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Streamline Integration Testing With Karate: A Comprehensive Tool For SDET Engineers

Based on an SDET Propel Workshop Presentation And Live Client-Site, Hands-On Demonstration led by: Veda Vyas Prabu, Lead Software Development Engineer In Test and Oleksii Lavrenin, Senior Q&A Test Engineer @ InRhythm on July 12th, 2023

Overview

In the world of software development, integration testing plays a crucial role in ensuring that individual components seamlessly work together. However, the complexity of integration testing often poses challenges for SDET (Software Development Engineer in Test) engineers. 

Enter Karate, a powerful open-source tool that simplifies and enhances integration testing by combining API testing, mocking, and UI automation into a single framework. 

In Veda Vyas Prabu and Oleksii Lavrenin’s Overview Of Karate presentation at our recent SDET Propel Workshop, we will explore the features, capabilities, and best practices of Karate for SDET integration testing:

  • Overview
  • Understanding Karate
  • Getting Started With Karate
  • Enhancing SDET Integration Testing Principles With Karate
  • Best Practices And Advanced Techniques
  • Closing Thoughts

Understanding Karate

1. Overview And Philosophy

Karate is a testing framework that combines API testing, UI automation, and performance testing into a unified package. It follows the principles of simplicity, reusability, and readability, enabling SDET engineers to write expressive and robust test scenarios.

2. Key Features

  • Unified Testing: Karate integrates API testing and UI automation seamlessly, allowing for end-to-end testing of integrated software components
  • BDD Syntax: Karate uses a Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) syntax, making tests readable and understandable for both technical and non-technical stakeholders
  • Built-in Mocking: Karate simplifies API mocking and stubbing, enabling isolated testing of individual components
  • Test Data Management: Karate provides various methods for managing test data, including data tables, external files, and dynamic payloads

Getting Started With Karate

  • Installation And Setup

Learn how to install and set up Karate in your testing environment, ensuring a smooth integration with your existing development tools and frameworks.

  • Writing Tests With Karate

Explore the intuitive syntax of Karate’s DSL, enabling SDET engineers to write expressive test scenarios using simple, English-like statements. Understand how to define HTTP requests, validate responses, and perform assertions using built-in matchers, and JSONPath expressions.

  • Data-Driven Testing

Discover Karate’s powerful data-driven testing capabilities. Utilize data tables, external files (such as CSV or JSON), and dynamic payloads to create tests that cater to various scenarios and input variations.

Enhancing SDET Integration Testing Principles With Karate

  • Comprehensive Testing

Karate empowers SDET engineers to achieve comprehensive test coverage by seamlessly integrating API testing and UI automation. This allows for end-to-end testing of integrated software components, ensuring their proper behavior and functionality.

  • Collaboration And Communication

Karate’s BDD syntax promotes collaboration between technical and non-technical stakeholders. Test scenarios written in a human-readable format help foster clear communication, shared understanding, and collaboration among developers, testers, and business stakeholders.

  • Isolated Component Testing

Karate’s built-in mocking and stubbing capabilities enable SDET engineers to isolate the testing of individual components. This ensures that each component behaves as expected and validates their integration into the larger system.

  • Reusability And Maintainability

Karate promotes reusability by providing a modular and structured approach to test development. SDET engineers can create reusable test functions, making it easier to maintain and update test suites as the application evolves.

Best Practices And Advanced Techniques

  • Test Organization And Structure

Follow best practices for organizing and structuring your Karate test suite. Group tests logically, utilize features and tags, and establish naming conventions to improve test maintainability and readability.

  • Reporting And Integration

Utilize Karate’s built-in reporting capabilities to generate detailed test reports that provide valuable insights into test execution and results. Integrate Karate with popular collaboration tools, CI/CD pipelines, and reporting frameworks to enable seamless testing workflows and effective team collaboration.

Closing Thoughts

Karate is a powerful testing framework that enhances SDET integration testing principles by combining API testing, UI automation, and performance testing into a single package. By leveraging Karate’s intuitive syntax, comprehensive testing capabilities, and collaborative nature, SDET engineers can achieve comprehensive test coverage, promote clear communication and collaboration among stakeholders, and validate the behavior and integration of software components with ease. With Karate, you can streamline your testing efforts, improve software quality, and enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of your SDET integration testing processes.

