My presentation from the Agile 2013 conference called “ 7 Deadly Sins of Agile Software Test Automation” is available on Slideshare.

Adrian Smith was unfortunately unable to join me to present this extended version of the talk that he has presented previously at Agile Australia and Fusion.

Automated software testing is a key enabler for teams wanting to build high quality software that can be progressively enhanced and continuously released. To ensure development practices are sustainable, automated testing must be treated as a first-class citizen and not all approaches are created equal. Some approaches can accumulate technical debt, cause duplication of effort and even team dysfunctions.

The seven deadly sins of automated software testing are a set of common anti-patterns that have been found to erode the value of automated testing resulting in long term maintenance issues and ultimately affecting the ability of development teams to respond to change and continuously deliver.

Taking the classic seven sins (Gluttony, Sloth, Lust, Envy, Rage, Pride, Greed) as they might be applied to test automation we will discuss how to identify each automated sin and more importantly provide guidance on recommended solutions and how to avoid them in the first place.

A full house for the talk, some really positive feedback and heaps of questions following the talk, so thanks to everyone who attended!

And here are the comments from the feedback cards that were handed in and nothing negative!:

• Great speaker, am so glad I came here
• Excellent slides, pictures
• Very humorous – kept me awake!
• Super content, gave me some great ideas to take back to my workplace. THANKYOU!
• Great analogy, good tips / info
• By far, the absolute best QA session I have attended this week. I wish my entire company could have heard this presentation. It was engaging, meaningful and practical information that I can take directly back to my colleagues. Well done!
• Very good session, got a lot out of it – got some good direction, fun presentation
• Best session I have attended! Great speaker delivering the content in a very entertaining manner
• Excellent session! Craig is a great speaker, content was SO good! Nice I can go get preso and link to templates and materials
• Pragmatic testing!! 🙂
• Enjoyed the session, this will make me look for other opportunities (tools) for automation testing
• Great speaker! Although new to testing sessions, I gained good insight from this session to put into use back at the business! 🙂
• This was the most insightful and best talk I’ve attended thus far
• Excellent session