Issue 297

COMMENT

Welcome to the 297th issue!

Which also happens to be the last one this year.

Have a wonderful holiday season and all the best in 2026!

I'll show up in your inbox again at the beginning of January.

Happy ~~testing~~ resting! 🙂

NEWS

Celebrating Small Wins: Why Every Bug Fixed Matters

While testers' work might sometimes be invisible, Higor Mesquita points out how frequent bug fixes prevent big problems and why they deserve recognition.

In relation to that, Arik Aharoni shares about When Confidence Blinds Us: Lessons from a Simple Typo.

Chasing Predictability

Once again, I value Alan Page's thoughts and advice on leadership in software development and testing. This time, it's about what leads to predictable, confident releases.

Similarly, Bas Dijkstra has an interesting take on doing Less, but better in testing.

From Manual to Measurable: Scaling Quality with Trendyol's Test Maturity Model

Wondering how companies measure their advancement of testing processes? Can Ünaldı describes their approach.

Furthermore, Natalie Rodgers gives insights into the situation where "We Had Zero Testers": How Givebacks Reframed Quality at QSConf.

Guarding Quality From Drift to Discipline

Jeff Nyman shares wise thoughts on the importance of shared practices and habits that help teams sustain software quality over time.

No QA? No Problem!

Or is it? Davor Pavleković describes the recent trend in software teams and the risks associated with moving all testing responsibilities onto developers.

Furthermore, Keith Klain talks about Test as Transformation — AI, Risk, and the Business of Reality.

AUTOMATION

3 Signs of Successful Software Testing Automation

Wondering what separates good test automation from the bad? Dennis Martinez recognised a few patterns that can help you succeed.

Also, Ryan Craven warns against creating The Test Automation Graveyard.

Scaling Test Automation from 50 to 5,000 Tests

Continuing the series on scaling test automation, Peyman Iravani explains the challenges and shares practical code snippets to overcome them.

Moreover, Vidisha Shedge outlines several Key Checkpoints for Starting Test Automation from Scratch.

Test Auto-Healing Is A Red Flag

If you think that AI can solve all flaky test problems for you, here's a bucket of cold water from Gleb Bahmutov explaining how this approach may cover the underlying bugs.

What's more, Oliver Martin-Hirsch points out The Hidden Flaw of AI Automation: Why a Green Pipeline Can Be a Red Flag, while Filip Hric warns: Don't let A.I. read your .env files.

Test Automation Design Patterns

Looking for inspiration on how to structure your tests? Pargev Ghazaryan demonstrates several approaches, each with its own pros and cons.

The Fallacy of Example-Based Testing

Based on his own experience, Eamonn Faherty concluded that a property-based approach in test automation may be more effective than the example-based one in some cases.

Similarly, What if Your Test Data Could Tell Your Framework HOW to Run, Not Just WHAT to Test? Well, here's a good explanation by Sachin Koirala.

TOOLS

Advanced Synchronization with iOS XCUITest

XCUITest is the default test framework provided by Apple to automate UI testing on iOS devices. But like any other framework, it may also run into problems with element synchronisation. Rajesh Doradla advises how to work around that.

Building a Custom API Assertion Library on Top of Playwright

Testing APIs with Playwright? Guna Shekar R has some advice on improving test assertions, as well as leveraging Data-Driven API Testing Using Playwright + JSON/CSV/YAML.

I Reviewed 100 Playwright Test Suites. 90% Were Lying to you

It's a good tip from Sourojit Das on designing tests that focus on verifying outcomes rather than flows.

It may also be worth Turning Your Playwright Traces Into Living Test Documentation, as per Irfan Mujagić's advice.

The AI Efficiency Trap: Why I Built a Tool to Tell Cursor What to Test

If you're using Cursor or another IDE with AI, you may want to check out Noah Goodrich's solution to improving test generation.

I also liked Angie Jones's article on MCP Sampling: When Your Tools Need to Think.

VIDEOS

Mastering Automatability for Test Automation — AMA session

This is a very insightful recording of a 42-minute AMA session by Alan Richardson, exploring topics such as slow UI tests, prioritising testability and the impact of tools.

AND...

Bug delegation... 😂

Thanks for reading!

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Issue 297 December 22nd 2025