⚙️ I found a gold mine of QA resources
Whatever your specialty or problem, these QA resources got you covered!
Hello friends,
Today I want to share with you some of the greatest resources I’ve ever seen related to QA. I found them completely accidentally on Reddit while I was browsing for something else, but damn. I wish I had found them when I first started my career in QA.
And what’s even better, almost all of these repositories are being updated, so you have collective wisdom and knowledge of a lot of QAs all over the world.
So, without further ado, let’s dig in!
Awesome Quality Assurance Roadmap
➕: The Roadmap, Advice section
➖: last update was 3 years ago
Whether you have just started learning QA and dreaming about landing a job or are a seasoned professional who’s looking to expand your horizons, this is a great place to learn all the ins and outs of all the skills that you need to master to be the best in the business.
Personally, I find the Test Plan there debatable because, for more than 5 years in QA and more than 10 projects that I’ve been a part of, I’ve never seen a Test Plan that was actually useful. More often than not it’s a document that’s created once and then completely forgotten.
But the roadmap thing is quite great and detailed!
Free Learning Resources For Software Testers
➕: all the resources may be useful to some degree and it’s regularly updated
➖: may be overwhelming for people at the start of their career
There is a lot here. From Testing Introductions to blogs and podcasts on Software Testing, you can find almost anything you want here. This is a great place to dig deeper into QA than a couple of books you’ve read when you were just starting to learn about Testing.
But I imagine finding it when I was just one book into software testing and I would have been so overwhelmed by the sheer volume of stuff here… So, my advice is to use this resource when you know what you are looking for and take in only one thing at a time.
Awesome Learning
➕: a lot of materials for programming
➖: limited usage for Manual QA
Again, it’s a lot. Probably one of the best resources I’ve seen dedicated to automation and other complex topics, like Security, Performance, Database and even VR/AR/XR Testing. I’m actually surprised a bit to find so much information on the latest.
This repository will probably be very useful for anyone who’s trying to master QA Automation, but there are not as many things for Manual direction. There are still some things that may be quite interesting to read for experienced Manual QAs like Mobile and Web testing.
SQA Wiki
➕: great collection of books and articles in both English and Russian
➖: confusing navigation and not as detailed read-me
As a person from a southern region of Ukraine where we used to primarily speak Russian, this resource would’ve been a great help for me when I first started and wasn’t very fluent in English. A lot of books, courses, tools and cheatsheets in all shapes and forms.
But I find this particular repository a little more confusing to navigate than the others that I found. This is something that the contributors should probably focus on…
Awesome Testing Courses
➕: great summary of courses, tutorials and talks on all the possible topics
➖: the last contribution was made 4 years ago
If you were wondering what kind of courses there are for QAs, this is probably the best all-in-one selection where you can find them all. It’s great to see this whole selection conveniently set in one place with a handful of descriptions of what’s free and what isn’t.
The only thing that bothers me here is that it seems like this resource was abandoned 4 years ago.
If you haven’t subscribed yet, this button is just for you ⤵️
Test Cases and Templates for Manual Software Testing
➕: great samples and templates, still maintained
➖: selection is a bit limited
This a great resource for people who are just starting their journey in QA as it provides some great examples of how to structure and do one of the most crucial pieces of documentation there is for QA.
But, as I’ve worked in a lot of companies as a QA, I can tell you that every company and even project tend to structure their work differently. The only times when I saw similar things between projects were when I was the one implementing them 😅 It would be great if this repository had different examples from, for example, most and least detailed structures.
Quality in Mobile Apps
➕: great source of information on a lot of mobile-related specifics
➖: not sure if everything is up to date
Not knowing all the specifics of Mobile testing was one of the reasons I failed my first-ever job interview in a game development company, so I’m glad that now we have resources such as this to cover everything you could possibly want to be covered in the Mobile Testing landscape.
My only concern is that the mobile landscape is changing very rapidly. Kudos to the creators of this resource for maintaining everything, but I know for a fact that mobile manufacturers like to revise their documentation, add features and introduce complexities for development teams. So, I’m wondering if all the documents are up to date regarding specifics. But I’m sure I’m just overthinking this
Performance Testing
➕: very detailed and focused resource with a lot of insights
➖: last updated 2 years ago
I have a very basic and superficial understanding of Performance Testing, but from the start, it’s clear that this resource has almost all the major questions answered in so many details. It’s a bit intimidating even. Not every day an IT professional with almost 10 years of experience has so many words in an IT article that he is unfamiliar with 😅
It’s a pity that it’s not being regularly updated. But I’m sure that the basics are still the same and have a lot of very detailed explanations.
How they test
➕: a lot of materials to learn from and apply
➖: but be careful with applying them
If you ever wondered how other companies are testing their software, you are in the right place. This repository has the biggest selection of articles that describe how companies are doing the stuff. From tech giants to some of the companies I’ve never even heard of. And it seems like the information is still pouring in quite regularly.
But one small note is that everything here should be taken with at least a grain of salt. I’ve seen a lot of small companies trying to apply the same principles that tech giants use (e.g. Google) and fail miserably. If you are working in a company with a total headcount of 50, Google processes will probably not work for you. So, be mindful of the takeaways and lessons you learn.
Software testing resource pack
➕: great source of test data
➖: it would be great to have more files
It is what it is. It’s a collection of data in all its shapes and forms for convenience purposes. I could’ve used a resource like this on multiple occasions while I was working in Software Development companies. As it’s quite frequent you have a form where you should test the ability to load specific attachments and you need to spend hours creating dummy files and then recreating them again because they are lost deep in the bowels of your files.
But it would be great to expand this selection. It has all your basics covered, but I can see at least several directions where you could expand it. But a big shoutout for an empty file with no extension! I bet it crashed more apps than anything else there 😅
Ok, that’s a lot
Some of these resources are a bit dated, but based on what I’m seeing during my day-to-day, the fundamental principles of QA haven’t changed. So, I’d say that 90% of everything here still applies.
I know that all of this may be a bit overwhelming, but the good news is that you don’t need to dive into all of this from the get-go.
Take your time browsing through the things that you are interested in, make your own judgement calls on whether or not this is something worth learning, and look for opinions from other QAs on a particular resource or book.
Chances are that not all of these resources are pure gold, but I found that all of them combined make a pretty decent mine worth digging through ⛏️
If you feel like supporting me and my work, consider Powering-Up GameDev Relay 🎮
Have a great week!
Alex from Gamedev Relay