The TestingGuild.com released the first two minutes of my talk "How [Software Testers] Can Work With Developers" as a promo for their online conference!
T.J. Maher - How to Work With Developers (TestingGuild Promo)
https://youtu.be/pGppCmUNMI4
Each TestingGuild.com speaker submits a pre-recorded 30 minute talk, then gives a live 30 minute session. Joe Colantonio, the man behind the TestTalks.com podcast organized this online conference and the AutomationGuild.com one that I spoke at back in January.
This is awesome! I've been a fan of Joe's since I worked at Fitbit. A fan of SauceLabs.com automation webinars, I booked a conference room, and the entire automation team and I watched Joe give his talk, Test Automation Trends for 2016 and Beyond: Staying Employable in Changing Times, predict what 2016 was going to look like when it came to automation toolsets. I've been chit-chatting with Joe on Twitter ever since then.
What I love is that Joe express exactly the insecurity we all sometimes feel dealing with the fast paced software industry. During that talk, Joe admitted that because he was at the same workplace for a bit over a decade, he was feeling out-of-touch with how fast the software testing field was growing. Joe started a testing podcast and started interviewing industry leaders as a way for him to keep up with the times.
Me, I was tickled when I heard this. That's why I started this blog over three years ago. To keep track of my progress as I tried to keep up with the software testing industry.
Once, I was even supposed to be a guest on his show! Sometime's after I published my first Techbeacon article about switching from manual testing to automation development, we set things up. I had massive stage fright and cancelled the thing after the first five minutes... Which is why I am surprised he tapped me as a guest last November to be a guest speaker on the AutomationGuild.
Happy Testing!
-T.J. Maher
Sr. QA Engineer, Software Engineer in Test
Meetup Organizer, Ministry of Testing - Boston
Twitter | YouTube | LinkedIn | Articles
Stories for Software QA Engineers shifting from manual to automated testing.
June 7, 2018
May 30, 2018
Video has been shot, edited and submitted for the TestingGuild!
Think you know your stuff in regards to testing software? There is no better way to level up than attempting to explain what you think you know to others.
I have learned so much blogging these past three years about automation projects I have been working on, writing articles for LinkedIn Pulse and my Medium account, shooting video for my YouTube account, and getting paid to write articles on TechBeacon.
The process of writing an article or a script for a video forces me to organize my thoughts and double check what I think I know. Are there gaps in my knowledge? Oh, I certainly find out if there are! If I am fuzzy on something, I make sure to do more research.
The best part has been all the connections that I have been able to make, and all the wonderful discussions I have been having on LinkedIn and Twitter. The software testing community is extremely supportive for people who put themselves out there, even to newbies like myself. It's hard for me to believe, but I've only been doing automation for the past three years.
This year, to try something different, I started giving talks at online conferences. The founder of TestTalks.com, the software testing podcast, Joe Colantonio, invited me to speak at two of his online conferences:
An online conference is just my speed! All I had to do was shoot thirty minutes of video with my iPhone, edit it, and that was the basics of the talk. There is a 20 minute Q & A session after each talk, but I haven't a problem answering questions from an audience.
I am so glad that it is finally done! It has been hanging over my head for the past few months. All my energy has been sapped by either my new job -- which is why I haven't been posting weekly these past few months -- or reorganizing my life due to the new bouncing baby boy due July 4, 2018.
I am going to be a father! I am so excited. I cannot wait!
So, if you don't hear from me in July or August, you'll know why!
Thank you for all your support, and Happy Testing!
-T.J. Maher
Sr. QA Engineer, Software Engineer in Test
Meetup Organizer, Ministry of Testing - Boston
Twitter | YouTube | LinkedIn | Articles
I have learned so much blogging these past three years about automation projects I have been working on, writing articles for LinkedIn Pulse and my Medium account, shooting video for my YouTube account, and getting paid to write articles on TechBeacon.
The process of writing an article or a script for a video forces me to organize my thoughts and double check what I think I know. Are there gaps in my knowledge? Oh, I certainly find out if there are! If I am fuzzy on something, I make sure to do more research.
The best part has been all the connections that I have been able to make, and all the wonderful discussions I have been having on LinkedIn and Twitter. The software testing community is extremely supportive for people who put themselves out there, even to newbies like myself. It's hard for me to believe, but I've only been doing automation for the past three years.
