Testers' Island Discs Ep47 - Simon Tomes

This month, we’re joined by Simon Tomes, who in a complete coincidence has just begun a role as CommunityBoss at Ministry of Testing! Simon talks to us about the many different hats that he’s worn in his career, including being the co-founder of TestBuddy, a tool to support the capturing and sharing of exploratory testing notes.

In a show which is a useful companion to the previous episode, we get deep into the nitty-gritty of exploratory testing: How do you estimate timeboxes if you’re testing something completely new? What categories of information do you capture during exploratory testing charters? And how do you engage others with the output of your sessions?

Along the way, Simon takes a (very) deep dive into five songs which all feature elements of exploration, teaching us elements of music theory and trying not to mention the time that Prince choreographed a Batman-themed dance routine.

This episode is sponsored by Provar: Struggling with the complexities of building and maintaining tests given the impact of localization (running tests that work for various languages, time zones, etc.)? Learn more about simplifying test automation for global companies in this complimentary white paper: https://bit.ly/32xyIri

Podcast Links:

Simon Tomes joins Ministry of Testing

TestBuddy

YouTube: Simon’s Exploratory Testing Conversations series

YouTube: Simon’s conversation with Lee Hawkins

Simon’s blog: Encourage new voices

Tim’s Twitter Listening Party

Explore Galore: 30 Tips to Supercharge your Exploratory Testing Efforts

Wikipedia: Pomodoro Technique

YouTube: Prince - Batdance

Categorising notes with PQIP (Problems, Questions, Ideas, Praise)

Twitter: Rajit Singh

YouTube: Let’s Explore, Episode 4: Neil explores with TestBuddy

Simon’s “bold boast”: Welcome to Adventures in Community Building

YouTube: Bernard Purdie explains the Purdie Shuffle

Simon on Twitter (@simon_tomes)

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