The Unknown Power of Chaos Testing & Observability

The Unknown Power of Chaos Testing & Observability

August 20, 2024

Welcome to the test automation zone expert talk!

In this episode, host Tobias talks with the ambitious software testing expert Yusuf Tayman!

Yusuf loves bugs, because fixing bugs allows you to build better things!

He speaks about the unknown power of chaos testing and his passion for observability!

A topic you haven't heard nearly enough about!

Compared to the extensive discussions on AI in testing, chaos engineering and observability in software testing are hardly discussed, even though they're so practical that you could start using them today.

Chaos Testing is a preventive measure that, by deliberately and controlled introducing of disruptions into a system, contributes to increasing its resilience against unexpected events.

Here are two examples:

  1. Netflix's Chaos Monkey: This tool randomly terminates instances in Netflix's production environment to test the system's resilience. It helps ensure that the system can sustain itself and continue operations even when individual components fail.
  2. Gremlin's Failure Injection: Gremlin provides a platform where users can simulate different types of outages and system failures. This includes injecting latency into network communications or consuming all available memory, helping teams to understand how their systems behave under adverse conditions and how they recover.

It is the total reality: in real life, on real projects, for real problems, with real customers!

Here's what you can expect in this episode:

The two hosts start by introducing why chaos engineering is so underrated.

The episode is packed with quotes and metaphors from Yusuf that simplify and illustrate the potential of chaos engineering and observability:

It starts with Murphy's Law: "Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong at the worst possible time," which Yusuf uses to justify the need for chaos engineering in the testing pipeline.

Yusuf then demonstrates how the chaos approach shouldn't be applied independently and explains why it is best paired with observability.

But don't confuse observability with monitoring! For this topic he quotes Sherlock Holmes, saying, "You see, but you do not observe", leading us right to the second quote! 😉

Yusuf uses another metaphor to show how you can truly understand the big picture of your application and how he would start from scratch with chaos engineering and observability.

Towards the end, Tobias asks how to handle a common excuse from some testers who say they can't do chaos engineering because their test environment is different from their production environment.

Episode Highlights:

  • What is chaos engineering?
  • Why the chaos approach is so important that you should integrate it into the testing pipeline
  • The tools you need for the chaos approach
  • How does observability differ from monitoring?
  • Why you don't see the big picture of an app when you only monitor specific areas
  • How Yusuf would start with the chaos approach and observability from scratch
  • When Yusuf recommends involving other teams like DevOps and Security

"Start with chaos engineering and then go to observability!"

The Expert:

Yusuf Tayman

Lead QA Engineer at OpenPayd

First and foremost, he loves bugs because fixing them leads to better products. By guiding people and pointing out their errors, he contributes to a better future and world. Finding bugs is part of his job, and he enjoys it because it improves platforms everywhere.

At university, he had to choose between developing and guiding others to find and fix issues. He chose to be a QA because he felt more suited to it, marking the start of his career.

He then focused on enhancing the quality of the platform he worked on by highlighting errors and automating more processes. It was no longer just about his efforts but also the systems they developed to improve efficiency.

His real passion emerged after starting this job; observing and understanding became his focus.

Observability turned into a passion, and he looks forward to his long journey ahead, filled with problems to solve and much to learn.

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