This week's articles have been so good and so thought-provoking that any of my efforts to add anything on top of that felt somewhat redundant. I did, however, write some meaty descriptions for your convenience — so I'll just let you dive right into the news.

Have a great weekend! 😊

Dawid Dylowicz  

What is Software Testing

Sounds like a trivial question, right? Not so much, as it turns out! In a series of three articles, Alan Richardson is trying to find the universal definition of software testing. It's a tremendous effort and, in my opinion, it really helps to understand more about the nature of software testing.

Additionally, Elias Nogueira came up with his definition of testing by comparing it to... cooking!

eviltester.com  

Cost of Delay vs Cost of Poor Quality

I enjoyed following Duncan Nisbet's logical reasoning on deciding what is "cheaper": the cost of delaying or the cost of delivering poor quality — a choice that many projects face. While the answer doesn't come easy, his effort has already added a lot of value to the discussion.

duncannisbet.co.uk  

Focusing on Product Acceptance

Jeff Nyman never fails to deliver a comprehensive article and it is no different this time. This guide on acceptance testing is spot-on and we all can learn from that!

testerstories.com  

My Testing Career Cheatsheet

I loved Sam Connelly's idea of creating a testing career cheatsheet! It's a solid point of reference and includes plenty of links to great resources in a very concise and readable format.

PS. Rumours say that 6.5. is Software Testing Weekly. 👀

bughuntersam.com  

Testing Native and Hybrid Mobile Apps — What’s the Difference?

In this insightful top-down overview, Andrew Tyshchenko explains in-depth the difference between native and hybrid mobile apps and what testing approach can be applied to each.

medium.com  

Automation — what bugs me

Please note carefully that the automation cannot decide between “bug” and “not a bug”, a human (or humans) do this.

Paul Seaman made a fair point on what automation can and cannot do in testing. A good reminder that it's not a cure for everything!

beaglesays.blog  

From 'A' to 'Web App': Test an API in Java

This is a really good and thorough article by Rob O'Leary on testing API in Java from the developer's perspective. Both developers and testers will find a lot of insights in the reasoning behind the testing strategy, many references to external sources and plenty of code examples.

dev.to  

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love TDD

One of the best reads I had on Test-Driven Development recently. And yet, there's no single line of code in this article. Instead, Michael Salaverry focuses on nailing down what makes coding either great or dreadful in relation to tests, in order to find the common reasons for failing at TDD. Brilliant!

dev.to  

Full Guide: Introducing The Web Automation Initiative to Your Organization and Team

This is a very thoughtful and extensive guide on planning test automation by Peter Perlepes. What I value the most about is the high level of detail and taking into consideration multiple scenarios that many can relate to. Really valuable!

dev.to  

Ultimate Testing Library

I think it's about time to feature this gem (not that kind of gem, you Rubyist!). This is, by far, the most universal testing library that ever existed for web development. Be it React or Angular, Cypress or TestCafe, or any other JavaScript framework — it supports them all. Kudos to Kent C. Dodds for creating and maintaining it.

And if you want to see it in action, João Forja prepared 12 recipes for testing React applications using the library. Great job!

testing-library.com  

Testers of reddit: Come and share your favourite test tools/utilities! v2.0

People sharing their favourite testing tools, 2020 edition. This has been inspired by the original thread from six years ago. While there are not as many replies as to the previous one, it's already interesting to see how the toolkit has progressed since then!

reddit.com  

3 accessibility testing tools for Android

If you want to check whether your Android app is compliant with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), you may want to read Doug Stevenson's review of three tools from Google, Microsoft and Deque Systems that can help you test for accessibility. It's cool to see that you can use an app to test another app!

medium.com  

WWDC 2020: Write tests to fail

I always find videos from Apple's WWDC insightful and it's no different during this year's event. What makes me happy is that they never forget about testing. Here's a good reminder from Kelly Keenan about the proper way to write all levels of tests in Xcode.

apple.com  

Software Engineer's lullaby... 😂