5 Slack Bots for Software Development QA
Time-savers, crash updaters, reporting tools, and more.
Slack Foundry Bot
This tool really jump-started my dive into Slack integrations, teaching me how to:
- Connect my favorite tools
- Set up bots to send direct messages
- Set up notifications when certain keywords are mentioned (for instance, mine are “testing” and “QA”)
After you connect the bot from the Slack App Directory, I recommend starting off in the Working in Slack Tutorial to help find the pathway best suited to you.
GitHub Bot
I don’t think anything is more frustrating to developers than bugs being reported on features that aren’t complete or test-ready.
That’s where GitHub bot helps. When I’m getting ready to put a fresh build on a test device to do exploratory testing or validate finished tickets, I check my bot to see what’s been recently committed to the repository (and to make sure my build is on the latest).
Crashlytics Crash Report Bot
Staying up-to-speed on live app vitals can get cumbersome, and crashes can happen around the clock and globally. It’s just impractical to schedule a set time each day to comb through Crashlytics.
If you want high-level crash updates in real time, in one central location, this botdoes just that. Out of the box, each crash report post will show you:
- Headline: the number of times the crash has occurred and line in the call stack that is throwing the exception
- Platform: iOS or Android
- Bundle identifier (ID): your app’s ID
You can set up a specific channel in Slack for your app’s Crashlytics bots to post real-time crash reports. I recommend creating a new Slack user to set these up, so you’re not receiving a ton of notifications every time the bots post to the channel.
Under the hood, these are custom web hooks, and the setup is pretty straightforward. This excerpt from Fabric’s documentation will help you understand how it works.
Bugsee Bug Reporting Bot
Bugseeis a crash and bug reporting tool used in production to trigger in-app reports, and it’s easily one of my biggest time-savers. The reports describe defects encountered while running through features as they’re delivered, and while performing exploratory tests.
How many times have you encountered a bug, gotten distracted, then forgotten what you did to get there … or the commit you were on when you witnessed it? Bugsee defines itself as a “flight recorder” with call stacks, network info, logs, repro video of the device, user interactions, and more.
I don’t want to burden a team with extraneous tasks on top of their workload. Rather than have folks check in everytime they report a crash, I set up Bugsee to send event-triggered messages in Slack. Those messages funnel into specific channels based on the events selected from the Integrations view in Bugsee’s dashboard.
Meekan Scheduling Bot
This one isn’t directly related to QA, per se, but you’ll thank me for it later!
Google calendar can get messy. That’s why I use Meekan for a daily rundown of what’s going on every morning. It alerts me when I have any calendar conflicts, and allows me to accept and decline meeting invitations.
If I’m part of a conversation in Slack that inspires a meeting to flesh things out, I don’t want to jump out of my discussion to open up a browser, so I start a chat with Meekan. Meekan can find out when folks are available, add a meeting location, then get it on my Google Calendar in a matter of seconds.
Meekan’s bot homepage has a nice cheat sheet of commands, including:
Meekan when are @ethan and @maya free next Monday?
Meekan schedule lunch with @john and @amy
Meekan, how busy am I tomorrow?
Meekan, how busy am I tomorrow?
Meekan, schedule an all-hands meeting tomorrow afternoon with john, dan and ron at the blue office, duration 15 minutes
Meekan schedule “Project launch” November 23 5pm, duration: 2 hours with myfriend@gmail.com at Starbucks, description “Bring your own laptop”
Garrett Glick is Small Planet’s Director of QA. He’s spent time as a public speaker for war-affected youth, a teacher in South Korea, and a volunteer in Jamaica (picking up Korean and Patois along the way). He’s a fish shell command line enthusiast, and he’s a drummer inspired (or warped?) by Max Roach and Ginger Baker.
