SQA job postings are still in abundance, but it is rare to find one that does not include some form of test automation pedigree. Brett will present the topic and then lead the discussion as we explore the various paths to building your test automation acumen, and learn how to add this valuable skill-set to your resume. If you are already an SQA with test automation experience we encourage you to participate and bring your learning forward and into the discussion where we will compare and contrast Computer Science degrees, Code Camps, licensed automation tools such as HP UFT (QTP), test frameworks and scripting tools such as jMeter and SOAPUI. There is much to explore on this topic and we want everyone to leave with a few key areas they can start building on today.

1. How to add Test Automation to
your Quality Assurance Toolbelt
a discussion with
Brett A. Tramposh
QA Professional, Agile Practitioner

2. Today’s Presentation
Start with a few General Assumptions
Pulse of the Job Market / Demandjobs
Sharing some insights
Test Automation Continuum
Developing your Toolbelt
Final Thoughts

3. Today’s General Assumptions
For the sake of today’s conversation, I am going to assume the following are true;
 We are talking today about testing and not about Quality Assurance
 There is still high value in manual testing performed by QA
 Test Automation is not a silver bullet to improving quality
 Test Automation is a necessity, and it’s hard to do it well
 Automation has a cost – it doesn’t just happen
 Automation can take many forms, it’s not a “one-size fits all”
Start small, but start now!

4. Gartner Magic Quadrant for Software Test
Automation
Strategic Planning Assumption
By 2020, DevOps initiatives will cause
50% of enterprises to implement
continuous testing using frameworks
and open-source quality tools.
Gartner Report, 2015

5. And now, a word from Recruiters…
Tony Seminary – I.T. Motives
“It is getting increasingly difficult to place candidates who do not have a referenceable test automation skill. I
would say 85% (or more) of the job postings are now requiring it.”
Andy Brown – Mainz Brady Group
“I would say it is almost 100%.. we just don't see requirements without the expectation that QA folks code.”
Graham Rath – ServerLogic
“The transition from mostly manual testing into mostly automation has been steadily picking up steam since
about 2012. Last year, it's a safe bet to say about 80%, at least, of the QA focused searches required strong
automation skills and some degree of coding/programming ability. I don't see that trend changing in 2017.”
Kylie Brunger – Future State Consulting
“100%. The clients that we are working with are now primarily hiring Software Engineers with some exposure
building out Test Automated Frameworks to be able to handle that as well as contribute to development on
the platform in general. This has been a profound shift for us over the last 12 months and moving forward it
is the new standard.”
Kendall Carr – InfoGroup Northwest
85% are requiring test automation. Most of our clients are looking for a Java/SDET background
and Selenium. Other languages I see: python and ruby.

6. Recent job postings…
A quick query within 25 mi of PDX
 There were 57 QA job hits, and 287 hits on Dev
 Most postings are combining SDET with QA tasks
SDET - 5 jobs posted
Software Development Engineer in Test - 8 jobs posted
QA Automation – 9 jobs posted
Test Automation Engineer – 5 jobs posted
Software Quality Assurance – 1 job posted
Software QA – 5 jobs posted
- HP ALM/UFT - 8 QA jobs
- IBM Rational Functional Tester – 1 QA job
- SmartBear – 3 QA jobs

7. Recent job postings…
ZoomCare
QA Automation Engineer
We’re hiring an experienced Sr. Automation Quality Engineer to enhance our delivery!
If you’re an experienced Automation Quality Engineer (SDET) with at least five years of
experience in Automation and/or Development with testing as the primary role, ZOOM+Care
could be right for you.
 Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science or related field and 5-7 years of equivalent
experience.
 Experience working in a variety of programming languages and environments including, Java,
PHP, PostgreSQL or MySQL, Jenkins, Linux and/or Unix experience.
 Solid experience with Scripting Languages, Selenium, Cucumber.
 Experience working with production web applications using Apache or JBoss
 Experience with TDD/BDD, cloud technologies (*AWS a plus), continuous delivery and
automation patterns, agile and iterative development cycles
 Experience with front-end technologies (AJAX, CSS, GWT).
 Experience with JIRA, Confluence and Zephyr is a plus.

8. Recent job postings…
CYLANCE
Sr. QA Engineer
Build advanced tools for test automation
Take ownership of product quality
WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR
 3 to 5 years of Software Testing experience
 Experience working with white-box testing methodologies (as well as some Black Box testing)
 Experience working with CLI (Jenkins)
 Experience with tools such as JIRA, Selenium, Load Runner, PyTest etc.
 Proven and demonstrable skill in Python (as well as C#, Ruby or Java

9. Recent job postings…
Tripwire
Sr. QA Engineer
 Experience with automated test and shell level coding
 For test automation development, strength in Ruby or Python or a similar high level language
is important.
 We develop in Java, C++, so knowledge of one or both languages is desired.
 Experience doing scripted deployments of multi-component systems is desired.
 Chef and Vagrant experience desired.
 You must be able to design and debug tests that measure performance and functionality
under scale and load.

10. Intel is raising the bar…
Intel
Software QA Engineer
 You must possess a Master degree in Computer Science, Engineering or a related discipline
with 7-10 years of work experience or PhD with 2-4 years of experience. Bachelor's Degree in
Computer Science or related field and 5-7 years of equivalent experience.
… more and more are not calling them ‘automation’ engineers – the skill set is assumed

11. data taken from 2015 survey http://blog.testproject.io/2015/12/03/worlds-most-desirable-automation-skills/
What’s in demand?

