The most successful software development movement of my lifetime is probably test-driven development or TDD. With TDD, requirements are turned into very specific test cases, then the code is improved so the tests pass. You know it, you probably use it; and this practice has helped our entire industry level up at code quality. But it’s time to take a step beyond TDD in order to write better software that actually runs well in production. That step is observability driven development.

Browser (or UI) tests are a key part of end-to-end (E2E) testing. They are critical for monitoring key application workflows—such as creating a new account or adding items to a cart—and ensuring that customers using your application don’t run into broken functionalities. But browser tests can be difficult to create and maintain. They take time to implement, and configurations for executing tests become more complex as your infrastructure grows.

Developers make fun of legacy systems because we're scared of them. We're afraid that the tiniest change will cause the app to break in unexpected ways. We're afraid we won't realize it until a customer complains. One way to combat this fear is through testing. In this article, José Manuel shows us how to retrofit legacy systems with acceptance test suites so we can maintain them with less fear and more confidence.

If you've spent days (or even weeks?) trying to spin up a Kubernetes cluster for learning purposes or to test your application, then your worries are over. Spawned from a Kubernetes Special Interest Group, KIND is a tool that provisions a Kubernetes cluster running IN Docker.

Selenium is a great open source project that can be useful for monitoring simple multi-page apps, but using Selenium for testing or monitoring SaaS services can be a challenge. Occasionally, our sales and engineering teams talk to prospects who say, “We have other fellas who write Selenium scripts, I’m just going to ask them to write tests for SharePoint Online, Microsoft Teams or Exchange Online”. We get it: you’re trying to save your company money.

The temptation to dive into user experience design without actually testing to see if your efforts are taking you in the right direction may be weighing on you right now, especially if there are other pressures that are prompting you to push forward with a project as quickly as possible. However, good UX testing can make for a great end product that is not only more satisfying for end users, but is also easier to manage, maintain and update at the backend.