Testing Peers

Thanks for joining us again for another episode of the Testing Peers. In this episode we talk about a phrase and scenario which fills us all with dread and frustration - "How Did QA miss this?".

Before we dived into the main topic, Chris asked us all to think about things we currently miss that we either used to do or have... The peers responses ranged from outreach activities to playing computer games and everything in between.

With the main topic, this originally came from one of our awesome followers Mr Colin Nee with his tweet.

This triggered lots of discussion with the Peers talking about their own experiences and looking into ways to improve the cultural situation which causes this finger pointing to happen. Communication is key and improving the way testing is viewed is one way to help improve this situation.

Have a listen to our discussion and let us know what you think!

Thank you for listening. Please do get in touch if you would like to know more or would like to give us feedback to help us improve and grow.

• [email protected]
• Twitter (https://twitter.com/testingpeers)
• LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/testing-peers)
• Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/testingpeers/)
• Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/TestingPeers)
• If you like what we do and are able to, please visit our Patreon to explore how you could support us going forwards: https://www.patreon.com/testingpeers

Saffron QA is a provider of recruitment and consultancy services, exclusively for the software testing industry.

You can find out more at https://saffronqa.co.uk/  or on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/saffron-qa/

We’ve found Ben from Saffron QA to be a great partner who has signed up to the vision and values that we have set out in our Testing Peers charter and we hope that you will take the time to visit and connect with him.

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Thanks for joining us for another podcast episode. This week we talk about interview tests for Testers. We will also take a trip down memory lane and revisit how we passed or struggled to pass our driving tests. 

We'll move on from our terrible driving to talk about tests given pre interview and tests given to candidates during the face to face interviews. We share some of our experiences of giving and receiving testing tests ourselves. We'll also cover some of the risks and benefits of testing candidates and give some useful tips and tricks to help you.

Thank you for listening. Please do get in touch if you would like to know more or would like to give us feedback to help us improve and grow.

• [email protected]
• Twitter (https://twitter.com/testingpeers)
• LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/testing-peers)
• Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/testingpeers/)
• Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/TestingPeers)
• If you like what we do and are able to, please visit our Patreon to explore how you could support us going forwards: https://www.patreon.com/testingpeers

Saffron QA is a provider of recruitment and consultancy services, exclusively for the software testing industry.

You can find out more at https://saffronqa.co.uk/  or on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/saffron-qa/

We’ve found Ben from Saffron QA to be a great partner who has signed up to the vision and values that we have set out in our Testing Peers charter and we hope that you will take the time to visit and connect with him.

Support the show

Welcome to another episode of the Testing Peers Podcast.

This week join the Peers, as we discuss Communities of Practice.

After a brief cake disagreement, the Peers dive into the topic.

We define what we define a CoP as, including what the name is, what it means, as well as what other names we feel this falls under. Ultimately, we lean into the most important word in the name, community.

We also share our experiences in starting them, working in them successes and failures.

We reference Leigh Rathbone's article on LinkedIn: Communities of Practice, the why, the what, the how, and the who.

While we didn't touch on it in the recording, we highly recommend Lee Marshall's Testing Ask Me Anything - Communities of Practice.

Thank you for listening. Please do get in touch if you would like to know more or would like to give us feedback to help us improve and grow.

• [email protected]
• Twitter (https://twitter.com/testingpeers)
• LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/testing-peers)
• Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/testingpeers/)
• Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/TestingPeers)
• If you like what we do and are able to, please visit our Patreon to explore how you could support us going forwards: https://www.patreon.com/testingpeers

Saffron QA is a provider of recruitment and consultancy services, exclusively for the software testing industry.

You can find out more at https://saffronqa.co.uk/  or on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/saffron-qa/

We’ve found Ben from Saffron QA to be a great partner who has signed up to the vision and values that we have set out in our Testing Peers charter and we hope that you will take the time to visit and connect with him.

Support the show

Thanks for joining us for another podcast episode. This week we talk about why we automate but we start with what automation is and its value. 

