https://tenor.com/search/the-rock-smell-gifs On the lines of "Code smells" , QA/Testing related smells in my experience, fall into these 4 broad categories (of root cause(s)) Apathy - Disregard for Testing as a function/craftHubris - Talent or position driven blindspots that lead towards flawed decision makingIgnorance - No one has shown them how to do better or Team … Continue reading Organisational QA/Testing smells →

I have been very fortunate to be in leadership roles for 8 years now, ranging from Team Leadership, mentoring, to leading a practice (business line) of extremely competent Testers. It has been in the top 3 fulfilling experiences of my professional & persona l life. Seeing individuals succeed with (some of) your assistance, advise and … Continue reading Reflection :: The toll of Leadership and an year of being self employed →

Stop sweating over whether <insert latest tech trend> will take your job away, rather focus on getting better @ Learning new tools and practices with curiosity Putting Team outcomes before individual outcomes Sharing your knowledge Improving your facilitation skills Improving your public speaking Learning to build persuasive  business cases Writing code every day Volunteering in … Continue reading There will always be a job for you , if, →

  Since childhood (or the time when we were all artists) , we have been programmed to perceive failure as a non-viable option. Something that needs to be avoided , dreaded and is socially unacceptable "If you fail at <x> exam, you will end up being a failure in life" , constraints like this are … Continue reading Failure is good, it is an actual option, take it →

Automation is not the goal . The goal(s) is to - Make humans effective at the craft of discovering,communicating and advocating risks to user experience,commercial reputation and utility of what we ship. Keep feedback loops to humans as short as possible Provide information to humans that is reliable and consistent( to answer the question..."if we … Continue reading Testing != Automation →

During my stint as a Test Practice Lead last year, one of the key strategic initiative that I created and led was to assess and uplift skills and capability of the whole test practice. The process that I employed to deliver on that initiative was - Create a framework for Testers in the practice to … Continue reading Self assessment skills matrix for a Testing practice →

"It is Testing that is really slowing the Project down" "Why are we finding all these bugs, so late in the Project" "Testers must be testing edge cases to death" I dont know of many experienced Testers who haven't heard  some or all of the above statements before . I heard it again yesterday and … Continue reading “Testing is slowing us down” , moving from blame to involvement and engagement →

Which tactics do you usually employ to interview and identify great Testers ? Alignment with Team/Company values ? Evidence of critical thinking ?  How did you approach <x.....testing problem> type of questions ? Examples of application of Tooling knowledge ?  How much value do they give to sapient skills in Testing ? Community references ?  … Continue reading An alt-technique for hiring Testers for Team fit →

Why is it so hard to get right and timely decisions in organisations ? Because organisations are lop-sided with either :: A) Folks who have the knowledge, insights,access,decision making authority to make those decisions but dont follow that through with a bias towards action or build credibility through execution Or B) Folks who really want … Continue reading Organisational structure –> The sweet spot of decision making →