Ministry of Testing

Happy new year and welcome to episode 8 of TestSphere Roulette. Joining Simon at the roulette table are 2 more testing superstars:

Gem Hill (@gem_hill) - Principal Quality Engineer @ Cazoo

Ide Koops (@djidee) - Senior Test Specialist @ KZA

The wheel threw out some really interesting topics for conversation:

Indifferent  - Feelings

Personas - Techniques

Impartiality - Quality Aspects

Starve - Heuristics

Gem can be contacted on the following sites: 

 twitter - @Gem_Hill

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/gem-hill-69644a71/ 

Ministry of Testing Slack - @gemhill

Check out Gem’s Testing Podcasts too - “Let’s Talk About Tests, Baby” at http://letstalkabouttests.xyz/

Gem is also the founder of The Self Care Backpack - https://selfcarebackpack.com/ 

Ide can be contacted here:

Twitter - @djidee

LinkedIn -https://www.linkedin.com/in/koopside/

Ministry of Testing Slack - @djidee 

Thank you to Gem and Ide for their great discussions and to the Ministry of Testing for supporting the podcast

If you wish to find out more about TestSphere, check out RiskstormingOnline.com or find the card decks on the MoT Store

Follow the pod at @TestSpherePod on twitter

If you wish to be a guest on a future episode, fill the following form out:

https://ministryoftesting.typeform.com/to/UtrLTbdc

Sounds and Music courtesy of Zapsplat.com

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 Automation with Postman (Beth Marshall)

The Coders Guild

YouTube: Official video of Beth’s pick, with some 80s special guests

Beth’s blog posts about Postman Flows

YouTube: Software Testing And Quality Talks channel by Venkat

CNN: The Log4j security flaw could impact the entire internet

Testers Rage! playlist on Spotify

Testing Peers podcast

Simon Prior on the More Than Work podcast

Neil’s blog: PIVOT! (Job update)

Twitter thread about Neil’s favourite German pop songs

YouTube: Piano acoustic version of Neil’s song selection

Regular Links:

Listen to and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes and SoundCloud

Sign up to be a guest on the show

Testers' Island Discs playlist on Spotify

Testers' Island Discs reading list on Goodreads

Follow us on Twitter

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.

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 about TestSphere, check out RiskstormingOnline.com or find the card decks on the MoT Store

Follow the pod at @TestSpherePod on twitter

If you wish to be a guest on a future episode, fill the following form out:

https://ministryoftesting.typeform.com/to/UtrLTbdc

Sounds and Music courtesy of Zapsplat.com

Thank you for listening and we look forward to seeing you at the roulette table again soon

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?!

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 innovation within the Salesforce ecosystem. Founded by experts in the Salesforce community, Provar provides a robust test automation solution to help you deliver scalable and repeatable tests. Automated and polymorphic testing is the key to maximizing your Salesforce investment. To learn more visit provartesting.com.

Podcast Links:

Testers’ Island Discs Episode 48 - Beth Marshall

The Peace Artistes

The Coders Guild

Netflix: Coded Bias

Ady Stokes: Introducing a 7th Thinking Hat

Kelly’s blog (including Software Testing Bootcamp Showcase video)

Kelly’s Software Testing portfolio on Trello

Trello Power-Ups: List Limits

Neil on Racket: Using rewards to reflect and relax when learning

IFTTT

Zapier

Trello for Gmail Add-on

Testers’ Island Discs Community All-Request Spectacular submission form

Kelly on Twitter: @KellyKenyon14

Regular Links:

Listen to and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes and SoundCloud

Sign up to be a guest on the show

Testers' Island Discs playlist on Spotify

Testers' Island Discs reading list on Goodreads

Follow us on Twitter

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.com/events/essentials-an-introduction-to-technical-testing

Karo can be contacted on the following sites: 

 twitter - @Karostol 

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/karoline-stoltzenburg-412a42b4/ 

Lewis can be contacted here:

Twitter - @wuigprescott

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lewis-prescott-12409a44/

Thank you to Karo and Lewis for their great discussions and to the Ministry of Testing for supporting the podcast

This podcast is brought to you by mabl, an intelligent, low-code test automation solution. mabl helps Agile teams create, execute, and maintain their automated tests while improving overall application quality. Start testing free at mabl.com.

If you wish to find out more about TestSphere, check out RiskstormingOnline.com or find the card decks on the MoT Store

Follow the pod at @TestSpherePod on twitter

If you wish to be a guest on a future episode, fill the following form out: https://ministryoftesting.typeform.com/to/UtrLTbdc

Sounds and Music courtesy of Zapsplat.com

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!

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 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 boost productivity with personalized to-do lists, filters, and email notifications. Try TestRail for free today

Podcast Links:

Searchability

Meetup.com: Ministry of Testing Manchester

Meetup.com: QA Beginners Club

TestBash Manchester 2020: Gabbi Trotter - How to Build Your Personal Brand

BBC News: Scotland to trial a four-day week

Tech Team Weekly: Talking Openly About Pay

Netflix: Taylor Swift - Miss Americana

Racket

LinkedIn: Chris George post about CV length

Ministry of Testing: The Club 

Gabbi on Twitter: @Gabbibility

Regular Links:

Listen to and subscribe to this podcast on iTunes and SoundCloud

Sign up to be a guest on the show

Testers' Island Discs playlist on Spotify

Testers' Island Discs reading list on Goodreads

Follow us on Twitter