Ministry Of Testing

Neil draws 2021 to a close by welcoming calls (and emails, and Rackets) from across the testing community. Our magnificent seven guests share a festive retrospective on their accomplishments of this year, and set themselves some targets for 2022. And Neil answers the same questions for the sake of balance. Among the bumper crop of songs featured in this round-up, there are tracks with Danish, Spanish and German lyrics; four songs which were actually released this year; two returning guests pick songs by artists that they’ve chosen before; and we get a light dusting of metalcore for good measure. Plus, a lot of the songs seem to be swearier than usual! We hope that you enjoy this little slice of something different, and look forward to welcoming you back to our regular service at the end of January. Podcast Links: Ministry of Testing: TestBash UK announcement Racket YouTube: Sheppard - On My Way (Live From Eurovision Australia Decides) Test Automation University: API Test Automatio

In this extra special podcast, Mark is joined by part of the Ministry of Testing Slack moderation team including, Antonella Scaravilli, Andrew MacCormack, James Sheasby Thomas and Charles Penn. The group share a bit about themselves, how they came to be moderators and some of the challenges of being a moderator for such a large community. Check out the podcast to learn more about the amazing people who work hard to make the MoT community a place of learning and connection. This podcast is sponsored by Xray, the leading QA and Native Test Management app for Jira. With Xray you're able to streamline development and testing into a single collaborative workflow where all the requirements are naturally linked to testing.   Never overlook another test now that quality is built right into everything you develop. Say goodbye to silos with Dev and QA, united as they should be. Discover the future of native quality management and start your free trial today at getxray.app

Kristof Van Kriekingen talks to Raj Rao, the Co-Founder of AutonomIQ. Autonomous testing, what is it? Citizen testers, who are they? What are some recent trends we are seeing today in the market and how will AutonomIQ help us? Raj will explain all of these and so much more in this podcast. And… who doesn’t test their application in google chrome?!

Welcome to episode 7 of TestSphere Roulette. Joining Simon at the roulette table are 2 more testing superstars: Beren van Daele (@isleoftesting) - Quality Consultant @ Isle of IT Ben Dowen (@FullSnackTester) - Quality Engineer @ Ada Health   The wheel threw out some really interesting topics for conversation: Strangling Patterns  - Patterns Peer Reviews - Heuristics Accessibility - Quality Aspect Beren can be contacted on the following sites:   twitter - @isleoftesting LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/berenvd/  Ben can be contacted here: Twitter - @FullSnackTester LinkedIn -linkedin.com/in/dowenb/ Testing for Devs:https://www.dowen.me.uk/testing-for-developers/  Full Snack Tester website: fullsnacktester.com Tester of The Day: testeroftheday.com   Thank you to Ben and Beren for their great discussions and to the Ministry of Testing for supporting the podcast If you wish to find out more abou

Kristof Van Kriekingen talks to Anand Bagmar, from Applitools. He has over 20 years of experience in the testing field and he wants to share his experience with us. What keeps Anand motivated for over 20 years in the testing industry? They also talk about the Visual-AI & the Ultra fast Grid for Web & Mobile automation from Applitools and how to reduce using locators by 91%!

After many episodes talking about how we can help to encourage newcomers into the world of testing, Neil finally decides it’s a good idea to interview somebody who’s been through this process recently! We’re joined by Kelly Kenyon, to discuss the many (oftentimes musical) threads of her working life, and how they have eventually led her to discover the joy of testing. We discuss Kelly’s experiences at the Coders Guild Bootcamp, some of her biggest learnings and revelations, and how well it’s prepared her for the “real world”. We also get into deep discussion about the challenges of managing and moderating your learning objectives. On the music front, there are a couple of picks which speak to Kelly’s musical background, and an eclectic selection of chart hits which allow us to finally tick off a few more “I can’t believe nobody’s picked this artist before” entries. This episode is sponsored by Provar, the leading expert in accelerating

Kristof Van Kriekingen talks to Simon Knight, the lead product manager at TestRail. They talk about how someone can move from manual testing towards a job that is more DevTestOps focused, what technical skills are required for a tester and what soft skills are beneficial to improve the way of testing and so much more!

