• Some time ago I ran into a requirement to track E2E code coverage. At first, I made a false assumption that the author was referring to requirements coverage or some other coverage metric tied to all the documented test cases. But after discussing it with the author, he redirected me to Istanbul and some other code coverage tools that can be added as plugins to track UI testing code coverage or even manual testing code coverage (probably, I need to write a separate piece about that).
    The point is - revisiting code coverage, its metrics, and usage led to several fruitful discussions and made me think not only about that, but wider - about other White-box testing techniques. By that time, I found myself in the middle of November, and noticed December approaching, so the idea to collect 24 ideas for exploring White-box Testing, and compose an Advent Calendar out of them popped up quite naturally.

  • Something to try out! One of the most known initiatives related to Advent in the IT world is Advent of Code. Multiple websites suggest assisting you in waiting for Christmas with various coding challenges opening them one by one each day until Christmas. What a gamified way to bring some more joy to our Decembers (and maybe learn something new along the way).
    • Advent of Code. As far as I understand, this one is the original website that started all of that first (back in 2015!)
    • Advent of JavaScript. An alternative one with JS and CSS.
    • AdventJS. This one is my favorite one based on UX and interactive unit testing. Not sure, if they will do another round for 2023, but last year it was nice!

  • Advent itself is all about waiting. And when I think about waiting it reminds me of test automation as waiting is a very important aspect to do correctly in test automation. I truly believe that a lot of test automation problems can be resolved by building a deep understanding and (not always, but a lot of times) by implementing a proper waiting mechanism. Similarly, not understanding what is happening and how to wait fully can cause problems. Therefore, the start of Advent felt like a good time to share some thoughts about Waiting in Test Automation.

  • I cannot talk about everyone, but another thing that bugs me in December is some kind of need to retrospect - to review how the year went and to start thinking of how to improve going into the next. And, when I think about retrospectives, the first name that comes to my mind is Chris Stone, who was sharing some interesting and creative templates for your themed retrospectives, including:
    • Tinder retro
    • Harry Potter retro
    • The Queen retro
    • Friends retro
    • and many more…
  • All in all, Advent Calendar, really? Themed retrospectives? In my experience (not including the retros with the beers in the bar) Dixit-based retro was one of the most successful ones and made some people speak I have never heard speaking like that before. Sometimes, gamification does wonders, and we just need to find some creative ways to gamify some tasks or routines for better outcomes or higher involvement. Do you have your own story about how a little gamification surprised you? Let me know.