A QA-guy blog

I spent around 10 years of my career writing all sorts of automation. Whenever I hear another company working on yet another breakthrough in automation it gives me a bitter smile. Let me explain why. (and it is not another `automation is impossible` rant) The other day I was having breakfast at McDonald's, where I noticed how few employees they had on shift, yet able to serve quite a few customers. I worked at McDonald's and I remember that cashier work was particularly challenging - usually one had to take orders and prepare orders at the same time, all in 120 seconds 9 (it was in Russia 20 years ago, I might be slightly wrong with figures, but you get the point). A Cashier was also supposed to smile and let you feel welcome. Now they have self-checkout stations, leading to funny results: Order preparation is nowhere near 120 seconds. It takes ages now, to be honest. They employ fewer people. You know, crew members at McDonald's don't usually have a line of job of...

It seems everyone talks about efficient test automation, but not so many people have actually seen it! To cover this I decided to make several videos regarding the secrets of efficient test automation. Today we will talk about the first (and, arguably, the main) secret - realistic expectations. Very often, test automation projects or initiatives are started with the following unrealistic expectations: "Test automation will replace 'manual' testing" "Test automation will provide fast results and benefits" "Test automation efficiency depends solely on test automation engineers" Unfortunately, all those expectations are not realistic! Watch the video to know more!

Arguably, the biggest damage made by the pandemic is the decline in people's trust and morale. That is the common plot for a horror movie - a group of people get locked in one place. Then something goes wrong, people get suspicious towards each other, then kill each other one by one, only to learn that it was someone's else evil game. Congrats folks - now we can find ourselves living in such movie. Today in one of the social networks somebody has complained that the cashier at the local shop, who was appearing in his 70s was coughing for 15 seconds. The person complaining was scared that cashier might be spreading COVID-19. The comments were divided. The minority has, rightfully, mentioned that coughing may be as well a symptom of quite common long-term conditions, which pose no threat to the public - like Asthma or Lung Cancer. The majority though were getting quite critical or even aggressive. People would suggest that those exposing any COVID-like symptoms should be ...