Welcome to episode 6 of TestSphere Roulette. Joining Simon at the roulette table are 2 more testing superstars: Karo Stoltzenburg (@karostol) - Senior Quality Engineer @ Ada Health Lewis Prescott (@wuigprescott) - QA Lead @ Cera Care The wheel threw out some really interesting topics for conversation: Uncertain - Feelings Disaster Control - Patterns Alerting - Observability Lewis hosted a 99-Minute Workshop which happened before the pod went live: https://www.ministryoftesting.com/events/introduction-to-contract-testing-with-pact Karo has also recently hosted a 99-minute Workshop, but made a special mention to the Essentials series on MoT too, here is the link to the course, there are also 99-minute workshops and other great content around this: https://www.ministryoftesting.com/dojo/courses/essentials-introduction-to-software-development-and-testing?s_id=12217365 The next Essentials 99-min Workshop is with Vernon Richards on 24th November: https://www.ministryoftesting.c

In an island first, we welcome a recruiter into our midst, as Gabbi Trotter swims ashore to discuss some of the challenges with hiring software testers. We look at both sides of the coin: what can candidates do to better position themselves for their dream roles, and what can companies do to attract the right talent?  We get some insider insights on how the recruitment market has evolved since the pandemic began, the perks of interviewing over Zoom, and the rising debate around remote working. And in an unlikely coincidence of scheduling, we once again get into the topic of how you can build your personal brand, especially when you don’t have the time or energy for content creation. Gabbi brings with her a slate of powerful female musicians, some of whom are making their debut on the podcast, and others which make Neil very happy indeed (you know which one in particular we mean). This episode is sponsored by TestRail: TestRail helps you manage and track your software testing efforts. Its intuiti

Welcome to episode 5 of TestSphere Roulette. Joining Simon at the roulette table are 2 more testing superstars: Neil Studd (@neilstudd) - Senior SDET @ Postman Dan Billing (@TheTestDoctor) - Senior Software Engineer @ Microsoft The wheel threw out some really interesting topics for conversation: Excited - Feelings Social Engineering - Techniques Observability - Quality Aspects Dan mentioned some useful resources particularly around the Social Engineering card: Darknet Diaries Podcast - https://darknetdiaries.com/ Goodreads list of Social Engineering books: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/11234463-dan-billing?order=d&shelf=social-engineering&sort=date_added Neil is a very active podcast host and his shows can be found here: Testers Island Discs - @testersIsland - https://www.ministryoftesting.com/dojo/series/testers-island-discs-podcast Tech Team Weekly - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU8SKyi6UjMdMwjvyYePiPw Screen Testing (with Dan

Kristof Van Kriekingen talks to Bertold Kolics, the Software Quality Manager at Mabl, an engineer at heart who enjoys solving both technical non-technical problems. He has over 20 years of experience in the testing field and he wants to share some insights with us. They talk about Mabl’s ‘Intelligent Test Automation’ system and what exactly Auto-Healing is and how it works, how low-code frameworks like Mabl will change the quality assurance industry and so much more.

Mark Winteringham guest hosts this months meet the contributor and talking with Viv Richard's about his new course "Tester's guide to DevTools". Viv shares a bit about himself, his course and his motivations for creating it and what he hopes learners will achieve. The two also discuss activity-driven learning and creating tools to facilitate learning such as Viv's Tester's Playground and Mark's RestfulBooker. Show links: A Software Tester's Guide To Chrome DevTools Tester's playground Sweet Shop Restful Booker Ticket Magpie Juice Shop Viv's Twitter Viv's Linkedin Viv's Blog TestRail helps you manage and track your software testing efforts. Its intuitive web-based user interface makes it easy to create test cases, manage test runs and coordinate your entire testing process. Easily track and follow the status of individual tests, milestones, and projects with dashboards and activity reports. Get real-time insights into your testing progress and boo

Our new host, Kristof Van Kriekingen talks to Wim Selles, a solutions architect from Sauce Labs. A man who helps customers successfully implement and get the most value out of their investment in Sauce Labs. He loves to solve puzzles and answer hard questions for customers. Problems don't exist, only challenges he said. They talk about puzzles, features and the future of Sauce Labs. Do you know what the difference is between a real & virtual mobile device? Can you run API Tests on Sauce Labs? Is our data secure? Is garlic sauce still Wims favourite sauce?

In our longest episode to date, Neil gets deep into pretty much everything with fellow podcast aficionado Chris Armstrong. We chat in-depth about Chris’s early career within the games testing industry, looking at some of the fun and not-so-fun aspects of combining work and play. There’s also the perfect chance for Neil and Chris to nerd out about their love of the Football Manager game series. It’s not just a chat about games though! We get into some thought-provoking and introspective discussions about career progression, examining how we can make opportunities open up for ourselves, and we nerd out uncontrollably about the awesome support that the testing community is always willing to offer up. On the music front, expect a variety of nu-metal, pop-punk, another Eurovision entry, and one of the unlikeliest 90s pop selections that we’ve had for a long time. This episode is sponsored by Xray, the leading QA and Native Test Management app for Jira. With Xray you're able to stream

