Welcome to the 237th issue!

Today, I want to share with you this big discussion on Reddit:

What are your biggest pain points in QA?

What surprised me is that many testers mentioned (or upvoted) unrealistic expectations, unclear requirements and a lack of shared responsibility for quality.

Why? Because these are not issues with testing per se, but with leadership and collaboration.

If you face similar challenges, it's probably worth raising them with your manager at the next opportunity.

Happy testing!

Dawid Dylowicz

This is a good high-level overview by Summer Weisberg of what steps are needed to create a software quality strategy including metrics, methodologies and processes.

In relation to another post from last week's newsletter, Kandyce Houston shares some good advice on introducing the test-first approach to sprints.

Bug count by itself is a dangerous metric. Kristin Jackvony explains why we should approach it with caution, taking into account different scenarios.

Paul Grizzaffi shares his experience with reducing the number of clicks in a test automation platform and how that relates to user experience.

In relation to that, Ryan Welch points out: Relying on AI for QA? Here's Why You’re Missing the Point.

Dealing with a lot of changing requirements and needing to rewrite test cases? Testers advise what to do in such situation.

It may help to create a Decision Table Testing: Best Practices for Effective Test Design, as Bahadir Kucukuysal explains.

Wondering how to make your automated tests better? Anji Boddupally gives a few handy tips with examples.

Similarly, Chamila Ambahera shares the Best Practices for UI Test Automation Frameworks.

In the third part of the series, Aalap Davjekar explores how AI can enhance testing processes, optimise for better performance and assist with version control. Prompt examples included!

Instead of merely looking at the pass rates, Rafael Miguel advises digging deeper into what tests really tell us when they fail.

Continuing the great series on different approaches to test automation, this time Sander van Beek describes what characterises a multi-team mindset and when it's the most effective.

Wondering what it's like to move from Selenium to Playwright? Niranjan Veluru describes several lessons learned from their journey.

Uros Simic demonstrates the debugging techniques for Cypress tests that can help you investigate the failures.

You might also want to learn from Gleb Bahmutov about Skipping Dependent Cypress Tests On Failure.

One of the biggest limitations of the open-source version of Cypress is that it doesn't support parallelisation. However, there's an easy workaround using CI, as Juraj Šimon shows.

In some scenarios, Playwright tests can be flaky, too. Andrey Enin gives three examples and offers a controversial, but effective solution using timeouts.

Furthermore, Ravi Kiran showcases the Effective Utilization of Playwright Fixtures.

Pa11y is a helpful open-source tool for scanning web apps for accessibility issues. Razvan Vancea wrote a short guide on how to set up and use it.

Moreover, Irfan Mujagić describes Testing Focus Order and Visibility for WCAG Compliance.

Critical thinking is one of the best soft skills that can help testers become more effective and here's a good list of resources on this topic prepared by Balaji Santhanagopalan.

Wondering how to test your API for security? Nikolay Advolodkin invited Bas Dijkstra to tell us more about it.

In this 32-minute video, Karthik K.K explains in detail what Page Object Model is and how to apply it in practice using Selenium with Java as an example.

The series continues with two more recently released recordings on Page Object Model with PageFactory and @FindBy and Page Object Model and custom methods.

Testing with a bias... 😂

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