Welcome to the next issue of "Testing Guidewire & Beyond", your go-to resource for insights and best practices in Guidewire InsuranceSuite quality assurance. I'm thrilled to continue our journey of exploration and improvement in insurance software testing.
?? What I've Been Reading and Watching
Since our last issue, I've come across some fascinating content that I'd like to share with you:
Test Automation & Tools
- Playwright 1.51 was released. Watch a quick review around new features presented by Debbie O'Brien.
- "How to Write Breakable Tests for Unbreakable Code" Reut delivers a refreshing perspective on effective testing by emphasizing that quality tests should intentionally break when code logic changes, offering six practical tips including validating test breakability, avoiding negative assertions, guarding against accommodating setups, writing precise assertions, using descriptive test names, and recognizing when not to test static configurations.
- "A Tale of Two Languages" Gil Zilberfeld shows the critical distinction between technical and domain languages in test automation, demonstrating how replacing Playwright's mechanical terminology like "click" and "fill" with business-oriented abstractions transforms confusing technical tests into clear, meaningful stories that communicate purpose rather than just mechanics—making tests more maintainable and understandable even to non-technical reviewers.
- "Building a Scalable Test Automation Framework" Toufique Ikbal provides an architectural blueprint for sustainable test automation by introducing five crucial design patterns that transform brittle test frameworks into modular, maintainable systems capable of withstanding major application changes without requiring complete rewrites.
- "Optimize Debugging Automation Tests" David Ingraham transforms frustrating test debugging into a systematic approach by prioritizing test confidence, following a structured investigation process that looks beyond error messages, and enhancing visibility through immediate action and comprehensive artifacts.
Testing Practices & Insights
- "Security Testing 101" Mona M. Abd El-Rahman offers a comprehensive introduction to essential security testing practices, explaining how techniques like vulnerability scanning, penetration testing, and code reviews protect sensitive data from increasingly sophisticated cyber threats while building user trust and ensuring regulatory compliance.
- "When the tester's away… the team can test anyway!"
Emily O'Connor
's revolutionary approach ditches traditional testing handover documents, revealing how these "helpful" guides actually create double bottlenecks while teaching teams to rely on testing specialists rather than building the confidence to evaluate quality themselves.
- "Your Product is More Than Just Features" Callum Akehurst-Ryan thought-provoking exploration of product quality delves beyond mere functionality to reveal nine critical depth dimensions often overlooked by development teams, demonstrating how focusing solely on feature breadth creates shallow products that might ship faster but ultimately cost more through increased maintenance, support burdens, and lost customer trust.
- "Top 3 Useless Quality Metrics (And What to Measure Instead)" Daria Kotelenets boldly challenges conventional quality measurement wisdom by dismantling three deceptive metrics—test case counts, unit test coverage percentages, and bug statistics—while advocating for a more nuanced approach that recognizes quality as a side effect of good practices rather than a directly achievable goal.
Technical Deep Dives
- "Automating Text Selection in Web Apps"
Irfan Mujagi?
explores how Playwright, Selenium, and Cypress can effectively simulate and verify text selection behaviors, offering step-by-step code examples for testing text selection while addressing cross-browser challenges and providing workarounds for focus management issues.
-
Oleksandr Solomin
game-changing "Playwright-graphql" tool eliminates the frustrating string-based approach to GraphQL testing by auto-generating type-safe client SDKs directly from your schema, shifting focus from tedious query writing to meaningful validation of how input parameters affect backend behavior while providing built-in type safety and cleaner assertions.
- "Testing tokens in Playwright" practical deep-dive into token testing with Playwright tackles the critical yet often overlooked security aspect of web applications, demonstrating how to craft targeted tests for session and CSRF token validation including nine essential scenarios that verify proper handling of missing, wrong, expired, and cross-user authentication tokens.
Testing Experience: 2nd edition
Call for Papers: Agile Testing Days 2025
Agile Testing Days | Nov. 24 - 27, 2025 invites submissions until March 30, 2025, for their conference taking place Nov. 24-27, 2025. Speakers can present 25-min talks, 105/120-min workshops (minimum 50% hands-on), bonus sessions (creative/fun activities), or social/active sessions for networking and movement.
- Free 3-day conference pass
- Travel reimbursement: €700 (within Europe) or €1,400 (outside Europe)
- Up to 4 hotel nights (Nov. 23-28)
- Maximum 4 paper submissions per speaker
- Free parking at venue
Focus Areas 2025: The conference emphasizes industrial Agile adoption experiences and innovation, with hot topics including AI, DevOps, Test Automation, Security Testing, Ethics in Tech, Accessibility, and Quality Coaching.
?? We Want to Hear from You!
Found value in this newsletter? Share it with your testing community! Your feedback and suggestions help make each issue better than the last.
Senior Quality Assurance Automation Engineer at HTEC Group
1 周Thanks for sharing my blog Arkadiusz Frankowski. Much appreciated!
Testing & Quality Engineering Consultant
1 周Thank you Arkadiusz for including my blog post ??
Lead Test Automation / SDET – Avenga
1 周Thanks for sharing, Arkadiusz
Passionate Software Tester & Consultant | Lead Automation Tester, adopting TS in Playwright, Mocha, & Cypress
1 周Thanks for featuring my article!