Manual testing to automatic testing A formal training programme for testers at Bands 3 to 7

Triage exercise for Band 3 and Band 4

Evidence 13 for Band 3, Band 4 quality assurance, and Band 4 test engineering: triage of 3 failures in an existing pipeline. You do not need to change the pipeline.

Time: about 4 hours, in the breakouts in hours 200.5–215.5, with the mentor.

Set-up (mentor)

The mentor prepares an existing pipeline, either the team's own or a copy of practice-repo/.github/workflows/ci.yml, with three pull requests that each fail in a different way:

Pull request Planted failure Kind
A Changes the fixture page's expected text in a page object so a real assertion fails Test defect
B Points the base URL at a host that does not exist, using FIXTURE_BASE_URL Environment problem
C Changes a kata's code so it returns the wrong answer, with its unit test unchanged Product defect

If the team has real recent failures, use those instead. Real is better than planted.

Steps (learner)

For each failed pull request:

  1. Open the pipeline run. Find the step that failed.
  2. Read the log. Copy the short error message.
  3. Download the test-results artifact. Read the JUnit report, and open the screenshot and page source for each failed browser test.
  4. Use the triage template to decide the kind: product defect, test defect, or environment problem.
  5. Write what you would do next, and who you would tell.
  6. Explain your decision to the mentor.

Band 4 test engineering: for the test defect, also fix the test, push the fix, and show the pipeline go green.

What good looks like

  • Each failure has the right kind, with a reason based on evidence, not a guess.
  • The product defect is raised as a clear defect report, with steps, data, and the screenshot and page source.
  • Nothing is "fixed" by re-running until it passes.

Track notes

  • Band 3 (with support): the mentor may navigate the CI tool with you. You make the triage decision.
  • Band 4 quality assurance (with support): navigate the CI tool yourself, with the mentor alongside.
  • Band 4 test engineering (with support): as Band 4 quality assurance, plus fix the test defect.

View this document on GitHub materials/modules/module-13-continuous-integration/triage-exercise.md