Automation to us is a valuable tool that should focus on enhancing testing, this doesn't always mean automating test cases but can also mean automating tasks and activities. Automation isn't a silver bullet, it has both an initial investment and on going investment cost that shouldn't be ignored. 

We mention Richard Bradshaw's Ministry of Testing - TestBash 2015 "Automation in testing" talk. You can find the talk in the Ministry of Testing Dojo here if you're a Pro member.

We hope you enjoyed this conversation we'll certainly be covering different areas of automation over the coming months so please do you share your feedback and an particular questions.

Thank you for listening. Please do get in touch if you would like to know more or would like to give us feedback to help us improve and grow.

• [email protected]
• Twitter (https://twitter.com/testingpeers)
• LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/testing-peers)
• Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/testingpeers/)
• Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/TestingPeers)
• If you like what we do and are able to, please visit our Patreon to explore how you could support us going forwards: https://www.patreon.com/testingpeers

Saffron QA is a provider of recruitment and consultancy services, exclusively for the software testing industry.

You can find out more at https://saffronqa.co.uk/  or on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/saffron-qa/

We’ve found Ben from Saffron QA to be a great partner who has signed up to the vision and values that we have set out in our Testing Peers charter and we hope that you will take the time to visit and connect with him.

Support the show

Welcome to the final episode of our first anniversary month.

As mentioned in episode 28, the Peers don’t really do brevity, so we had to record an additional episode to cover some more questions that you, the listeners, kindly submitted.

And even still, we didn’t get through them all, so we may need to revisit them again sometime, or perhaps with a blooper reel on our Patreon.

This episode kicks off with the Peers discussing questions that we hate, before moving on to questions that we love, kindly submitted this time by:

• Melissa Fisher
• Ben Dowen
• Chris Armstrong
• Stephen Denman
• Mirza Sisic
• Sadee Akhtar

Some of the topics covered include:

• Career options for testers
• Automation
• Snacks
• Hobbies
• DDD
• DEI

A great deal of thanks to all our listeners who have supported us over this last year. We hope that we continue to improve and we really welcome your feedback.

Thank you for listening. Please do get in touch if you would like to know more or would like to give us feedback to help us improve and grow.

• [email protected]
• Twitter (https://twitter.com/testingpeers)
• LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/testing-peers)
• Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/testingpeers/)
• Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/TestingPeers)
• If you like what we do and are able to, please visit our Patreon to explore how you could support us going forwards: https://www.patreon.com/testingpeers

Saffron QA is a provider of recruitment and consultancy services, exclusively for the software testing industry.

You can find out more at https://saffronqa.co.uk/  or on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/saffron-qa/

We’ve found Ben from Saffron QA to be a great partner who has signed up to the vision and values that we have set out in our Testing Peers charter and we hope that you will take the time to visit and connect with him.

Support the show

Thanks for joining us for another podcast episode. On this weeks, we talk about all things certification. We discuss the value of testing certifications, what role they play in our hiring practices and any alternatives that may be worth considering.

Russell took us on a journey into our pasts to look at what we may of overachieved in during our younger days before diving into the main topic.

When discussing the certifications, the peers touch on the difference between the knowledge learned and the value of the multiple choice examinations. The real value is that certifications can often give you a foot in the door and a glossary of terms to go and learn more.

We touch on whether we should have it in our CVs for jobs and what benefits that may give candidates to have it in there. But the key concern raised is around it being held as a Badge of Honour. We do agree that it is worth encouraging people to complete the ISTQB foundation as it can solidify knowledge, but it is by no means a mandatory part of the requirements for a testing role.

We do mention other courses such as the more advanced ISTQB courses and also the Black Box Software Testing courses, Rapid Software Testing, Scrum Master and the Ministry of Testing Essentials too.

Collaborative learning is also touched upon, doing the courses as a team can sometimes help the learning across the team to ensure all are on the same page.

Let us know your experiences of certifications and your thoughts on the value.

