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Hello there! 👋
Welcome to the 126th edition of Software Testing Notes, a weekly newsletter featuring must-read content on Software Testing. I hope this week has been good for you so far.
I have lots of interesting reads for you this week. Let me know by replying to this email which one your favourite is!
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📚 Testing
A Beginner's Guide to Exploratory Testing Without Automation by Ish Mishra
Automation can never be a substitution for exploratory testing. Ish Mishra has written an very good article explaining various frameworks used in exploratory testing that helps testers uncover defects, enhance testing coverage and improve the quality of software applications.
Test Planning: A Comprehensive Guide for Success by Hannah Son
Test planning is a key component for facilitating a successful testing. Hannah Son discusses the importance of a comprehensive test plan in successful software testing and highlights key components of a test plan such as scope, out of scope, timeline, resource allocation, tools, environment, deliverables, exit criteria, and defect management.
Quality Engineering Basics: Quality Metrics by Brienna Ransom
This article by Brienna Ransom conveys the importance of metrics in evaluating a product's quality state and make data-driven decisions in software development and testing processes.
The one with Dangerous Advice on E2E tests by Justas Laužadis
There are many nuances and misconceptions when we talk about end to end testing. Justas Laužadis discusses the complexities and of end-to-end (E2E) testing highlighting common and offering insights on best practices.
How to Involve Developers in Exploratory Testing by Callum Akehurst-Ryan
Good communication and collaboration between testers and developers can enhance your software testing experience to a great extent. This post by Callum Akehurst-Ryan discusses strategies for involving developers in exploratory testing to ensure thorough testing and quality software delivery.
Think Like A Tester And Use Simple Questions To Test Requirements by Wayne Roseberry
What can you do to identify issues early in the development process? Wayne Roseberry suggest wearing a testing cap 🧢 and using techniques such as asking simple questions, structuring requirements effectively, and raising issues based on potential failures help improve the quality of the product.
Navigating the Tempest: QA in the Age of Hyper-Driven Development by Dennis Nyawira
While tools like Cypress, Playwright, and Selenium are great at what they do, it's very important to choose tools based on project needs rather than trends. As Dennis Nyawira suggests, human expertise and intuition is paramount for delivering high-quality software.
🔍 More Software Testing
⚙️ Automation
8 Ways To Retry: Finding Flaky Tests by Tomas Fernández
Suffering from a flaky tests? Tomas Fernández has written an very detailed article on how to automate retries for failed tests and manage flaky tests effectively. The article discusses various options like Jest for JavaScript/TypeScript, RSpec-Retry for Ruby, Pytest-Retry for Python, Surefire for Java, NexTest for Rust, PHPUnit for PHP, and ExUnit for Elixir, among others.
Testing gRPC #4: How to E2E test a gRPC service by Gaurav Singh
This is a 4th installment in the series of how to test gRPC requests. In this article, Gaurav Singh discusses writing end to end API tests for a gRPC API using a live service.
Snapshot Testing Libraries for Android: Paparazzi vs Shot by Fajar Febriyan
Fajar Febriyan compares Paparazzi and Shot libraries to see how they have different methods and produce different results.
560% Faster UI Tests: A Case Study by Nikolay Advolodkin
Efficient use of Selenium commands is crucial for faster, more reliable automated UI tests, improving overall development efficiency.
Really nice insights by Nikolay Advolodkin on a case study that demonstrated a 560% speed improvement by optimizing a test with 157 Selenium commands to only 9, reducing execution time from 95 to 17 seconds.
A Beginner's Guide to Using FlaUI for Windows Desktop App Automation by Irfan Mujagić
FlaUI is a beginner-friendly desktop automation tool designed for Windows, offering simplicity and robust features tailored to desktop applications.
This guide by Irfan Mujagić covers FlaUI's installation process, basic scripting concepts, and practical examples, empowering users to automate Windows desktop apps efficiently.
Test different screen and window sizes
The Android team has published some more official guidance on testing.
Testing AI – How to Run The Llama 2 Large Language Model Locally by Stuart Thomas
This article by Stuart Thomas discusses the use of AI tools like ChatGPT, Bard, and Co-pilot in software testing, focusing on testing AI/Large Language Models (LLMs) themselves.
