There are many software development blogs out there, but many of them don’t publish testing articles on a regular basis.

Also, I have noticed that some software developers don’t read blogs written by software testers.

That is a shame because I think that we can learn a lot from them.

That is why I decided to create a newsletter that shares the best testing articles which I found during the last week.

Let’s get started.

Technical Stuff

Easy API simulation with Hoverfly JUnit Rule describes how you can create a REST service that always returns the configured response. This is a very useful post that helps you to write automated tests for code that invokes external REST APIs.

Introduction to JUnit Theories provides a quick introduction to JUnit theories. JUnit theories are a bit like parameterized tests, and they are often used for testing code that implements mathematical or scientific theories. If you haven’t heard of JUnit theories, you should do yourself a favor and read this blog post.

Parameterized Integration Tests With Spring JUnit Rules describes how you can configure your integration tests by using the Spring JUnit rules and replace the SpringJUnit4ClassRunner with the JUnitParamsRunner. After you have done this, you can write parameterized integration tests for your Spring applications. This is a really cool post because it helps you to solve problems caused by the fact that JUnit allows you to use only test runner per test class.

Using the TestNG ITestContext to create smarter REST Assured tests describes how you can get an OAuth2 access token from the Paypal sandbox API, store the received access token to the TestNG ITestContext, and use the stored access token in your API tests that are written by using REST Assured. This well-written article describes everything you need to to know in order to leverage this technique in your own API tests.

The Really Valuable Stuff

Ego, Apathy, and Test Cases is an excellent blog post that explains why using detailed test plans is not a good idea. The thing is that people aren’t good at doing boring work. They get bored and do the bare minimum (mainly because they don’t want any problems). If you have ever executed scripted tests, you know that it is very boring and it’s extremely hard to stay concentrated. Does this sound like recipe for success to you?

Information, and its relationship with testing and checking explains that checking and testing are both valuable, and describes how testing uncovers information that enables checking. In other words, testing helps us to learn something from the tested system, and this might help us to write some automated tests (checks).

Regression Testing Vs Re-testing – Know the Difference explains the difference of regression testing and re-testing. After I read this blog post, I realized that I have used the term regression testing to describe activities that have got nothing to do with regression testing. Why should you care? Well, the thing is that using the wrong term is dangerous because it can cause unnecessary misunderstandings which can cause unnecessary friction.

The Art of Attention to Detail in Exploratory Testing describes how you can do exploratory testing for a video game. This is an interesting topic because it’s not enough that a game is technically perfect. I am a gamer, and I think that a great game must make you forget that you are playing a game. So, how do you test that a game can do this to you? Well, you have to play it and pay attention to the details.

The “Summertime” Bug is an interesting blog post that tells the story of a bug that was found when the author couldn’t enter his birthday to the tested system. This is also a very important blog post because I know that many systems are suffering from bugs that are related to date and time information. It’s not an easy problem to solve, but I also suspect that we are not paying enough attention to it.

It’s Time for Feedback

Because I want to make this newsletter worth your time, I am asking you to help me make it better.

If you have any feedback about this newsletter, share your thoughts on the comment section.

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