Book summary - Fifty Quick Ideas To Improve Your Tests
Last modified on Mon 11 Jan 2021

The book "50 quick ideas to improve your tests" is written by Gojko Adzic, David Evans, and Tom Roden.

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The book has four big chapters, and each chapter consists of testing ideas:

This book is primarily aimed at cross-functional teams working in an iterative delivery environment, planning with user stories, and testing frequently changing software under the tough time pressure of short iterations.

In this chapter, you can find six ideas that are extracted from the book.

Idea 1 - EXPLORE CAPABILITIES, NOT FEATURES

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EXAMPLE

  1. What in case of bad or no internet connection?

    The solution was that they had an alternative contact channel for when the network was not accessible. They displayed the alternative support contact phone number on the form, and also, the phone number was visible in the error message.

  2. What if the user didn't write enough information related to the problem they have?

    The solution was to pull out the last 1000 events in the user interface and automatically send them the support request. Support could then replay and investigate what exactly happened and help the customer.

Idea 2 - MOB YOUR TEST SESSIONS

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HOW TO MAKE IT WORK?

Idea 3 - DON'T LET THE PEN BE THE BOTTLENECK

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HOW TO MAKE IT WORK?

Idea 4 - CONTRAST EXAMPLES WITH COUNTER - EXAMPLES

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EXAMPLE

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HOW TO MAKE IT WORK?

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Idea 5 - MINIMISE UI INTERACTIONS

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EXAMPLE: GIVEN A VALID CUSTOMER ACCOUNT WITH 100 USD

All tests started with:

To create a valid clean customer account for the rest of the test -> This took about 90 seconds for each test.

All of it was replaced with executing the steps directly using a database -> This took milliseconds without increasing any risks.

If not possible to directly write something in the database, instead of launching a browser -> simulate HTTP calls. This will still be faster and more reliable than full UI execution.

Idea 6 - EXPLAIN THE PURPOSE OF A TEST IN THE INTRODUCTION

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