AI: Are We Solving the Problems That Matter?
AI generates movies and apps while teams drown in legacy code. Why we should use AI for the problems that actually hurt, not for demos.
Test Management & Strategy
Test management decides where limited testing time goes: which risks to address first, how much testing is enough, and how results reach the people who make decisions. The test management guide covers the basics, from the test plan to progress control. This hub adds material from real projects and conversations.
The articles and podcast episodes deal with risk-based testing, lightweight test strategies, estimation, metrics, and reporting, as well as test organisation, maturity models, and the role of test managers in agile teams. They are for testing and quality leads who shape their strategy around their own project and want to know when a metric helps and when it misleads.
Foundations
Articles
Requirements Engineering: Every Test Case Design Is a Review
Requirements engineering decides how good testing can be. Test case design exposes gaps, and traceability shows which tests a change affects.
SAP Testing: Why Business Processes Set the Strategy
SAP testing starts with business processes and risk. PRACTICES UP covers eleven focus areas, and five data classes structure the test data.
Low-Code Testing Turns Business Experts into Citizen Testers
Low-code testing turns business experts into citizen testers, since software demand outgrows developers. Linked TCoEs replace the classic test center.
Quality Culture at DB Netz: Quality Coaches Replace Testers
Quality culture at DB Netz means quality coaches instead of dedicated testers, and continuous testing built into the MoQ-AP CI/CD pipeline.
T-Shaped Testers: Software Testing of the Future
T-shaped testers who span requirements, architecture, development and DevOps: that is software testing of the future. ML systems need new approaches.
Software Testing of the Future Needs Quality Coaches
Quality coaches shape the software testing of the future. They make quality a team value, even as continuous delivery speeds everything up.
Pilot Project for Test Automation: Three Phases to Rollout
Test automation pilot projects work best with the three top-ranked tools. Phase two covers one department, phase three the company-wide rollout.
Automated Test Design: Higher Automation Levels Cut Costs
Automated test design spans five levels, from capture & replay to model-based. Higher levels pay off when frequent changes drive up maintenance.
Agile Test Management: The Tasks That Stay with the Team
Agile test management spreads release planning, backlog reviews, and the Definition of Done across the team. The test manager becomes a facilitator.
Analytical Quality Assurance: Testing and Measuring Artifacts
Improve your software quality with analytical quality assurance, efficiently measuring software artifacts to detect issues early.
Time Wasters in Testing: Automate, Learn and Delegate
Time wasters in testing include copying test data by hand and fiddling with Word formatting. Automating, learning tools and delegating free up hours.
Testing Tools: Why Candidates Drop Off the Shortlist
Testing tools drop off a shortlist for simple reasons: no hands-on evaluation, unstable runs, poor process fit, pushy sales or clunky usability.
Agile Testers Can't Be Made by Decree: What Helps Instead
Nobody becomes an agile tester by decree. Address testers and developers one by one, give them time, allow mistakes and make sure the work is fun.
Agile Development for Medical Devices: Aligned with Standards
Agile development for medical devices can comply with ISO 13485 and IEC 62304. A manufacturer shows how: short iterations, daily meetings, reviews.
UML Metrics: Measuring Size, Complexity, and Quality
UML metrics count classes, states, and relationships across UML diagram types and measure a design's size, complexity, and quality before it is built.
Test Estimation: Test Points, Test Cases, and COCOMO-II
Test estimation from requirements: count test points and test cases, factor in testability and productivity, then feed a modified COCOMO-II formula.
Test Center: Centralizing Test Activities Within the Company
A test center bundles scattered testing work in one internal or external unit. Four success factors: competence, staff, infrastructure and integration.
Application Value Assessment: Metrics for IT Strategy
An application value assessment measures the size, complexity and quality of legacy systems to guide maintenance, migration and IT strategy.
Podcast Episodes
Dark Side of Testing: The Failures We Cause Ourselves
A test can leak data, expose code or bring down production. The dark side of testing begins with the setup, which needs a risk assessment of its own.
Kubernetes Load Testing: Start with a Risk Question
CPU and RAM are rarely the bottleneck in Kubernetes load testing, caching or an external login more often. A test pays off once a decision follows.
Quality Hunting: Testing for Information Instead of Bugs
In quality hunting, teams of about four people explore a system for half a day and report what stakeholders need to know about its quality.
Hardware-in-the-Loop Testing: Kernels on Real CPUs
A kernel has to run on every CPU generation, so hardware-in-the-loop testing puts it on real devices. Developers and CI reserve clean machines.
On-Site Testing Conferences: Why Networking Needs Presence
Istanbul's software testing conference grew from a risky debut to an event linking testers of Europe and Asia, with translation in every track.
Mutation Coverage: Why Green Tests Can Still Be Worthless
Mutation coverage measures how many deliberately planted bugs your tests catch. It says more than code coverage, especially when AI agents write tests.
You Need a Test Automation Strategy Before AI
More test automation does not mean better quality. Why flaky AI tests, missing strategy, and the wrong roles quietly hollow out your test suite.