This year, to try something different, I started giving talks at online conferences. The founder of TestTalks.com, the software testing podcast, Joe Colantonio, invited me to speak at two of his online conferences:
- January 2018, it was at the AutomationGuild.com
- June 2018, it will be at the TestingGuild.com
An online conference is just my speed! All I had to do was shoot thirty minutes of video with my iPhone, edit it, and that was the basics of the talk. There is a 20 minute Q & A session after each talk, but I haven't a problem answering questions from an audience.
I am so glad that it is finally done! It has been hanging over my head for the past few months. All my energy has been sapped by either my new job -- which is why I haven't been posting weekly these past few months -- or reorganizing my life due to the new bouncing baby boy due July 4, 2018.
I am going to be a father! I am so excited. I cannot wait!
So, if you don't hear from me in July or August, you'll know why!
Thank you for all your support, and Happy Testing!
-T.J. Maher
Sr. QA Engineer, Software Engineer in Test
Meetup Organizer, Ministry of Testing - Boston
Twitter | YouTube | LinkedIn | Articles
May 12, 2018
I'll be speaking in June at the TestingGuild.com!
This June, I will be giving a talk at the online software testing conference run by Joe Colantonio, creator of the TestTalks.com podcast. Thank you, Joe, for giving new (and inexperienced) speakers a chance at the TestingGuild.com!
I love it! I am writing a script write now for the 30 minute talk. That's the conference: each speaker gives a 30 minute pre-recorded talk, plus a live Q & A session.I can do take after take to my heart's content!
This will be my second time giving a talk. In January 2018 I gave a talk at the AutomationGuild.com.
See you there!
Happy Testing!
-T.J. Maher
Sr. QA Engineer, Software Engineer in Test
Meetup Organizer, Ministry of Testing - Boston
Twitter | YouTube | LinkedIn | Articles
I love it! I am writing a script write now for the 30 minute talk. That's the conference: each speaker gives a 30 minute pre-recorded talk, plus a live Q & A session.I can do take after take to my heart's content!
This will be my second time giving a talk. In January 2018 I gave a talk at the AutomationGuild.com.
 |
| Catch my talk at the TestingGuild.com! |
See you there!
Happy Testing!
-T.J. Maher
Sr. QA Engineer, Software Engineer in Test
Meetup Organizer, Ministry of Testing - Boston
Twitter | YouTube | LinkedIn | Articles
April 28, 2018
Setting up Ubuntu Linux with Docker
Let's say that I only have a Windows 10 system at home, and I wanted to take a refresher course, Michael Hartl's Learn Enough Command Line to Be Dangerous. There are many ways to get Linux on a Windows machine. The easiest I found? Docker. Besides, they use Docker at work, so I need to practice that, too.
There are some technologies that keep on popping up again and again in my short career as an automation developer. One of those is Docker. "Docker is a software platform that allows you to build, test, and deploy applications quickly. Docker packages software into standardized units called containers that have everything the software needs to run including libraries, system tools, code, and runtime", according to AWS's article, What is Docker?
Back in July 2016, I was doing some weekend work to see if my company might be able to set up Docker with the new Docker Toolbox, with me working with our DevOps team, implementing a Selenium Grid using Docker-Selenium to possibly offload some of the cost of Sauce Labs, which can get pricey. I was inspired by a Selenium Conf India 2016 talk, "Testing as a Container". The month before, I was also tinkering with Setting up a Virtual DEV environment with VirtualBox, Vagrant and Docker, based on a Test Driven Java Development book I was reading. The projects were nixed, and I moved onto other things.
Years later, in March 2018, I would revisit this project, Starting a Selenium Grid using AWS + SeleniumHQ Docker images and Docker Compose.
That's how it goes jumping from gig to gig the past few years: from workplace to workplace the technology stack changes. Hopefully with my current full time permanent gig I can stop tinkering, settle down for five or six years and actually get good at some of this stuff, instead of always feeling that I am paging through the book "How To Skydive" while I am in free fall.
With this blog article we are not doing anything so fancy. All I want to do is bring up a Docker image containing Ubuntu. You see, as much as I love my work Macbook, at home I always use a Windows machine. Every few months I am tinkering with a new tool or technology, installing the Windows version of whatever I am tinkering with. It gets cluttered with half-forgotten tools. Maybe if I use Docker, I can start using a real Linux environment while at home instead of the half-baked hybrid I have been using.
