Issue 184

COMMENT

Welcome to the 184th issue!

Out of all the topics that testers find interesting, this one usually gets the most attention:

While we can see this question popping up every now and then, that Reddit thread has exploded, reaching more than 200 comments from testers around the world.

So if you're curious about how your salary compares, that's a good reference.

Happy testing! 🙂

NEWS

Deduplicating software bugs with Machine Learning at Google

"How a little problem became a multimillion dollar problem at Google scale."

Here's an interesting story by Carlos Arguelles, Babu Prasad and Vidhi Gupta about optimising the system of automatic bug reporting.

How can you organize your tasks as a lone QA among 17 developers?

While there's no perfect ratio of devs to testers, sometimes you may be overwhelmed by the number of things to do. Here's one example by someone on Reddit, followed by some advice from the community on what to do.

And if you're a lead, Michael Colley shared 11 Essential Strategies that Every Tech Lead Needs for Balancing Code Quality and Deadlines.

How screwed is everyone looking for a QA job?

Quite a few testers seem frustrated by the current state of the job market. You can find different opinions, insights and advice in this Reddit thread among nearly 80 comments.

That even leads some people to question their role: I wonder why some testers want to move out of testing?.

Testers, Look Past the User's Lens!

This is a great reminder by Rahul Verma to go beyond the common perspective and incorporate other techniques in your day-to-day testing.

A great complimentary read to that is Jason Arbon's article about Testing: Uniquely Human.

The Swiss Cheese Model for Quality Engineering

Imran Qureshi describes how having several different quality gates put up one after another can help prevent and find bugs.

AUTOMATION

5 Ways to Make Your End-To-End Tests More Stable

Test stability and lack of flakiness are some of the most desired outcomes of test automation. Dennis Martinez gives a few solid tips on achieving that.

Jetpack Compose Android Testing — Beyond the Basics

If you want to understand how UI testing on Android works, this is a detailed, full-of-example overview by Gary Chang.

Mastering Application Testing: Best Practices for Effective Test Writing

Damilare Arikeusola explains in a simple way how to use different approaches to properly design your tests.

The Rise of Automation — Are Quality Engineers Becoming More Like Developers?

It's a valid concern that sparked yet another big and insightful discussion on Reddit, with some honest opinions shared here and there.

TOOLS

5 Snapshot Testing Tools for Android

If you're looking for visual testing solutions for Android (also known as snapshot or screenshot testing), Stephan Petzl describes a few tools for the job.

Furthermore, Sergio Sastre Florez explains how to future-proof your library choice by implementing Cross-Library screenshot tests on Android.

AssertJ vs JUnit 5's Assertions + Chekhov's Gun Principle

If you test in Java, you'll enjoy this thorough comparison of doing assertions with AssertJ and JUnit5 by MSlaski.

Mastering Cypress: A Comprehensive Collection of Blogs and Cheat Sheets

Anshita Bhasin shares a collection of helpful articles and resources that can help you learn more about Cypress.

Additionally, Zhimin Zhan has recently written about the Cons of Component Testing with Cypress.

Selenium — Visual Regression Testing

If you don't want to rely on third-party solutions for visual testing, here's a step-by-step guide by Minhazul Billah to building one yourself with Selenium.

And if you're curious about Handling common Selenium Exceptions effectively, Yuvraj Vardhan wrote a helpful overview.

Validating JSON Schema with Playwright

Testing APIs with Playwright? Butch Mayhew explains how to build a solution to validate if your JSON schema is correct.

Furthermore, Amr Salem wrote a decent guide to Managing Database Integration With Playwright.

What's new in Selenium Manager 0.4.12, shipped with Selenium 4.12.0

Following a similar update for Chrome, Selenium has recently made some improvements to managing the Firefox browser. Boni García describes the changes in detail.

Okay, but what does it mean in practice? Naveen Khunteta recorded a great 30-minute overview: Latest Selenium 4.12.0 with Latest Selenium Manager 0.4.12.

BOOKS

The 2023 Readers Guide to "How We Test Software at Microsoft"

Fifteen years after publishing the How We Test Software At Microsoft book, Alan Page reflects on what still applies today.

VIDEOS

Open Source Test Automation Tools in 2023

Daniel Knott recorded a thorough 26-minute overview of some of the most popular open-source tools for test automation.

AND...

Agile... 😂

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 184 September 3rd 2023