Stuart Thomas shares his experience with Ollama for running Llama 2, providing a step-by-step guide for setting up Llama 2 and preparing the environment for running LLMs on both Windows and Ubuntu using WSL.
Optimize App Performance By Mastering Stability in Jetpack Compose by Jaewoong Eum
Jaewoong E. guides you through the fundamental concept of stability in Jetpack Compose, and offers strategies for effective management.
Opening a new area of research: The intersection between TDD and test smells, where are we and where are we going to? by Marabesi Matheus
Marabesi Matheus delves into the intersection of Test-Driven Development (TDD) practice and test smells, building upon previous research in the field. It highlights the gap between TDD principles and the presence of test smells in codebases with unit tests.
Top Free Automation Tools for Testing Desktop Applications (2024) by Joe Colantonio
This is a really useful article by Joe Colantonio compiling insights from over a decade of interviews with tool creators, presenting an updated list of the top 17 free automation testing tools for desktop applications in 2024, complete with their key features, pros, and cons.
🔍 More Test Automation
💨 Performance
Unlock the Power of Continuous Performance Engineering by Joe Colantonio
Another great article by Joe Colantonio, this is a comprehensive guide discussing the importance of Performance Engineering in today's software development landscape, emphasizing the detrimental effects of slow applications on user experience, revenue, and brand reputation.
Testing LLMs for Performance with Service Mocking by Ken Ahrens
This guide by Ken Ahrens explores the challenges of testing Large Language Models (LLMs), focusing on performance metrics such as latency and throughput.
Database Performance Testing using JMeter tool by Pavithradevi C
In this article, Pavithradevi C shows how to perform Database performance testing using the JMeter tool.
🔍 More Performance Testing
🌞 Accessibility
How to test 3.3.8 Accessible Authentication (Minimum) by James Edwards
How do you test for accessibility with keeping cognitive impairments in mind. This guideline addresses cognitive function tests in user authentication, requiring either alternative methods or mechanisms to assist users who may struggle with such tests due to cognitive impairments.
🔍 More Accessibility Testing
🔒 Security
Preventing SQL Injection with Golang by Wiliam V. Joaquim
Lack of ORM usage in Go can be a bottleneck in migrating SQL injection vulnerability. Wiliam V. Joaquim shows how we can mitigate SQL injection by using prepared statements, parameterized queries, or validating inputs before executing database operations.
Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) by Hussain
Learn everything there is to know about XSS vulnerabilities and types of XSS attacks. Hussain provides hands-on guidance for exploiting and understanding XSS through practical labs and community resources.
🔍 More Security Testing
🛠️ Resources & Tools
Hero — A headless web browser built for scraping, powered by Chrome and can emulate any modern browser without being blocked.
Domain Digger — Enter a URL to get details on any domain, including DNS, WHOIS, certificates, and list of available subdomains.
SMTP Debug — A unique 3-in-1 SMTP debugging tool to find out and resolve possible issues with SMTP connections with a basic SMTP test, SMTP proxy, or SMTP blackhole.
autoheal — An experimental AutoGPT CLI tool that automatically fixes your tests, providing GPT-powered test-driven development.
📝 List of Software Testers
It's hard to find good articles, podcasts on Software Testing. Even hard to find people who create them. Are you also looking for amazing software testers to follow or read their content ? check out this page dedicated to software testers.
Do you also create content around Software Testing ? Submit yours here and I will add it to the list.
🎁 Bonus Content
📌 OTHER INTERESTING STUFF
- Leadership requires taking some risk.
- The Dunning-Kruger Effect
- 7 job interview phrases you should never use
⭐ LAST WEEK'S MOST READ
- It is better if we build quality into the product instead of trying to test quality in by Mike Harris
- 15 Steps To Write A Test Case by Daniel Knott
- Why Testing APIs Is Complex by Gil Zilberfeld
😂 And Finally,
Most hilarious explanation of Technical Terms 😂
📨 Send Me Your Articles, Tutorials, Tools!
Wrote something? Send links via Direct Message on Twitter @thetestingkit (details here). If you have any suggestions for improvement or corrections, feel free to reply to this email.
Thanks to everyone for subscribing and reading!
Happy Testing!
Pritesh(@priteshusdadiya)
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