Curated by Rachel Kibler — Senior Quality Engineer, international keynote speaker, and consultant.
This is the list I use and recommend.
Pull requests welcome — see contributing notes below.
- Testing Ideas & Heuristics — where to find inspiration when you're stuck
- Things That Help — techniques and practices that make testing better
- Great Blogs & Newsletters — people worth following
- Podcasts - podcasts that deserve a listen
- Testing Exercises — hands-on practice challenges
- Books Worth Reading — the short list
- Videos and Channels — recorded talks and tutorials
- Conferences — where testers gather
- Organizations & Communities — groups worth joining
General tips and tricks from the testing community:
https://club.ministryoftesting.com/t/99-things-you-can-do-to-become-a-better-software-tester/17923/9
Ministry of Testing getting-started guide:
https://club.ministryoftesting.com/t/club-posts-to-help-you-get-started-with-software-testing-and-qa/17183
Things to try in exploratory testing:
https://www.ministryoftesting.com/articles/ab1cd85c?s_id=14840912 — concrete test ideas for when you're staring at a feature and don't know where to start
Questions to ask during grooming and planning:
https://agiletester.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Feature-Chat-Sheet_v3.pdf — Janet Gregory's feature chat sheet for pulling out testable details early
"Naughty" strings for field validation testing:
https://github.com/minimaxir/big-list-of-naughty-strings/blob/master/blns.txt — every weird input case you can think of, plus some you haven't
60 Powerful Heuristics:
https://www.ministryoftesting.com/articles/60-powerful-heuristics-to-bust-a-testing-groove-with-by-simon-knight — Simon Knight's collection of testing shortcuts and rules of thumb
Heuristic Test Strategy Model:
https://www.satisfice.com/download/heuristic-test-strategy-model — James Bach's framework for thinking about what to test
Sources for Test Ideas:
http://thetesteye.com/posters/TheTestEye_SourcesForTestIdeas.pdf — visual poster showing where good test ideas come from
Would Heu-Risk-It cards (Lena Wiberg):
https://pejgan.se/WHRI.htm — card deck for exploring risk in group discussions
TestSphere cards (Beren Van Daele):
https://www.ministryoftesting.com/testsphere — another great card-based tool for test ideation
Testing AI:
https://github.com/77QAlab/Manual-to-Automation-QA-Playbook-Tutorials - Tanvi Mittal's playbooks around automation and AI
Testing tool heuristics: https://github.com/hci-lab-um/heuristics-for-test-tool-design/blob/main/README.md - Isabel Evans' research-driven heuristics to support designing, evaluating, and acquiring tools to help with testing
Strong-style pair testing:
https://medium.com/@maaret.pyhajarvi/the-driver-navigator-in-strong-style-pairing-2df0ecb4f657 — Maaret Pyhäjärvi on the driver-navigator pattern
Mind mapping for test planning:
https://lisacrispin.com/2011/02/28/using-mind-maps-for-test-planning/ — Lisa Crispin explains how to organize test thinking visually
BDD 101 series:
https://automationpanda.com/2017/01/25/bdd-101-introducing-bdd/ — Andy Knight's excellent intro to behavior-driven development for testers
Katrina Clokie's resource list for non-testers:
https://katrinatester.blogspot.com/2015/11/testing-for-non-testers-pathway.html - getting started in software testing
Callum Akehurst-Ryan: https://cakehurstryan.com/ - fantastic look at modern quality engineering
Dan Ashby: https://danashby.co.uk/ - "blethering about testing", really great material about leadership and testing
Cassandra HL: http://www.cassandrahl.com/ - thoughtful approach to testing
Jit Gosai: https://qualityeng.substack.com/ - newsletter about what's going on in quality engineering
Judy Mosley: https://failureisfeedback.beehiiv.com/ - regular writing about testing and learning
Women in Testing newsletter: https://womenintesting.beehiiv.com/ - regular contributions by many about testing
Maaret Pyhäjärvi: https://maaretp.com/ — exploratory testing, testing leadership, ensemble testing
Lisa Crispin: https://lisacrispin.com/ — agile testing, holistic testing, collaboration
Janet Gregory: https://janetgregory.ca/blog/ — agile testing, whole team quality
Anne-Marie Charrett: https://mavericktester.com/ — leadership, testing craft
Lisi Hocke: https://www.lisihocke.com/ — exploratory testing, learning in public
Maria Kedemo: https://mkedemo.wordpress.com/ - deep dives into testing
Jesper Ottosen: https://www.o2sn.dk/ - collaboration, leadership, and learning
James Thomas: https://qahiccupps.blogspot.com/ — thoughtful testing commentary
Angie Jones: http://angiejones.tech/ — test automation, Java, speaking
Richard Bradshaw: https://thefriendlytester.co.uk/ — automation, testing philosophy (hasn't been updated in a while)
Katrina Clokie: http://katrinatester.blogspot.com.au/ — testing craft, career development (hasn't been updated in a while)
Software Testing Weekly: https://softwaretestingweekly.com/ - excellent newsletter that brings together the best writing each week
