Table of Contents

This blog started when I was trying to find a place to put my notes as I was trying to make the attempt to switch over from being a manual to an automated tester.

Here is a grouping of common themes I have been blogging about since January 2015.

AWS Cloud Security Testing

I started in 2018 writing automated tests for a cloud security firm.

• The AWS Alphabet Soup (1/24/2018)
• An introduction to good security practices, with Sam Bisbee, Chief Security Officer of Threat Stack (1/28/2018)

Software Quality Assurance

I have been working as a Software Quality Assurance Engineer since 1996. Learn more about the Waterfall and Agile software development methodologies, and how software testing has changed over the years!

• What is a QA Engineer? (1/24/2015)
• Waterfall & QA (1/26/2015)
• Before Waterfall (1/26/2015)
• Agile Software Development (1/30/2015)
• How Google Tests Software, thoughts on the book (1/31/2015)
• Shifts in Software Testing (2/1/2015)
• How to Switch Careers in the Software Industry (4/20/2015)
• Should You Have A Dedicated Automation Team in Your QA Team? (9/9/2015)
• Are QA Engineers Becoming Extinct? (9/28/2015)

Security Testing

I spent a year as a junior security tester at a company, and find it facinating!

• Security Testing with Kali Linux: Installation (4/22/2015)
• Beginners Kali Linux: Setup with RailsGoat (4/23/2015)
• Introduction to OWASP: A Security Testing resource (4/30/2015)
• OWASP Boston Meetup: Crowdsource Your Bugs (5/7/2015)

Automation Frameworks for Web-based User Interfaces

I worked at Fitbit-Boston (2015-2016) and Good Start Genetics (2016) as an automation developer, first using Selenium / Java, then using Node.js based Nightwatch.js.

• Setting up a development environment with IntelliJ / Maven, then with IntelliJ / Gradle, then Eclipse / Gradle. 
• Taking a deeper dive into Gradle, exploring Groovy, using it to run simple tests.
• Using both TestNG and JUnit4 ways of making assertions. Suddenly, Hamcrest.
• Abstracting the page using the Page Object model.
• Using CSS Selectors to find and manipulate web elements on the page.
• How to organize the web element selectors: first in enums, then in By statements.
• Wrapping Selenium calls, placing them in a CommonUtils library.
• Doing away with wrapping Selenium calls and just using Page Factory.
• Performing API testing with Apache's HTTP Components.
• Passing data to tests using pojos and builder patterns,
• Showing examples of good logging for tests.
• Experiments with setting up a virtual dev environment with VirtualBox, Vagrant, and Docker.
• Installing, setup, and learning Docker with the Docker Toolbox and Docker's setup docs.
• Setting up Selenium Grid (for beginners).
• Setting up Selenium Grid in a Docker Container.
• Playing with Protractor, JavaScript and Jasmine: An AngularJS testing tool

Automation Frameworks for  Mobile User Interfaces

I put together a mobile proof-of-concept using Appium and Java for Ahold-Quincy (2017) usjng Appium + Java. I was exploring if it was possible to use Serenity BDD for mobile devices:

• Learning Serenity BDD: An Automation Framework That Uses Specification by Example (SBE) -  (3/3/2017)

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