My first conference since TestBash in 2015 and I had genuinely forgotten the buzz that these events provide. There was a real sense of community, I made some new contacts, caught up with people I had met before and generally networked with everyone who would talk to me. On top of that, I would also … Continue reading UKStar 2018 – Fuelling the Passion
Category: Testing
Any discussion on testing techniques
I've been in Software Engineering since I left University as a graduate in 2006 and have performed many roles such as Software Developer, Scrum Master, Build Engineer and then in 2010, I moved into Software QA. At that point, I had several awesome mentors who I owe so much for fueling my love and passion … Continue reading A Change in Perspective – Moving from Tech Lead to Manager
In Summer 2016, i kicked off the #MakeATester project on social media, asking for the community and beyond to tell me what skills are needed for new testers to get started in a testing career. I published the results in early 2017 and since then, have been working hard to try and push the awareness … Continue reading It’s Been A While – A #MakeATester Update
Last August I kicked off a little social media project on the back of my shock at the lack of content on University syllabus' for Software Testing or QA. With this, I asked the increasingly awesome Testing community to list the skills/attributes that are required to make a good tester. Life then kind of took … Continue reading What Skills #MakeATester – The Results
So as my last post showed, Universities aren't really considering Software Testing as a core topic of Computer Science degree courses. Therefore, by the time graduates are looking for jobs, testing isn't really on their radar. The same can be said for potential testers who haven't got degrees. As shown in a recent "Let's Talk … Continue reading What Skills #MakeATester? – A collaborative approach to help future Testers get a chance.
When I left university 10 years ago, I had no clue I would end up in QA/Testing. I didn't even realise it was an option! Looking back on my degree course (and I really enjoyed my degree), it was very Programming heavy (C#, C++, Java and Prolog all taught) and testing was only taught as … Continue reading Software Testing at University – Is it an Option?
I'm sure most of us will have worked on projects where without having to do any particularly extensive test scenarios or having hardly dived into exploring the product, you find things that break that would be immediately obvious to the customer. This kind of project depresses me (even though it is fun to find defects), … Continue reading Making Your Testing Effective
For me, Testing is a mindset, not just a role that needs to be performed. Testing isn't just part of the development cycle, it should be ingrained in every stage. Every aspect can be 'tested', whether that be requirements, architectural diagrams, code, unit tests, test scripts, user docs etc. When Does Testing Start? If I'm … Continue reading The Testing Mindset
There has been a lot of buzz around this topic at recent testing events and in forum discussions between testing professionals, there are a fair few different certifications around but are they of value? A quick google and I found the following certifications: ISTQB - Foundation, Advanced (Test Manager, Test Analyst and Technical Test Analyst) … Continue reading Testing Certifications – Are they worth the paper they are written on?
For me, testing is a mindset rather than just a role and sometimes that can and does affect other aspects of life. The amount of times I have gone to try and break something intentionally, just to check that it can handle error cases. That would be fine, but doing it to the TV while … Continue reading Spreading the Word – Being the Sociable Tester
Simon Prior 