Sometimes testing seems to stall even though the sprint is still in progress.
From your experience, what usually causes QA work to stop moving?
Curious to hear real examples from different teams.
I'm just starting my career in software testing, and I come from a technical background.
I have a question about writing test scenarios and test cases. I've noticed that AI tools can generate them very quickly and often include edge cases and corner cases that I might not think of.
As a learner, should I be using AI for this?
I already know how to write test cases myself, but I don't always come up with as many ideas as AI does, and AI is obviously much faster.
What would you recommend for someone who wants to become a better tester? Is it better to write everything myself to build my skills, or is it fine to let AI generate the test cases and then review, improve, and validate them?
Also, in a real company, which approach is more valuable? Do experienced testers typically write most test cases themselves, or is using AI as a first draft becoming common?
I'd love to hear your experiences and advice.
How is the job market for QA’s in the USA if you have 4-5 years of experience and can do automation testing? Playwright to automate, API testing knowledge and skills etc. I’m looking for a 100k in NYC area.
I work in a team of 25 developers and 2 managers. Both managers are also developers and are husband and wife. I am the only Software Tester on the team.
When I joined the company, the previous Software Tester told me he was resigning because of the politics within the development team. He also mentioned that the tester before him had left for similar reasons.
For the first three months, everything was fine. However, after that, the managers' attitude toward me changed. They often dismiss my suggestions for improving the testing process and ignore ideas that could make QA more efficient. They frequently make comments such as "testing is easy," "anyone can do a tester's job," and that "developers are the stars."
I am an introverted person who prefers to talk less and focus more on my work. I usually avoid arguments, don't talk back, and try to stay productive with minimal breaks. Although I have made every effort to build good relationships with the development team and fit in, I feel that my quiet and non-confrontational nature has made me an easy target for bullying. Instead of being appreciated for my work ethic, I often feel ignored, undervalued, and treated with less respect than others on the team.
There have also been occasions where I call one of the managers, but he ignores me even though I am standing behind him. When I ask technical questions, I am often told, "I'm busy, come back later," without getting the support I need. Whenever I try to introduce new tools or improve the QA process, my efforts are blocked or discouraged through office politics.
I have been working in this environment for the past 10 months. Despite consistently performing my responsibilities and trying to contribute positively to the team, I continue to feel that QA is undervalued and that my contributions are not respected. The overall experience has become mentally exhausting and has negatively affected my motivation and confidence at work.
Run the test cases. Mark them Pass or Fail. Report bugs.
I thought if every test case passed, the product was ready.
I was wrong.
One day, I decided to ignore the test cases for a while and use the application like a normal user.
I clicked buttons faster than expected.
I refreshed pages in the middle of a process.
I switched between screens.
I entered unexpected data.
I used a slow internet connection.
Within an hour, I found bugs that no test case had covered.
That was the day I realized something important:
Users don't read your test cases. They write their own.
Every user behaves differently. Some are patient. Some are not. Some click everything. Others abandon a process halfway through.
As QAs, our responsibility isn't just to verify requirements.
It's to think about how real people will actually use the product.
Over the years, one habit has helped me find more valuable bugs than any checklist:
Test like a user, not like a tester.
Walk through real user journeys.
Try to break the application.
Test on slow networks.
Test on different devices.
Ask yourself, "What would a frustrated user do next?"
That's where the bugs usually hide.
In my experience, the most valuable bugs are rarely found on the happy path they're found in real user behavior.
What's one testing lesson that completely changed the way you approach QA?
I'm an SDET with 10+ years of experience based in Bangalore. In this AI era, I want to keep learning new testing concepts, build hands-on projects every month, and continuously upskill myself.
Recently, I tried creating a couple of learning groups to connect with people who have a similar mindset. Many people joined, but after a few days, the enthusiasm just disappeared. It feels like most people either lose motivation or prefer learning on their own rather than in a group.
Has anyone else experienced this? Why do you think it's so difficult to build an active learning community for experienced professionals (especially those in their 30s and beyond)?
My company is deciding to put developers in charge of their own Quality meaning they must use Claude to quality check their own work (What could go wrong?)
The QA team will now act as a consultancy service to Dev and focus solely on testing back end/regression/Automation packs.
Is the role evolving or dwindling?
I've been a solely manual QA for a good 7 years. But using Claude to do all the techy stuff seems fairly easy.
I’m starting a new learning journey where I’ll build a gym management website from scratch.
My plan is to first create the frontend using Next.js, then build the backend using the MERN stack.
I’m starting with a simple Login Page.
Today’s frontend scope:
I also want to document this from a QA point of view:
The goal is to learn development and QA together by building a real project.
Hey everyone,
I recently joined a spirits company as their first QA hire. The product is quite large, but there’s very little documentation, and up until now, developers have been responsible for testing.
Right now, things feel unstructured. I often find out about new features or deployments after they’ve already happened, and testing requests come in randomly. Most of my work ends up being exploratory, without a defined process or clear expectations.
I’d like to introduce some structure and improve how testing is handled, but I don’t want to overwhelm the team or disrupt their current workflow too much.
Where would you recommend starting in a situation like this?
I’d really appreciate any advice or experiences you can share.