Yeah, I could Start a Linux Machine with Amazon Web Services Free Tier, which I researched back in January of 2018 ... but between you and me, I worry about leaving a process running, and being stuck with a hefty monthly bill. Luckily, Docker for Windows would work just as easily!
There are some technologies that keep on popping up again and again in my short career as an automation developer. One of those is Docker. "Docker is a software platform that allows you to build, test, and deploy applications quickly. Docker packages software into standardized units called containers that have everything the software needs to run including libraries, system tools, code, and runtime", according to AWS's article, What is Docker?
Back in July 2016, I was doing some weekend work to see if my company might be able to set up Docker with the new Docker Toolbox, with me working with our DevOps team, implementing a Selenium Grid using Docker-Selenium to possibly offload some of the cost of Sauce Labs, which can get pricey. I was inspired by a Selenium Conf India 2016 talk, "Testing as a Container". The month before, I was also tinkering with Setting up a Virtual DEV environment with VirtualBox, Vagrant and Docker, based on a Test Driven Java Development book I was reading. The projects were nixed, and I moved onto other things.
Years later, in March 2018, I would revisit this project, Starting a Selenium Grid using AWS + SeleniumHQ Docker images and Docker Compose.
That's how it goes jumping from gig to gig the past few years: from workplace to workplace the technology stack changes. Hopefully with my current full time permanent gig I can stop tinkering, settle down for five or six years and actually get good at some of this stuff, instead of always feeling that I am paging through the book "How To Skydive" while I am in free fall.
With this blog article we are not doing anything so fancy. All I want to do is bring up a Docker image containing Ubuntu. You see, as much as I love my work Macbook, at home I always use a Windows machine. Every few months I am tinkering with a new tool or technology, installing the Windows version of whatever I am tinkering with. It gets cluttered with half-forgotten tools. Maybe if I use Docker, I can start using a real Linux environment while at home instead of the half-baked hybrid I have been using.
Yeah, I could Start a Linux Machine with Amazon Web Services Free Tier, which I researched back in January of 2018 ... but between you and me, I worry about leaving a process running, and being stuck with a hefty monthly bill. Luckily, Docker for Windows would work just as easily!
 |
| Docker Community Edition |
April 9, 2018
So You Want To Be An Automation Developer - Guest Post on Blog.SmartBear.
Last week, SmartBear.com -- the company behind TestComplete, ReadyAPI, QAComplete, SoapUI, and Swagger -- tapped me on the shoulder. Did I want to write a guest post on their blog? How about something that manual testers could use as a guide to switch to automation?
It took me three hours, but I came up with an article: So You Want To Be An Automation Developer.
"Are you a software tester trying to break into automation? Need pointers to get your first job? Although I only have three years of experience as an automation developer, I may be able to point you in the right direction.
"Step One: Take a Coding Class
"When you are writing automation, you aren’t simply tinkering with a new toolset or technology. You are writing software in order to test software. It will definitely help you if you start learning how to code. With your first job, you won’t need to know how to write clean code or refactor tests right away, but if your job interviews are anything like the ones I had, you will have to demonstrate some knowledge of a programming language during your job interview.
"My biggest recommendation if you are brand new to coding? Check out your local community college to see what programming classes they offer. Testing and developing are completely different mindsets. Learning from and interacting with a teacher, bouncing ideas off of students, and forming up study groups will help with the ever growing frustration as you are learning this brand new skill. You will hit wall after wall trying to understand the basic concepts. Your study group can be your wrecking crew. It also helps that everyone in the class are tackling the same concepts at the same pace".
Read more here.
Thank you so much, SmartBear for publishing my article! Happy Testing!
-T.J. Maher
Sr. QA Engineer, Software Engineer in Test
Meetup Organizer, Ministry of Testing - Boston
Twitter | YouTube | LinkedIn | Articles
It took me three hours, but I came up with an article: So You Want To Be An Automation Developer.
"Are you a software tester trying to break into automation? Need pointers to get your first job? Although I only have three years of experience as an automation developer, I may be able to point you in the right direction.
