Archive for June 2008
Unit Testing, User Testing, and Design Testing
Several months ago we determined that we wanted to have a fully automated testing platform for Merrcury. We decided that the best approach was to combine unit testing and user testing. Lucho and Henry worked on setting up the platform for unit testing. They just finished. Lucho adapted the unit testing environment of CakePHP so that we could do test-driven development anywhere we wanted. Henry updated the publisher. From now on, every time we publish something, all unit tests will be run. Thank you guys!
For user testing we will use Selenium, which, so far, is looking really good. User testing will be the testing methodology of choice. When something cannot be tested through the user interface, we will then use unit testing. Selenium seems to be a project started by ThoughtWorks, a company that I greatly admire (Martin Fowler works there!). Thank you Martin!
Does it take more time to deploy a system like Merrcury by using unit testing and user testing? Yes, the first stage of coding takes more time. We are betting that the next phases of coding (beta, 1.0, etc.) will be shortened by not having to invest much time doing quality assurance. Only time will tell if we are right.
If you noticed, the title of the blog also mentioned “Design Testing”. This is the only testing that won’t be automated. Design testing will make sure, among other things, that all of the interfaces look good on all major browsers. Maestro will be giving us a hand with it. Thank you Maestro!
Alex
Arrmstrong Now Has Wireframes
Arrmstrong, one of the most complex scopes of Merrcury, now has wireframes and HTMLs thanks to the work of Maestro. Arrmstrong had an interesting challenge: it was the first scope that heavily used maps. As such, Maestro had to invest many days designing map interfaces that would look good while showing tons of information. Fortunately, we had Google Maps to help us. Otherwise it would have been almost impossible to create the interfaces that we wanted. Thank you Maestro and, why not, thank you Google!
Alex
Working hard during the weekend
Maestro and I worked really hard during the weekend in three fronts. Maestro completed the wireframes for two scopes: Mozarrt (the scope that covers the messaging system of Merrcury) and Sinatrra (one of those scopes of which I cannot share details just yet). I worked on completing the use cases and user interface requirements of the Mastrropiero scope. This scope covers our search feature. What will users be able to search? You will get to know in a few months.
Thank you Maestro!
Alex
