Preface

In a world of fast food, fast fashion, and fast-to-market strategies, does quality even matter? The pressures of the world we live in seem to push us towards taking shortcuts, even when it comes to producing high-quality software. I am doing my part to push back against that world. I think quality matters. We have enough easily broken junk in our lives. It’s time for more quality.

This book is one small stake that I’ve put in the ground in an attempt to help the world see more high-quality software. I hope that whether you are a professional tester, or a developer looking to learn more about testing, you will be able to join me in my attempt to improve the world through quality software applications.

APIs are becoming the backbone of the internet. They help companies to communicate with each other externally and also provide the communication infrastructure for many internal pieces of modern software systems. A marriage is held together by good communication, and so it is with the internet too. Good communication between different services is important to well functioning applications. For that reason, API testing matters for producing good-quality software.

On the surface, this book is primarily about the API testing tool Postman, but I have also tried to weave in examples and teachings that will help you to to use that tool in a way that will have a real impact on quality. If you work through this book, you will gain an in-depth grasp of how Postman works, and you will also have a solid foundation in how to think about API testing in general. I want you to have more than just the ability to manipulate Postman to do what you want it to. I also want you to be able to know when and how to use it so that you can be an effective part of creating high-quality APIs.