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Testing and programming go hand in hand. What we needed to do after creating the app, but before releasing it out to the world was test it.
Course Project: RSVP App: https://treehouse-projects.github.io/selenium-webdriver-intermediate/waits/app/index.html
Testers vs. QA Engineers:
- Testers perform test cases and look for defects.
- QA Engineers actively monitor practices and create/enforce processes to assure quality.
Definitions:
- Quality Assurance: Preventing mistakes and defects from occurring in a product.
- SQA (Software Quality Assurance): Monitoring the development process in software and testing to ensure that changes do what they are meant to without introducing a whole lot of new bugs.
- QA Engineer: Someone who works to assure software quality by using various testing methods and practices and has a say in the design and development process.
Introductory Programming Courses:
Introduction to HTML and CSS
Introducing JavaScript
HTML Basics
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[MUSIC]
0:00
Hi there, welcome to QA Engineering.
0:09
My name is Ryan Saul,
and I'm a QA Engineer.
0:12
I'm sure your first question is
going to be, what is QA Engineering?
0:16
And I wanna answer that in a minute, but
0:21
first I wanna talk about why
you need to test your code.
0:23
So you have this great new application
that you've created, that lets people
0:27
email their friends and family
invitations through a little website.
0:31
It's a simple RSVP application.
0:35
You've been working on this
application for weeks, and
0:38
you're finally ready to
share it with the world.
0:42
After you've put it up on a live website,
you share it on social media and
0:44
tell all of your family and
friends about it.
0:49
But almost immediately after posting this,
a friend writes a comment on your post and
0:52
says hey there, I was really excited
to check out your new website, but
0:57
it doesn't seem like it works.
1:02
It's not doing anything when I click send.
1:03
And then another family member chimes in,
hey this looks great, but
1:07
I can't enter in Lisa's full name
when I try to send her an invitation.
1:11
She has four names you know?
1:15
So, worried that the application isn't
working properly, you take down the site
1:17
immediately, and bring it back up the next
day after you've fixed those issues.
1:22
Your cousin then comments hey,
I tried your new site and
1:27
just sent you an invite to my barbecue
next week, I hope you got it.
1:30
But you look at the website and
there's just nothing.
1:35
So clearly our new application
isn't doing what we want it to do.
1:38
We have all these problems
we've never thought of,
1:44
plus the app isn't even working.
1:47
What we needed to do after
creating the app, but
1:49
before releasing it out to the world,
was to test it.
1:52
So testing and
programming really go hand-in-hand.
1:57
We could probably all agree that
all software should be tested to
2:01
at least do the things that we set out for
it to do, right?
2:06
And we probably all assume that big
software companies thoroughly test
2:10
all their software for
major flaws all the time, right?
2:15
And we could even agree that
it would be irresponsible,
2:20
short-sighted, and even reckless
not to do those tests, right?
2:24
But clearly not all software
gets thoroughly tested, or
2:30
else we wouldn't have some of these news
worthy stories that involve huge problems.
2:33
So Y2K, problems with the Mars Pathfinder,
even the release of Apple Maps.
2:39
All of these are some pretty big
examples of why thorough testing
2:46
is needed in software development.
2:50
So testing is extremely important to
the software development process,
2:53
which gets me back to
the original question.
2:59
What is QA Engineering?
3:02
Okay, so there's two parts to this.
3:04
QA, or Quality Assurance,
is the method of preventing mistakes and
3:08
defects from occurring in a product.
3:12
You might be thinking of people at the end
of a factory line, picking up widgets and
3:15
looking for imperfections.
3:19
That's what we call Quality Control.
3:21
Quality Control is just one
part of Quality Assurance.
3:24
Not only does Quality Assurance
verify the end product, but
3:29
also manages the entire
development process.
3:33
Now software quality assurance, or SQA, is
what we're talking about in this course.
3:37
And we can't just sit at
the end of a factory line and
3:44
watch as the product rolls by us.
3:46
We need to be involved in almost every
step of the software development process.
3:49
Coming up with ways to make sure that
software does what it's supposed to do.
3:54
And we need to test the end product
thoroughly to find any mistakes.
3:59
Software is hard and complex, and
it can be changed very quickly.
4:05
This is why we need more than
just inspectors or testers.
4:10
We need to come up with
many ways to assure quality
4:14
throughout the development process.
4:18
This is what we call QA Engineering.
4:20
Where we're not just testing
the product we've been given, but
4:23
designing new ways to break the software.
4:26
Or discover problems early
in the development process.
4:29
Okay, let's take one more famous example,
the launch of healthcare.gov.
4:34
So back in 2013, the US Federal Government
was preparing to roll out a website
4:40
that would make it easy for people to
enroll in various healthcare plans.
4:46
They wanted a site that would
streamline signing up for healthcare.
4:52
Even though the website
appeared to be up and
4:57
running, the rollout was met with
numerous technical problems.
4:59
The website would put users
into extremely long wait times,
5:04
because the site could not handle
the large load of visitors.
5:08
Even people who could make it through
were met with a really confusing system,
5:13
that required a visitor to
complete the registration process
5:18
before they could even
compare healthcare plans.
5:22
In their first week of operation,
healthcare.gov was only able to enroll
5:25
about 1% of those interested in
getting healthcare through the site.
5:30
Even President Obama at the time commented
on the technical problems of the website,
5:35
saying the website's been too slow.
5:40
People have been getting stuck
in the application process, and
5:43
I think it's fair to say that nobody's
more frustrated by that than I am.
5:46
We can point to come pretty key issues
that made these problems happened.
5:51
There were poorly defined requirements.
5:56
There were major software design issues.
5:58
And there was not enough testing of
the entire website from start to finish.
6:02
And that is where QA Engineering
comes into play, and
6:06
can help prevent huge launch failures,
like this one.
6:10
So the QA Engineer helps define
clear needs that they can test for,
6:14
helps design the software so
that it can be tested.
6:19
And runs all those tests to make sure
that the software both does what it's
6:22
supposed to do and
doesn't break along the way.
6:26
Over the course of this series we're
gonna be talking a lot about testing,
6:29
it's about the most important aspect
of software quality assurance.
6:34
We're gonna keep coming back to the RSVP
app that we mentioned earlier, and
6:39
learn how to properly
test various parts of it.
6:43
We're gonna learn how to write tests,
how to execute them, and
6:47
how to write those tests even better.
6:51
As we're going through the course,
6:53
don't hesitate to use
the video playback controls.
6:55
You can adjust the playback speed
to be faster or slower as needed.
6:58
Be sure to check out the Teacher's Notes
on each video's page too.
7:04
Throughout the course,
we'll have Teacher's Notes that include
7:07
troubleshooting tips or
links where you can learn more.
7:11
This course will also show you
simple templates for test cases and
7:15
bug reports, that you can use
in any simple word processor.
7:19
We will not be using any specific
software to learn this course
7:23
outside of just a spreadsheet tool or
a word processor.
7:27
Okay, at this point, I'm sure you've taken
at least an introduction to programming
7:31
course and
possibly even have written some code.
7:35
But if you haven't, see the Teacher's
Notes on this video's page for
7:39
links to some courses that
you should check out.
7:43
Programming is not required for
this course, but you'll have
7:46
an easier time following along if you
know how to create a simple application.
7:49
Ready?
All right, let's get going.
7:54
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