NASA Testing, Playwright Typescript Course, Cypress BDD and More

How did NASA test their critical systems for their successful Apollo missions?

Have you seen the new free course on how to get started with Playwright and Typescript

What really caused the CrowdStrike/Microsoft outage last week?

Find out in this edition of the Test Guild New Shows Newsletter for the week of July 28th.

So, grab your favorite cup of coffee or tea, and let's do this.

New Playwright + Typescript Course for Beginners

We got a lot of positive feedback about our AI with Playwright course. One common question was from folks asking for another course that focuses on using Typescript.

So I asked Artem Bondar, a Test Automation Expert and founder of Bondar Academy, for help. He happily agreed to create another TestGuild free course on ???? Getting Started with Playwright using Typescript.

This Playwright Express course will guide you on how to set up the Playwright with TypeScript framework from scratch and how to perform browser test automation. The course is structured into four sections:

• Introduction: Quick class overview, configuration of development environment and preparing the test application for the class to follow
• Playwright Hands-On Overview: You will learn how the Playwright framework is organized, which ways you have to run and debug test executions, and how to structure tests in the test files.
• Locating Web Elements: You will learn syntax rules, tricks, and techniques on how to find any web element on the web page using Playwright.
• UI components: You will learn techniques on how to interact with different types of UI Components, such as input fields, radio buttons and checkboxes, lists, tooltips, dialog boxes, tables, and date pickers.

Don't miss this opportunity to become a Playwright pro! ?? Register now and transform your testing skills today!

Apollo Testing

???? Nick Loadholtes posted a link to cool detailed ??NASA technical report on the development of a guidance, navigation, and control (GN&C) system for a space vehicle. It outlines the core objectives, design principles, testing approach and methodologies implemented to ensure the accurate navigation and control of spacecraft during missions.

NASA's Minimum Cost Testing policy aims to achieve cost-efficient software testing while maintaining high reliability. This policy includes new methodologies for economic test planning, emphasizing financial constraints while delivering an acceptable level of system dependability. The seven-parameter model introduced optimizes extensive testing processes, focusing on balancing test effort against program risks and budget limits.

The document provides insights into the engineering challenges, mathematical models, and algorithms deployed to achieve optimal performance.

Key sections of the report include:

1. Introduction: Establishing the importance of reliable GN&C systems for mission success.
2. System Requirements: Defining the performance criteria that the GN&C system must meet.
3. Design Considerations: Discussing how various design choices impact overall system efficiency and reliability.
4. Mathematical Models: Illustrating the equations and theoretical underpinnings that guide the GN&C processes.
5. Testing and Validation: Emphasizing the importance of rigorous testing protocols to ensure the system performs as expected in real-life scenarios.
6. Results and Analysis: Presenting data and outcomes from test scenarios to validate the design approach.

As a bonus make sure to check out a podcast I did with Gerald Weinberg who was one of the engineers who worked on the first American NASA space program (Project Mercury), where he designed, tested and implemented the space tracking network focusing on the first multi-programmed operating systems.

Appium-device-farm Now Supports iOS Tests on Non-Mac Agents using Pi!

Sai Krishna announced on LinkedIn that Appium-device-farm has expanded its capabilities, allowing you to run iOS tests on real devices using any non-Mac agents using Pi. This feature simplifies your mobile testing process by allowing you to:

? Focus on writing scripts & designing frameworks

? Appium-device famr handle the complex orchestration

? Open-source for community benefit & contribution

You might ask -- Why set up in-house device farms? ??

Here are some reason Sai gave:

1. Cost-effective for large-scale testing

2. Enhanced control & security

3. Customizable to specific needs

4. Instant device access

5. Reliable performance testing

6. Seamless CI/CD integration

If you’re doing anything with mobile testing and Appium make sure to check out ?? Appium-device-farm.

AI Testing for Salesforce Customization Webinar

Salesforce offers endless customization possibilities. But how can you keep up with testing to ensure that your customizations actually work?

That’s why I'm excited about the replay of the webinar we had with Blinq.io this week that introduced an awesome solution: an AI test engineer that autonomously creates and maintains test scripts, including multilingual support. This simplifies the creation of test automation scripts, enabling even non-coders to efficiently handle testing with multilingual support.

Join us for an instant replay where the AI test engineer was showcased and capabilities demoed directly against Salesforce.

Register now to learn more about:

• ?How AI can automate the creation and ongoing maintenance of test scripts, significantly reducing the technical skill required.
• The advantages of multilingual support in testing, ensuring that customizations work across different language interfaces.
• Best practices for integrating AI testing into your Salesforce development cycle to enhance efficiency and reliability.
• Insights into how autonomous testing can accelerate your deployment cycles and reduce downtime.

