Denial: “We do not need a tool, curl is fine. I will just keep this text file of 47 curl commands forever.”

Anger: “Why does this collection runner want a credit card. It is JSON going in and JSON coming out. I could build this in a weekend.”

Bargaining: “Okay what if we only test the critical endpoints. Define critical? The ones that paged us last quarter.”

Depression: This is the phase where you have six tools installed, each testing a different service, and none of your coworkers can run the test suite locally. You know this phase. You may be in this phase right now.

Acceptance: You finally sit down, compare options like an adult, and pick something the whole team will actually use. I found this comparison of the best api testing tools during my own acceptance phase and it saved me a weekend of tab hoarding.

Bonus secret sixth stage: three months later a new tool launches and someone on your team posts it in Slack with the word “thoughts?” and the cycle begins again.

Which stage is your team currently stuck in? Be honest.