Testing Guidewire & Beyond #9

Dear Testing Community,

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

• "The test automation quadrant, or a different way to look at your tests" Bas Dijkstra introduces a way to evaluate automated tests using a quadrant model that focuses on information value and efficiency, suggesting teams should prioritize tests that provide valuable information efficiently rather than focusing solely on the traditional test pyramid's layer-based approach.
• "How to do authentication in Playwright" Filip Hric offers a practical guide on handling authentication in Playwright tests, explaining how to store and reuse browser state to make tests more efficient and reliable instead of repeatedly logging in for each test.
• Bas Dijkstra in his post shared a project which will help anyone interested in starting their adventure with test automation.

Testing Practices & Insights

• "Test smart: how to explore a product like Sherlock?" Julia Kocbek explains why manual testing - especially creative exploration of software - is still essential even in an age of automation, comparing testers to detectives who use intuition and curiosity to find bugs that automated tests might miss.
• "What We Lose When We Ignore TDD?" Rafael M. makes a passionate case for Test-Driven Development (TDD), explaining how its real value lies in providing immediate feedback about code design and potential issues, rather than just testing, helping developers build more maintainable and robust software.
• "Invaluable Testers Create Their Own Test Ideas" Wayne Roseberry emphasizes that valuable testers don't just follow predefined test scenarios but create their own test ideas, arguing that testers must transform and expand upon given requirements to find important bugs that developers and product managers might miss.
• "Tools For Testers" Testing Peers provides another great podcast episode guiding us through toolkits used by Chris Armstrong , Tara Walton , David Maynard and Russell Craxford
• "Unlocking the secrets of API and Exploratory Testing with Lewis Prescott" Sérgio Freire and Cristiano Cunha dive deep into API testing, exploratory testing, and contract testing with Lewis Prescott.

Technical Deep Dives

• "Upgrading ReportPortal with backup/restore of Postgres and binary data" Gaurav Singh provides a step-by-step guide for safely upgrading ReportPortal installations by walking through the process of backing up data, upgrading components, and restoring everything - helping teams avoid losing valuable test reporting data during upgrades.
• "Network Interception with Selenium WebDriver BiDi" Lana Begunova provides a detailed technical guide on using Selenium WebDriver's BiDi capabilities to handle network interception and basic authentication, including step-by-step Java code examples for automated web testing.

?? Merry Christmas ??

As we wrap up this year in software testing, I want to wish all readers a wonderful Christmas filled with joy, peace, and interesting bugs to discover!

May your tests be meaningful, your debugging sessions insightful, and your contributions valued.

Take this time to rest and recharge - you've earned it! Happy Holidays!

?? 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.

Best regards,

Arek Frankowski