Research Design + Statistics Tests

From the first day I sat in my undergraduate “Research Methods” course staring at SPSS output, I knew I found my calling. I can still recall my first research paper. Watching my the completed surveys come in, diligently cleaning the data and crossing my fingers in the hopes of significant results. Despite my results coming back not significant I knew I found my passion.

In spite of engrossing myself in the topic, I found it particularly difficult aligning research design to statistical analysis. As the terminology began to roll-in (ie. t-tests, ANOVA, effect size, IV, MANOVA, ANCOVA, regression, R², etc.) I grew more confused and frustrated. The sheer amount of terminology used in designing experiments, analyzing, and interpreting results can be a daunting reality.

Although to fully describe the in-depth nature of each research design along with the appropriate statistical models we would require a lengthy textbook, I hope to provide a condensed summary. Below is a high-level summary of research design principals and appropriate statistical models used to analyze the data.

Variables

For an experiment to be considered a true experiment there needs to be some manipulation. In other words, we need to impose onto our study participants and measure the effect of that imposition. This is where the independent and dependent variables come into play.

• Independent Variable (IV): The variable which is being actively manipulated by the researcher. Depending on study design, we can have multiple IVs and each IV can have multiple “levels” which participants are subjected to. For example, does the type of teaching style affect students’ test scores? This study’s only IV would be teaching style and it would have 3 unique levels (ie. authoritarian, authoritative, permissive).
• Dependent Variable (DV): The variable which is hypothesized to be affected by the IV. This is also the variable which the research measures to determine what effect, if any, the IV had. In our example, students’ test scores would be the only DV.

Measurement Scales

The cornerstone of any study is the collection and analysis of data. Depending on the study design, hypotheses, and data collection methods we can have four types of quantitative data. Each scale of measurement has distinct properties which determines the use of specific statistical analyses.

#parametric #quantitative-analysis #research-methods #statistical-analysis #anova #data analysis

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Testing Microservices Applications

The shift towards microservices and modular applications makes testing more important and more challenging at the same time. You have to make sure that the microservices running in containers perform well and as intended, but you can no longer rely on conventional testing strategies to get the job done.

This is where new testing approaches are needed. Testing your microservices applications require the right approach, a suitable set of tools, and immense attention to details. This article will guide you through the process of testing your microservices and talk about the challenges you will have to overcome along the way. Let’s get started, shall we?

A Brave New World

Traditionally, testing a monolith application meant configuring a test environment and setting up all of the application components in a way that matched the production environment. It took time to set up the testing environment, and there were a lot of complexities around the process.

Testing also requires the application to run in full. It is not possible to test monolith apps on a per-component basis, mainly because there is usually a base code that ties everything together, and the app is designed to run as a complete app to work properly.

Microservices running in containers offer one particular advantage: universal compatibility. You don’t have to match the testing environment with the deployment architecture exactly, and you can get away with testing individual components rather than the full app in some situations.

Of course, you will have to embrace the new cloud-native approach across the pipeline. Rather than creating critical dependencies between microservices, you need to treat each one as a semi-independent module.

The only monolith or centralized portion of the application is the database, but this too is an easy challenge to overcome. As long as you have a persistent database running on your test environment, you can perform tests at any time.

Keep in mind that there are additional things to focus on when testing microservices.

• Microservices rely on network communications to talk to each other, so network reliability and requirements must be part of the testing.
• Automation and infrastructure elements are now added as codes, and you have to make sure that they also run properly when microservices are pushed through the pipeline
• While containerization is universal, you still have to pay attention to specific dependencies and create a testing strategy that allows for those dependencies to be included

Test containers are the method of choice for many developers. Unlike monolith apps, which lets you use stubs and mocks for testing, microservices need to be tested in test containers. Many CI/CD pipelines actually integrate production microservices as part of the testing process.

Contract Testing as an Approach

As mentioned before, there are many ways to test microservices effectively, but the one approach that developers now use reliably is contract testing. Loosely coupled microservices can be tested in an effective and efficient way using contract testing, mainly because this testing approach focuses on contracts; in other words, it focuses on how components or microservices communicate with each other.

Syntax and semantics construct how components communicate with each other. By defining syntax and semantics in a standardized way and testing microservices based on their ability to generate the right message formats and meet behavioral expectations, you can rest assured knowing that the microservices will behave as intended when deployed.

Ways to Test Microservices

It is easy to fall into the trap of making testing microservices complicated, but there are ways to avoid this problem. Testing microservices doesn’t have to be complicated at all when you have the right strategy in place.