ISTQB Boards in DACH: One Back Office for All Three
The ISTQB boards of Germany, Austria and Switzerland share one back office, which has kept their volunteer work running for up to 20 years.
Performance Monitoring: Set a 70% CPU Alert Before Failure
Performance monitoring catches slowdowns users abandon after five seconds. Alerts, AI log analysis and a small replica find the exact query at fault.
Branch Coverage: Full Coverage Still Lets Bugs Through
Even 100% branch coverage let an off-by-one bug slip through. Coverage is only as good as its assertions, and loops need several iterations.
End-to-End Test Automation Without the Maintenance Trap
End-to-end test automation stays maintainable with a dedicated HTML test attribute, a central mapper, a three-layer framework and one naming convention.
Resilience in Software Projects: Follow the Bug Trend
Resilience in software projects starts with accepting bugs rather than avoiding them. What bacteria and moths teach about trends and testing hypotheses.
TMMI Level 5: How Mature Teams Stop Bugs Before They Exist
TMMI shows companies where their test processes stand and what comes next, from basic planning to preventing defects before they arise.
How to Build QA Culture in Your Company
Building a QA culture starts with listening: map what quality means to each role, win budget with defect costs and change one thing per quarter.
Business Value of Testing: Translate Risk into Money
The business value of testing shows up in money: regression time, support costs, failed releases. Automating a product about to change can lose money.
QFD: The Cause-and-Effect Analysis LLMs Can't Deliver
Quality Function Deployment (QFD) links customer benefits to functions and tests, the cause-and-effect analysis LLMs can't do. The result: fewer tests.
How Stiftung Warentest Keeps Its Product Tests Objective
Stiftung Warentest buys products undercover, runs blind tests with reference devices and double-checks every measurement. Testers can borrow a lot.
Test Reporting: A 3x3 Matrix Covers Almost Every Need
Test reporting in 5 steps: Goal, position, forecast, data quality and automation. How reporting becomes a real management tool.
Structured Exploratory Testing Strategies That Work
Exploratory testing is not just clicking around randomly. Here is how scoping, timeboxing, and risk focus turn it into a sharp quality tool.
Testing Economics: Treat QA as Insurance Against Failures
Testing economics turns quality risks into numbers managers use: lost hours, lost deals, customer churn. Cutting visible waste first earns credibility.
Call for Papers: 527 Submissions for About 50 Slots
EuroSTAR's call for papers drew 527 submissions for about 50 slots. The program chair explains how talks get picked and what makes one stand out.
Test Coverage: Process Mining Shows What Really Runs
Test coverage needs the right denominator. Process mining shows which workflows run in production, and the top 10 of 600 runs cover about 80 percent.
Facing Impostor Syndrome as a Software Tester
Impostor syndrome hits experienced testers too. One tester on naming her inner critic, admitting her limits, and getting into testing without a degree.
Startup Software Testing: Why Testability Comes First
Startup software testing begins with testability and customer focus, not formal processes. Outnumbered testers have to speak up, even to management.
Quality Metrics: Why Every KPI Needs a Counter Metric
Quality metrics mislead when they stand alone. Pair mean time to resolve with reopen rate, pass rate with escaped defects, and keep the set small.
Error Culture: Clarify What Errors Mean at Project Start
Error culture sounds good on the vision board, but collapses at the first real bug. What really helps before the stress comes.
Test Automation Strategy: Start with the Problem
A test automation strategy starts with the problem, not the tool. Map current and target state on the test pyramid; the gap is your scope of work.
Quality Storming: HACCP and Event Storming for Software
Quality Storming combines Event Storming with HACCP from food safety to show where errors creep into development, long before anyone tests.
Software Testing as Art and Science: Logic and Empathy
Software testing needs logic and imagination alike. What da Vinci's curiosity and love of simplicity teach testers about reports people understand.
End-to-End Testing Framework: Start with Requirements
Choosing an end-to-end testing framework starts with needs like Safari support, speed and mobile emulation. Cypress, Playwright, Nightwatch compared.
Test Design Board Game: Finding the Tricky Checkout Cases
A test design board game built for checkout software produces around 24 new test cases per round, including tricky promotions, for the next release.
Cypress to Playwright: Migrate Critical Paths First
Switching test automation frameworks mid-product is messy, yet a Cypress to Playwright move works. Pricing forced it, AI translated the tests.
Test Case Prioritization with a Multidimensional Risk Score
Test case prioritization without gut feeling: five levels, Fibonacci ratings and one risk score decide which test cases run first under time pressure.
Playwright vs Cypress vs WebdriverIO: A Clear Verdict
Playwright vs Cypress vs WebdriverIO on four criteria: why Playwright wins new projects, where WebdriverIO trails, and when a switch isn't worth it.
Leader in Software Testing: Eight Principles from ACT2LEAD
A leader in software testing builds a quality culture. The ACT2LEAD model gives eight principles, from transparency to risk and diversity.
QA Coaching: Eight People Support 100 to 120 Applications
QA coaching replaced central control: eight people support over 100 applications, and an unread test manual became guardrails that teams accept.
