Mission Archives

 
The black ops team met in Test Partners Secret London HQ - you can tell its secret because there isn’t a name tag outside. And discussed stuff. Some of the stuff was captured on a secret camera. Watch the briefing now
 
It’s not a webinar. It’s not a podcast. It’s a briefing. A quick chat amongst the Black Ops Team on a specific topic. You can watch the briefing on youtube. We discuss. “Automate All The Things” Our ‘briefings’ are group chats around a ‘question’ or ‘topic’ and we aim at 15-20 minutes or less. This was our first briefing and we overran a tad. Watch the briefing now
 
The Black Ops Testing team will attend Agile Testing Days in Germany in November 2015 for 4 days (9th - 12th). Using the cover story of a full day hands on workshop, Tony, Steve and James will infiltrate “Agile Testing Days” in November 2015. You can find more information on the Agile Testing Days Site.
 
On 13th July 2015 we held a webinar to discuss the testing that the Black Ops Testing Team had performed on js-sequence-diagrams. js-sequence-diagrams is a small JavaScript library, open-source, which makes it easy to draw sequence diagrams from text input. James contacted the dev team, ran the unit tests and setup a local dev environment. James found and fixed a bug, and the fix is now part of the main code base There was a lot of overlap between our testing and the defects found Alan built a GUI to support exploratory testing which had bugs in it on Firefox, which impacted Steve’s testing (the bugs are now fixed) James provides a demo of the library using the default GUI, showing how it might be used to support collaborative documentation Steve demonstrated issues around parsing Tony demonstrated issues associated with whitespace handling Alan built a tool to support cross browser checking of his examples and issue diagrams Alan didn’t wear headphones so there is echo when he is not talking or on mute (sorry about that, headphones will be worn next webinar) Alan demonstrated using the library directly from the console General discussion with the team around documenting and “text to X” tools In the webinar we mention a bunch of tools and links - some of which I have extracted below:
 
On Monday July 13th 2015, at 20:00 UK time, the Black Ops Team will initiate a free online webinar. You can join us by registering now. For this webinar we will have tested js-sequence-diagrams, an open-source app which makes it easy to draw sequence diagrams from text input. We have no idea what we fill find as we do this, or how each of us will approach the testing. It all seems very simple, but… tune in and find out how things went.
 
On 11th May 2015 we held a webinar to discuss the testing that the Black Ops Testing Team had performed on QA Mail. QA Mail is a small server based application for helping test email sending applications. You can find out more on the web site. We chose QA Mail because testing emails can prove problematic. You can use the ‘dot’ and ‘plus’ gmail strategies. But sometimes applications strip those out and you can’t use them to create multiple accounts or emails.
 
We are planning a face to face training in September 2015 in London. Booking Details Booking details are available. You can take advantage of our super early bird pricing now. This 1 day workshop will be an intensive event where we lead you through a series of exercises to help you explore different ways of approaching and thinking about your testing. Given what some particpants from the last workshop said, you won’t want to miss it:
 
On Monday May 11th 2015, at 20:00 UK time, the Black Ops Team will initiate a free online webinar. You can join us. For this webinar we will have tested QAMail, an open-source app which makes it easy to setup a mailbox for your e-mail testing. Or does it? I guess we’ll find out during the webinar (although it probably does, so you should probably check it out). QAMail has a GUI and an API.
 
On February 23rd 2015, the Black Ops Team debriefed in a webinar on their January 23rd 2015. Because the workshop was a public, paid event, we haven’t given away all the secrets of the webinar, although you can read some in the links below. EvilTester.com API Notes based on the workshop Duncan Nisbet’s workshop write up In this webinar we discuss the preparation involved and the approach we took when preparing for the webinar.
 
Register for the webinar now On January 23rd 2015, the Black Ops Team held a Face to Face workshop in London. EvilTester.com API Notes based on the workshop Duncan Nisbet’s workshop write up #blackopstesting has kicked off pic.twitter.com/oPnFyUe78x — Tony Bruce (@tonybruce77) January 23, 2015 Prior to the workshop we: identified a target application created the environments tested the application identified tools to help identified Challenges to learn from During the workshop we used the experience we gained from our preparation to help guide the testing of the participants in the workshop.
 
This 1 day workshop (on the 23rd of January 2015) will be an intensive event where we lead you through a series of exercises to help you explore different ways of approaching and thinking about your testing. A Practical Workshop This is not a testing theory workshop. This is a hands on, practical workshop. If you ever wanted a workshop where you could be coached by some of the most experienced exploratory testers in the UK, and where you could get hands on and test real software rather than toy examples.
 
On 15th December 2014 we held a webinar to discuss the testing that the Black Ops Testing Team had performed on Stellarium. Stellarium is a cross platform desktop application for visualising astronomy. You can find out more on the web site. We chose Stellarium because it has an outwardly complex appearance and interface, with multiple platform, supports scripting and massive amounts of configuration. Since it was held towards the end of December we made it festive.
 
