Author: kristinjackvony

A text field in an application seems so ordinary, and yet it is one of the most important things we can test.  Why?  Because text fields provide an entryway into an application and its underlying database.  Validation on a text field is what keeps lousy data from getting into the database, which can cause all […]

Beginning with this week’s post, my blog will be taking on a new focus! I have renamed it from Fearless Automation to Think Like a Tester (for the moment, the URL will remain the same). There were three recent events that made me decide to shift my focus: I attended a large international computing conference […]

Recently someone asked me “If you have API testing, you don’t need UI testing, right?”  I said “No, because you need to have tests that make sure that elements such as buttons are present and working correctly.”   Then he asked, “Then if you have UI testing, you don’t need API testing?”  I said, “No, […]

In Stockholm, Sweden, there is a museum that displays the ship called the Vasa, which sank on its maiden voyage in 1628.  I’ve never been there, but I’ve heard that the museum is fascinating for both architectural and historical reasons.  The Vasa took three years to build, and was supposed to be the flagship for […]

Last weekend, I watched the movie Passengers. The basic plot of the movie is that two passengers in hibernation on a flight from Earth to another planet are awakened ninety years too early. As a QA engineer the movie got me thinking about two valuable lessons for developing and testing software. Lesson One: “And Yet […]

Ten years ago, I didn’t know how to use a Windows computer.  I didn’t know how the file system worked.  I didn’t know what right-clicking on a mouse did.  Today I am a QA Engineer doing both manual and automated testing at a great company.  How did I get here from there? I asked a […]

It’s very easy when you are rushing to complete features to let some bugs slide.  This article will show why in most cases it’s better to fix all the bugs now rather than later.  The following scenario is hypothetical, but is based on my experience as a tester.   NewTech Inc. is very excited about […]

Training your Dev is really about training yourself.  A more accurate (but much less catchy) title for this blog post would be “How to work and communicate effectively in order to facilitate a productive relationship with developers”.   There are two steps to having a good working relationship with your dev: 1) developing good work […]

Some of you may have seen the classic Star Trek episode, “The Trouble with Tribbles”.  In the episode, Lt. Uhura gets a gift of a cute little ball of fur from a passing trader.  It’s a huge hit with the crew, and when the tribble has babies, everyone who wants one can enjoy these little […]

In my last two positions, I have been the sole Software Engineer in Test for a brand-new software platform.  This means that I have been able to set up an entire arsenal of automated tests for both the backend and the front-end.  This article will describe the suite of tools I used to test a […]