Embrace Karate as your go-to testing framework and elevate your testing practices to new heights.

How To Write A Good Pull Request

Overview

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Pull Requests are the backbone of open source software development. They allow contributions by anyone, from anywhere. PRs are also a vital form of communication, even within a localized development team working on proprietary software.

What makes a good Pull Request?

Let’s break it down into 4 Rules Of Thumb:

  • Provide Context
  • Make It As Small As Possible, But Not Any Smaller
  • Take Screenshots
  • Ask For Assistance

Provide Context

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Providing context is an important first step in guiding the reviewer. Use this as an opportunity to explain why you are making this change. This can be as simple as referring to the bug/defect/issue number, and as detailed as necessary to describe your change.

In this example, there is a provided link to an original issue on the npm.community site and linked directly to the source of pnpm that was referenced in the original issue.

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https://github.com/npm/cli/pull/32#issue-204418739

In this more complicated example, one wants to make sure I was consistent with how other PRs were made to this repository. One of the suggestions is the old “when in Rome” rule. Some repositories even provide a template, which can be helpful, but this one didn’t. So, one should make each item discussed in the issue into a bullet item, checking-off the ones that were completed and noting anything that you’re not sure about.

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https://github.com/npm/cli/pull/61#issue-211591081

Make It As Small As Possible, But Not Any Smaller

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Everyone agrees that smaller PRs are easier to review. Sometimes it’s just not possible to make a very small change, so here’s some practical advice: don’t do more than necessary. If you need to stray from the core of the change you are making, separate it.

For example – imagine you are adding a path through the code to handle a new requirement. Along the way you realize that some of the variables and functions could use better names, but changing those means that you now need to update a bunch of files in another area of the code. STOP! Don’t make that change! Or at least, don’t bunch it together with your other changes. Instead, make the rename change in its own commit, and probably in its own Pull Request too. In the PR you can explain why you are making the change and how it simplifies the real change you want to make easier.

This same strategy should be applied to most whitespace and re-factorings you want to do during the course of implementing a new feature or resolving a defect. Be considerate of the reviewer’s time. There is nothing more frustrating than hunting through all the changes looking for the actual change and bumping into whitespace and “re-namings” spread across many files.

Take Screenshots

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So you’re working on a story that affects the UI? Maybe you are fixing alignment in IE11, or adding a new interstitial modal when the user clicks a button. The code will get reviewed as it always does, but many people struggle with visualizing layout changes or CSS tweaks. Include a screen capture of the before and after. It’s usually pretty easy to get a before shot – just use the QA or production environment. Then for the after shot, use your local server. Both GitHub and Atlassian BitBucket allow you to paste images, so you can literally SHIFT-CTRL-CMD-4 (OSX) to copy a section of the screen to your clipboard, then CMD-V to paste it into the input box of your PR description.

Another incredibly helpful option is to use an application like GIPHY Capture to record an animated GIF that can be added to your PR. These are great for when you want to show an animation or a sequence of steps.

Let’s face it, it’s a pain for the reviewers to fire up their Windows vm to try out your change that resolves an Edge problem. Make their life easier by including an animated GIF that shows exactly what changed right in the Pull Request!

Ask For Assistance

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Become a big fan of the quote “it is better to beg for forgiveness rather than ask for permission.” In so many instances, not just in software, this rule helps save time. But making too big a change in your PR may be received poorly, especially when you are not a regular contributing member.

Be cautious and curious in order to lead a better engagement and ultimately, a better solution.

Here is a comment made on a PR to a tslint project. You can see how the person’s comment/feedback is acknowledged and further asks a clarifying question because of the impact it would have on so many files. This lets the reviewers know that you have respect and consideration for the size changes coming into their code base, and also that you want to be collaborative in finding the best solution.

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https://github.com/palantir/tslint/pull/1738#issuecomment-261527450

Closing Thoughts

What other things do you like to do in your PRs? What kinds of things would you like to see more of in PRs that you are reviewing? What would you like to see less of?

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What Does Your Innovation Timetable Look Like?

Overview

Innovation is at the heart of almost every business. Companies that can innovate quickly and frequently have significant competitive advantages, easily attract top talent, and provide excellent customer experiences.

