Testing Peers

Welcome to another episode of the Testing Peers. On this one, we are discussing how companies can attract the best talent to their testing roles. 

Before we dived into the main topic, David asked us to think of occasions where we had taken a punt (much like sometimes companies do with their hiring) and whether it paid off or not. It's fair to say, most of the scenarios covered by the peers ended in failure, including Simon's attempt to be the ultimate romantic, but we are saved by David's culinary expertise and Chris reminds us of the punt we took with this podcast and it isn't doing too badly is it?

When they dived into the main topic, the Peers talk about how companies can stand out to attract the right kind of candidates and discuss many of their own anecdotes along the way. Is it just about the roles or can the company stand out by the benefits they offer and the working environment?

Russell also asks what a great tester is, which of course is subjective for all the peers, although that "P" word is mentioned again.

What do you think makes a company stand out and how do they attract the best talent for their testing roles?

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.

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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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Welcome to episode 23 of the Testing Peers. This time we talk about reputation and brand. We cover what it is, why it matters and some tips to help you.

This week we start off discussing Beth Marhshall's reputation audit template. A great tool for self reflection on your reputation.

We move on to discuss how reputations can be a double edged sword that can help and hinder you. This leads us to share some of our experiences on our own reputation and our wider thoughts on brand. 

We conclude by sharing our top tips and advice on building your reputation which apply no matter what your role or seniority is. 

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 episode 22 of the Testing Peers podcast. This week the Peers tackle exploratory testing.

After the important check-in on David’s potato harvest, Simon asks us if our curiosity has ever led to us breaking anything – which eventually leads us to the main event.

What do we mean by exploratory testing?

How does it differ from ad-hoc testing?

What skills are required?

How can we tackle the KPI/Metrics conversation?

Have we been exploratory testing without explicitly calling it that?

The Peers mention a lot of really useful resources as well:

• Explore It!: Reduce Risk and Increase Confidence with Exploratory Testing – Elisabeth Hendrickson
• Exploratory Software Testing: Tips, Tricks, Tours, and Techniques to Guide Test Design – James Whittaker
• Exploratory Testing with the Team, a Journey Worth Taking – Maaike Brinkhof
• Five Years of Mob Testing, Hello to Ensemble Testing – Maaret Pyhäjärvi
• TestBuddy – Simon Tomes
• A new model for test strategies… (An update to the Heuristic Test Strategy Model) – Dan Ashby

We really appreciate all the feedback that we have received and invite you to get in touch with us:

• [email protected]
• Twitter (https://twitter.com/testingpeers)
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• 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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Welcome to episode 21 of the Testing Peers and thank you for sticking with us. What better topic to discuss for our Valentines Day release than our experiences of dealing with conflict? 

We are a three again for this episode with David's dulcet tones missing from the recording. So Simon, Russell and Chris do their best to fill the void.

The peers start by discussing how they deal with arguments/disagreements generally in everyday life (and it seems like Russell and Simon deal in similar ways) before diving into their experience with conflicts they have had in the workplace.

We conclude by discussing ways in which we as leaders need to behave during conflict. 

Did Simon and Russell actually disagree on something?? Surely not!

Hope you enjoy this episode and as always, please feel free to get in touch and tell us what you think.

We really appreciate all the feedback that we have received and invite you to get in touch with us:

• [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 episode 20 of the Testing Peers podcast.

In this episode, the Peers discuss something that we all are confronted with in life - imposter syndrome.

The Peers open by defining what we see imposter syndrome is and is not.

Terms like 'feeling out of depth', 'shame', 'new pupil at school' are used and we can all resonate with them.

We talk about our own experiences, both in starting new jobs and as attendees, or even speakers at conferences and meetups.

The conversation moves on to how we, as leaders, can help those new to our teams - be that documents, time spent with them, expectations etc.

The Peers then talk about that which we have imposter syndrome about, and ask each other and you, our listeners to help us be not only held accountable, but also encouraged and supported.

We really appreciate all the feedback that we have received and invite you to get in touch with us:

• [email protected]
• Twitter (https://twitter.com/testingpeers)
• LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/testing-peers)
• Instagram (https://www.instagram.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 Testing Peers! Each New Year, many of us reflect on the year we've had and think about the year ahead of us. We make resolution for the items we want keep doing or change we want to make. It seems quite timely to be talking about retrospectives and sharing our thoughts and experience in this episode.

There are many different contexts that a retrospective can be useful to not just for Scrum but agile, projects and life in general. At Testing Peers (virtual) HQ we love retrospectives. We've held two for our podcast so far and have another planned. It's a way to reflect and to come up with ideas and actions for things to keep, change or to provide kudos to people or yourself. 

In the episode we share our ideas around facilitating, creating a safe space to reflect, taking actions and mention a tool we find useful - https://metroretro.io/

We really appreciate all the feedback that we have received and invite you to get in touch with us:

• [email protected]
• Twitter (https://twitter.com/testingpeers)
• LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/testing-peers)
• Instagram (https://www.instagram.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

Happy new year and welcome to the first Testing Peers episode of 2021. Hopefully, you have all managed to enjoy the holiday season given the restrictions.