Testing Peers: https://testingpeers.com/ - mostly weekly podcast about all things testing and quality
Engineering Quality: https://www.engineeringqualitypodcast.com/home - regular episodes about leadership and quality
Donkeys and Dragons: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiiSUBKIvibQK1oEpvFcU0NEKT9RqKTN1 - Janet Gregory and Lisa Crispin's podcast
The Vernon Richard Show: https://thevernonrichardshow.com/ - engaging banter about testing
Quality Unfiltered: https://www.youtube.com/@QualityUnfiltered - honest conversations about testing
Quality Talks: https://qualitytalks.co.uk/podcast - regular episodes about quality
Software Testing Unleashed: https://www.richard-seidl.com/en/testing-unleashed - great conversations with giants in the industry
The Testing Show:
https://qualitestgroup.com/insights/podcasts/ — weekly testing discussion (currently inactive, but great back catalog)
This Week in Quality: https://www.ministryoftesting.com/podcasts/this-week-in-testing - Ministry of Testing weekly episode about all things testing
Into the MoTaverse: https://www.ministryoftesting.com/podcasts/into-the-motaverse - Ministry of Testing more focused on technology and career growth
AB Testing: https://www.moderntesting.org/ - modern testing conversations on a variety of topics
Beyond Quality: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNtskxLbZna6VDjH6hBhYm0mSZKPhX7Fi - research-based conversations about quality
The Testing Map challenges:
http://testingchallenges.thetestingmap.org/ — hands-on practice scenarios
James Lyndsay's testing toys:
https://www.workroom-productions.com/toys/ — deliberately broken apps to practice on
Restful Booker:
https://restful-booker.herokuapp.com/ — API designed for testing practice
Explore It! (Elisabeth Hendrickson):
https://pragprog.com/titles/ehxta/explore-it/ — the definitive guide to exploratory testing
Agile Testing (Janet Gregory and Lisa Crispin):
https://agiletester.ca/agile-testing/ — comprehensive guide to testing in agile teams
Agile Testing Condensed (Janet Gregory and Lisa Crispin):
https://leanpub.com/agiletesting-condensed — shorter, updated version
A Practical Guide to Testing in DevOps (Katrina Clokie):
https://leanpub.com/testingindevops — what testing looks like in modern continuous delivery environments
Explore It? Explore It! (Elisabeth Hendrickson):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FKY1Is0lgs — talk on exploratory testing fundamentals
CAST: https://www.youtube.com/@AST_News - lots of videos from conferences going back to 2011
Øredev 2025 Quality Track playlist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPYN1g8G4fg&list=PLOUKmSqExtAGGpOWNT4Z385e20stRBiZx - nine talks about testing from a dev conference in Sweden
HUSTEF: https://www.youtube.com/@Hstqb_HTB - one of the largest testing conferences in Europe, their catalog is impressive
more to come
CAST:
https://associationforsoftwaretesting.org/conference/ — Conference of the Association for Software Testing
Agile Testing Days (Germany):
https://agiletestingdays.com/ — one of the largest European testing conferences
MoTaCon (formerly TestBash):
https://www.ministryoftesting.com/motacon — Ministry of Testing's annual conference
Testing Conferences list (Chris Kenst):
https://testingconferences.org/ — comprehensive calendar of testing conferences worldwide
Ministry of Testing forum:
https://club.ministryoftesting.com/ — active community with discussions, articles, and resources
Association for Software Testing:
https://www.associationforsoftwaretesting.org/ — professional organization for testers
BBST courses (Black Box Software Testing): https://associationforsoftwaretesting.org/bbst-black-box-software-testing-courses/
QA at the Point: https://www.qap.dev/ - Utah-based meetup, but the Slack community is open to everyone (heavy on automation help)
Test Automation University:
https://testautomationu.applitools.com/ — free courses on test automation
Agile Testing Fellowship:
https://agiletestingfellow.com/ — Janet Gregory and Lisa Crispin's holistic testing courses
Mountain Goat Software:
https://www.mountaingoatsoftware.com/blog — Mike Cohn's agile and Scrum resources
ISTQB:
https://www.istqb.org/ — certification body (take with a grain of salt; focuses on process and terminology rather than critical thinking)
If you have a resource to suggest, open a PR with:
- The link
- A one-sentence description of what it is
- Why you think it belongs here (what problem does it solve for testers?)
I'm looking for resources that help testers think critically, work collaboratively, and build craft — not just tool tutorials or certification prep material.
This list reflects my philosophy about testing: it's a thinking discipline, not just a checklist discipline. You'll find more resources here about exploratory testing, context-driven approaches, and collaboration than you will about test case management tools or certification exam prep.
If that's not your style, that's fine — but this list probably isn't for you.