Software Testing Classes: Everything You Need to Know

Technology is ever-evolving, driven by the human brain (and now also AI) and never ceasing to come up with new methodologies, practices and ideas for developing and using it better. Therefore, continuous education and ongoing training are an important part of any modern worker's day-to-day, and software or performance testers are no exception. As new testing tools and practices emerge, testers should expand their knowledge to ensure they can continue to effectively and professionally test and improve system performance. In addition, by committing to learning, testers can also ensure they remain relevant in their field while advancing their careers.

Consider this your starter guide to continuous training and education as a performance and software tester.

JMeter Load Testing Tutorials

The cornerstone of software testing is open source JMeter. Therefore, the first step of learning software testing should include a number of JMeter load testing tutorials.

• Start with the basics, covering what JMeter is and building your first script.
• Then, choose a JMeter load testing tutorial with advanced use cases that shows how to use more complex components, like the stepping thread group, or a JMeter load testing tutorial that covers plugins, scripting languages, and troubleshooting.
• The third phase of learning JMeter focuses on how JMeter can be integrated with other tools. These could include a JMeter load testing tutorial about JMeter and open source Taurus or a JMeter load testing tutorial with BlazeMeter.

JMeter load testing tutorials come in the form of blogs or videos. So choose your favorite format and dive into learning JMeter load testing at your own pace and convenience. With the right JMeter load testing tutorial resources, you can quickly gain the knowledge and skills you need to become an expert JMeter tester.

Learning Testing Frameworks

Once you have a firm grasp of JMeter, it’s time to move on to learning how to use additional testing frameworks for software testing. There are multiple testing frameworks that cover various use cases, so it’s important to understand which one can cater to your needs.

• If you are looking for another testing framework for load testing on top of JMeter, you can learn how to use open source Taurus. Taurus simplifies the use of multiple load testing solutions.
• For browser automation and cross-browser testing, learn about the Selenium testing framework. Selenium is a very popular test automation tool. It has multiple advanced capabilities, so be sure to cover both the basics and advanced use cases of this open source testing framework. An additional browser automation testing framework that is extremely popular and worth learning about is Cypress.
• For automating the testing of mobile applications, learn about the Appium testing framework.
• Finally, to test your Flutter mobile apps, learn how to integrate Flutter with the Perfecto testing framework.

How to Use BlazeMeter for Performance Testing

BlazeMeter is the leading performance testing and continuous testing platform. Therefore, learning how to use BlazeMeter for performance testing is essential for any tester, developer, and organization that wants to ensure its applications are reliable, robust and provide their users with the best user experience. BlazeMeter is also easy to use and understand, so learning how to use BlazeMeter for performance testing will be a breeze.

• Start with the basics and learn how to use BlazeMeter for performance testing with a course that covers all the features and capabilities BlazeMeter has to offer.
• Then, move on to test automation. One of the advantages of using BlazeMeter is the ability to automate your tests, so when you’re diving into how to use BlazeMeter for performance testing, be sure to learn how to transform your manual test cases into automation-friendly ones, how to modularize tests, and how to integrate tests with CI/CD and version control, at scale.
• What happens after a release, when your APIs are not performing as expected? You can learn how to use BlazeMeter for performance testing for API monitoring needs. BlazeMeter also offers an advanced course about how to use BlazeMeter for performance testing with API monitoring that covers dynamic test data variables.
• Scriptless testing is a powerful BlazeMeter capability that enables automating your GUI tests, without having to master Selenium. There are both basic and advanced features to BlazeMeter scriptless testing, and they are both an essential component of learning how to use BlazeMeter for performance testing.
• If you have third-parties or backend components you cannot control, then you will need to use mocking services. Don’t skip the course about how to use BlazeMeter for performance testing with mocking services, both fundamental and advanced cases. If you need to refresh your memory on what mock services are and when to use them, add that to your curriculum when learning how to use BlazeMeter for performance testing.
• Let’s dive into some specific use cases. If you need to test on your own infrastructure rather than in the cloud, learn how to use BlazeMeter for performance testing or functional testing on private locations.
• Another common use case is mainframe testing. You can see how to use BlazeMeter for performance testing with the RTE plugin to cover that requirement.
• Using Citrix? BlazeMeter can be used with the JMeter Citrix plugin to test Citrix apps. See how to use BlazeMeter for performance testing with Citrix.
• Finally, the Agile Requirements Designer (ARD) is a tool for testing coverage and optimization. See how to use BlazeMeter for performance testing with ARD.

Whatever your testing need is, learning how to use BlazeMeter for performance testing, from the basics all the way to advanced edge use cases, will help you ensure software reliability and code quality, end-to-end.

Test Data Lessons

As you dive into running your own software and performance tests, you will discover the need for test data - data used in the testing process to simulate production-like conditions.

• First, it’s important to understand the value of test data, how to generate it and how test data can be used to augment your performance tests.
• Then, move on to advanced test data use cases and to features that enhance the use of the data, like test data pro. Test data pro automatically identifies hard-coded data in scripts and generates more test data of the same type and for edge cases. It also enables controlling the probabilistic distribution of randomly generated values.
• Finally, for advanced users, we recommend learning about test data orchestration that explains how to prepare the data in the test environment.
• Test data lessons also cover additional types of needs, like how to generate test data for GUI functional testing and for mobile tests.