From Graduate to SDET: What You Need to Know

Following on from Tony Simm's recent blog on the challenges of finding technical testers with technical skills, we have asked one of our Graduate SDET Consultants, Joseph Batchelor, to share his experience on this topic. 

Introduction to Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET)

"One area where we are seeing large growth at the moment is that of DevOps and SDET Software Development Engineer, particularly with larger organisations and government departments. Driving this demand is the desire to breakdown the barrier between software development & IT operations and blend them together so as to build cheaper, quicker and more valuable solutions. DevOps is still a fairly new phenomenon and this means that there's not a whole load of staff out there with significant experience. That can lead to difficulties with recruiting." - Tony Simms

Automation Tester - A Personal Approach

Last year, I started a new role with nFocus as a Graduate Software Developer Engineer in Test (SDET). I had graduated from the nFocus Academy and this was my first assignment. The role was to be responsible for creating automated tests, undertaking exploratory testing and working in a team of experienced professionals.

Quality Assurance in Education - An Insight into the Role of a QA Tester

The higher education sector seems to be ever-growing with different faculties updating old student management systems to innovative new ones. Working on a project in this industry has a lot to offer and it can be really exciting to see how a system/application can evolve over different development and test phases.

As a tester of Quality Assurance in Education, this sector has the potential to expose you to many different types of testing. Here are just a few I have been party to so far:

The Robots are Coming for You – You’ve Been Replaced…well not so fast R2D2

We’ve all seen sci-fi movies where robots take over the world, that is until Will Smith (or similar) steps in at the eleventh hour and saves the day. But like a lot of movies made, they do have a good knack of portraying what the future might hold, whether that’ll be a home robot for doing the daily chores to an all singing all dancing fully autonomous home.

Test Automation Approach - The Long Wait Is Over!

Even today, in the modern world of DevOps, I see this all too often in automated test code for regression tests:

Automated End to End Testing

Where is the Value?
As we know, we cannot test everything. This is especially true for End to End testing. This activity is often carried out at the end of the Implementation phase after System testing has completed. There will be many paths through the software and to test them all will be a large task. So only critical paths are tested through the system that provides an acceptable level of test coverage. Add automation into the mix, and this can become extremely challenging at the end of the delivery cycle. Teams often accept that the effort required for automating the End to End tests is too much of a risk to a timely delivery. Often, it is cut down to small manual End to End tests as an afterthought that adds little value to the overall quality or post-release teams. Ironically, this is where it adds the most value!

Test Automation Approach In A DevOps World

Ever heard the expression ‘More speed, less haste’? Acting too quickly and without due diligence, focus and attention to detail will result in avoidable mistakes and thus require even more time to complete the task satisfactorily.