Issue 288

COMMENT

Welcome to the 288th issue!

A lot of major services were down today.

The reason? An outage of the us-east-1 AWS region.

To me, it's a good reminder to invest in Chaos Engineering to prepare for unexpected system disruptions.

For that, I recommend starting with Awesome Chaos Engineering — a great collection of resources.

Happy ~~testing~~ breaking! 🙂

NEWS

Determinism is Overrated

Building and testing AI apps requires a different approach than other types of software. Jarad DeLorenzo advises how to address the challenges with the non-deterministic behaviour.

Moreover, Keith Klain shares a sobering opinion on the ever-present Software Testing GriftopAI.

Getting paid what you are worth as a software tester

If you want to increase your salary, Mirza Šišić gives tons of tips on positioning yourself for better negotiation and interviews.

From End-to-end to Scalable: An Engineering Technical Test Maturity Model for the Real World

How mature is your testing approach? Toyer Mamoojee showcases the benefits of investing in the more efficient tests on the lower level and advises how to get there.

At the same time, Katja Obring has some good points on Why the Experimenter's Mindset Outlasts Automation in Software Testing.

From Templates to Heuristics: Enhancing Thought Work

Maria Kedemo explains why effective testing depends on understanding and reflection rather than templates, and how heuristics can help with that.

QA Engineer Role Transformation in the Age of AI

If you're thinking about using AI in testing, Yerem Khalatyan points out a few use cases to explore, such as test case generation, automation and execution.

Similarly, someone asked the testing community about AI solutions for Test Case creation and they shared their setups and thoughts.

AUTOMATION

How to Test Asynchronous Processes That Complete Hours Later

Daniel Delimata demonstrates an automated approach to test system outcomes that are only visible after some time.

How We Utilize AI Agents in Our Testing and Quality Processes

This is yet another example of where AI agents can be used for testing practices. Utku Kılınçcı describes four use cases they implemented in their company.

Similarly, Aliaksandr Melnik outlines How we use Claude Agents to automate test coverage with promising results.

If you have 100 pages, do you create 100 Page Objects?

Do you really know what page objects are for? Đinh Công Cảnh offers an interesting thought exercise with advice.

On Unit / Integration / Regression Tests and Terminology

If you worked in testing for some time, you might have noticed that it's easy to misinterpret testing-related terms, such as types of tests. Cassandra H. Leung provides more clarity on that.

TOOLS

10 Tips for Writing Playwright Tests with Cursor

Cursor is a popular AI-powered IDE, which Filip Hric tested out and shared how it works with implementing Playwright tests.

Automating LLM Apps Quality: A Survey of Open-Source Evaluation Tools for CI/CD

Wondering what to use to test AI? Tarek Oraby created a handy list of open-source tools designed for evaluating LLMs.

Cypress Studio: No-Code Test Generation Now Built In

Jennifer Shehane from Cypress has announced that Cypress Studio is now enabled by default and will soon gain AI-powered test suggestions.

Our Journey Through Optimising Cypress End-to-End Tests

If you're looking to improve your Cypress test design, execution speed, or maintenance, Omer Keskinkilic has some practical tips based on their experience.

Understanding Playwright Agents

Last week, I highlighted a significant release of Playwright Agents. Sławomir Radzymiński created a great deep dive into how they actually work.

Also, Kailash Pathak did a detailed investigation to demonstrate How AI-Powered Playwright Agents Fit into the Traditional STLC.

VIDEOS

How to Use Browser Developer Tools

The developer tools in browsers such as Chrome or Firefox have always been great for debugging and testing. Daniel Knott recorded an insightful, 17-minute overview of several features that you may find helpful.

Migrating Test Automation Tools and Frameworks

Are you considering migrating to a new test automation tech stack? Alan Richardson shares some good advice on what to take into account.

AND...

First day at Amazon... 😅

Thanks for reading!

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Issue 288 October 21st 2025