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I am few weeks behind as I took a break but here's my review of May 2021.
Zoopla Work
This month, I was part of a new team focused on pipeline improvements work as I mentioned on my last monthly review. We were divided into two streams, pipeline and testing. I worked with our Quality Engineering team to refactor the Cypress tests that were written in the past, moved some of the tests to unit level or visual tests instead, deleted redundant tests and simplified the tagging feature. We've reduced the time overall and have contributed to pipelines being faster and much more stable.
I have also been taking part in a few interview processes, mainly shadowing on the initial screen call and technical interview plus reviewing technical tasks. The great news is we managed to hire one more QE which leaves us with one more open role. If anyone knows a strong mobile focused QE who is looking for a change, get in touch 🙂
I'm continuously providing my quality expertise to my product team as we try to deliver a new address service that will be used by Zoopla's property detail page initially. I led a brainstorming session to understand how our consumer will use our service and also did some investigative work on how we can integrate Contract Testing to the API service that we are building. I've also assisted in doing the career planning for my direct reports so they are all clear what goals they want to achieve by the end of this year.
With lockdown easing... I still haven't visited the office! 😅
Cypress Workshop
I did my first official Cypress workshop this month. This was a great opportunity and allowed me to share my Cypress knowledge to different engineers. The workshop was divided into two parts, beginner and intermediate. On the beginner session, I shared how to setup Cypress from scratch, basic Cypress commands to get you started on your first test, running Cypress on the command line and via the visual test runner, an introduction on how to use their selector playground and Cypress Studio for recording tests, tips on making the tests stable such as waiting for network calls, resetting the test data before running tests and how to control or network calls so you can mock or spy them.
In the intermediate session, I also talked about the same tips on how to make your tests stable as well as controlling network calls. I shared how to integrate Cypress on a CI/CD pipeline, a short introduction to Cypress Dashboard and how it might benefit your team, using various test reporters in Cypress, custom commands and fixtures best practices and an introduction to code coverage.
If you are interested to learn more about Cypress, get in touch with me to see if a workshop might help you and your team.
OmniTesting Conference
This month, I spoke at the OmniTesting conference where I gave a talk about leveraging Cypress beyond functional testing. I specifically talked about visual testing, what things you should consider before picking a visual testing plugin and how you can integrate plugins to Cypress such as cypress-image-snapshot, Percy and Applitools.
You can find the recording below and the slides can be found here: Leveraging Cypress Beyond Functional Testing.
Personal Development
📚 This month, I read Ikigai and Untethered Soul, which are both recommended if you're looking for new books to read. Ikigai talks about this Japanese concept of living a fulfilled life by finding your passion and purpose and enjoying every moment of it. Ikigai is your reason why you get up every morning and do the things you love to do. It also provides valuable insight from centenarian people living in Okinawa on how they have lived a long and happy life. On the other hand, Untethered Soul is more spiritual and deep and definitely requires a second reading! I wouldn't really consider myself a spiritual person but this book was definitely an excellent read!
🎧 I listened to different podcast episodes almost everyday ranging from my usual testing podcasts such as AB Testing, TestGuild Automation, Ministry of Testing, Testing Peers to other types such as Good Inside, Love Life with Matthew Hussey and TED Talks Daily.
💪🏼 Consistently worked out this month again and managed to do a 1000 resistance reps workout (which lasted for more than an hour 😅). I've also signed up to a local boxing gym as I always enjoyed boxing as an exercise which I am planning to start this June. Will update more on my next monthly review how it goes!
May Favourites
While May had some lows due to other personal issues, there's still a lot to be grateful for.
We took Gabby to Hampton Court Palace for a day out.
Had my hair done and got highlights.
Finally, I got my tattoo! I've always wanted to get one so now that shops have reopened, I finally did it! It's based on the design below (mother-daughter love) but I had it placed at the back of my arm instead.
Seeing a few people outside for dinner and drinks.
Covid vaccination booked! 🎉
Gabby's preschool development progress is really good 😊
Jollibee opening their second branch at Leicester Square! 🍗