Thank you for listening. Please do get in touch if you would like to know more or would like to give us feedback to help us improve and grow.

• [email protected]
• Twitter (https://twitter.com/testingpeers)
• LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/testing-peers)
• Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/testingpeers/)
• Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/TestingPeers)
• If you like what we do and are able to, please visit our Patreon to explore how you could support us going forwards: https://www.patreon.com/testingpeers

Saffron QA is a provider of recruitment and consultancy services, exclusively for the software testing industry.

You can find out more at https://saffronqa.co.uk/  or on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/saffron-qa/

We’ve found Ben from Saffron QA to be a great partner who has signed up to the vision and values that we have set out in our Testing Peers charter and we hope that you will take the time to visit and connect with him.

Support the show

This episode has perhaps the best intro ever?

One year into the Testing Peers Podcast project, and we are coming to you with an AMA.

For today's episode, we asked you, our listeners for some questions.

Special thanks for the question for this episode to:

• Beth Marshall
• Peet Michielsen
• Claire Reckless
• Lewis Prescott
• Bruce (the Legend)
• Melissa Fisher
• Ben Dowen

Now, the Peers and brevity aren't two things that go hand in hand, so we have split this AMA into two episodes, the second of which will be released in two weeks.

Here are a couple of useful links that we mentioned in the episode:

• 30 Things Every New Software Tester Should Learn
• RiskStorming online
• Tester of the Day - nominate here

A great deal of thanks to all our listeners who have supported us over this last year. We hope that we continue to improve and we really welcome your feedback.

Thank you for listening. Please do get in touch if you would like to know more or would like to give us feedback to help us improve and grow.

• [email protected]
• Twitter (https://twitter.com/testingpeers)
• LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/testing-peers)
• Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/testingpeers/)
• Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/TestingPeers)
• If you like what we do and are able to, please visit our Patreon to explore how you could support us going forwards: https://www.patreon.com/testingpeers

Saffron QA is a provider of recruitment and consultancy services, exclusively for the software testing industry.

You can find out more at https://saffronqa.co.uk/  or on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/saffron-qa/

We’ve found Ben from Saffron QA to be a great partner who has signed up to the vision and values that we have set out in our Testing Peers charter and we hope that you will take the time to visit and connect with him.

Support the show

Welcome to another episode of the Testing Peers. This episode is special to us for two reasons. Firstly, this is being released exactly a year since we released our first episode and it is humbling to see how far we have come in that year and how many of you have listened.

Secondly, and more importantly for this episode, it’s Mental Health Awareness Week from 10th-14th May which means it felt like a good time to release an episode about our own experiences around Mental Health, specifically Burnout. This is something we have all experienced in recent years and we talk about the characteristics of what burnout can manifest like.

Before we dived into the main topic, Chris lead us into a discussion of our favourite video game franchises, tenuously linked to the topic by Chris’ love of the game “Burnout”.

Burnout is a very real thing and as we discussed, it can present itself in very different ways. You can become disengaged, overworked, lethargic, emotional and many other feelings. What is important is that once you recognise it, or lucky enough to have people around to help you identify it, is that you find someone to talk to and help change things to alleviate the feelings.

There are lots of resources out there which can help you, below are some links to some of these which were mentioned in the episode:

• mind.org
• Simon’s Baptism of Fire talk – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hC9Koh71Ols
• Chris’s mental health Blog posts – Here and here
• Another resource, although not mentioned in the episode would be this talk by Maryam Umar

Don’t struggle in silence, reach out to family, friends or someone online, you’ll be surprised how many people would be willing to talk over zoom/teams/hangout etc and support you. The Testers hangout is a great place to find people to chat to, whether about your struggles or just someone to socialise with, sometimes, that can really help.

Any of the Peers would take time to support too, feel free to contact us via the usual channels.

Thank you for listening. Please do get in touch if you would like to know more or would like to give us feedback to help us improve and grow.