There are several ways to test microservices too, including:

• Unit testing: Which allows developers to test microservices in a granular way. It doesn’t limit testing to individual microservices, but rather allows developers to take a more granular approach such as testing individual features or runtimes.
• Integration testing: Which handles the testing of microservices in an interactive way. Microservices still need to work with each other when they are deployed, and integration testing is a key process in making sure that they do.
• End-to-end testing: Which⁠—as the name suggests⁠—tests microservices as a complete app. This type of testing enables the testing of features, UI, communications, and other components that construct the app.

What’s important to note is the fact that these testing approaches allow for asynchronous testing. After all, asynchronous development is what makes developing microservices very appealing in the first place. By allowing for asynchronous testing, you can also make sure that components or microservices can be updated independently to one another.

#blog #microservices #testing #caylent #contract testing #end-to-end testing #hoverfly #integration testing #microservices #microservices architecture #pact #testing #unit testing #vagrant #vcr

Landscapes Website Design | Nature Landscapes Website Designer

Most landscapers think of their website as an online brochure. In reality of consumers have admitted to judging a company’s credibility based on their web design, making your website a virtual sales rep capable of generating massive amounts of leads and sales. If your website isn’t actively increasing leads and new landscaping contracts, it may be time for a redesign.

DataIT Solutions specializes in landscape website designing that are not only beautiful but also rank well in search engine results and convert your visitors into customers. We’ve specialized in the landscaping industry for over 10 years, and we look at your business from an owner’s perspective.

Why use our Landscapes for your landscape design?

• Superior experience
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• Choice of design layout
• Budget sensitive designs
• Impartial product choice and advice
• Planting and lighting designs

Want to talk about your website?
If you are a gardener or have a gardening company please do not hesitate to contact us for a quote.
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#nature landscapes website design #landscapes website design #website design #website designing #website designer #designer

Software Testing 101: Regression Tests, Unit Tests, Integration Tests

Automation and segregation can help you build better software
If you write automated tests and deliver them to the customer, he can make sure the software is working properly. And, at the end of the day, he paid for it.

Ok. We can segregate or separate the tests according to some criteria. For example, “white box” tests are used to measure the internal quality of the software, in addition to the expected results. They are very useful to know the percentage of lines of code executed, the cyclomatic complexity and several other software metrics. Unit tests are white box tests.

#testing #software testing #regression tests #unit tests #integration tests

How to Do API Testing?

Nowadays API testing is an integral part of testing. There are a lot of tools like postman, insomnia, etc. There are many articles that ask what is API, What is API testing, but the problem is How to do API testing? What I need to validate.

Note: In this article, I am going to use postman assertions for all the examples since it is the most popular tool. But this article is not intended only for the postman tool.

Let’s directly jump to the topic.

Let’s consider you have an API endpoint example http://dzone.com/getuserDetails/{{username}} when you send the get request to that URL it returns the JSON response.

My API endpoint is http://dzone.com/getuserDetails/{{username}}

The response is in JSON format like below

JSON

{
  "jobTitle": "string",
  "userid": "string",
  "phoneNumber": "string",
  "password": "string",
  "email": "user@example.com",
  "firstName": "string",
  "lastName": "string",
  "userName": "string",
  "country": "string",
  "region": "string",
  "city": "string",
  "department": "string",
  "userType": 0
}

In the JSON we can see there are properties and associated values.

Now, For example, if we need details of the user with the username ‘ganeshhegde’ we need to send a **GET **request to **http://dzone.com/getuserDetails/ganeshhegde **

Now there are two scenarios.

1. Valid Usecase: User is available in the database and it returns user details with status code 200

2. Invalid Usecase: User is Unavailable/Invalid user in this case it returns status with code 404 with not found message.

#tutorial #performance #api #test automation #api testing #testing and qa #application programming interface #testing as a service #testing tutorial #api test

Top 10 Automation Testing Tools: 2020 Edition

The demand for delivering quality software faster — or “Quality at Speed” — requires organizations to search for solutions in Agile, continuous integration (CI), and DevOps methodologies. Test automation is an essential part of these aspects. The latest World Quality Report 2018–2019 suggests that test automation is the biggest bottleneck to deliver “Quality at Speed,” as it is an enabler of successful Agile and DevOps adoption.

Test automation cannot be realized without good tools; as they determine how automation is performed and whether the benefits of automation can be delivered. Test automation tools is a crucial component in the DevOps toolchain. The current test automation trends have increased in applying artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) to offer advanced capabilities for test optimization, intelligent test generation, execution, and reporting. It will be worthwhile to understand which tools are best poised to take advantage of these trends.****

#automation-testing #automation-testing-tools #testing #testing-tools #selenium #open-source #test-automation #automated-testing