Leapwork’s Post

Testing is often underestimated and takes a risk based approach, legacy automation tools and approaches are hard to maintain and scale. Lastly, with all the big tech companies moving to a forced update model businesses really do need to consider automation to mitigate risk! Good article below!

The recent CrowdStrike incident highlights the vulnerabilities in our digital infrastructure, underscoring the need for comprehensive testing across applications. Channel partners can leverage their trusted advisor status to lead clients into modern testing strategies. Here’s how: 🛠️ Advocate for End-to-End Testing Emphasize the importance of end-to-end testing to ensure seamless integration and functionality across systems. Leapwork’s AI-powered visual test automation platform is ideal for comprehensive testing across various applications, including Microsoft Dynamics 365. 🚀 Promote Automation Benefits Automated testing reduces time and effort, minimizes human error, and ensures consistent results. Leapwork’s no-code platform enables both technical and non-technical users to create and maintain automated tests easily, democratizing the process. 🤝 Highlight Microsoft's Strategic Partnership Leapwork’s strategic partnership with Microsoft ensures seamless integration for Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Power Platform Community customers, enhancing their ability to manage updates and maintain quality. 💸 Demonstrate Quick ROI and Low Maintenance Show how Leapwork offers quick time-to-value and low-maintenance, allowing clients to see fast ROI and reduced operational burdens. 🎯 Offer Tailored Solutions Use your knowledge of clients' needs to offer customized solutions, integrating Leapwork with other enterprise applications to ensure a holistic approach to test automation. 🌟 Support Continuous Innovation Advocate for continuous testing to enable faster release cycles and innovative features without compromising quality or increasing risk. In conclusion, leveraging your role as a trusted advisor to promote modern testing strategies helps safeguard clients against disruptions and positions you as a forward-thinking partner. Leapwork’s robust, user-friendly, and comprehensive test automation platform is pivotal in achieving continuous quality and innovation. For further insights on transforming your testing strategies, read the full article by Leapwork’s CTO, Robert Salesas Martin, in LeadDev (below): #NoCode #TestAutomation #Channel #Partners #Testing

Ship Faster, Break Less: Lessons from the CrowdStrike Incident Ever have a deployment go sideways? It happens to the best of us. But the recent CrowdStrike outage offers valuable learnings to prevent similar incidents in the future. Here are key takeaways to 𝗯𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗳𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 in your releases: - 𝗠𝘂𝗹𝘁𝗶𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗘𝘆𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗖𝗼𝗱𝗲: Four eyes are better than two! Leverage code reviews to catch errors before they hit production. - 𝗢𝘄𝗻 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗖𝗼𝗱𝗲: Don't blindly rely on automated testing. Manually test your changes before merging to identify any integration issues. - 𝗜𝗻𝗽𝘂𝘁 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝘀 𝗞𝗶𝗻𝗴: Don't let unexpected data crash your system. Rigorously test your parsing logic to gracefully handle malformed inputs. - 𝗧𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻-𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗘𝗻𝘃𝗶𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀: There's no substitute for real-world testing. Run your code in a staging environment that mimics production to catch issues before they impact users. 𝗙𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲: How you deploy and update your code matters just as much as how you write it. Here's how to make deployments smoother: - 𝗜𝗻𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗥𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘂𝘁𝘀: Minimize blast radius by gradually rolling out updates to a small percentage of users first. This way, you can identify and fix problems quickly before they become widespread. - 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴: Keep a close eye on system health after deployments. Look for performance regressions or errors that might indicate an issue with the new update. 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗙𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲: Smart design choices can lead to more robust systems: - 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗘𝗿𝗿𝗼𝗿𝘀: Integrate mechanisms into your software to recognize and recover from unexpected situations. - 𝗘𝗺𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗦𝗲𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗨𝗽𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀: Use digital signatures to ensure updates are authentic and haven't been tampered with. - 𝗠𝗲𝗺𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗦𝗮𝗳𝗲𝘁𝘆 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀: Advocate for memory-safe languages like Rust for new projects. This can prevent entire classes of bugs that plague traditional languages. 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗼𝗻 𝗦𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝘀: Sometimes, the simplest steps have the biggest impact: - 𝗔𝘃𝗼𝗶𝗱 𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝗥𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲𝘀: Hold off on critical deployments on Fridays before the weekend. This gives you more time to react and fix issues if something goes wrong. By prioritizing these practices, we can all build stronger, more resilient systems. Let's learn from the CrowdStrike incident and use it as a springboard to improve our development processes.

