Top Three Testing Trends for 2015

In this episode, I recap 2014 as well as break out my crystal ball to define what I see as the top testing trends for 2015 – information you’ll need to know in order to succeed in the New Year. I also share with you my top three must-read books for 2015 as well as the top three tools that will help you have the most productive, automation-awesomest year ever.

SmartBear's TestComplete

SmartBear's TestComplete Platform helps you create repeatable and accurate automated tests across multiple devices, platforms and environments quickly and easily. The latest version of TestComplete is now even better with its support of Selenium WebDriver and unit testing. Today we’ll talk about all things test automation-related with TestComplete.

Debugging with Fiddler

Have you ever wished for a tool that was easy to use and customize that would help you debug and security test your web applications? How awesome would it be if that tool was also free? Believe it or not, there is such a tool —Fiddler.

Fiddler is a web debugging proxy platform that monitors and modifies web traffic. This awesome freeware tool helps you to inspect traffic, set breakpoints, and “fiddle” with incoming and outgoing data.

Selenium Design Patterns and Best Practices

Nothing is more soul crushing than having a test suite that is all over the place and just fails randomly. If you have ever felt this way, I’ve got the cure for all your test automation flakyness blues.

In this episode Dima Kovalenko, author of Selenium Design Patterns and Best Practices shares with us the best strategies to create reusable, maintainable, stress-free Selenium tests.

The Benefits of Testing Legacy Code

Sure. We all love to test against the latest and greatest, shiny new web applications. But what happens if you need to test older legacy code?

Could there actually be a benefit to being involved in testing older code? You might be surprised by the answer. Not only can working on older code give you added job security, but it also might expand your skills – enabling you to tackle any testing effort, new or old.

Today we’ll be talking with the man sometimes referred to as “the code whisperer.” This Bob Vila of code talks with us about testing legacy applications.

Are you an automation engineer using Selenium and have a requirement that forces you to have to test against IE browsers? If so, I’m guessing you’re probably frustrated with various flaky issues that don’t occur in any other browser except Internet Explorer.

If you want to learn the secrets of how to succeed with Selenium IE automation, you’ve come to the right place. Today we’ll be test talking with Jim Evans.

Jim is one of the key contributors to the Selenium project. He is also the man behind the Selenium .NET bindings, and the Internet Explorer driver.

Test Automation with CodedUI

Do you need to automate both browser-based and window- based applications? Not sure which tool to use? I think one of the most overlooked tools for test automation is Microsoft CodedUI.

In this episode Marcel de Vries, author of the PluralSight Course Test Automation with CodedUI, will help you discover all the reasons why CodedUI might be the perfect tool for you to use in the creation of your automation awesomeness.

What do you do when QTP or UFT doesn’t automatically recognize an object in your application? I know how frustrating this can be. Before you give up, in my experience, these are the first ten things you should try/check.

Does your company practice some wicked test automation anti-patterns that make your skin crawl? Do you feel like you are surrounded by mindless, automation- ignorant zombies?

Grab your silver bullets, crucifix and holy water as we take a look at the horror of the top six automation anti-patterns. Discover how to drive a wooden stake into the heart of these evil practices and rid your tests of them forever.

PhantomJS Cookbook

Today I’m inviting you to join me in the test automation kitchen as Rob Friesel, author of the PhantomJS CookBook gets ready to serve up some tasty PhantomJS automation awesomeness. We’ll be sampling some of his popular recipes and discovering how to succeed with PhantomJs.

In this episode you will discover why API testing I so important and why you need to be ahead of the API testing curve sooner rather than later.

Test Management using QAComplete

In this episode, Masha Kozinets, Director of Product Management for QAComplete and TestComplete, and Jeffrey Martin, an engineer at SmartBear, go over how a test management tool like QAComplete can help you achieve test automation awesomeness with the ability to plan, organize and schedule all your tests.

How to hack your APIs

Are you doing all you can to make sure your APIs are secure? If you haven’t started security testing yet, now is the time - by 2020 there are estimates that there will be over 50 billion objects connected to the Internet. Most of these objects will be using APIs.

Not sure where to start — Troy Hunt author of the Pluralsight course Hack Your API First shares with us all you need to know about the basics of API security testing and the tool and technique you will need to quickly get started. Troy’s motto is hack yourself before you get hacked!