Lightweight Test Plan: Short Modules Replace the Test Manual
A lightweight test plan does not end up in a drawer. The Federal Office of Administration built one from short modules and released it as open source.
Enterprise Software Testing Is About Configuration Impact
Enterprise software testing checks how configuration changes in SAP ripple through dependent processes. Why business users test mostly the happy path.
Migrating from Cypress to Playwright: The Real Effort
Migrating from Cypress to Playwright took a team over a year alongside daily QA. The main hurdles: session handling, request interception, legacy tests.
Risk-Based Testing in Practice: Cutting E2E Tests by Half
Which headline do you not want in tomorrow's paper? Risk-based testing starts with that question. One team cut its end-to-end tests by 50 to 60 percent.
Test Leadership: Bringing Testing to the Leadership Level
Without test leadership, testing culture stays stuck at team level. The ACT2LEAD model bundles eight principles, from transparency to diversity.
Software Quality Metrics: Trends Say More Than Single Values
Software quality metrics only help when they fit the context and feed real decisions. Team comparisons mislead, and lead time deserves a closer look.
From Tester to QA Lead: The Biggest Obstacles Are Human
From tester to QA lead: the human challenges outweigh the technical ones. Leading a small project first shows whether a management role suits you.
ISTQB in Practice: Building Test Expertise in Telecom
ISTQB in practice at a telecom vendor: exploratory testing of undocumented third-party systems, homemade load test robots and a shared test vocabulary.
Minimum Viable Test Strategy
Test strategy via workshop instead of a hundred-page document: How a collaborative format quickly brings teams to a common test picture.
Choosing an E2E Testing Framework: Requirements First
Choosing an E2E testing framework starts with your own requirements, such as Safari support or speed. Why Playwright led a comparison of five tools.
The Future of Test Organization: Cells Instead of Hierarchy
The test organization of the future replaces hierarchies with cell teams, and testers need V-shape skills with deep knowledge in several areas.
Test Data Management: Testers Order Data Themselves
Five tools, manual transfer errors and no cross-system solution: that was test data management. A store concept changed the entire setup.
AI Quality Assurance: When There Is No Clear Test Oracle
AI quality assurance lacks a clear test oracle, so quality is measured statistically. Metamorphic and pairwise testing help, reproducibility stays hard.
Mobile App Testing: Second Attempt with Robot Framework
Mobile app testing, second attempt: HUK Coburg scrapped four years of automation. Now manual testers write keyword-driven tests with Robot Framework.
Software Metrics: It’s the Context That Makes a Number Useful
Software metrics are often avoided because they reveal inconvenient truths. Yet a simple table can be enough to forecast testing effort and defects.
Quality by Design in Software: Prevent Errors Early
Quality by design in software prevents errors before testing has to find them. The pharma-born approach rests on risk analysis and process metrics.
Evolutionary Quality Goals: What Quality Matters and When
Evolutionary quality goals show which quality characteristics count in each system phase. Maintainability pays off once growth brings new developers.
Continuous Everything: How to Measure the Quality Gain
Does Continuous Everything really improve quality? Six years of data show trunk-based development smooths out the defect peaks around each release.
Team Alignment with OKR: Goals That Survive Day-to-Day Work
Team alignment with OKR needs three to five early metrics, health metrics as a counterweight and a neutral facilitator who guides goal setting.
Software Testing: Pay Based on Performance Rather Than Time
Software testing paid by test cases, coverage and errors found: how Europe's first independent test lab worked in 1978 and which principles still hold.
Liberating Structures: Get Every Voice into the Test Meeting
Liberating Structures like 1-2-4-All, Troika Consulting and TRIZ end meetings where everyone nods at the boss. Testers use them to uncover risks.
Test Intelligence: Finding More Bugs in Less Time
Test intelligence finds 80% of errors in 1% of the runtime with test impact analysis, and test gap analysis shows untested changes before release.
The ISTQB CTFL 4.0 Makes Testing a Team Responsibility
ISTQB CTFL 4.0 unites classic and agile testing in one syllabus and treats test management as a team role. Existing certificates remain valid for good.
Gamification in Software Testing: Gaming Reveals Edge Cases
Gamification makes manual testing fun and keeps risk analyses out of the drawer. Riskstorming, Bingo Bongo and Maturity Poker reveal edge cases.
Systematic Testing: Exit Criteria Indicate When It’s Enough
Systematic testing picks risky and everyday inputs, and exit criteria show when you have tested enough. Complete testing is mathematically impossible.
Game Testing at Tibia: Exploratory Testing Before Checklists
Game testing for Tibia means weekly patches for a 25-year-old game with 500,000 players. Exploratory testing and big external tests keep it stable.
Software Reviews: Finding Bugs Before They Become Costly
A software inspection finds errors early, before fixing them costs ten times more with each phase. Perspective-based reading helps, bosses don't.
Agile Quality Assurance: Talking Comes Before Coding
Agile quality assurance starts in the conversation about requirements, long before acceptance testing. Leaving tests out is fine if the risk is known.