By: Alan Page, QA Director, Unity Technologies. As presented at Spring OnlineTestConf, June13-14 2017 We’ve all heard this story before. “Testers need to be more technical”. The problem with that statement is that too many people read that as, “Testers need to code”. While learning to code or learning to automate can be helpful for a testers growth, there are many, many other (and often, more effective) ways to “be technical” – and valuable, as a tester without writing code. In this session, long-time test specialist Alan Page rants a bit about the subject, and then shares several real examples of practical tools, techniques, and approaches that will help anyone become a more “technical” tester.

1. Tangible Truths About
Technical Testing
TL;DR Testing is Technical

3. Let’s talk about being
“technical”...

4. ...using the techniques of
the craft...

5. Accelerate the
achievement of shippable
quality

6. Some rights reserved - Stacy Jensen

7. Some rights reserved - Rino Peroni

8. Technical Testing

9. “Technical” == “coding”

10. “coding” == “automation”

11. “automation” == “UI Automation”

13. http://angryweasel.com

15. http://angryweasel.com

17. Stop thinking that technical
means coding

18. Stop worrying about being
technical

19. Instead, think about being
valuable

20. Of course, if you’re more
technical, you’re be more
valuable...

21. Accelerate the
achievement of shippable
quality

22. Augmentation over automation

23. “We can’t change it”
“It’s just the way it works”
“It’s management’s fault”

24. You can change your manager, or you can
change your manager.
Making change happen is part of being
successful in knowledge work.

25. Alan’s Tips:
Do it anyway
Experiment
Find allies

26. Reading recommendations:

27. ...meanwhile, on the topic
of Technical Testing...

28. Filling your technical testing
toolbelt

29. 1. Learn to something about
code

31. Scenario:
Every day, I find the latest version of our
software, then copy the files to my local machine,
then run setup, then start the app so I can do my
testing.

33. Make your testing easier
(accelerate your testing)

34. Read code

35. Ask Questions
Do you need to call
PrepareMagic here too?
Are there other types of
magic?
Why 42? What does it
mean?

36. Myth: Knowing how code works distracts you from testing
Fact: Use knowledge of code to design better tests
Myth: Coding is hard - leave it to the developers
Fact: Yes, coding is hard. But the harder problems to solve
are testing challenges
Myth: Too much coding leaves little time for testing
Fact: Too much of the wrong coding leaves little time for
testing

37. 2. Learn to use tools

38. Scenario:
I need to know how many image requests our
web site gets.
I need to understand what our app (web or
desktop) is doing.

39. grep
F12
Fiddler (www.fiddler2.com)
Sysinternals tools
(https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb84
2062.aspx)

40. 3. Learn new ideas

41. Big List o Naughty Strings
https://github.com/minimaxir/big-list-of-naughty-strings
Other github resources
http://www.kenst.com/2017/05/9-github-lists-for-testing/
http://www.kenst.com/2017/05/18-github-projects-for-testing/
Also:
- Virtualbox
- WireMock
- JMeter
- etc.

42. Discover what you don’t know
you don’t know

43. Keys to being “Technical”
Learn, learn, learn
Frequently experiment with different tools
Find out which tools your teammates and friends are using
Learn how (and when) to apply these tools to make your
testing (and your team) more efficient

44. Tools, skills, and techniques
are all essential to your
success

45. Learn, adapt, and influence.

46. http://angryweasel.com http://angryweasel.com/ABTesting
@alanpage
https://leanpub.com/TheAWord