Testing Art of War
Applying Sun Tzu's Art of War principles to software testing with 10 actionable strategies. Learn how shapelessness, skill-sharpening, and strategic thinking can transform your testing approach.
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Tag: testing thoughts
KraQA meetup testing predictions for 2025
Key insights from the KraQA meetup panel discussion on software testing trends for 2025, covering AI impact, automation, skill development, and emerging industry niches.
Read more: KraQA meetup testing predictions for 2025Steering the Ship: A Comprehensive Guide for Aspiring Test Leaders
A comprehensive guide for aspiring test leaders covering 17 essential tips from mentorship to continuous learning. Learn how to effectively lead testing teams and drive quality.
Read more: Steering the Ship: A Comprehensive Guide for Aspiring Test LeadersThe Comprehensive Guide to Essential Soft Skills for Testers
Master essential soft skills for software testers including emotional intelligence, communication, leadership, and adaptability. A comprehensive guide to professional growth.
Read more: The Comprehensive Guide to Essential Soft Skills for TestersMastering T-Shaped Skills
Learn how to develop T-shaped skills as a software test engineer, combining deep technical expertise with broad knowledge across multiple disciplines for career growth.
Read more: Mastering T-Shaped SkillsMaximizing Your Employability as a Software Engineer in Test
Employability refers to a person's ability to quickly find an attractive job opportunity that matches their skills and qualifications. Recent layoffs in Big Tech companies such as Twitter, Google, and Spotify have highlighted the importance of employability for IT specialists. These layoffs have shown that even highly skilled and experienced professionals can be affected by changes in the industry or company-specific issues. Therefore, it is crucial for IT specialists to be aware of their employability and to take steps to improve it.
Read more: Maximizing Your Employability as a Software Engineer in TestPractical test strategy for Spring & React application
Outlines a practical test strategy for a Spring Boot and React application, covering isolated vs. E2E tests, guidelines for coverage, and specific functional and non-functional testing approaches.
Read more: Practical test strategy for Spring & React applicationOn being multiskilled
Advocates for becoming multiskilled in IT, offering tips like continuous learning, accepting new perspectives, volunteering, varying approaches, perseverance, exploring unknowns, adopting a beginner's mind, and setting realistic expectations.
Read more: On being multiskilledHow to get a first job as a software tester?
Advises those seeking a first software testing job to broaden their search to other IT roles and emphasizes learning programming as the key skill to increase hiring chances across the industry, explaining why junior roles are challenging to fill and linking programming skills to antifragility.
Read more: How to get a first job as a software tester?My road to public speaking + slides from Engineering Productivity talk
Reflects on the author's journey to public speaking, highlighting the roles of blogging, community involvement (KraQA), and teaching experience in overcoming fear, concluding with feedback and slides from an Engineering Productivity talk.
Read more: My road to public speaking + slides from Engineering Productivity talkHow to be a failure as a software tester
A satirical guide offering tongue-in-cheek advice on how to fail as a software tester, covering neglecting personal development, abusing the 'quality guardian' role, avoiding technology, shirking environment responsibility, disrupting team flow, and ignoring the community.
Read more: How to be a failure as a software testerTestOps - the most antifragile testing role
Introduces the concept of antifragility and argues that the 'TestOps' role (strong automation skills across testing, CI/CD, environments) is the most antifragile testing role due to the wide range of career options it enables, recommending programming skills for increased job security.
Read more: TestOps - the most antifragile testing roleHow to use automated functional tests to drive your exploratory, security and performance testing efforts?
Explains how to leverage existing automated functional tests (Selenium, Rest-Assured) by running them through a local proxy (JMeter, Burp, ZAP etc.) to capture traffic, which can then drive security scanning, performance testing, and exploratory testing efforts.
Read more: How to use automated functional tests to drive your exploratory, security and performance testing efforts?What CIA teaches us about productivity
Draws productivity lessons by contrasting tips from the declassified CIA Simple Sabotage manual, advocating for empowered decision-making, failing fast, prioritizing, avoiding useless meetings, continuous improvement, and knowledge sharing, with applications to software testing.
Read more: What CIA teaches us about productivityAutomated testing vs manual testing - security perspective
Compares automated and manual testing in the security context, arguing that while automation (scanners, static analysis) is vital for CI/CD, manual pentesting is crucial for finding complex flaws and addressing social engineering risks, emphasizing their complementary nature.
Read more: Automated testing vs manual testing - security perspectiveLearning Software Testing Checklist - 2017 edition
An updated checklist for software tester skill development, emphasizing Programming, TestOps (CI/CD, networking, virtualization, cloud, IaC), Security/Pentesting, and Coaching/Persuasion as key areas for continuous improvement.
Read more: Learning Software Testing Checklist - 2017 editionSystem traps in software testing
Explores common software testing pitfalls through the lens of systems thinking, applying Donella Meadows' system traps like policy resistance, tragedy of the commons, and drift to low performance.
Read more: System traps in software testingAnniversary post - Five benefits of blogging
Reflecting on one year of blogging, this post highlights five key benefits: encourages reading, boosts job market value, forces deeper understanding, exposes to new topics, and expands professional networks.
Read more: Anniversary post - Five benefits of bloggingArguing Micheal Bolton's 20 statements about testing
Challenges Michael Bolton's 20 statements on testing, arguing against the notion of testers lacking authority and advocating for integrated, empowered testers who share responsibility and credit within the team.
Read more: Arguing Micheal Bolton's 20 statements about testingMapping lean principles to testing
Applies Poppendieck's seven Lean principles to software testing: Eliminate waste (automate smartly, balance costs), Amplify learning, Decide late (BDD, maintainable tests), Deliver fast, Empower the team, Build integrity (perceived & conceptual), See the whole.
Read more: Mapping lean principles to testing(In)famous testers
Discusses the concept of a shared "testing brand" in IT, urging testers to uphold its reputation by improving skills and avoiding complacency, referencing negative perceptions of some ISTQB testers and "bad actors".
Read more: (In)famous testersSystem Testing
Highlights the lack of clear resources on system testing, contrasts the ISTQB definition with a practical view, and examines potential system testing approaches by analyzing Apple job requirements.
Read more: System TestingIdeal tester equals 3.141592..
Discusses the ideal tester role, arguing that both deep technical expertise (T-shaped skills) and strong social/collaboration skills are equally crucial for success, referencing ThoughtWorks articles and Janet Gregory.
Read more: Ideal tester equals 3.141592..Our future as testers
Discusses the future of software testing roles amid automation trends, arguing testers remain crucial due to production bug costs but need to evolve skills in programming, scripting, UX, DevOps, and business domains.
Read more: Our future as testers