"Step One: Take a Coding Class
"When you are writing automation, you aren’t simply tinkering with a new toolset or technology. You are writing software in order to test software. It will definitely help you if you start learning how to code. With your first job, you won’t need to know how to write clean code or refactor tests right away, but if your job interviews are anything like the ones I had, you will have to demonstrate some knowledge of a programming language during your job interview.
"My biggest recommendation if you are brand new to coding? Check out your local community college to see what programming classes they offer. Testing and developing are completely different mindsets. Learning from and interacting with a teacher, bouncing ideas off of students, and forming up study groups will help with the ever growing frustration as you are learning this brand new skill. You will hit wall after wall trying to understand the basic concepts. Your study group can be your wrecking crew. It also helps that everyone in the class are tackling the same concepts at the same pace".
Read more here.
Thank you so much, SmartBear for publishing my article! Happy Testing!
-T.J. Maher
Sr. QA Engineer, Software Engineer in Test
Meetup Organizer, Ministry of Testing - Boston
Twitter | YouTube | LinkedIn | Articles
March 29, 2018
Starting a Selenium Grid using AWS + SeleniumHQ Docker images + Docker Compose
With this blog post we will be exploring how to start a Selenium Grid using an Amazon Web Service (AWS) instance the SeleniumHQ Docker images, Docker and Docker Compose. For this example, I will be using a Macbook, so the Terminal will be my Command Line Interface.
Need more information? Check out the official Amazon Web Services documentation:
We could use the "Amazon Elastic Container Service" and using AWS Fargate to run containers without managing servers or clusters ... but since I am tinkering, I want to make sure that I am using only free services provided by the Amazon Free Tier that I signed up for last month.
We are going to be starting off by following along with the official docs by Amazon, AWS Docker Basics.
Need more information? Check out the official Amazon Web Services documentation:
We could use the "Amazon Elastic Container Service" and using AWS Fargate to run containers without managing servers or clusters ... but since I am tinkering, I want to make sure that I am using only free services provided by the Amazon Free Tier that I signed up for last month.
We are going to be starting off by following along with the official docs by Amazon, AWS Docker Basics.
March 21, 2018
Watch Seb Rose Talk About the Big Ideas Behind BDD
Couldn't make it to Day One of Seb Rose's "BDD Kickstart" course, held Tuesday March 20th, 2018 from 9:00 to 4:30 pm at the SmartBear.com Assembly Square, Somerville, MA office? Man, that was fun! Hear him summarize the class in his talk he gave the Ministry of Testing - Boston Meetup, live streamed and recorded!
Catch me give a brief intro in the video!
The Big Ideas Behind BDD
Ministry of Testing - Boston Meetup: 3/20/2018
https://youtu.be/hQyXgKENDtg
Want to view his slides?
Thank you SmartBear for being such a wonderful sponsor for my Meetup!
Thank you, Seb, after a long day teaching your class for speaking to our group!
Thank you, Brianne, our newest event organizer at the Ministry of Testing - Boston for organizing the event, setting it up, managing the live streaming, and acting as emcee!
I just really love the Ministry of Testing - Boston. It has been so much fun the past year-and-a-half running the group!
Happy Testing!
-T.J. Maher
Sr. QA Engineer, Software Engineer in Test
Meetup Organizer, Ministry of Testing - Boston
Twitter | YouTube | LinkedIn | Articles
Catch me give a brief intro in the video!
The Big Ideas Behind BDD
Ministry of Testing - Boston Meetup: 3/20/2018
https://youtu.be/hQyXgKENDtg
Want to view his slides?
 |
| The Ministry of Testing - Boston at SmartBear.com |
 |
| Seb Rose, Cucumber.io |
 |
| Brianne from SmartBear, hard at work managing the live streaming |
 |
| Seb Rose & T.J. Maher, Meetup Organizer of the Ministry of Testing - Boston |
I just really love the Ministry of Testing - Boston. It has been so much fun the past year-and-a-half running the group!
Happy Testing!
-T.J. Maher
Sr. QA Engineer, Software Engineer in Test
Meetup Organizer, Ministry of Testing - Boston
Twitter | YouTube | LinkedIn | Articles
March 17, 2018
Getting to Know GitLab and How They Test the UI
The past three years as an automation developer, I have worked with many different continuous integration platforms such as Jenkins, TeamCity, and CircleCI, hooking up my automation to it so the tests can be run once an hour, nightly, or every single time is checked in.
