In this blog I will show a way to do performance testing with Selenium. The reason I use Selenium for performance testing is that some applications use proprietary protocols between the application layer in the browser and the server.

So just capturing the traffic between the server and replaying modified traffic is not that simple.

An example is testing GWT applications. In a previous blog I wrote why this is difficult.

To create a test script in Selenium the first thing I do is record a test with Selenium IDE
After recording a script I export the script to JUnit3 (Remote Control). This will generate a JUnit test script which can be run to test the application.

The next thing you need is a solution to run a lot of JUnit test cases at the same moment.

Here you see a visual representation of the whole test chain.

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Agile is a mindset.  It comes with certain behaviour and a certain culture.  As with many things most people and organisations have to go through some serious change before they can actually be successful within an Agile setting. Change is hard, and it takes time.  I strongly believe that it helps when you simply understand what you’re trying to achieve.

‘Agile’ is no buzzword or a complex management theory, it’s natural behaviour for millions of people;  It’s not for managers.  It’s for everyone and it’s easy to understand as long as you acknowledge that ‘being Agile’ has nothing to do with the process you follow or the tools you use.  ‘Being Agile’ is about culture, behaviour and mindset.

This post intends to reword the Agile Manifesto in a way that makes its meaning obvious.  Understanding something,  doesn’t mean you’re immediately capable of doing it, but it’s a very good first step and it will help you on your way.

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A number of my colleagues and myself recently decided to share our knowledge regarding “performance” on this medium. You are now reading the first blog in a series in which I present a test-driven approach to ensuring proper performance when we deliver our project.

Test driven

First of all note that “test-driven” is (or should be common in the java coding world. It is, however, applied to the unit-test level only: one writes a unit test that shows a particular feature is not (properly) implemented yet. The test result is “red”. Then one writes the code that “fixes” the test, so now the test succeeds and shows “green”. Finally, one looks at the code and “refactors” the code to ensure aspects like maintainability and readability are met. This software development approach is known as “test driven development” and is sometimes also referred to as “red-green-refactor”. Read more

A number of my colleagues and myself recently decided to share our knowledge regarding “performance” on this medium. You are now reading the first blog in a series in which I present a test-driven approach to ensuring proper performance when we deliver our project.

Test driven

First of all note that “test-driven” is (or should be common in the java coding world. It is, however, applied to the unit-test level only: one writes a unit test that shows a particular feature is not (properly) implemented yet. The test result is “red”. Then one writes the code that “fixes” the test, so now the test succeeds and shows “green”. Finally, one looks at the code and “refactors” the code to ensure aspects like maintainability and readability are met. This software development approach is known as “test driven development” and is sometimes also referred to as “red-green-refactor”. Read more

Lots of groups struggle with product features in the discovery phase of their products and services. Here is a relatively easy and quick exercise to make sense out of a mess of stories.
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My brother is a projectmanger in construction. He builds complex stuff and I admire him for that. During the build, he transforms large sums of money and a set of mandates into a set of sellable real-estate features (sellable…did I really just write this in the midst of our crisis?). When his projects finish, the deliverable is a tangible end-product that people can use for living, working or to generally enjoy.
In Dutch language we have the saying that something “stands like a house” when it is well built or well organized. So in that sense, when we change organizations into high performing highly adaptable entities, could we say change agents are builders as well?

Let’s take a closer look at this comparison and see if it makes any sense.
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In the 1980′s there was a TV show called Knight Rider, where Michael Knight, a vigilante with his car K.I.T.T would fight bad guys. The thing that made this show special to me was the car. Mr Knight could talk to it, and it would understand what he said and meant and respond meaningfully. Sometimes throwing a witty remark in there. It gave the car, a personality, it was the co-star of the show.

Siri

Now in 2011, Apple released Siri. An assistant where you can ask certain things, like “What is the weather going to be like tomorrow”, and again, just like the car K.I.T.T., it responds with the correct information. In the above case, the weather for tomorrow based on your current location. If i ask Siri “What THE answer is?”, it sometimes responds with the number 42, this is for nerds and geeks a pretty witty answer (as it is THE answer to THE question in Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy). Thus Siri seems to me, have personality, it answers questions with a certain flavor. For me, in 2011, it was the very first time you could ask almost anything to a device (a mobile phone) and it would (try) to give a smart, witty answer.

Hype?

So is the fact that you are going to talk to your phone and it actually understands what you mean and then responds, something we’re going to see more of in the future or is it just a hype?

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My motto regarding innovation is: being a first mover is a strategic choice, moving fast isn’t. Agile and scrum can help you move fast, so how can it accommodate innovation?

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When I start a new consulting job at an organization, I like to ask people how their organization became the organization it is today. Most of the time, people start telling me about the history of their organization or the values and goals they have. People sometimes start telling me about the people who work in the organization. But I have never got an answer that fullfilled my question completely. What made organizations what they are right now? After reading ‘Die Frage nach der Technik’ written by Martin Heidegger (1889-1976), I got an answer that could help me structure all the answers people gave to me. Read more

I am convinced that the next blue ocean of agile minds can be found in the creation of sharing ecosystems that are built on shared purpose, trust, intuition and a facilitation of the deeply wired human urge to cooperate as a collective. Understanding that modern day individualism is smothering our effectiveness is a catalyst for our drive to start working together and forming the effectiveness of these systems.
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