• [email protected]
• Twitter (https://twitter.com/testingpeers)
• LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/testing-peers)
• Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/testingpeers/)
• Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/TestingPeers)
• If you like what we do and are able to, please visit our Patreon to explore how you could support us going forwards: https://www.patreon.com/testingpeers

Saffron QA is a provider of recruitment and consultancy services, exclusively for the software testing industry.

You can find out more at https://saffronqa.co.uk/  or on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/saffron-qa/

Support the show

Thank you for joining us for another episode. On this episode, we are talking about our experiences of leading upwards and allowing our teams to lead us. This topic came from our good friend Beth Marshall who sent us a tweet asking for our thoughts on tips with leading our managers and other senior stakeholders.

Before diving into the topic, Simon asks the peers what apps or technology has changed the way they all do things. Honourable mentions here for Last.Fm, Timehop, Strava, Apple Watches (Simon has finally got one), and how could we not mention Chris and Russell’s epic Poke war on Facebook.

To start the main discussion, the peers all mention their experiences with reporting into a test leader or wider engineering/technology leaders and the differences between them.

A key theme with this whole episode is ensuring the communication channels with your leaders is open consistently, this builds a positive relationship, trust and accountability in both directions.

Experiences (both positive/negative) with leading upwards are discussed including how they have dealt with micro-management and providing dashboards to help their bosses and other senior stakeholders.

The peers the discuss how they get their teams to lead them, all sharing tips on how to build those relationships and enable them to grow.

We hope you enjoyed this conversation and as always, we would love to hear your thoughts on the topic.

Thank you for listening. Please do get in touch if you would like to know more or would like to give us feedback to help us improve and grow.

• [email protected]
• Twitter (https://twitter.com/testingpeers)
• LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/testing-peers)
• Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/testingpeers/)
• Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/TestingPeers)
• If you like what we do and are able to, please visit our Patreon to explore how you could support us going forwards: https://www.patreon.com/testingpeers

Saffron QA is a provider of recruitment and consultancy services, exclusively for the software testing industry.

You can find out more at https://saffronqa.co.uk/  or on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/saffron-qa/

We’ve found Ben from Saffron QA to be a great partner who has signed up to the vision and values that we have set out in our Testing Peers charter and we hope that you will take the time to visit and connect with him.

Support the show

Welcome to the 25th episode of the Testing Peers Podcast.

Join Russell, David and Chris as we discuss the unexpected.

After talking about unexpected or anti-climactic events in our lives, specifically food and movies, we look at how it applies to us in the workplace.

Whether it is a colleague leaving unexpectedly (or even if it isn't a surprise), or being blindsided by surprising appraisals, changes to project scope, or team dynamic shift - we all have to deal with the unexpected.

We share what we can do to prepare or mitigate, taking perspective and ensuring that we communicate and empathise.

The five stages of grief are brought up, and that is something that applies well.

Leaders have an obligation to communicate, empathise, and minimise the unexpected nature. Big things require the personal touch, we need to consider the optics of what has happened, as well as the feelings of the people. Treating people as individuals, trusting our guts, communicating.

We discuss what dealing with the unexpected events in life means to us, as we progress. Do we gain wisdom, do they shape us, help us to appreciate the better things?

Julius Caesar

Thank you for listening. Please do get in touch if you would like to know more or would like to give us feedback to help us improve and grow.

• [email protected]
• Twitter (https://twitter.com/testingpeers)
• LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/testing-peers)
• Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/testingpeers/)
• Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/TestingPeers)
• If you like what we do and are able to, please visit our Patreon to explore how you could support us going forwards: https://www.patreon.com/testingpeers

Saffron QA is a provider of recruitment and consultancy services, exclusively for the software testing industry.

You can find out more at https://saffronqa.co.uk/  or on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/saffron-qa/

We’ve found Ben from Saffron QA to be a great partner who has signed up to the vision and values that we have set out in our Testing Peers charter and we hope that you will take the time to visit and connect with him.

Support the show