An automated tester posts a blog which got loads of “likes” and comments from Managers. One example comment was “what a well-written and informative blog”.
I read it, then read it again, then read it again. I’m so confused.
He begins by explaining how they are testing an API using Postman and have a collection of tests that they need to check-in to source control. Fair enough.
Then they say how it’s a tedious process where each team member needs to download the files, try them out, then mail the developer/tester who wrote the tests with their comments, then the process repeats.
I’m thinking “what sort of crazy process is this? This is what Source Control and the Code Review process were invented for”. You have side-by-side comparisons (“current file” to “changed file”) so you can see what they have changed. You can write comments directly alongside the code for them to read and make changes.
I must be missing something.
Then he explains that they needed to decide where to save their files. The Postman software encouraged them to store the files in Postman’s cloud service. “No, we aren’t gonna do that!” he writes as if it is some kind of security risk to save your files online. Instead, he is gonna save them online in GitHub. I send him a message about it, and he admits that I’m right, it’s just that he felt Github was more secure.
My loyal readers will be thinking “Hang on, haven’t you come across this scenario before?”. Oh yeah, here it is: GitHub Actions Are Secure. Yet another staff member chatting nonsense to sound good to the Managers and hype up GitHub. “We are taking security seriously with our decisions! This software is more secure because I said it is”. Has GitHub hypnotised everyone or something? They must have some propaganda machine. I’m not saying it isn’t secure, but claiming everything else isn’t as secure without evidence is just weird.
He then says how they wrote their own test library in Javascript which slowed them down because you don’t get great autocomplete support in the IDE. I’m thinking “maybe use Typescript”. He then explains that after writing their own library, they discover Jest; the most popular Javascript testing library. Hang on, how did you overlook the most popular testing library?
He then concludes that it is best to:
- Use GitHub for source control
- Take advantage of side-by-side diffs, and publish feedback in this code review process
- Use Jest for Javascript Testing
- Use Typescript to give type-safety and autocomplete support in the IDE
Tell me something I don’t know.
Then managers are drooling over these revelations, even though this is common practice to Javascript developers and probably has been for several years.
I want to know how much time his team has wasted messing about. Surely they didn’t start the project pretending software development had just been invented?
Stranger Coding Tings 