Welcome to the 192nd issue!

Here's one article I particularly enjoyed reading this week:

How WhatsApp tests software.

It's a detailed description of the first-hand experience of Gaurav Singh.

We can learn a lot about the practices, solutions and tooling they use to test such important software at scale.

Enjoy the read! 🙂

Dawid Dylowicz

In this extensive analysis, Jeff Nyman dives deep into how we can make AI testing more human-like.

Alex Markevich breaks down the responsibilities of the SDET role and explains how it differs from purely development and testing roles.

An important part of the tester's role is communicating clearly — often via written documentation. Here's some good advice from Hal Deranek on how to do it well.

Ravisuriya Eswara explains how you can measure mobile app performance on many levels, depending on the context and the app's purpose.

The end product quality is often influenced by the practices and culture of the team. Susana Perez gives some advice on what to focus on.

Moreover, Beth Clarke shares a way of Deming and DevOps: Continuously improving how your team operates.

Test automation isn't trivial. So you may want to learn from Rahul Parwal about the common mistakes to avoid when implementing it.

On that note, Jayateerth Katti adds his two cents on What I Do When Automated Scripts Fail.

Shelly Goldblit demonstrates a custom-built test framework for web apps that made automation easier to extend and maintain.

It may also be relevant to listen to Mike Harris's reasoning for Why I don't record automated tests.

Gleb Bahmutov emphasises the importance of data-testid attributes in web components and shows how a handy Cypress extension can help you get feedback on element coverage.

Test flakiness isn't only caused by bad test design. Sometimes, the unstable environment plays its role, too. Here are some tips from the Reddit community on what to do in such case.

I may also help to Write tests that withstand storms and quakes, as Veera explains with examples.

Stefan Judis asks about the purpose of testing to explain why API testing on its own is just part of the success of most strategies and why UI testing and monitoring are equally important.

Ryan Craven has some good points on why chasing full code coverage with tests is not always the best goal and what can be done instead.

Also, a good question: Does TDD (Test-Driven Development) slow down development speed?

If you're curious how API testing with GUI tools compares to purely code-based solutions, here's a great overview by Nikita Belkovskiy.

Furthermore, Amr Salem shares some Tips & Tricks: Intuitive API Testing With Playwright.

Ryan W. wrote a solid overview of what screenshot testing on Android is, what tools are currently available, and what is coming up next in Android Studio.

NaveenKumar Namachivayam has done another great review of an open-source performance testing tool. This time, it's about Vegeta.

Someone asked the community about the necessity of a test case management tool, and people gave some insightful answers with different opinions and approaches.

By using an interesting story and examples, Roberto Santalla shows how the xk6-disruptor extension for k6 can help with finding and reproducing issues with your infrastructure.

Debugging flaky tests... 😂

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.

Dawid Dylowicz