12. Audience Insights
Share your insights with the group:
 Is anyone in the role of Test/QA Architect?
 How many of you are developing code/frameworks as an SDET?
- If so, are you also writing and executing the tests yourselves?
 How many of you are using licensed products like SoapUI Pro, SauceLabs, BrowserStack?
 How many of you are using big $$, off the shelf tools from HP, IBM, Informatica, Oracle, others?
 How many of you are using open source tools like Selenium, Cucumber, Rails, Appium
 How many of you are writing test scripts but NOT coding?
 Where did you learn to code? Self-taught? College CS Degree? Code Camp?
 How many of you still want/need to add these skills to your resume!?

13. QA Test Automation Continuum
Scripting
•JavaScript
•Selenium
•Cucumber
•jMeter
Test Tools
•SoapUI Pro
•QTP/UFT
•BrowserStack
(WebDriver)
•SauceLabs
Platforms
•Appium
w/Cucumber
•Rails, Watir
•Selenium
•AngularJS, ReactJS
and NodeJS
SDET
•Java
•C++, C#, .NET
•Ruby, Python
•jUnit, TestNG,
nUnit
Architect

14. Developing your Toolbelt
There are many “non-coding” skills that you need to develop as your foundation
for test automation
For example, you should be able to:
 Identify and checkout an application from source, build it, deploy it into a test environment.
 Create an AWS cloud environment that you can then deploy a build into
 Use AWS Device Farm, BrowserStack, or other mobile device emulator platform to run tests
 Write SQL queries to locate and extract/change data in a database
 Run performance testing using jMeter, Locust.io or other load test tools
 Understand how to use Jasmine and AngularJS, or Mocha with ReactJS
 Understand Continuous Integration practices and how to ‘connect the dots’
 Check out code, and then write a unit test that will be run automatically
Endless online resources to help educate yourself on the technologies and to understand the
strengths of each, and where to apply them. Most sites like AWS and BrowserStack provide free
access to get you started.

15. Developing your Toolbelt
What knowledge do you feel is important?
Non-coding skills to develop?

16. Free & Low Cost Remote Courses
Tons of affordable video led courses for beginners to advanced
Web developers site with tutorials and reference materials
Simply easy learning, the largest tutorials library on the web
Free video tutorials on major topics including SAP, Test Management, Jira
and UFT
Provides step-by-step instructions and interactive tutorials
PDX company with subscription based interactive video learning programs

17. Code Camp(ers)
Free Code Camp Portland – a Meetup group with nearly 1000 members dedicated to those who want to
practice and learn and ‘pay it forward’ to non-profits
PDX Code Guild – tuition $8000 (w/discounts available for underrepresented demographics) 12 weeks
Offers two versions of their Python based coding boot camps; 12 week 40hrs a week, and a 16 week
evening/weekend camp. Learn Python, Django, SQL, JavaScript, HTML5, CSS3
The Tech Academy – tuition about $8000 (w/payment options) 15 weeks
The courses are self-paced and students who study 40 hours a week typically complete the program in 15
weeks. To date, over 95% of all graduates have landed tech jobs. Portland residents study in the classroom, but
it can be taken as an online only course. Microsoft Visual Studio, TFS, Git, HTML5, CSS3, SQL, RDBMS,
JavaScript, Python, .NET, C#, ASP.NET
Epicodus – tuition $6000 (w/options) 20 weeks plus a 5 week internship
Epicodus offers full-time courses in languages such as C#, PHP, Javascript, .NET, Ruby, Rails, and Drupal.
Programming students at Epicodus typically take four five-week classroom courses, complete two weeks of job
and internship prep, and finish their studies with a five-week internship. Instead of promoting learning through
routine lectures, most of the classroom time is spent 'pair programming'.

18. Steps to Getting Started Tomorrow
Put 30-60 minutes each day on your calendar to self-
study the links provided above
Write down your goals - S.M.A.R.T.
Find a crazy peer to partner with on this journey
Join a Meetup group dedicated to your goal
Find a mentor for guidance & accountability

19. Final Thoughts
 YOU are the only one who can make it happen. Don’t expect your
“management” to figure it out - or provide for it
 Prove to yourself that you have not only the aptitude, but the
desire
 It’s a journey and won’t happen overnight “Frameworks get built one day
at a time. Start small, iterate, refactor” – J. E.
 You will become a better tester and more valuable member
of your agile team – guaranteed
 DON’T WAIT!

20. Reference Links
Who to follow on Twitter
https://techbeacon.com/33-test-automation-leaders-follow-twitter
Great articles from T.J. Maher on TechBeacon
Switching careers in QA: From manual testing to automation development
First days as an automation developer? Take my advice on balancing dev, QA
Fowler on MicroServices Testing
http://martinfowler.com/articles/microservice-testing/#definition
Great article on how he switched his skills and career
http://techbeacon.com/switching-careers-qa-manual-testing-automation-development
good article on how boot campers can get the same salary as a CS degree
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-boot-camp-code-graduate-can-fetch-same-entry-
level-cunningham
http://www.qatestingtools.com/companies-wallboard-mini
http://bovon.org/archives/350
http://blog.testproject.io/2016/09/01/front-end-development-unit-test-automation-
trends2/
http://techbeacon.com/dos-donts-testing-automation
https://www.coursereport.com/2014-programming-bootcamp-survey.pdf
https://www.switchup.org/coding-bootcamps-reviews?utf8=%E2%9C%93&query=Portland