Testing & Movies & Stuff

I'm part of a really cool women in testing group and we have a chat called the gratitude jar. I really like this idea, but I felt like I needed to put mine in a more public place, and probably take up a lot more space that was polite if I posted in the chat. First off I want to thank the whole Ministry of Testing team. Rosie, Richard, Sarah D. , Heather, Aine, Mark, and Vernon. You all have helped me in a lot of ways and I can't thank you enough for the support and continued trust you have in the work I'm doing for the group and outside of the group. I'm coming up on year four (I think that's right) working with you all as a part-time mini boss. It's been a wonderful experience. I've learned a lot about myself and those that I've worked with over the last few years. It's no small thing to say that my career has been heavily influenced by the group and the work I've done with MoT. I'd like to thank Abby Bangser for being an amazing friend ...

Management: Year One Series This is my Year One series on Management. It’s going to be ongoing, kinda like a serialized comic of sorts. I’ll tag these posts when I make them so, at some point, maybe someone who is also getting into a management role can see they are not alone. Batman wasn’t Batman in a day. Even he has a Year One, Two, and Three. The Shift It’s a bit ironic to me that one of the talks I give is about finding ways to stay an individual contributor in an organization. I’ve recently found myself in a managing role however, and while my advice still stands, I know I chose to take on this role because I wanted to learn from it and gain information and experience I might not have been able to gain otherwise. That said, I think in my research of taking on a leadership role, often, what people tell you are ways about how you can conduct and manage yourself in that role. What they don’t often tell you are the hardships and mental dilemmas that you end up taking on if y...

Management: Year One Series This is my Year One series on Management. It’s going to be ongoing, kinda like a serialized comic of sorts. I’ll tag these posts when I make them so, at some point, maybe someone who is also getting into a management role can see they are not alone. Batman wasn’t Batman in a day. Even he has a Year One, Two, and Three. Talking Your Face Off I've had a lot of conversations the last few months with a lot of different people of various skill sets and talents. I've enjoyed speaking with most people and I have to tell you, dear reader, there are a lot of great people out there looking for a job.  From time-to-time, I've encountered a few folks that I know I'm not going to be able to offer the job to, and they are looking for that first break. They have, something I'll call a spark, that tells me, if someone could point them in the right direction, share a few things, maybe they can find what they are looking for in their career.  ...

"You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don't try to forget the mistakes, but you don't dwell on it. You don't let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space."  - Johnny Cash There are times when our work, as a team, as testers on a team can give us insight into how we can improve things for the overall success of the product. Often those things are issues or defects which can present themselves at the most inconvenient times, in the most inconsistent ways. When we can learn from them and improve things for everyone on the team, the team benefits. When the team owns the defects and the testing strategy, not only the testers, then customers benefit as well. I was working remotely verifying a release and only had simulators and emulators to work with as I was testing mobile builds. Often folks mistrust builds which only use emulated software and not real devices for fairly good reasons...

I love doing research. It's like cheating, but with permission. Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/greg_rucka_744747  "I love doing research, it's like cheating with permission"  - Greg Rucka I had something happen during my talk at TestBash Essentials that I wish I had been a little quicker, maybe even a little more clever about how I responded to it. I've had a couple of days to chew on it, and realized this needed a blog. I was walking folks through how to research their domains. The talk was going really well. I was getting a lot of focus and engagement from the crowd. I was pumped to present this information as I think it's the very key to how testers can bring more value into their work, and into the meetings we have which helps that work evolve. The Moment Of Truth When it came time to do the first Kata/exercise of the talk, I showed examples, and said that we were going to take 30 seconds to write up a similar examples I s...