Welcome to the 177th issue!

Someone asked this thought-provoking question on Reddit:

If devs test their work and automate tests, why would they still need a QA?

I know companies that invest in a dedicated quality engineering team. I also know companies that are fine without it.

And while it's probably not a single reason for their success or failure, it's definitely interesting to explore why they choose different approaches.

So I really enjoyed going through the different opinions in this thread.

Happy testing! 🙂

PS. You can learn more about how companies test in this wonderful resource — How They Test.

Dawid Dylowicz  

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reflect.run  

Build a Great QA Competency Framework — Part 2

Continuing the great series, this time Robbie Falck explains how to create a progression map for software testers.

At the same time, Jonathon Broughton advises to Embrace the 'Good Enough' Approach in Software Development.

Note: If you can't access the full article, open it in a private tab or another browser.

medium.com  

Defining the role of an SDET

Oliver Martin-Hirsch shares lessons learned from his personal experience of trying to define the Software Development Engineer in Test role.

Speaking of which, Ryan Craven wrote a good article about Decoding the Maze of Software Testing Titles: Essential Variety or Just Overlapping Confusion?.

dunelm.com  

How to Get That Bug Fixed?

So you found a bug and would like to make sure it's prioritised and eventually fixed? Here's some great advice from Lina Zubyte on how to achieve that.

qualitybits.tech  

I'm a quality engineer and I'm not sure how I feel about that

This personal story of Joep Schuurkes's several-month journey at a new company as a Quality Engineer is full of insights and lessons learned. Thanks for opening up!

Furthermore, it relates to Dan Petersen's recent article: Want True Software Quality — Change Your Org Structure.

smallsheds.garden  

"Radically delete tests that are not worth the effort. Always question the purpose."

I found some interesting points on quality engineering and testing strategy in this interview with Sarah Hutchins, hosted by Sandra Parker.

Additionally, Alan Richardson explained the importance of Modelling in Testing and how it can help testers.

medium.com  

Confirmed: Code Coverage Is a Useless Management Metric

Code coverage is one of the most popular metrics used by teams. But this pure number often isn't enough, and it needs more context, as David Rodenas explains.

Similarly, Rafael Miguel highlights the same problem, including The Risks and Limitations of Relying Exclusively on Code Coverage Percentage.

Note: If you can't access the full article, open it in a private tab or another browser.

medium.com  

Do your tests communicate?

I really enjoyed Osher El-Netanany's full-of-advice guide to good design practices in test automation.

On top of that, John Gluck shared helpful 7 Principles for Test Automation.

medium.com  

Testing for Software Platform/Framework Upgrades

Relying on third-party tools and libraries is a common practice. But how do you handle the risk of upgrading to a newer version? Patricia Pinzón Salamanca gives a great overview.

medium.com  

Why BDD sucks in practice

Behaviour-Driven Development is a wonderful concept in theory but has often been misused in practice. That leads many people to conclusions such as this one by Drew Ayling.

medium.com  

The Testing Avengers: Unmasking the Types of Testers

Uncover the world of software testing superheroes! Understanding the different types of software testers will help with leveraging their unique skill sets for better software quality. Read about each type of tester and their bug-busting abilities, strengths, and occasional oversights on TestingPod.

magicpod.com  

Enhancing Selenium WebDriver for Efficient Web Application Testing (Beginner-Friendly Version)

If you're looking for some handy solutions to make Selenium tests even better, have a look at this comprehensive guide by Norbert Wede.

hashnode.dev  

Mastering the Art of Detecting and Handling Flaky Tests in Playwright

Facing unstable Playwright tests? Luc Gagan wrote a super detailed guide with many examples and scenarios on how to analyse, find, and fix them.

It may also help to Test multiple environments locally in Playwright with .env file, as Thara Perera suggests.

And once you have that steady pipeline, Pirasanth Jesugeevegan shows how to Create a Jira issue when a test run fails using Playwright.

ray.run  

Playwright stories: Visual comparisons with Dynamic data

Kostiantyn Teltov shows Playwright's handy feature of writing smart visual tests that ignore part of the screen where the app uses dynamic content.

Speaking of data, Butch Mayhew demonstrates how to Create a DataFactory to Manage Test Data.

medium.com  

Load Testing with Postman and Grafana K6

Lukman Patel explains how to use your existing Postman API tests as an input to load test scenarios in k6.

medium.com  

What is Selenium better at than Cypress?

A simple question that sparked a huge discussion on Reddit. Well worth reading to find out what people think.

For example, Zhimin Zhan recently wrote about Why Raw Selenium Syntax is better than Cypress and Playwright, and he also responded to some Comments on the claims of "7 ways Cypress is different".

Note: If you can't access the full article, open it in a private tab or another browser.

reddit.com  

Testing JavaScript Applications: Chapter 2 — What to test and when?

Abdelrahman Soltan wrote an extensive overview of the second chapter of the Testing JavaScript Applications book, which covers the pros and cons of different kinds of automated tests.

hashnode.dev  

Directory of all Playwright video tutorials

Once again, Luc Gagan delights us with some handy Playwright resources. This time, it's about many videos, such as tutorials, feature overviews, and more.

ray.run  

Tell me you're in QA without telling me... 😂

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