Threat Stack uses GitLab for its Continuous Integration / Continuous Deployment (CI / CD) pipeline. Why? You should ask Pete Cheslock, head of DevOps. He is currently writing about his experience in our company blog:
Threat Stack uses GitLab for its Continuous Integration / Continuous Deployment (CI / CD) pipeline. Why? You should ask Pete Cheslock, head of DevOps. He is currently writing about his experience in our company blog:
- How Threat Stack Does DevOps (Part I): Best Practices in the Wild (March 14, 2018)
- How Threat Stack Does DevOps (Part II): Engineering for Rapid Change (March 16, 2018)
With GitLab, I am more concerned with finding out what it does in general. Lucky for me, they give YouTube tours such as this one shot back in November 2017, Idea to Production with GitLabs.
This video gives you a good idea of using GitLab to do issue tracking, planning, committing to the repo, testing with CI, debugging in the terminal, deploying to production, scaling an application and application performance monitoring.
"2011: Our CTO Dmitriy needed an great tool to collaborate with his team. He wanted something efficient and enjoyable so he could focus on his work, not the tools. He created GitLab from his house in Ukraine. It was a house without running water but Dmitriy perceived not having a great collaboration tool as a bigger problem than his daily trip to the communal well. [...] So together with Valery, he started to build GitLab as a solution for this. This commit was the very start of GitLab.
This video gives you a good idea of using GitLab to do issue tracking, planning, committing to the repo, testing with CI, debugging in the terminal, deploying to production, scaling an application and application performance monitoring.
The History of GitLab
According to https://about.gitlab.com/history/"2011: Our CTO Dmitriy needed an great tool to collaborate with his team. He wanted something efficient and enjoyable so he could focus on his work, not the tools. He created GitLab from his house in Ukraine. It was a house without running water but Dmitriy perceived not having a great collaboration tool as a bigger problem than his daily trip to the communal well. [...] So together with Valery, he started to build GitLab as a solution for this. This commit was the very start of GitLab.
"2012: GitLab.com: Sid saw GitLab for the first time and thought it was natural that a collaboration tool for programmers was an open source so you could contribute to it. Being a Ruby programmer he checked out the source code and was impressed with the code quality of GitLab after more than 300 contributions in the first year. He asked Hacker News if they were interested in using GitLab.com and hundreds of people signed up for the beta. In November 2012, Dmitriy made the first version of GitLab CI".
What I find more fortunate is that it appears that GitLab uses for its UI tests what I am attempting to use: Capybara + Ruby + Headless Chrome.
I need to check out Mike Greiling's article, "How GitLab switched to Headless Chrome for testing: A detailed explanation with examples of how GitLab made the switch to headless Chrome".
As Mike put it, last year, "news spread that Chrome 59 would support a native, cross-platform headless mode. It was previously possible to simulate a headless Chrome browser in CI/CD using virtual frame buffer, but this required a lot of memory and extra complexities. A native headless mode is a game changer. It is now possible to run integration tests in a headless environment on a real, modern web browser that our users actually use!
"Soon after this was revealed, Vitaly Slobodin, PhantomJS's chief developer, announced that the project would no longer be maintained".
And all of the source code for GitLab's Community Edition is stored on GitLab. Awesome!
At my job there are so many things that are new to me:
Happy Testing!
-T.J. Maher
Sr. QA Engineer, Software Engineer in Test
Meetup Organizer, Ministry of Testing - Boston
Twitter | YouTube | LinkedIn | Articles
Wait a Second... GitLab Uses Ruby?
Oh, that is interesting! GitLab is coded using Ruby! The Test Engineering team picked the Ruby language for its automation framework because Chef and Test Kitchen use Ruby. As a Ruby Newbie, I have been finding it helpful to review the great work the Gauge.org people have done creating examples using their BDD framework with Capybara.What I find more fortunate is that it appears that GitLab uses for its UI tests what I am attempting to use: Capybara + Ruby + Headless Chrome.
I need to check out Mike Greiling's article, "How GitLab switched to Headless Chrome for testing: A detailed explanation with examples of how GitLab made the switch to headless Chrome".
