Interview: David Burns, author of Selenium 1.0 Testing Tools: Beginner’s Guide book.

David is the author of our recently published
Selenium 1.0 Testing Tools: Beginner’s Guide which helps you test your web applications with multiple browsers using the Selenium Framework to ensure the quality of web applications.

David Burns has worked with Selenium for quite a few years. He is a Selenium Core committer, so he knows and understands what users and developers want from the framework. At present he is a Senior Developer in Test at Mozilla working in the WebQA team.

Packt: Your book is published now. How does it feel to be a published author?

David: It’s quite a nice feeling to have a book published. Having dedicated so much time to write a book, seeing it available on websites like Amazon is a really great feeling!

Packt: What benefits did writing a book bring to your specialist area?

David: It has meant that there is a reference guide for beginners to start with. It is something that has been lacking in the Selenium community for a while.

Packt: Our authors usually have full-time jobs whilst writing for us. Was this the case for you and how did you approach managing your time?

David: I was working full time. I took the approach that if I wrote a little bit every day, either 5 minutes or a few hours, I would always be able to get my chapters in on time.

Packt: Whilst writing your book, did you find that it overshadowed personal life in any way? How did you deal with this?

David: My wife was really supportive during the process and was always spurring me on so I don't feel that it overshadowed my personal life too much.

Packt: Do you have any advice for other authors who may be interested in writing for Packt, but are still unsure?

David: If you can write a book on a topic, do it. I always thought I knew a lot about Selenium but there were areas that I had never touched. Now I feel confident in those areas too, especially when I help others.

Packt: Do you have any tips for other authors, or tricks that you learn't whilst writing, that you'd like to share?

David: Make a manageable schedule and if you have a free moment, write a couple lines or get a tutorial for the book ready. It's these little bits of time that make it a lot easier to write a book.

Packt: How did you find the overall experience of writing your book for Packt?

David: It was a good experience. I had good support from the editors that were working on the book with me.

Packt: During the writing process, did you come across any issues/difficulties that affected your writing and how did you overcome these?

David: I was fortunate that I didn't have any issues when writing my book. I had great support from a number of people.

Packt: Was there anything interesting that happened during the writing of the book?

David: My wife got pregnant just before I started writing the book so I had to spend my time making sure she was comfortable as well as doing my book. I also started working at Mozilla and got great support from my new team!

Packt: How did Packt’s Acquisition Editors help you - what kind of things did they help you with and how did they support you throughout the writing process?

David: Well, they answered all the questions that I had. To be honest, I can’t remember that much of my interaction with them.

Packt: What projects, if any, are you working on at the moment?

David: Working for Mozilla means that I get to work on a number of great projects. I also get to work on Selenium to make sure that we can use it at Mozilla.

Would you like to be an author yourself? >Click here to contact us.