automated unit test generation. Despite the development of techniques and tools to automatically generate unit tests, the generated tests often suffer from poor readability and lack resemblance to developer-written tests. To address these issues, Lisa's team has investigated the use of large language models (LLMs) to improve the readability and usability of automatically generated tests. They have created a pipeline to guide LLMs in generating high-coverage,...
Navigating the Intersection of Security Testing and Secured App Testing
In today's rapidly evolving digital landscape, ensuring the security of applications has become paramount. However, the traditional manual approaches to security testing and functional testing of apps once they have been secured is time-consuming, error-prone, and often fails to keep pace with emerging threats. This session will explore the challenges and opportunities at the intersection of automating security testing and testing secured applications. Karen will delve into a real-world case study where her team faced the daunting task of securing a complex application. By using multiple...
Scaling Automated Tests to Infinity and Beyond
Testing is a risk-mitigating activity that takes time. Ideally, we want to cover as many behaviors as possible in the shortest amount of time for fast feedback. The only way to speed up is to scale up. But how? This talk outlines a playbook for the five most impactful ways to scale up tests. From improving infrastructure to arranging tests more efficiently down to refining the performance of particular steps, you will learn tried-and-true techniques for running more tests in less time. With this playbook, you could scale up to hundreds of tests running concurrently without crashing. Join...
Playwright Tips & Tricks—Why Does Microsoft's Framework Perform So Well in Testing?
This session aims to provide a comprehensive overview of Playwright, Microsoft's powerful framework for test automation. Michal will explore its core functionalities and delve into practical tips and tricks to enhance its usage. The session will begin by defining what Playwright is and highlight its key features that set it apart in the testing landscape. The session will then cover advanced usage techniques, including how to effectively utilize the Trace Viewer for generating detailed test reports and implementing concurrency in tests to boost efficiency. Furthermore, Michal will examine...