As Mike put it, last year, "news spread that Chrome 59 would support a native, cross-platform headless mode. It was previously possible to simulate a headless Chrome browser in CI/CD using virtual frame buffer, but this required a lot of memory and extra complexities. A native headless mode is a game changer. It is now possible to run integration tests in a headless environment on a real, modern web browser that our users actually use!
"Soon after this was revealed, Vitaly Slobodin, PhantomJS's chief developer, announced that the project would no longer be maintained".
And all of the source code for GitLab's Community Edition is stored on GitLab. Awesome!
At my job there are so many things that are new to me:
- I am new to Gauge.org
- I am new to Ruby
- I am new to Capybara
- I am new to GitLab
- I am new to Headless Chrome.
... For the last week, since I was placed on Threat Stack's UI team, I've written a few UI tests, but they all run locally, on my own computer, but I was stumped when it came to using CI with GitLab. I've been searching for a model to base my new framework on.
Looks like I found one. This should be fun!
Happy Testing!
-T.J. Maher
Sr. QA Engineer, Software Engineer in Test
Meetup Organizer, Ministry of Testing - Boston
Twitter | YouTube | LinkedIn | Articles
March 16, 2018
Use 20% Discount Code ATDTJ for Agile Testing Days in Boston, Coming Late June!
Did you know? The Ministry of Testing - Boston has a group discount code for Agile Testing Days! Want to borrow it? I checked with Techwell, and they said it was okay to share! Use the discount code ATDTJ to get 20% off the already discounted "super early lobster" pricing which is running until April 27th, 2018.
The conference is running June 25 - 29th, 2018 and will be held in the DoubleTree Hilton up in Danvers, MA.
Prices before the 20% discount:
Wow. It's like my Twitter feed come to life!
... I wonder how many people I can get recruit to come to a Ministry of Testing - Boston? So far, we already have had:
This should be fun! If the baby doesn't come early, I think I should be there!
Happy Testing!
-T.J. Maher
Sr. QA Engineer, Software Engineer in Test
Meetup Organizer, Ministry of Testing - Boston
Twitter | YouTube | LinkedIn | Articles
The conference is running June 25 - 29th, 2018 and will be held in the DoubleTree Hilton up in Danvers, MA.
Prices before the 20% discount:
- Tutorials: Choose to spend the day learning Agile Testing 101 with Janet Gregory & Lisa Crispin, End-to-End testing with Paul Holland, Lean Software Testing with Matthew Heusser, and many others: $795
- Two conference days: Includes Keynotes by Angie Jones, and Noah Sussman; Talks by Ash Coleman, Maaret Pyhajarvi, Andreas Grabner, Brendan Connolly, Huib Schoots, Claire Moss, Llewellyn Falco, and many others: $1,945
Wow. It's like my Twitter feed come to life!
... I wonder how many people I can get recruit to come to a Ministry of Testing - Boston? So far, we already have had:
- Angie Jones speak to our group in a Google Hangout last Spring.
- Claire Moss, organizer of the Ministry of Testing - Atlanta brought Llewllyn Falco, to run a Lean Coffee last year.
- When MoT-Boston invaded last year's TestBash Philly, we heard Ash Coleman, and Paul Holland speak.
- Andreas Grabner will be speaking to us in April.
- I've been trying to recruit Lisa Crispin since last summer to give a quick Q & A in a webinar to us, but we've haven't been able to do it yet.
This should be fun! If the baby doesn't come early, I think I should be there!
Happy Testing!
-T.J. Maher
Sr. QA Engineer, Software Engineer in Test
Meetup Organizer, Ministry of Testing - Boston
Twitter | YouTube | LinkedIn | Articles
March 8, 2018
Ministry of Testing - Boston: An Origin Story
For most of my twenty year career, I have been searching to become a part of a software testing community. To find myself running one after so long of a search absolutely astounds me.
Ever since I became the Meetup Organizer of the Ministry of Testing - Boston I have been having the time of my life! I really have given my all to the group, having a heck of a lot of fun planning events, meeting people, and trying to build a community of software testers here in Boston. I love the challenges of growing the membership, running fun social media campaigns, finding interesting speakers, and making connections here in Boston. And all of this has been in the past year!
So much has happened since we moved from being the Greater Boston QA and Testing Group to under the umbrella of Rosie Sherry and Richard Bradshaw's Ministry of Testing:
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