I have a interview coming up in one of NL AI based company which is actually part of secon technical interview which focuses on programming skills and coding (they are using python btw) I haven't given interview in last 2-3 years so I am anxious of how I do prepare for? Please advise! I have 8+ year plus of experience (which is mixed manual and last 3-5 years are of automation). I have worked with Playwright (TS), Selenium (C# and Java).
I know IDE use often depends on the team and one's preference but I am still curious which ones do you guys use, at work?
Hi everyone! I'm researching how mobile QA engineers automate app testing. This isn't for promotion I'm just trying to understand real-world workflows and pain points.
Suppose you need to automate this flow:
A few quick questions:
Even a one-line answer is helpful. I'm trying to understand real-world QA workflows and pain points not promote any tool. Thanks!
Client I work for started pushing Claude, heavily - shocker. And I'm really interested in hearing experiences of others in the QA branch - how did AI affect the quality of your team's output?
I'm over here reading tickets and test plans and wondering wth happened to my team. Product we're testing is complicated enough and has a ton of unsolved legacy stuff dev/logic wise, while simultaneously having a shit project management structure - which makes it hard to track everything and in general always required the QA team to use 100% of their brain.
With this AI initiative, my team stopped thinking. Claude is telling them what to test and how to test it, they don't know what they're putting into tickets and they don't know WHY they're doing what they're doing. The quality is crumbling right in front of my eyes and I feel like I'm having a fever dream cause we're not stopping, but accelerating into certain doom.
We're using unstable AI agents to 'help' automate end-users decision making, we're pushing developers to use AI to code faster, and now pushing the QA team to use AI to test - what the actual f is happening rn. We're pushing less things to prod, things that do go are hanging by a thread, and things are dragging on for way to long - but all the other teams aside, how do you assure quality in a system that is riding the AI wave through and through (while also avoiding regulation - starting from the very top)
Hi everyone. I have been doing manual testing for about 2 months and wanted to get started with automation. I wanted to get comfortable with writing test cases and bug reports so gave 2 months for it. Rn i would say i am not as confused as i was when starting..so i can take up manual testing easily.
However the company i work at has very poor management and their work process is old fashioned. There will be times i am testing and tell them about a bug or defect in system and they will still continue to deploy it live. Because they use legacy system and are familiar with clients they are very comfortable with their current management however my career plan for QA doesn't align with the company.
For about 2 to 3 weeks i have been looking at automation with playwright. Before this i was learning Python so i thought it would be best to go with either Selenium or Playwright.
Upon researching online i decided on Playwright. Ik it was build for JS but rn i felt more comfortable with Python so. But i am willing to take any advice on this one.
Now the part i really struggle is i have understood what automation is. With the help of chatgpt i wrote a few scripts too and some worked some didnt.
But i am confused on moving forward. How do i write code? I can't keep relying on chatgpt for it. If i want to apply to new company they will expect me to know more on automation and programming and i am at level 1 of it.
I can't use YouTube in the company they dont allow it.
I looked for online courses but can't find one that teaches me the way i learn.
Do i have to learn Python and get professional at it before i start automation? Will that give me a basic idea on the script i am working with?
So i got sap automation testing role as a fresher this year passed out in know that this role has no growth what skills should i learn to switch to sap dev roles after 2 years
Someone posted this earlier , and I could relate when they said feel like a fraud! Thing is I never felt that, but the developers in my team make me feel that on a regular basis. Something I never felt in any of my jobs before. (And I am also the sole tester of the team ) Recently one of the developers said , “you say you are testing the test environment and covering all scenarios of test bookings but know that we all are watching and we have access to all the test bookings you do. And you have done only 3 bookings”
Speaks volumes right : not just about the impression they have of the tester but also work culture. Let’s keep work culture aside.
So the developers have been doing multiple deployments on the Test environment on the same day and I having been testing each release on the test environment and these scenarios for a while and I have a clear idea of what needs to be tested and what scenario needs to be covered to be sure that the last deployment on test did not break anything outside the fix. (Am not going into the details ) . I have planned a meeting with the developer and his lead to understand the situation and show the coverages in the 3 bookings. A purely tech/functional explaination call.
Question is : how would you react to such a message or such an impression about a tester from the developer. What would be the steps you would take ? Have you faced anything similar ? Would you take it ahead with your lead or manager ? What solution would you expect?
Over the last few years, I've worked on products with web apps, mobile apps, admin dashboards, APIs, and multiple integrated services. As the products grew, I found myself spending more time switching between tools, tracing feature dependencies, recalling business rules, and figuring out what needed to be tested after each change than actually thinking about product quality.
Has anyone else experienced something similar? If so, what part of your QA workflow consumes the most time or mental effort?
Hi everyone,
I recently completed and cleared the HackerRank assessment for an SDET role. I wanted to know, based on your experience, how many days it usually takes to receive the next email (interview invitation or next round)?
If you’ve been through this process, could you please share your timeline?
Thanks in advance!
Hello everyone, 32 male looking for a job. Tried to learn various things, learned backend development, then applied for multiple jobs and was shortlisted for one interview. The interview went well, but I got rejected. Then one of my friends, who is also a mechanical engineer and presently works in manual testing, suggested I try manual testing, so I started to learn about manual testing, sdlc, stlc, test cases, test scenarios, test plans types of testing, and all created test cases. Applied for multiple jobs and was shortlisted for one and got rejected in the interview; now still applying but no response, no calls, and feel frustrated. need help
