Issue 175

COMMENT

Welcome to the 175th issue!

I believe that as testers, we're in a primary position to highlight risks.

So I couldn't be more excited to discover Risk-First — a fantastic set of guidelines on approaching risk in software development.

Huge thanks to Rob Moffat for putting this together (and to John Gluck for helping me find out about it).

Happy testing! 🙂

NEWS

Automation Engineers vs Developers: The Need for Balanced Hiring

Ryan Craven highlights the trend of testers increasingly focusing on automation rather than other testing skills, and presents its implications.

On that note, Raneesh Choudhary wrote an excellent LinkedIn post explaining why Automation isn't everything.

Don't Overthink Test Cases

This is a great reminder by Jesper Ottosen that we should focus on testing the right things in the right amount over spending too much time on detailed test cases.

Strategy House of QA leader

How to set the vision as a QA Lead? Dmytro Stekanov suggests some good practices, values and principles.

Testing The Customer Experience

Customer experience is one of the key factors of perceived quality. Dan Petersen explains how marketing practices can help testers influence that.

What should be the path forward for a Senior QA Engineer with 8+ years of experience?

There's some great advice in this thread about where to go after reaching the Senior level as a tester.

You may also want to check out Ryan Peterman's article on Finding Staff-Level Scope, based on his experience at Instagram.

AUTOMATION

10 Tips to Reduce Test Automation Execution Times

One of the constant battles in test automation is reducing test execution time. Here are some good tips by Joe Colantonio.

Furthermore, John Gluck gives a few solid suggestions on leveraging Technical concepts for automated testers.

A Comprehensive Guide to Testing Django Applications

If you're wondering about the approach and strategy for testing Django-based apps in Python, Atharva Shah wrote an excellent guide.

API Automation over the Web Automation

Anshita Bhasin lists a few reasons why testing the backend via APIs might be a better strategy than frontend testing.

Managing iOS Tests at Scale: A Symphony

This is a great, detailed overview of the way Atakan Karslı and his colleagues approach testing iOS apps at scale.

Moreover, Nubar Nalbandian wrote a decent article on Finding Memory Leaks in Mobile Apps (Part 2: Automation).

Writing tests that actually test

Jahdunsin Osho shows examples and gives some solid advice on writing tests that provide value.

Also, Venkat Ramakrishnan is asking about Automation Testing: Are you doing the right thing?.

TOOLS

Debugging Playwright Tests

If you want to benefit from Playwright's functionality for test inspection, Mustafa Mašetić wrote a handy guide.

It may also help to Create custom expects in Playwright, as Sergei Gapanovich explains.

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

How to Implement Chaos Testing for Your Backend Services Using k6

Cuong Le wrote a super comprehensive guide to implementing chaos engineering tests and practices using k6.

Similarly, Yusuf Tayman also described how to get started with Chaos as an Art: Fault Injection in Grafana k6.

How to Use WebDriverWait in Selenium Java: A Step-by-Step Tutorial

Using the right waiting approach is crucial to successful Selenium tests. Kshitij Sharma shows and describes a few examples.

What's more, Alper Yiğit demonstrates How to Use Soft Assertions with Selenium.

Playwright vs Cypress: Why QA Wolf Chose Modern Tools Over a Larger Community

If you wonder how Playwright and Cypress differ in terms of architecture and functionality, here's a good overview by John Gluck.

However, Zhimin Zhan shares his thoughts on Why Raw Selenium Syntax is Better than Cypress and Playwright.

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

Systematic Exploratory Testing With YATTIE

Rahul Parwal describes YATTIE — an all-in-one open-source tool that helps you run exploratory testing sessions.

VIDEOS

Code Red: The Business Impact of Code Quality

This is an inspiring 50-minute talk by Adam Tornhill on the importance of code quality and tackling technical debt.

AND...

"Your build failed..." 😅

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 175 June 30th 2023