However, this is easier said than done. Although most organizations agree that being able to innovate is the key factor that will help them stand apart from the crowd, there are substantial roadblocks to achieving simple advances. 

So… How do top companies innovate rapidly?

They understand a few core principles:

1. Time Is Money

Companies are often sidelined by a standard argument:

“We don’t have the budget right now.”

Innovative companies understand that every minute you wait to implement new ideas, even more dollars are left on the table. The balance of opportunity, cost, and wins is a relevant act, that requires a substantial amount of careful and calculated attention and execution.

2. Looks Are Everything

A heavy focus on UX Design and usability are key components to highly advanced companies.

Rapid iterations on design and function are a pertinent response to customer needs, setting advanced companies on a fast track to favorable brand image and reputation.

3. Right Resource Allocation Goes A Long Way

Introducing new products and features regularly can be taxing on an existing team, and the best people to get the job done may need to be added.

Companies that know how and when to implement talent can successfully curve innovation quickly. From experts in modern frameworks to responsive web, experience is key to get the job done.

4. There’s No Room For Reactive Planning

Upcoming initiatives often have a way of creeping up on companies.

There are typically foundational tasks that need to be taken care of prior to kick-off and resources need to be lined up, in place, and ready to roll when the green light is lit. To circumvent reactive planning, top companies partner with experts to help them tackle foundation tasks, line up the right tools and resources, and plan for big projects.

How and how often companies innovate is a defining metric to consumers – to both meet and exceed customer expectations.

Closing Thoughts

Allotting time for innovation allows organizations to get ahead.

If you concentrate all your energy on operating within the status quo, someone who has learned to set aside time for innovation is going to come along and define the space while you were busy maintaining your current process.

The number one thing you can do to propel your organization forward is to give innovation a leading piece.

Letting Go of the Formality

It wasn’t that long ago that suits, ties, knee-length skirts, heels and pantyhose were required wardrobe staples. In fact, many enterprise Fortune 100s upheld a formal dress code as part of their HR Policy Handbooks. Goldman Sachs, the last bastion of formality on Wall Street, finally relaxed its dress code and offered a “flexible style” option. They only did so last year. Their updated policy permitted men to choose garments other than suits. Admittedly, this made things more complicated for women but that’s a topic for another blog.

Since we’re agile practitioners here at InRhythm, it made sense to look at our own approaches to talent and acquisition. Not to mention retention. Practices and policies drive corporate culture. Here, Agile Platinum Principle One: resist formality, must serve as one of the pillars of our talent strategy.

If your company doesn’t offer a culture that’s aligned with the needs and expectations of today’s job seekers, then, as Hiring Manager or Chief People Officer, you’re going to have a really hard time. At best, you’re going to struggle and slog through your days and recruiting campaigns. At worst, you’re not going to have any people to serve as Chief over!

The link between informality and tech

Ask anyone within the technology field, or external to it, to describe or draw a person in tech, be it a software developer or a startup founder. The universal response is a male, typically Caucasian, dressed in sloppy jeans and a hoodie. Where did this level of informality originate?

Many would cite Lou Gerstner’s (former CEO of IBM) decision to roll out “casual dress.” Even the New York Times balked with a headline that read, “Black Jeans Invade Big Blue.” Shortly thereafter, Hewlett Packard (HP) introduced “Blue Sky Days” which permitted employees to wear jeans to work on Fridays. From there, dress code devolved or evolved – it depends on your perspective – into what we see today.

However, the Platinum Principal of resisting formality is not restricted to dress code. It extends into everything that we do. Formality also has implications with unconscious bias, how we greet and interact with people, the forms that we require candidates to complete and so on. Tone and style go hand in hand.

How are we resisting formality?

We are constantly taking steps to increase our awareness and connection with our prospective employees, candidates, contractors, staff and employees. Efforts are made to understand what they need so that we can craft our talent, acquisition and retention strategies around their needs and expectations versus requiring that they conform to ours. Here, we have embraced an agile culture across the company, not just in our product development efforts.