In this episode, the Peers discuss one of Simon’s pet projects. We discuss the lack of testing being taught in Universities and how we as an industry can help to attract more people into testing roles. We also talk about what skills we should look for when hiring people into first testing roles.

This leads us onto discussing a syllabus which Russell had previously put together for new aspiring testers which he shared at the Testing Folks meet-up. 

If you have any thoughts on this subject and how we as an industry could do more to attract others into testing, get in touch and let us know your thoughts.

We really appreciate all the feedback that we have received and invite you to get in touch with us:

• [email protected]
• Twitter (https://twitter.com/testingpeers)
• LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/testing-peers)
• Instagram (https://www.instagram.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 have found Ben from Saffron QA to be a partner who 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

In this the last episode of the Testing Peers podcast of 2020, join Festive Cheers with the Testing Peers for our special Christmas episode.

In this special edition of the podcast, the Peers are joined by four friends of the podcast who kindly agreed to give up some of their time to join us for our recording.

We were joined by Shey Crompton, Bruce, Beth Marshall and Dave Shorter.

After we get to know each other discussing Christmas songs that we skip we get into the main event.

RiskStorming Santa's 2020.

We use the wonderful RiskStorming Online tool to identify the key quality aspects for Santa this year and identify the various risks around this. We have a great time debating the risks Santa faces this year and below is the outcome of our hard graft. Apologies for the terrible spelling and grammar.

RiskStorming-Santas-2020Download

We have all had such a wonderful time making this podcast this year, and we are so grateful to each and every one of you who has taken the time to not only listen to the podcast, but to feedback to us, engage and even share your thoughts on the pod online, we really appreciate it so much. Thank you!

The thanks doesn't end there though.....

We asked our friends joining us for the recording to nominate a charity for us to donate to, as a thanks. If you are looking for worthy charities then please consider these nominated below:

Dave Shorter  - Jimmy’s Cambridge - “They do great work supporting the homeless around Cambridge. More than ever at this time of year it’s important no one feels alone or unsupported.”

Beth Marshall and Bruce - OffTheRecordBristol - “OTR Bristol run an lgbt+ youth group called Freedom, which was the first place I [Bruce] felt safe openly talking about my gender and sexuality. They keep an excellent tea selection."

Shey Crompton - Mind - "In a world that is full of anxiety and uncertainty, more than ever having experts to help us with our mental health is important."

We really appreciate all the feedback that we have received and invite you to get in touch with us:

• [email protected]
• Twitter (https://twitter.com/testingpeers)
• LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/testing-peers)
• Instagram (https://www.instagram.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 have found Ben from Saffron QA to be a partner who 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

Thank you for joining us again! We had the great pleasure of being asked to do a live recording of our podcast at the EuroSTAR conference this year. Due to the kind of world we are living in at present where everyone is working remotely, conferences are virtual and we are all socially distancing, we thought we would discuss the topic of this remote world we now find our selves in.

Unfortunately, Simon and family had the unfortunate pleasure of a stomach bug on the day of recording, but the remaining Peers have a good discussion, and Dembe (Russell's dog) certainly steps in well as the 4th Peer! 

Chris asks the question of what it would have been like for them to start their careers again, but from a perspective they were working from home. 

From there the discussion meanders onto experiences with meetings virtually and onto the differences with conferences, are they creating the same buzz? Or at least some buzz anyway!

We really appreciate all the feedback that we have received and invite you to get in touch with us:

• [email protected]
• Twitter (https://twitter.com/testingpeers)
• LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/testing-peers)
• Instagram (https://www.instagram.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 have found Ben from Saffron QA to be a partner who 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 episode 15 of the Testing Peers Podcast.

After getting over the initial disappointment of Russell not making this episode, the Peers talk about dealing with wider disappointments. We start with the disappointment of old films in retrospect, but eventually move on disappointments within testing. 

There are various forms of disappointment we face in our day-to-day roles. Sometimes we fear we've disappointed our customers, colleagues, our teams, our partner or our own leaders. As testers we often place a high expectation on the quality of our work, on few bugs escaping, and on customers being happy. It's sometimes hard to live up to our own expectations of ourselves. 

We share our insight into how we've coped or haven't. What we did to help ourselves and what we look for in others. Perhaps our musings will help you too. 

As people and as leaders we know we have disappointment at times. Sometimes it's little things and sometimes it's life changing to us or others. We all have our own coping strategies and it will vary on the problem and person but personally I'd always advise taking perspective. Walk away, talk to someone, rubber duck it, write it down and above all look at it from different angles - micro or macro. 

Martin Luther King, Jr

We really appreciate all the feedback that we have received and invite you to get in touch with us:

• [email protected]
• Twitter (https://twitter.com/testingpeers)
• LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/testing-peers)
• Instagram (https://www.instagram.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 have found Ben from Saffron QA to be a partner who 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