Welcome to episode 4 of TestSphere Roulette.   Joining Simon at the roulette table are 2 more testing superstars: Maaike Brinkhof (@Maaikees)- Test Consultant and iOS Developer @ Sensibly Peet Michielsen (@peetronicsi) - Senior Verification Engineer @ Optos The wheel threw out some really interesting topics for conversation: Confident - Feelings Status Quo Bias - Patterns Distributed Systems - Dealing With Change   Maaike did a great presentation at this years TestBash Home which you can view for free here: https://ministryoftesting.com/dojo/series/testbash-home-2021/lessons/bullshit-alert-on-the-bullshitisation-of-software-testing… She can be contacted on the following places: Blog - maaikebrinkhof.nl LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/maaike-brinkhof-1942b725/    Peet is presenting a 99 Minute Workshop in season 2 for the Ministry of Testing. More info found here - ministryoftesting.com/news/new-99-minute-workshops-coming-in

On this Podcast, Mike talks to Nicola Lindgren about her article on the Ministry of Testing web site, Leading Test Teams When You’re Not A Manager https://www.ministryoftesting.com/dojo/lessons/leading-test-teams-when-you-re-not-a-manager They discuss the topic of Test Leadership and how you come to approach it without being in a position of authority, covering: What is Test Leadership? Traditional vs modern definitions Test Leadership in action - good and bad examples Are we not de-facto leaders as we are responsible for the piece of work that we deliver, to a larger team (the test team) Informal Test Leadership Test Leadership - support, skills and training needed Positives and negatives of test leadership Final thoughts and words from A Seasoned Informal Test Leader This podcast is sponsored by Provar Provar makes testing low code applications like Salesforce crazy easy. Finally! Create tests the way your users use the applications - no code required (unless you want). Be productive fr

To commemorate a half-century of episodes, we’re joined on the increasingly densely populated desert island by Sam Connelly, who hails from the 26th largest island in the world, to talk about her journey into testing and some top tips about building your personal brand, especially in the audio-visual and streaming space.  We discuss the places to gain inspiration for our brand names, the challenges of pairing online from remote timezones, setting up your personal working environment, finding motivation during lockdowns, and recommend some ways to get up-and-running with streaming quickly and cheaply. Looking at the person behind the brand, we also touch upon defining our personal values, discussing when it’s important to be transparent, which touches upon some of Sam’s hobbies which aren’t strictly NSFW but which might prompt awkward questions from young listeners; and Neil confesses to the time that he tried to tie his personal branding in with the Backstreet Boys. Among Sam&r

Welcome to episode 3 of TestSphere Roulette. Joining Simon at the roulette table are 2 more testing superstars: David Maynard (@cambridgetestuk)- Test Group Lead @ Cambridge Consultants Emna Ayadi (@emna__ayadi) - Starting a new exciting role soon! The wheel threw out some really interesting topics for conversation: Gamblers Fallacy - Patterns Continuous Delivery - Dealing with Change Claims - Heuristics David plugged the Testing Peers podcast which he is a co-host of (along with Simon), which can be found here - https://testingpeers.com David mentioned that Cambridge Consultants are hiring for different levels of tester, if you wish to find out more contact David or check out the company website: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/david-maynard-1640a126 https://www.cambridgeconsultants.com/careers   Emna is very active within the testing world and frequently blogs about her journey, she has also compiled a book with Ard Kramer which the link can be found for below: blog: https://emnaayad

Mike chats with Tamoya Beckford about her article on the Ministry of Testing: A QA Engineer’s Exit Strategy: How To Quit Like A Professional They cover: What prompted this article? When would you start to think about Career Transitions? Would it not be easier to stay where you are? What key steps would people have in place before starting on this path? Why planning is important How to approach this in a professional way Tamoya Beckford is a senior QA analyst with more than five years of experience in software quality assurance. She resides in Kingston, Jamaica and enjoys crafting, travelling and exploring new places and cultures. She can be contacted via LinkedIn : https://www.linkedin.com/in/tbeckford/   This podcast is sponsored by mabl mabl is an intelligent test automation platform for Agile teams. It’s the only SaaS solution that tightly integrates automated end-to-end testing into the entire development lifecycle.  With mabl it's easy to create, exe

With summer in full swing, we welcome Thomas Rinke to the island, to talk about his career in testing, talking through some of the challenges and achievements associated with guiding teams along their agile journey, from both a tester and manager’s perspective. We also talk further about the concept of “whole team quality”, the joy of exploratory testing, the importance of promoting team diversity, and how we can each help to elevate new voices. In an episode recorded in early July, Neil makes some eerily accurate predictions for the outcome of the rescheduled Euro 2020 tournament, and there are some rock/pop-infused musical selections that include the first appearance of a James Bond theme song. This episode is sponsored by Provar: Provar is the leading expert in Salesforce testing focused on accelerating innovation within the Salesforce ecosystem. They provide a robust test automation solution and deep Salesforce expertise to help you deliver scalable and repeatable tests to enhance rel