Welcome to the 245th issue!

The World Quality Report 2024-25 by Capgemini is out.

It contains over 100 pages of insights into the latest trends and state of Quality Engineering in Agile, Automation and, of course, AI.

And if you're interested in a shorter version, Lee Hawkins has once again written a wonderful Review of Capgemini's "World Quality Report 2024-25".

Happy testing! 🙂

Dawid Dylowicz

While shift-left testing is a widely accepted approach, Maxwell Zhou argues it may not be as effective for identifying and addressing security vulnerabilities in APIs.

After two years of wide availability of LLM-based AI, it's a good time to check how testers use them in their day-to-day job.

And if you want to become more effective, Ashwin Palaparthi wrote a handy article: A Tester's Core Skill in Prompt Engineering — The Art of Asking & Questioning.

There's some great advice by Wayne Roseberry on how to improve the software development and testing lifecycle based on their achievements.

Moreover, Kristin Jackvony outlines Five Quality Changes to Make When Your Company Grows.

Arkadius Wellyam emphasises the importance of clearly defining roles and responsibilities in testing among developers and testers.

In relation to that, Paul Seaman advises on Building in Quality: Start with Problem Analysis.

Cassandra H. Leung describes the differences between both roles, categorising testing as an activity and quality engineering as a mission.

Moreover, Josh Grant shares his thoughts on why Testing Specialists Shouldn't Advocate for the Customer.

What does it take to properly test APIs? Rajesh Vinayagam shared a comprehensive guide with examples of several different tests and techniques, including AI.

Furthermore, Gabriele Pavanello wrote a good, detailed article about the importance of Preconditions — The Hidden Hero of Test Automation.

Sanjeev Kumar thoroughly explains using the Open-Closed SOLID principle in test automation with examples.

Also, Rajesh Sharma points out why it's worth going Beyond Traditional POM: A Simple User Flow-Centric Model for Effortless Test Automation.

How do you use the test pyramid in practice? Kostiantyn Teltov demonstrates tweaking it to your needs.

Similarly, Gil Zilberfeld explores different types of tests in an article titled What's In The Box?.

Testing plays a crucial part in continuous delivery. Nurdan Turan visualises and describes five possible approaches to it.

And if you're struggling to debug your failing tests on CI, Ákos Osvald has some tips on Leveling Up Your Tests: The Accountability Factor.

Sander van Beek outlines a progression of test automation skills from nothing to being able to create custom tools, including advice on how to progress to each level. Which one are you at?

Stuart Dewar gives a decent overview of the Karate open-source test framework that enables API, performance and UI test automation.

If your load tests require authentication, Mahtab Nejad shows how to solve that challenge using Playwright and k6.

There are many handy tools and browser extensions for reporting bugs in web apps. Karan Dhanwani gives an overview of Jam which has an unlimited free version.

Speaking of browser tools, Yulia Shaifele outlines four features for Speeding Up Development and Testing with DevTools.

It's a good question — and a good explanation — especially if you face a similar challenge of testing WebSockets as Andrey Enin does.

Parallelisation is a must-have in advanced test automation. Rohan Ojha shows an alternative way of achieving that for Selenium tests in Java.

Moreover, Mehmet Alatas describes the relatively new feature — WebDriver BiDi: A New Era in Browser Automation.

The AI technology is improving rapidly and we're getting to a stage where it's able to control a computer. So naturally, it raises questions about whether it can start testing by itself. In this 5-minute video, Karthik K.K gives a short overview of the Claude 3.5 Sonnet model capabilities.

Why...?! 🤣

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