Get instant access to the replay now: ?? https://testguild.me/aisales.

QA Wolf Raises $36 million Series B

QA Wolf, a company specializing in software testing automation, has ?? successfully raised $36 million in a Series B funding round. The company also announced the opening of a waitlist for its upcoming Android and iOS test automation services.

If you don't know QA Wolf is a hybrid platform and service designed to automate end-to-end testing for web and mobile apps. It aims to achieve 80% test coverage in just four months and maintains this level with 24-hour support.

QA Wolf provides unlimited parallel test runs, ensures zero flaky tests, and integrates seamlessly with CI/CD pipelines and issue trackers like Jira and Slack. The service uses Playwright and Appium for testing, allowing full ownership of the tests without vendor lock-in.

How do you design Cypress Framework with BDD approach

?Pepqy wrote an article with insights on how to design a testing framework using ?? Cypress with a Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) approach.

He starts by go over things like what is BDD, Cucumber, and Gerkin,

Behavior-Driven Development is a collaborative method that enhances software quality by writing test cases in plain, descriptive language. The post show how to setup and configure Cypress, a popular end-to-end testing tool, to leverage BDD,

The article shows that integrating Cypress with BDD when done right can create more readable and maintainable tests. This approach involves writing test scenarios in Gherkin language, a simple syntax for describing behaviors and outcomes.

A key tip is to structure your BDD tests clearly, ensuring they reflect the user stories and acceptance criteria from the project's requirements. By doing so, testers can validate specifications early, reducing bugs and enhancing collaboration between developers, testers, and non-technical stakeholders.

CrowdStrike has identified a bug

CrowdStrike has identified ?? a bug in its testing software as the cause of a worldwide outage that affected 8.5 million Windows machines. The bug allowed a problematic update to pass validation, leading to system crashes and boot loops. To prevent future issues, CrowdStrike plans more thorough testing, enhanced error handling, and staggered deployment strategies.

Breaking your website for fun and profit, an experienced load tester’s guide (part 1)

In another blog post I found, Lars a seasoned load tester delves into ?? the practice of intentionally stressing websites to improve their robustness and performance.

Lars explains why load testing matter and how load testing can reveal critical vulnerabilities and performance bottlenecks. Emphasizing the importance of systematic stress testing, the post outlines specific strategies and tools used in the process. Lars also goes over the roles of a performance testers and highlights real-world scenarios where load testing not only prevented potential disasters but also optimized sites for better user experience.

This guide emphasizes the importance of load testing in identifying vulnerabilities and preventing potential disruptions. Lars provides practical strategies and discusses tools to aid in effective load testing, illustrating the benefits. And Software testers should recognize the value of load testing in identifying and resolving potential site vulnerabilities before they impact users. A proactive approach to stress testing ensures a more resilient and efficient website.

New Telemetry Tool

Severin announced on LinkedIn that he developed new tool called ?? otelifySH

What is it?

It is a shell script that allows you to instrument almost any application without the need to touch the application's code. This way you can extract telemetry out of an application within seconds. It utilizes different zero-code instrumentation solutions provided by the OpenTelemetry project.

Check out the GitHub repository to see examples and usage.

Lakera AI raises $20M to ward off malicious prompts on generative AI models

I never heard of it before but found out its ?? an advanced AI security platform designed to protect generative AI (GenAI) applications.

It offers solutions like Lakera Guard for real-time security, Lakera Red for pre-deployment stress testing, and tools for detecting PII and preventing data loss. Lakera focuses on defending against prompt attacks, inappropriate content, data poisoning, and insecure LLM plugins. It integrates quickly with any AI model and is compliant with global AI security frameworks like OWASP and NIST.

Testers should focus on developing and employing stringent validation techniques to ensure AI models operate safely and correctly under various scenarios. You should note the increasing importance of security in GenAI applications. As traditional cybersecurity tools may not address AI-specific risks, integrating real-time AI security solutions, like those offered by Lakera, is crucial for protecting systems against evolving threats.

So you might want to take a little time to research testing AI-specific vulnerabilities, such as prompt attacks and AI sleeper agents, to enhance the security posture of your AI-driven applications.

That's a Wrap

So that's it for this Test Guild News Show Newsletter edition.

Make sure to ??????subscribe to never miss another episode.

I'm Joe Colantonio, and my mission is to help you succeed in creating end-to-end full-stack DevSecOps automation awesomeness.

As always, test everything and keep the good.

Cheers!

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