Software Testing News – Issue 468: The First Step

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What's been happening in the testing, QA and quality engineering community? Let's go! 🚛

Accessibility

Rosie Sherry created an important collection. It features advice from Ady Stokes, Scott Kenyon, Louise Gibbs, Kim Arnett and more! The community's guide to accessibility testing.

Automation

Nithin needs help getting started with automation. Where should they start?
Follow another testing trend! You'll have heard testers worry about a lack of automation skills, but how widespread is this concern? I Feel Inadequate Without Test Automation Skills. 📊
How might you reimagine the testing pyramid as a scenic ascent to quality? Lana Begunova describes how.
Using the Robot Framework, you've established an automation layer for your API testing. How do you build on that foundation for web UI and mobile app testing?

Community

Last week was Leeds Testing Atelier — a brilliant in-person two-track conference organised by friends of MoT, Ash Winter, Gwen Diagram, Alyssa Burlton and more. It was great to have the community gather in person. Recordings will be up on their YouTube soon.
Linzi Carlin introduced us to dealing with difficult people on software projects. 😃
Bug congratulations and thank you to all The Testing Planet Episode 2 contributors: Veerle Verhagen, Lisa Crispin, Ash Winter, Rosie Sherry, Rahul Parwal, Joyz Ng, Bill Matthews and Jenna Charlton. Recordings will soon be available on the MoT site for all our professional members. 🪐
Have you ever attended a software testing meetup in real life? The results are fascinating! It's also good to know that in-person meetups are making a comeback. Check out seven MoT meetups!
Lisi Hocke spoke at an internal event run by Parveen Khan. It's a good reminder to look for speakers to speak at your work events. And if you're new to public speaking, this is a great way to build your public speaking experience.
Alex Schladebeck chats with Marie Cruz and Nicole van der Hoeven about her journey from being a tester to CEO.
It feels good to welcome new folks on the Q2 introductions thread. Could you introduce – or reintroduce – yourself? 🤝

Strategy

Uncover how the transferable skills cultivated in healthcare can lead to success in software quality and testing roles. From Radiotherapy To Quality Assurance: How A Healthcare Background Bolsters QA Excellence by Cristina Carrageis. 🩻
Lisa Crispin recommends the DevOps Research and Assessment (DORA) State of DevOps surveys and guide.
Jitesh Gosai explores how software systems fail by reviewing Dr Richard Cook's 18 characteristics of complex system failure applied to software.

AI in Testing

During The Testing Planet Episode Two, Rahul Parwal shared the Prompt Engineering Guide and a Prompting Checklist for Testers, which he created with Joyz Ng. Super handy!
Folks are still joining 30 Days of AI in Testing, such as Ujjwal Kumar Singh. It's never too late to join and take the challenge.
Developer Advocate Rizel Scarlett shared how to make AI coding assistants more effective and efficient. 5 Strategies for Better Results from an AI Code Assistant by Lorraine Lawson.
The 7 Best AI Custom GPTs Every Web Developer Needs by Pinjari Rehan.
From Brighton to Vermont, and across the North of England, these global correspondents share insights, poll results, and community feedback on the adoption, challenges, and potential of AI in testing. 🕵️

Tooling & Frameworks

Apache Spark - What does going from 2.4 to 3.5 get you? by Steve Conway and Mike Morgan.
I enjoyed reading the saga of WebDriver by Neelam Pal. 😃

Practice Testing

Can you help? Richard Hinton is looking for challenge sites for bug finding. 🐞
"A is for ANOTHER BUG!" The MoT software testing glossary is taking shape. What could you add?

New to Testing

What skills does a fresher need to get an interview for the first time? asks Marilena Ch.
What's Your Salary Expectation Interview Question by The Test Lead, Juss Bailey.

Blogging

Are you unsure what to blog about? Alexander Schnapper reminds us to check The Club threads to seek inspiration. You could always do the same to help you write for MoT. ✍️