Issue 164

COMMENT

Welcome to the 164th issue!

Recently, someone came up with an idea to ask this openly on Reddit:

Let's share our salaries to see and compare if we are being paid the fair value.

With 200+ comments, it's quite a good reference point across several geos.

Happy testing! 🙂

PS. There was a similar QA Salary Survey 2022 on Reddit back in December.

NEWS

5 Tips for a Great Post-incident Review

Some incidents are unavoidable, and the best we can do is analyse and learn from them. Sam Cooper gives some advice on that.

That's also why Maciej Rojek tells us to remember The Importance of Observability in Software Testing.

Creating Explanations: The Ethos of Testing

Jeff Nyman takes us on an intriguing, philosophical journey trying to capture what testing is really about.

Similarly, Paul Seaman explains why communication is important for testers and how they can get better at it. Why? Because you asked.

Six months without a tester

There are some really interesting insights from Maxilect on an experiment of running a team without a tester, including examples of situations they needed to handle.

Supporting Testers: A Structural Approach

"Parachuting in a person from the test discipline and expecting them to slot into established processes which were made without their role in mind simply won't work."

Meg MacKay explains what team members can do to empower testers in their teams.

In relation to that, Grace Icay shares some honest Reflections Of An Ex-Software Developer, including the misconceptions about testers.

The Test Consultant's Guide to Starting a New Project

In yet another solid article, Meg MacKay shares a few pieces of advice on what testers should do when entering a new project.

Moreover, Dmytro Stekanov advises you to Study what you test.

AUTOMATION

How do you get maximum benefit from code reviews?

Code reviews are an important quality gate. Beth Clarke gives a few tips on how to make the best out of it.

Improper use of Timeouts and Test Flakiness

Venkatesh-Prasad Ranganath shares his learnings on fixing flaky tests on the Android platform by tweaking timeouts — a solution that can also be applied in other test automation solutions.

SOLID principle examples in Test Automation solutions

By using a lot of examples, Kostiantyn Teltov wrote a comprehensive overview of each of the SOLID principles in test automation.

Welcome To The Test Automation Illusion

Paul Grizzaffi uses a song lyrics metaphor to articulate why we should be cautious with test automation goals.

Microservice Isolation with Test Scaffolding for Functional Automation

Dan Snell shares a great example of how a good design of microservices architecture can influence testability.

Furthermore, Rahul Bhave shares some Best Practices for Test Automation Architecture in Microservices Testing.

TOOLS

5 Must-Know Cypress Testing Strategies for Software Engineers

Do you use Cypress to write automated tests? Earl Lacsamana has some good practices to share.

And if you focus on API testing, Oscar Cepeda wrote a helpful Guide to start with Cypress API Testing.

API Testing with Karate Framework

Burcu Akkaya describes how to set up, implement tests and generate reports with Karate — an open-source API testing tool.

However, Daniel Delimata suggests that Karate is a tool which pretends BDD but in fact is against BDD principles.

Note: If you can't access the full article, simply open it in a private tab.

Can people give me the reasons why most QAs are using Playwright/Selenium/Cypress over low-code tools like Testim/Mabl/TestSigma etc?

Someone on Reddit is wondering what makes people use full-code over low-code solutions to write automated tests. There are some interesting answers.

Complete Beginner Guide: Automation Testing With Java and Cucumber

If you're curious about using Cucumber with Java to write Behaviour-Driven Development tests, check out this getting-started guide by Darmawan Hadiprasetyo.

Exploring Selenium BiDi Functionality: A Guide with Java Examples

If you haven't heard of the Selenium BiDirectional feature yet, here's a great overview with examples by Sławomir Radzymiński.

Trying Node.js Test Runner

Node has recently released a new node:test runner and here's an in-depth overview of its features by Gleb Bahmutov.

BOOKS

Useful books on testing, automation and engineering

If you're looking for some books on software testing, Oleksandr Romanov describes his personal selection.

VIDEOS

Surprising Truth About What a QA Lead Does

In this 7-minute video, Pramod Dutta shares honest examples of what it takes to be a QA Lead based on his experience.

Testing Pyramid Makes Little Sense, What We Can Use Instead

This is a great discussion between Roman Sandler and Gleb Bahmutov on the test pyramid and other test strategy options.

AND...

Testing in production... and again! 😂

Thanks for reading!

If you like this newsletter and it helps you become a better tester, you can say thanks and buy me a coffee.

Issue 164 April 16th 2023