Celebrate Saint Patrick’s Day with QA in a Box as we explore the Shamrock Rule of Testing! 🍀 A great test case has three essential parts: Input, Process, and Output—just like a lucky shamrock. Join Chris Ryan and our ever-clueless CTO as they discuss QA best practices, hilarious testing blunders, and why missing test steps can be more dangerous than a mischievous leprechaun.

🎙️ Tune in now for an entertaining and insightful take on software testing!

🔗 Visit: www.cryan.com/Podcast

Join host Chris Ryan and CTO on QA in a Box as they explore the surprising benefits of allowing failure in automated testing. Learn how frameworks like Playwright use soft assertions to keep your tests running—and discover Pytest alternatives like the pytest-soft-assert plugin. Uncover how capturing multiple failures in one go can lead to deeper insights, stronger QA culture, and more robust software. Tune in to www.cryan.com/Podcast to embrace the power of failure and revolutionize your automation strategy!

Dive into this episode of "QA in a Box" with host Chris Ryan as he reveals the unexpected link between the Boston Massacre of March 5, 1770, and Software Quality Assurance. Explore how miscommunication sparked a historical disaster and learn how it mirrors the chaos of unclear software requirements. From structured testing processes to automation and regression testing, this fun, engaging discussion delivers practical QA lessons with a historical twist. Subscribe now and visit www.cryan.com/Podcast for more insights!

Keywords: Software Quality Assurance, Boston Massacre, software testing, QA podcast, automation, regression testing, clear requirements, testing process, history, Chris Ryan.

Welcome to another exciting episode of QA in a Box, hosted by Chris Ryan, where we dive into the core fundamentals of Quality Assurance that stand strong, even in the age of Automation and AI. Discover why critical thinking, user empathy, and manual exploratory testing remain timeless pillars of QA, despite rapidly evolving software testing tools and techniques.

“No matter how advanced AI gets, the human element remains a cornerstone of quality software,” says our resident podcast CTO.

“Ultimately, the best user experiences come from a team that truly understands their customers’ pain points,” adds Alice Jacobs, our podcast Product Lead.

Tune in to hear how fostering a quality mindset and strong communication keeps QA relevant and irreplaceable. Whether you’re a seasoned QA professional or just starting your bug hunting journey, this episode offers invaluable insights to help you stay ahead in the ever-changing world of software development.

Post-release issues can derail a smooth deployment. In this episode of QA in a Box, host Chris Ryan breaks down the Release Engineering Queue Boss – the key role ensuring stability after a software release. Learn how this rotating responsibility minimizes downtime, accelerates bug resolution, and fosters engineering accountability.

📌 Key Takeaways: ✔️ What the Queue Boss does and why it’s essential ✔️ How to determine if a bug is release-related ✔️ Best practices for rotating the role ✔️ Leadership insights on its impact

🔗 Listen now at www.cryan.com/Podcast

#SoftwareTesting #QA #ReleaseEngineering #DevOps #SoftwareDevelopment #Agile #Debugging #PostRelease

Are you still testing at the end of your development cycle? It’s time to Shift Left! In this episode of QA in a Box, host Chris Ryan explores how Shift Left Testing is transforming software development by embedding quality earlier in the process. Learn how automation, continuous testing, and predictive analytics can help prevent defects, shorten test cycles, and increase accountability. Featuring insights from industry leaders, this episode is a must-listen for QA professionals, developers, and tech leaders looking to enhance software quality. Tune in now and take the first step towards a quality-first mindset!

Listen now at www.cryan.com/Podcast

Podcast Name: QA in a Box Episode Title: What is QA? Unpacking Quality Assurance One Bug at a Time Host: Chris Ryan Website: www.cryan.com/Podcast Release Date: February 20, 2025  

Description: Welcome to QA in a Box, the podcast where we unpack the wild and wonderful world of Quality Assurance—one bug at a time! I’m your host, Chris Ryan, and on Day 24 of our podcast journey, we’re tackling a big question: What is QA?  

This episode was sparked by an email from listener Lester K. (shoutout to Lester!), who asked for my take on Quality Assurance. Spoiler alert: It’s not just about breaking software or drowning in paperwork! QA is the unsung hero ensuring your apps don’t crash mid-pizza order, your sandwich bread stays mold-free, and your space probes don’t nosedive into Mars. From tech to fast food, QA is everywhere—and we’re here to prove it’s way more fun than it sounds!  

🎙️ Host: Chris Ryan 🌐 Website: www.cryan.com/Podcast

Would you trust a $10 haircut? Probably not—because experience teaches us that cheap doesn’t always mean good. In this episode of QA in a Box, we dive into the classic story of "We Fix $10 Haircuts" and what it means for software testing and QA.

Companies often chase the cheapest or fastest testing solutions, only to realize later that cutting corners comes at a cost—bug fixes, lost customers, and expensive rework. We'll explore:

💰 Cheap Testing: Rushed test cycles, lack of proper coverage, and a "just ship it" mentality. 🔧 Quality Testing: Thorough validation, risk-based approaches, and long-term reliability.

Hear a real-world example of how a company’s decision to use a budget-friendly logging tool led to inefficiencies, missing functionality, and wasted time.

Bottom line? You can pay for quality upfront—or you can pay for it later. But you will pay for it.

🔊 Listen now and make sure your QA strategy isn’t just a $10 haircut waiting to be fixed!

Before you escalate a bug, are you really sure it’s a bug? In this episode of QA in a Box, host Chris Ryan shares a real-life QA investigation where a reported issue in Google AdWords turned out to be caused by an experimental feature, not a system-wide failure. By digging deeper before escalating, Chris saved the development team from chasing a ghost bug and ensured the issue was properly documented for future cases.

Join us as we break down the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) to show why double-checking before leaping can make you a smarter, more efficient QA professional. Plus, hear practical takeaways on how to prioritize issues and avoid unnecessary escalations.

🎧 Listen now and level up your QA instincts! 🔗 More episodes at www.cryan.com/Podcast.

What happens when the lights go out on the biggest stage in sports?

In this episode of QA in a Box, we’re rewinding to SuperBowl 47, aka The Blackout Bowl—when the Superdome went dark for 34 minutes in the middle of the game. The Baltimore Ravens were dominating, the 49ers were on the ropes, and then... BOOM! Half the stadium lost power.

For football fans, it was a shocking moment. But for QA professionals, it was a real-world case study in production failures, redundancy failures, and risk mitigation.

In this episode, we break down:

• The events leading up to the blackout
• Why the stadium’s redundancy plan failed
• What QA lessons we can learn from this unexpected disaster
• How Super Bowl outages compare to real-world software production failures

Just like in QA, production will always find the bug you missed—and SuperBowl 47 proved it on the world’s biggest stage.

So, how do we prepare for the unexpected? Let’s break it down in this week’s episode of QA in a Box!

Listen now at www.cryan.com/Podcast!