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What I Learned From Running As A Product Manager - Adventures in QA

What I Learned From Running As A Product Manager

I am a runner for more than 15 years! I started running as part of weekly workouts on my soccer team. Back then I hated pure running. I had the feeling that it’s boring to just run around a track or the fields. But I stuck to it to some extent. However, my perspective on running changed completely 5 years ago. In this blog post, I want to write about what running taught me and what I can transfer to my professional career as a product manager.

A New Start

5 years ago I felt not fit, I did go regularly to the gym but I hate going to the gym and to do my workouts on some machines. I wanted to do sports outside, enjoy nature and the fresh air. Furthermore, I wanted to do a sport that I can perform everywhere with the least amount of equipment. So I thought why not give running another try, but this time with a higher focus. I went to a local running shop a bought some running shoes and started to run. I used my phone to track my activities, but I did not make any progress. I tried to run even more during the weeks, but then the first injuries came around the corner. I was disappointed, I thought maybe running is nothing for me and my body. But this time I said no, I will not give up. I read several books about running and running injuries and found out what my problem was.

I did just too much running for my fitness level. It sounds simple, but it was obvious to me. Instead of running 3-5 times per week between 5km and 10km I slowed down. I did only 2 runs per week but invested lots of time in stretching and core workouts to strengthen my muscles. Read more

Continuous Deployment in Mobile Development - Adventures in QA

Continuous Deployment in Mobile Development

Continuous deployment and continuous delivery became a natural process for web-based applications over the last years. Companies are now able to deploy product changes or bug fixes to the production system multiple times a day. With the help of web deployment tools and a solid deployment infrastructure setup, this task became much more reliable and easier. But how does it look for native mobile apps? Is it possible to release a new mobile app at any point in time while having the app store submission process in place for some app stores?
The answer is yes, and in this article, I will describe the possible options for native mobile apps.

Invest in Mobile Infrastructure

Continuous deployment and delivery don’t come free. Nor for web applications nor for native mobile apps. A company needs to invest time and money in its own mobile app infrastructure to be able to ship a new version of the native mobile app at any point in time. However, from the software and tooling perspective, a mobile app delivery infrastructure can be build up really easily. For example with the help of open-source software like Jenkins as continuous integration system and fastlane as build and signing software, the infrastructure setup can be lean, easy and powerful. Last but not least a company should set up a mobile app distribution channel e.g. with the help of software like Testflight, AppCenter or Firebase. Tools like that help to distribute the mobile app to test devices during the development and testing phase. Read more

Adventures in QA - TestProject Resources

TestProject Resources

In the last article, I wrote about the easy setup of TestProject and what the platform offers to you. If you are interested in using it as well in your project, I took some time and collected a bunch of really useful resources. The resources might help you to kickstart your TestProject workspace and to start testing your Android and iOS app with a single test automation tool.

General TestProject Documentation

TestProject Videos

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Test Automation with TestProject - Adventures in QA

Test Automation with TestProject

In my previous article, I promised to write more about the free test automation platform TestProject. With this post, I will introduce you to the TestProject platform, the setup process of the so-called agent, the rich feature set and more things that make TestProject a special single test automation solution.

Sign-Up and First Steps

Let’s start from the beginning. The sign-up process is easy and takes no more than one minute after you created your account. Right after the first sign in, a wizard offers you a quick five minute tutorial where the initial setup of the TestProject agent is happening. In the first step you need to download the TestProject agent for your operating system. TestProject supports Windows, Mac OS and Linux.

While the download is running, the wizard is providing a short YouTube video, where the next steps are explained once the agent is installed.

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Once the TestProject agent is installed, the wizard asks you to register your local agent by giving it an alias. The alias will be checked and registered. The setup takes some minutes and then the TestProject dashboard is presented. Read more

Adventures in QA - Testing Mobile Apps

Testing Mobile Apps with a Single Automation Solution

My summer vacation is over and I am back at writing :). In my last article, I compared test automation frameworks with pros and cons. Today’s article is focusing on the important topic of testing mobile apps. Especially with a focus on mobile test automation and how this can be done with a single automation solution.

Most organizations support both mobile platforms for their product, Android as well as iOS. Both platforms together have a world-wide market share of 98% and therefore it is essential to develop and release the own mobile product on both systems. Sure, there might be products, markets and services that are used more on one of the platforms, but for the majority of companies both platforms are critical for their business.

For those software testers working already in the field of mobile testing hopefully know that both platforms have similarities as well as differences. In both cases this knowledge is key to success, especially when you want focus on the field of mobile test automation. If you don’t know the key differences of the mobile platforms and apps, I recommend to take a look at my book Hands-On Mobile App Testing or at my mobile testing online course A Beginners Guide To Mobile Testing.

Why Mobile Test Automation is Important?

According to user surveys conducted by Arctouch and TechBeacon, more than 50% of mobile app users will uninstall an app after the first usage. One of the main reasons for the uninstallation is an app crash or freeze at the first launch. Furthermore, the surveys found out that mobile users have a much higher expectation to mobile apps than to any other software products. Up to 80% of mobile users will delete an app after the first usage if the design is bad, the app has a poor user experience or is not fast enough. Read more