This document discusses moving quality assurance from a reactive to a proactive approach using qTest. It outlines some of the challenges with the current reactive approach, such as crashes occurring and teams blaming the QA team. It then discusses how to take a more proactive approach by efficiently creating and organizing tests, monitoring tests, reusing tests and parameters, consolidating results, and defining test scenarios before coding using behavior driven development. The key recommendations are to record manual and exploratory tests, use a test management system that promotes reuse, radiate test results to development systems, build combined testing dashboards, and use BDD to ensure early test planning.

1. Moving QA from Reactive to Proactive
with qTest
JONATHAN ALEXANDER | OCTOBER 11, 2017

2. Agenda
• The crash
• The cost of pets and herds
• Time is not on your side
• Radiation: the good kind
• Put the horse first
• How to get proactive

3. The crash

4. Has this happened to you?

5. Or maybe this?

6. Whose fault is it??
• Those careless engineers!
• That stupid driver!
• … but everyone keeps blaming the QA team !!!

7. The Fundamental Problem
How do we increase productivity
while avoiding disaster?
Go Faster, Avoid Disaster

8. The cost of pets and herds

9. We may think tests are precious pets

10. But what we end up with is a herd

11. The economics of pets and herds
• Herds should be less expensive per head than pets
• The bigger the herd, the more it consumes
• The value of the herd is in the utility of each member

12. Breed quickly: create tests efficiently
Perform exploratory testing with
qTest Explorer, record the sessions
and then create test cases from
recordings with qTest Sessions

13. Control the herd: organize your tests
Organize your test library with qTest Manager,
flexible for each team’s or project’s methodology

14. Watch the herd: monitor your tests
Track all your tests with qTest Insights

15. Time is not on your side

16. No one has time to waste

17. Although if you have 7 years ….

18. Architects used to design and build

19. Now architects search and find

20. Save time: reuse tests and parameters
Use qTest Manager to reuse and
link test cases and test steps, and
to create and reuse parameters in
test steps

21. Radiation: the good kind

22. Normally, radiation is not a good thing

23. But radiating test results is good

24. Consolidate all your testing results

25. Make productivity visible

26. Create quality and testing dashboards

27. Put the horse first

28. Software Engineering?

29. Behavior Driven Development (BDD)
• Popularized by Cucumber and Gherkin
• Define expected behaviors first, those become acceptance tests
• Accelerates automation, improves documentation and reporting

30. Define test scenarios before code
Use qTest Scenario to edit BDD scenarios
directly in Jira, and qTest Pulse to integrate
directly to Git and enforce BDD workflows

31. Streamline automation, see results
Use qTest Pulse to automatically generate
Git branches and automation test stubs, and
then see automation test run results in Jira

32. How to get proactive

33. How to get proactive
• Record all manual and exploratory tests for improved efficiency
• Get a test management system that promotes reuse
• Radiate test results to all development systems
• Build test dashboards that combine manual and automated testing
• Use BDD to ensure test planning starts early

34. How to get proactive
• Record all manual and exploratory tests for improved efficiency
• Get a test management system that promotes reuse
• Radiate test results to all development systems
• Build test dashboards that combine manual and automated testing
• Use BDD to ensure test planning starts early

35. Not this

36. Not this

37. This

38. Thank you
jalexander@qasymphony.com