It is unfair to judge a candidate through just one challenge or exercise, but image that you are in a (non-violent & harmonious) Squid Game situation and as the hiring manager you were only allowed one Testing challenge to pose to the candidate , what would that be and why? Something that is related to … Continue reading If you just had 1 Testing question to hire/reject a QA candidate
Category: Testing/Leading
Should your Team have a dedicated Scrum Master or Agile coach?
Temporarily - yes Dedicated to your Team full time, as a permanent role - respectfully, no From my agile practitioner experience, I believe there are 2 reasons for not having a dedicated full time Scrum Master or an Agile coach on your cross-functional squad/Team Coaching needs are inherently impermanent . For example, A Senior Team … Continue reading Should your Team have a dedicated Scrum Master or Agile coach?
Organisational QA/Testing smells
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
Reflection :: The toll of Leadership and an year of being self employed
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
Heuristics for debugging integration problems
Outstanding Testers (that I have had the chance to work with/coach) did not just "report that there was a fire" , they were skilled at investigating and communicating - How long the fire has been burning ?What is the scale of impact ? Which areas are affected vs not ?What is the nature of the … Continue reading Heuristics for debugging integration problems
There will always be a job for you , if,
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,
Failure is good, it is an actual option, take it
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
Testing != Automation
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
Self assessment skills matrix for a Testing practice
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
“Testing is slowing us down” , moving from blame to involvement and engagement
"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