I am a big fan of patterns and feel that ability to identify pattern is extremely useful for us testers. Patterns can be used in manual testing and automation both. In the following presentation, I will try to explain what are patterns, why patterns should be used in software testing and a nice tool we build utilizing the power of patterns.

Most of the patterns will have two main characteristics – they are repeatable and predictable. This repeatability and predictability is not limited to just development (as in design patterns), but can be used equally well in software testing. You can find a patterns in how testing is perceived by a specific manager and brace yourself to work (or argue) in a certain manner. You can find pattern in your own observation and figure out what sort of things you miss mostly. Probably there is a pattern in most of the things we come across – in type of bugs we find, how we approach automation and so on.

Now most of the time this all pattern matching happens in the background and we do not work hard to recognize it – we just call it as gut feeling. We act on our gut feeling, which is probably a pattern we did not recognize. But why it is important to recognize and call it pattern instead? Well I need to thank Michael Bolton for provoking me to think in terms of pattern during a conversation on twitter. Gut feelings are very much internal, they work but they work only for you. Also it’s a bit difficult to explain gut feeling to someone else. Pattern on the other hand – can be told, taught and people can extend it and improve it. Patterns probably have potential to become heuristic which can be used by other people.

Applicability of patterns is relevant in software testing, but for web testing its extremely useful. We have similar architecture, similar problems, similar approach to testing and automation and similar issues in automation.

While thinking about the patterns in web application testing, I realized that there are always certain types of checks (and tests as well) we do during automation – for almost every web application and web page. Some time we remember to do those checks and sometimes, unfortunately we forget. There was certainly a pattern – and an opportunity to build a tool to check these little but extremely important things - on all the websites and applications.

ICheckWebsite is a web based tool to check and monitor your web application. I’ll let you explore this on your own and write about it some other time.