Supporting: The Tester’s Experience of Test Tools and Automation
PhD Research Project – University of Malta
If you want to contact Isabel about the survey you can do so via her website contact page
Isabel Evans started a research degree with University of Malta in June 2018. Why Malta? Because she had met 2 researchers Chris Porter and Mark Micallef, who are researching human factors around testing; examining the cognitive processes that testers use when testing. This fitted with Isabel’s growing interest in the UX of testing tools and automation: was there a way to understand and possibly improve test automation. Isabel will discuss this during the webinar, her journey in the last year has included attending courses to learn research methods, reading academic and industry publications, gathering data by interview and workshops, and starting to see if she can see patterns. With your help, she hopes to gather more data, that will help her understand the current status of UX of testing tools and automation, identify evidence for problems and (eventually) propose solutions. You can help drive the direction of the research by contributing your stories – positive and negative – about your experiences with test tools.
A Note from Isabel Evans
Dear friend and colleague:
This is to invite you to take part in this questionnaire and provide me with data to support my research. You can answer as many or as few of the questions as you want. Please return the completed survey to Isabel Evans
Background:
- I am undertaking a research study, as a postgraduate student at the University of Malta. This study is intended to help us understand the experiences (good and bad) that testers have with automation and tools. I hope to identify significant categories of problems testers experience in deploying tools and automation, and if possible to indicate solutions.
- This preliminary research “the tester’s experience of test tools and automation” is to discover if there are problems with the tester’s experience of tools, and if so what they are, in order to set the direction for the next stage of the research.
Approach:
- Please could you complete the attached open question survey. You complete it anonymously.
- The purpose of the survey is for you to express your views; I will steer the research according to your responses. I have some topics I want to cover, but I am open to (and hope for) the research moving in directions I do not expect.
- Please also indicate in your email reply if you are happy to be interviewed. I will be selecting a small number of people to interview following the survey. If you are interviewed:
- At the start of the interview I will explain the process, and ask you to provide consent to the interview.
- I will tape record the interview, and afterwards transcribe and code it.
Output and outcomes:
- Extracts from the survey and interviews will be used anonymously in my research and resulting publications.
- The recording and transcriptions will be kept safely on University of Malta storage, confidentially.
- I will publish academically and in industry publications; you will still appear anonymously.
Thank you so much
Best Regards
Isabel Evans