Rosie Sherry, the founder of multiple testing communities, takes a rare step into the limelight as she shares her years of wisdom on the philosophy of testing, her thoughts on women in tech and life in general, as well as how to build vibrant testing communities like the Software Testing Club. This podcast is a must-listen for anyone who is involved in, or wants to learn more about, software testing and living life on your own terms.

Removing Test from Test Automation

Are you harnessing the full power of test automation? There are many instances in which automation can assist you by saving time in ways you may not even be aware of. Greg shares five underutilized areas where automation can help us. Get the most out of your automation efforts with Greg's tips.

The episode with help you hidden opportunities to unleash your automation awesomeness!

The Top Five Non-Selenium Test Tools You Need to Know About

Believe it or not, there are test automation tools other then Selenium. If you need to automate something that’s not a browser application, these tools can help.

The top five tools (in no particular order) are:

1. Python
2. White Framework
3. Rest-Assured
4. Sikuli
5. Thucydides

The Selenium Testing Tools Cookbook

In this episode you’re going to be served up some tasty Selenium tips by Unmesh Gundecha, author of the Selenium Testing Tools Cookbook. Unmesh will share with us a host of recipes for test automation success that will leave you saying “that was m’m! m’m! good automation awesomeness.”

Danielle is a QA engineer with a passion for fashion and technology.  She works at ASOS, one of the largest global online fashion retailers in the world. She shares her testing secrets with us, and tells us what’s it like to be a female engineer in a male-dominated field.

Her insight should inspire any young (or not so young) girls who are thinking about starting a career in technology, and encourage anyone listening that women can rock testing just as well as any dude.

Are you moving from waterfall to AGILE? Are you doing AGILE wrong? Want to save time creating your test plans? In this episode Lance shares with us how we can create effective one-page test plans that fit into AGILE.

In this episode we talk performance testing using LoadUI with SmartBear’s Paul Bruce. Paul goes over not just performance testing using loadUI, but also shares his expert insight into performance testing along with some awesome performance testing best practices.

How to create clean test code

As test engineers, how often have we proclaimed that test automation code is real code-- and should be treated like any other development project?

I say it all the time.

Since test automation code is development code, it should adhere to the same standards --code reviews and the like–just like any other development effort.

Cory House, author of the Pluralsight course Clean Code: Writing Code for Humans, shares with us his top tips for creating readable, easy to maintain test automation code.

Mike is a SoapUI technical engineer at SmartBear, the makers of some cool test and performance tools like SoapUI, test complete, LoadUI pro and a bunch more. Mike is known for  developing and delivering highly informative SoapUI Pro demonstrations that focus on the functionality most important to SoapUI test engineers like functional, data driven, or security testing, mock web services, reporting, etc. He shares his passion for API testing using SoapUI in this must- listen episode.

Have you ever wondered if it was possible to run Selenium Scripts in LoadRunner?  LoadRunner 12 now has the ability to execute Selenium scripts in a performance scenario. Learn how in my latest TestTalks episode. I go over step-by-step the information you need to get started.

Want to know how to migrate from QTP to Selenium? Tarun talks about his experience migrating large QTP projects to Selenium. Learn what to do to successfully move your projects from QTP to Selenium. Also Tarun talks about many topics that will help you know what to do when choosing between QTP VS. Selenium.

In this episode Joe answers the top five email questions he gets asked at joecolantonio.com:

1.    Can I use selenium to test rest services?
2.    How should I go about learning Selenium. Are there any books / video training that you recommend
3.    Can you send me the latest HP QTP/UFT/LoadRunner patches?
4.    What test tool/technology should I learn?
5.What’s better QTP or Selenium?

Do you want to make sure you're creating a test automation framework that will endure long after you've moved on to a new project. Sick of your test tools or your framework becoming shelf-ware? Are you new to test automation and not sure where to start?

No worries -- Greg shares with us his unique insight on not only how to create automation tests, but also lays out a plan that will make a huge difference in the adoption and maintainability of your test efforts.

Are you using jBehave or EasyB to create your Behavior Driven Development tests and wish there was an easier way to write and get better reporting functionality? Thucydides is a tool deigned to make writing automated acceptance and regression tests easier. Thucydides integrates seamlessly with jBheave and Selenium WebDriver. Listen to hear more about this must have BDD tool.

Want to know what the top six automation best practices are? Joe shares with you his top killers of automation performance and reliability.

What do Steampunk and Harry Potter have to do with Behavior Driven Development (BDD)? Join us as Lance enlightens us about BDD.