Test Automation and Execution Framework (TAEF)

I know I’d said I was going to do a series of posts explaining how to use TAEF. This is no longer necessary. Documentation for TAEF has been posted on the MSDN. Instead I’ll use this post to explain why TAEF is my favorite testing framework.

TAEF is developed by a team within the Windows org specifically dedicated to improving and standardizing test writing and execution within Windows. While developed by the Windows org, TAEF is also gaining popularity in a lot of different teams across Microsoft.

At this point you may be wondering, why write another testing framework? There are already a number of popular frameworks such as NUnit, MSTest, Boost’s Unit Test Library, etc.

In my opinion, the biggest reason is the flexibility TAEF gives you. TAEF was designed from the ground up to provide consistent programming, execution and features for tests writing in .Net, C++ and scripts. Additionally, it provides a simple interface for building Unit Tests while providing additional capabilities useful in writing end to end tests.

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Site is Back

I just realized my website was down due to a DNS issue. Fortunately, I don’t ever actually use this blog so I doubt anyone was inconvenienced. Most people who came here were looking for MTG Player, and that’s been hosted on CodePlex for over a year.

Anyway, I’m starting to post again for a reason. Recently Microsoft released one of the best testing frameworks there is (TAEF) as part of the Windows 8 DDK Preview. This is the testing framework used by my team and many others at Microsoft. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that they’ve released any documentation yet. I’ll be creating a series of blog posts showing the power and uses of this framework for building both native and managed tests.

No, I really don’t want your software update.

Having every piece of software I install constantly trying to update automatically has long been a pet peeve of mine. I neither need nor care about every minor update to Adobe Reader, WinZip or any of dozens of other apps I use. Did the PDF or Zip formats change drastically? No? Then why do I care about an update?

While I find this annoying, I can see how some people might find it useful. However, I recently encountered a similar issue which was totally baffling. I installed Daemon Tools to mount an ISO. It asked me if I wanted to set the Daemon Tools homepage as my default web browser’s home page.

Who in their right mind would actually want to do this? Do they actually think people love their product so much they want to visit their website every single time they go online?

Software Testing at Microsoft

I’m happy to say I can breathe a huge sigh of relief about my role. I took a position as a Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET). This is Microsoft’s software testing role.

Software tester’s have something of a bad reputation in most of the industry. In many companies they are seen as the guys who couldn’t cut it as developers. They’re often second class citizens.  They aren’t consulted on design, they are far outnumbered and they are seen as an added expense that constantly delays the release of a product.

The SDET role at Microsoft is nothing like that.

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Microsoft Month 1

It’s been a very busy month. I wanted to ramp up as quickly as possible, so I’ve been putting in a ton of extra hours. It’s been hectic, but worth it. I think I’m finally past the worst of the new employee drag.

Surprisingly, it hasn’t been tiring or stressful. I’ve been working on some interesting code which has required me to do a lot of experimentation and research. This is the kind of stuff I do for fun on my own time. To be able to do this and get paid for it is even better.

The upshot is I’ll be resuming work on MTG Player shortly.