Remember when the world was brought to its computing knees due to a flawed release from Crowdstrike? As a QA manager it hits very close to home, and I've been reading up on how it happened out of morbid curiosity as much as anything else. Here's my take: Crowdstrike's Preliminary Post Incident Review does not fill me with warm and fuzzies. (links in the replies) They begin saying 'hey we have two types of releases, one is Sensor Content ( . . . ) "All Sensor Content, including Template Types, go through an extensive QA process, which includes automated testing, manual testing, validation and rollout steps."' IOW 'we test this thoroughly.' They go on to say that the outage WAS NOT THIS KIND OF RELEASE. So, why are you describing the thorough steps you take for it, it wasn't followed in the release that caused the outage? The other type of release is "Rapid Response Content" which is the process that caused the outage. Lots of verbiage but seems that these are tested by a suite of automated tools. This means we have code checking code: "the Content Validator that performs validation checks on the content before it is published." "What Happened on July 19, 2024? On July 19, 2024, two additional IPC Template Instances were deployed. Due to a bug in the Content Validator, one of the two Template Instances passed validation despite containing problematic content data." If I read this correctly -- which is hard given the turgid style in which their release is written -- there was no human testing. The program that checks the release had a flaw. Boom, out the door. Why the story of the other type of release that is tested more carefully? You be the judge. Current wisdom is that humans are expensive, automation is cheaper and its repetitive nature rules out human error. But if you get too automated to the point of not knowing if your code is testing properly, you get big problems like the Crowdstrike outage. As the saying goes, "To err is human; to really foul things up requires a computer." — BILL VAUGHAN (1969) If I have oversimplified here, please correct me. #Automation #QA #Softwaretesting #Crowdstrike #BSOD

Those in the #tech industry, here's your wake up call ☎️💤 The world's biggest #IT outage happened to #CrowdStrike. And it could happen to you! The missed step was not prioritizing a strong 🎯 testing strategy. Dive into how critical #testing is for your organization with insights from Mav Turner, Tricentis Chief Product and Strategy Officer and others in the industry.

Those in the #tech industry, here's your wake up call ☎️💤 The world's biggest #IT outage happened to #CrowdStrike. And it could happen to you! The missed step was not prioritizing a strong 🎯 testing strategy. Dive into how critical #testing is for your organization with insights from Mav Turner, Tricentis Chief Product and Strategy Officer and others in the industry.

Those in the #tech industry, here's your wake up call ☎️💤 The world's biggest #IT outage happened to #CrowdStrike. And it could happen to you! The missed step was not prioritizing a strong 🎯 testing strategy. Dive into how critical #testing is for your organization with insights from Mav Turner, Tricentis Chief Product and Strategy Officer and others in the industry.

Those in the #tech industry, here's your wake up call ☎️💤 The world's biggest #IT outage happened to #CrowdStrike. And it could happen to you! The missed step was not prioritizing a strong 🎯 testing strategy. Dive into how critical #testing is for your organization with insights from Mav Turner, Tricentis Chief Product and Strategy Officer and others in the industry.

Those in the #tech industry, here's your wake up call ☎️💤 The world's biggest #IT outage happened to #CrowdStrike. And it could happen to you! The missed step was not prioritizing a strong 🎯 testing strategy. Dive into how critical #testing is for your organization with insights from Mav Turner, Tricentis Chief Product and Strategy Officer and others in the industry.

Those in the #tech industry, here's your wake up call ☎️💤 The world's biggest #IT outage happened to #CrowdStrike. And it could happen to you! The missed step was not prioritizing a strong 🎯 testing strategy. Dive into how critical #testing is for your organization with insights from Mav Turner, Tricentis Chief Product and Strategy Officer and others in the industry.