A lot of development teams write automated tests to check that their code and application behave as intended. However, the quality of these tests is unfortunately often underappreciated. If any attention is paid to test quality at all, it is typically done in terms of code coverage, which, as attendees will see from examples I’m using in the talk, is a flawed metric. Yet, teams rely on the results of these tests in their software development lifecycle. Isn’t there a better way to get information about the quality of our tests?

In this talk, I’ll discuss how the tests you write can deceive you, and how you can make quality control for your automated tests part of your testing and development process. We’ll then look at mutation testing, a technique (supported by tools) to automatically get insight into the quality of your automated tests, and how mutation testing compares to previously mentioned techniques and metrics like code coverage.

This talk is part of the EuroSTAR Deep Dive Week – Automation Edition. You are invited to enjoy live presentations, Ask Me Anything (AMA) sessions, eBooks, and blogs on automation.

Bas Dijkstra

Inspired Testing

Bas Dijkstra is Director of International Academy with Inspire testing.  He has successfully designed and implemented test automation and service virtualization solutions for clients in a multitude of sectors, and is an experienced teacher, writer, and speaker on several topics related to test automation and service virtualization. Bas lives in the Netherlands with his wife and two sons.