Register for the webinar now Join the Black Ops Testing team in this December Seasonal Festive Special as we debrief on our testing results and approaches to Stellarium, the open source Planetarium Software. We have given ourselves a reduced testing scope for the application, so hopefully we are targetting very similar areas in the application. Will we all adopt the same approach and find the same things? Find out when we debrief.
 
The Black Ops Testing team operated in Germany in November 2014 for 4 days (10th - 13th). Using the cover story of a 2 hour hands on workshop, Tony, Steve and Alan infiltrated “Agile Testing Days” in November. Alan went to work early using his Alias (”The Evil Tester”) and presented a full day tutorial and the closing keynote. For the workshop we started with 5 minute lighting talks, where we drew attention to important ‘stuff’ for the upcoming missions:
 
On 20th October 2014 we held a webinar to discuss the testing that the Black Ops Testing Team had performed on GeoGebra. GeoGebra is a Web, desktop and mobile application for visualising math, geometry and algebra. You can find out more on the web site. We chose GeoGebra because it has an outwardly complex appearance and interface, with multiple platform. We knew that we would have our work cut out because:
 
Register for the webinar now For our October Webinar on the 20th October at 20:00 UK Time we are going back to school to brush up our Geometry and testing GeoGebra. It runs on multiple platforms so you’ll have to tune in to find out what we’ll choose to test and how. “Personally, I’m hoping that testing knowledge trumps domain knowledge, otherwise my limit might stop at making those 3 sided things” - Alan
 
On 22nd September 2014 we held a webinar to discuss the testing that the Black Ops Testing Team had performed on Taskwarrior. Taskwarrior is a CLI application for managing tasks and todo lists. You can find out more on the web site. We chose Taskwarrior because it has an outwardly simple appearance and interface, but hides a lot of complex functionality. We knew that we would have our work cut out because:
 
Register for the webinar now For our September Webinar we are going back to basics and testing a command line tool. It feels all green screen and mainframe-esque. This will challenge us to identify new tools, and refresh our earlier skillsets. Make a note in your calendar for 22nd September 2014, when we use TaskWarrior as our application under test. Register for the webinar now
 
What would challenge us? Something small, but something large? Something remote, but something local? We picked TodoMVC. Don’t know it? Have a look. It’s not really a production application. It’s a showcase application. That means, the same basic functionality written in lots of different frameworks. Our challenge - “Have a look and see what you come up with” And now we debrief. Save the date Monday 23rd June, 20:00 BST
 
Yes its true. The Black Ops Testing team are coming to Germany in November 2014 for 4 days (10th - 13th). Using the cover story of a 2 hour hands on workshop, Tony, Steve and Alan will be infiltrating “Agile Testing Days” in November. If that wasn’t enough incentive to attend, then Alan (using his Alias “The Evil Tester”) will be presenting a full day tutorial and the closing keynote
 
Another Month, another Webinar. We hope you can join us June 23rd 20:00 UK Time (BST) More details will be posted on the site explaining how to sign up, and what to expect. For the moment - the clue is in the codename.
 
The webinar has finished, you can find replay of the recording on our videos page. You can read our debrief notes here. We added a ‘stealth mode’ to our Newsletter signup on the front page of our website. We had fun for 45 minutes, and learned from each other.
 
The webinar has finished, but you can watch a replay of the recording. During the webinar we showed a bunch of videos and our notes for the sessions. We will link to, or include, all those resources here. Outline We added a 'stealth mode' to our Newsletter signup on the front page of our website. We debriefed on the testing we did to share our thoughts and ideas. Steve's Notes Consider how you would test http://blackopstesting.
 
The webinar has finished, but you can watch the replay replay of the recording. We added a ‘stealth mode’ to our Newsletter signup on the front page of our website. For our first webinar, we will debrief live with our thoughts on how we would test this, and work around this. We plan to have fun for 30 minutes, and we hope to learn from each other. Join us, and take part in the chat live.
 
Workshop postponed for the moment, we will update the site with more details of the next scheduled workshop The 2 day workshop will be an intensive event where we lead you through a series of exercises to help you explore different ways of approaching and thinking about your testing. We, the Black Ops Testing Team, will put into practice all the lessons we learned from our mission at the London Tester Gathering in 2013.
 
Tony Bruce Steve Green James Lyndsay Alan Richardson Find out more details on the About Page.
 
Black Ops Testing is a unique hands on Testing Workshop led by 4 expert test professionals. Steve Green, James Lyndsay, Alan Richardson and Tony Bruce have joined forces to bring you Black Ops Testing. We have brought together our years of experience and expertise to create a workshop training that focuses on practical testing skills. We have looked at how our test approaches and distilled the essence in to practical hands on exercises.
 
On October 2013, at the first London Tester Gathering Workshops, the Black Ops Testing Team trialed their unique brand of training. For one day, the Black Ops Team led the packed room of participants through a range of testing exercises and discussions. Using the software Redmine as a basis, the team used a loose set of military metaphors to organise the testing discussions. Scouting How do you know what you have to test?