ConTEST NYC 2019

During this tutorial Corina will show you how to create and customize an automation project (framework) from scratch, using Maven. 
Java based test design will be the main focus of the tutorial after the project was created: how to avoid repeating code, how to structure your test code, how/when/why to create utility classes and how to run tests.
Corina will show you how to write browser unaware Selenium tests and how to easily switch the browser on which they run. You will learn how to write tests that are environment unaware and how to make them run across your environments. Also you will get an idea of how to easily create tests for translation purposes, when your code runs across localized pages.

Key takeaways: 

• How to create a new code project with Maven
• Understanding your pom.xml file
• How to import dependencies with Maven
• How to find what you need in the imported dependencies
• How to create Maven profiles for running tests based on an xml file
• Creating the browser instances and browser utilities
• How to switch browsers in tests and how to write browser unaware tests
• How to switch environments on which tests run and how to write environment unaware tests
• How to create one test that can run across all the localized variations of a page
• How to structure the project (where to place what), how to organize the project

Installation Requirements:
The attendees will need to have the following installed on their machine:
- IntelliJ. Community version will suffice and it is free. Can be downloaded here: https://www.jetbrains.com/idea/download
- A Java JDK (preferably above 8). It is up to the participants to choose which version they want and what provider from (either OpenJDK or Oracle).

This workshop is about exploring where and how testing takes place, what makes the contexts different, and how evaluate the risks and design test strategies around various contexts.  Development of context-driven testing strategies will enhance the valuable testing output, allow to save resources and budget, and pick the right tools to support testing activities.
We will go outside the usual comfort zone of websites facing the public and consumers. Let’s look inside to the development of internal IT systems – “business to employee” systems, and consider how to add value with relevant testing activities. We will look into the engine room of business systems for goods received, billing, bonus calculations, point of sales systems and many other moving parts of companies. 
Testing takes place in many more IT contexts besides software development. Looking into it, even software development is a big area - are we talking about new development, existing code base or perhaps coding into an commercial "shelf" application framework.  Sometimes we even have to test that "everything works as before" when the product is moved to another application maintenance vendor.
In this workshop we will look into the various ways to approach testing in the larger IT landscape.

Key takeaways:

• A look into the engine room of IT systems to support the enterprise
• Discovering the principles of context-driven testing and exploratory testing
• Learning how to develop test strategies for different contexts
• An eye opener and stepping stone to advance your testing to new areas

Good test data is the very foundation of good testing. But good test data is hard to get. If you create it manually or build a script or program to generate test data, the test data will probably reflect your understanding of- and expectations to the production data rather than the actual properties of the production data. For that reason, it is unfortunately not uncommon to use production data or data trivially derived from production data for testing.

Using production data for testing has problems of its own. GDPR (the new EU privacy lay) applies to such data. It obviously applies when using production data directly. But surprising to many, GDPR also applies in almost all situations when test data is based on scrambled or anonymized production data.

Overall content of the talk:
* The importance of good, representative and secure test data and the importance of fast, cheap and low-friction access to the test data.
* Metrics for test data (how to measure test data quality).
* Which are the compliance and security challenges (GDPR, Segregation of Duties, data loss prevention, corporate policies, etc.).
* A helicopter view of the most relevant articles of GDPR.
* A helicopter view of the techniques that can be used to protect data, such as anonymization, pseudonymization, synthetic data, tokenization, and format-preserving encryption.
* Strategies for generating test data while respecting privacy and security.
* How to ensure GDPR compliance.
* What to do next and where to start.

Martin will also make sure to address some of the most prominent and serious misconceptions, such as that many believe that data can easily be anonymized (and thus get out of GDPR scope) and that hash function can ensure privacy. Without good test data, your test is not representative to the real-life production situation.

IoT has been a buzzword for few years already. Everybody talks about it and you can find a lot of information everywhere. Even though it is not quite new, still not a lot of people know how it really works and what are the possibilities with it. In order to test the hardware and software included in IoT system, there are lots of challenges. Knowledge and mindset which testers must have to answer them can vary from the constant improvement of understanding the hardware parts itself to thinking about the end user’s behavior on several levels.

Milena and Dejan will share with you their experience of testing the smart vending machine as an IoT device. The process of transforming one simple automat to the smart vending machine as part of the big IoT system demands constant changing of testing approach and techniques. They will give you real-life examples and share their story. Making hardware smart and testing it constantly inside the IoT system is an everyday challenge for them. Join this presentation to find out how to overcome those challenges of testing a big complex IoT devices.

Key takeaways:
* Why product context is important when defining test approach
* Which skills can tester learn during testing complex IoT systems and devices
* What is the future of testing holds and how testing will be evolving around new IoT technologies

Playback is a complex animal that is often overlooked or reduced in QA to simple cursory visibility checks. This talk will cover an overview of the architecture of live and on demand OTT video streaming (as well as a brief covering of broadcast for reference) and the testing challenges that come from this, as well as some tips on how best to approach the planning of the testing effort to maximize the efficacy of your playback testing.

Pitched at a beginner to intermediate level, participants will leave with a knowledge of some of the moving parts that make up OTT video streaming and some of the approaches that can be utilized whilst testing playback. 

Synthetic Test Data has come a long way. This session will discuss the advantages of synthetic data over masking production data. We will look at GenRocket and how it is redefining the use of data in Agile , DevOps and Waterfall environments.

In this session, participants will learn how to create test data. They will also learn how synthetic data can keep referential integrity. A key driver in being able to use non-production data for test.

The startup world is fast, demanding and challenging. Most of the time a startup needs to move fast and ship faster to survive in the industry and be on the top of the market, while also fighting with budget and ROI issues. As a QA/Software leader, how do you survive in this hostile environment? How do you catch up with this crazy speed? How do you set realistic goals for yourself, your department or even your organization ? In this talk I will walk you through my tried and tested formula to succeed in a startup environment, avoid feeling burned out, leveraging your whole team to deliver a high performance product in a record time. 
 Key takeaways:

• The startup dilemma: time, money, resource crunch and ways to overcome it
• 3 steps applied to high performance testing: - Discovery, Analysis, implementation 
• Ways to multitask efficiently
• Delegation strategies 
• Automation tips for a high performing startup

When faced with a new application or feature do you find yourself struggling with what tests you should automate, which not to automate, and which you should automate first? Have you been asked about why you did not automate certain tests and find yourself struggling with an adequate answer? Have you reviewed the prioritization techniques some have provided and did they feel arbitrary or did they not seem to be a fit for you application? Have you found yourself struggling to defend your prioritization choices?  

Brian has a practical approach to prioritizing automated tests that makes sense. Join him for a walk through the process of balancing difficulty and value to prioritize automated tests and identify the tests that should be avoided.

Outcomes:
 1. How to calculate business value of tests
 2. How to prioritize automated tests
3. Identify tests that should not be automated

Lightning Talks are brief, 5-minute presentations that focus on a single topic, example, idea, project, or technique. Lightning Talks do not attempt to cover all aspects of their subject matter, but present one facet of the idea clearly and succinctly.

We are inviting all conference participants to sign up for the presentations! Slides are welcome but not necessary. The sign up board will be located by the registration table.

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