As agile craftsmen, with respect to HR recruiting and retention strategies, we have adopted an approach that is more responsive than it is prescriptive. Our applications are deliberately designed with brevity in mind to expedite the hiring process. We measure how long it takes from the time that an application is submitted to an open job posting until someone is seated in the role. A conscientious effort, with monitoring, is made to ensure that we are constantly moving our candidates through the hiring process as swiftly as they seek to do so.

Another way that may come as a bit of a surprise is the effort we make to create a relaxed culture that allows for flexibility and downtime. We understand the enormous pressure and stress that our employees feel as they do all that they can to deliver on our clients’ needs. It’s okay to push through a couple of scrums or back-to-back sprints but it’s not sustainable. Over the holidays, we relaxed with an in-house office party and gave people some bonus time. This week is Valentine’s Day: celebrate it or not, you don’t need to make it about sending flowers and chocolates to your partner. Use it as a reminder to resist formality, take some time and reach out to whomever it is that you care about, be it a parent or sibling or a friend.

Resist formality! Make strides to emulate the people and culture around you. Forcing people into a process defined by its rigor and inflexibility is the antithesis of what a company should do. Particularly a company who’s purpose is to bring agile methodologies and success to our clients.

Stu Weiser,

Director of Talent Acquisition
Image created by katemangostar – www.freepik.com

Unleashing The Potential Of Your Offsite Team

Thriving vs Surviving

Are You Unleashing Your Team’s Potential? Or, are you an engineering Practice Lead or Manager who’s unconsciously capping your team’s potential? While there may be the odd diabolical leader who intents on deliberately holding his or her team back, I like to think that doing so is not the norm. Leaders of agile craftsmen want their teams to flourish and fly through each sprint. Doing so will require creating an environment and work culture that fosters improvement and unleashes a team’s potential.

With a new year and decade here upon us, the idea of making resolutions to catalyze changes isn’t new. It’s a centuries-old tradition that has begun to fall out of favor. Given that < 8%  of us make it through the year, performance and motivation coaches suggest that we set goals for the year instead of resolutions. By setting a goal, we know which direction we’re headed for and it allows us to “slip back” or go off-course occasionally yet still track towards the goal unlike resolutions, which do not offer the same latitude. 

Here at InRhythm, we’re looking forward to achieving continued success in 2020. With increased efforts to build and empower our 10x teams and to better enable our clients, we have set several key goals for the year ahead.

2020 Goals

  1. Continue to put our customers first and make every effort towards 100% customer satisfaction
  2. Foster a culture that truly embodies the Agile Manifesto
  3. Grow our footprint in new markets and industries 

As the Practice Lead , I’m conscious of how well my team is performing and how the toll of being onsite at clients’ workspaces affects them. I’m also aware that I need to give the team space to work together on a sprint and to figure things out on their own. When they hit an obstacle or begin struggling with forward progress, that’s the time to jump in. Until then, leaders must encourage their teams to experiment and err, support them, and back them when the choices they’ve made may not be the ones anticipated by their employer but they’re exactly the right ones needed for the client.

In addition to giving your team some latitude and space so that they can creatively solve problems without you helicoptering over them, you also need to think about giving them recognition. Of course, nobody wants to celebrate repeated failure, but, if a software developer made an informed decision to try to do something in a new way and everyone could extract lessons learned from that effort, then s/he/they should be celebrated for making a bold move and trying to do something different. It should go without saying that the successes also need to be celebrated. Recognition motivates teams to try harder.

Efforts in the opposite direction will have – no surprise – the opposite effect. For example, a lack of recognition for doing well or finger-pointing when there is an error will demotivate teams and start to put restraints on their ability (and desire) to flourish. Powering up 10x teams requires motivation and support so that members can dig deep and unlock their potential. Motivation should be a weekly or monthly focus and not reserved for the one day each year when companies formally recognize their employees, clients or management team. 

Here at InRhythm, we’re encouraging more dialogue between members and practice leaders and added the role of a liaison designed to facilitate open and honest discussion. We’re creating a culture where it’s safe to respectfully voice an opinion and to try new things that could make a difference for our clients. It’s also about accountability. If a team member come forward and voices a concern or a need that does not get addressed with an effort towards closed-loop communication, that member’s potential becomes thwarted. 

Have you made 2020 all about your team’s potential? Are you subconsciously thwarting it or actively boosting it? Be the practice leader that helps teams thrive – not just survive.