Welcome to the 49th issue!

Great news, State of Testing Survey 2021 is back!

It's the best opportunity to get to know what's going on in software testing and where we're heading in 2021 and beyond.

But that's possible only thanks to our contributions.

So please spare a coffee break and take the survey.

Honestly, I can't wait to see the results — especially after such a twisted year we had.

And if you're curious about the previous one, here's my short analysis that I shared back in April.

Happy testing!

Dawid Dylowicz  

Creating a test strategy using questions

Questions are one of the most powerful tools that software testers have, so why not use them to create a test strategy? Just like Diogo Nunes did in this great mind-map-based concept. Well done!

diogonunes.com  

How to Test a Web Product Manually

This is a detailed guide to manual web testing. I find it especially valuable because it's not coming from a tester but a project manager — Alice Jang — who shows us a product-oriented point of view.

maddevs.io  

The Best Software QA and Testing Conferences of 2021

Next year is just behind the corner and there's a bunch of conferences planned already. Here's a month-by-month overview by Linda Rosencrance.

techbeacon.com  

The Rise of TestOps

I like how simply Jason Arbon described the TestOps concept based on the following three principles that align well with the modern approach to software testing.

medium.com  

Should You Hunt for That Bug?

Missed a bug just like your sock went missing after the laundry? Kristin Jackvony explains two options that you have now: chase it or leave it for later.

And also, should every bug be reviewed to see if more tests are required?

thinkingtester.com  

10 Portfolio Projects for Aspiring Automation

Angie Jones put together this useful list of projects you can use to practice any type of test automation: web, mobile, visual, API, performance and more!

applitools.com  

How to optimize test automation in your web applications?

A great step-by-step guide with examples by Marcin Basiakowski on how to choose the optimal strategy for test automation.

tsh.io  

No End to "End to End Tests"

Sophia Amin shares a journey of web app automation she went through when choosing a new test strategy, migrating to a new test framework and explaining what role end-to-end tests play in it now.

Speaking of which, here's Tyler Hawkins' take on when (not) to write end-to-end tests.

shipt.tech  

Run Postman collections using Newman and Python

Balasundar shows a cool way of running Postman API collection with Python and generating a test report that's automatically sent straight to your inbox. Neat!

balasundar.com  

Deep-dive into GraphQL in JMeter

Ready for some performance testing of GraphQL APIs? NaveenKumar Namachivayam demonstrates with examples of how you can do in the recently-released JMeter 5.4.

qainsights.com  

Open Source Automated Visual Testing

Here Michael Mintz explains how to perform automated visual testing of a web app using an open-source tool SeleniumBase.

dev.to  

"Calling Bullsh*t"

While it’s not a book specifically about software testing, there are some excellent takeaways for testers as I’ll point to in the following review of the book. This book is a must read for software testers in my opinion.

Lee Hawkins gives a detailed review of an interesting book called Calling Bullshit: The Art of Skepticism in a Data-Driven World.

wordpress.com  

Working at Amazon and Audible — QA Engineering Podcast with Tanya Kravtsov

This is an insightful interview with Tanya Kravtsov — Senior Director of QA at Amazon and Audible — on how it is to work there in QA Engineering.

youtube.com  

When bugs go wrong... 😂