Testing Peers

Welcome to episode 14 of the Testing Peers Podcast.

This week, the Peers have new mics and are a trio for the first time. We will be working out in the coming weeks how to best configure these, any feedback on this is always welcome. Great thanks again to our sponsor Saffron QA for enabling us to work on these audio improvements - more details about Saffron QA can be found in the footer of this post.

We tackle the age old baggage that is, defect management, or perhaps bugs or issues, or whatever you want to call them!

After initially setting the scene discussing bugs in the wild - hello COVID track and trace apps! - we discuss when to raise defects, what processes work and in which tools.

We share stories of various frustrations and how metrics can ultimately be gamed - please don't use bugs as metrics in development!

From technical debt to triage boards, the discussion takes us on a journey that ultimately ends with the need for pragmatism and clear communication, no matter whether you are working in V-model, Agile, Waterfall or other.

Thank you for continuing to support our podcast by tuning in.

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.

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In this episode, the Peers talk about their journey of personal development. We all come from varied backgrounds into testing so as you can imagine, the learnings paths we take to get where we are today are just as different. 

When talking about how we developed, it became clear the importance of having people around to aid us, support us and guide us to where we want to be. Russell discusses how his learning was impacted by reporting to a DBA and Simon talks about needing that mentor to help him channel his learning. The testing community is mentioned several times and without amazing resources such as the Ministry of Testing, meet-ups and conferences, our development may have been very different. Simon shares how he used his blog to develop himself and that it hit him hard when an early blog was criticised on Twitter. 

Chris asks the Peers about their motivation to learn and grow and the answers discussed vary from getting the roles you desire, simply being the best you can and challenging yourself to prove the value of the role. 

We also discussed things we learned in earlier life that we couldn’t get enough of and tried to share with people who may not be as interested. Everything from football, Marvel, AC Cobras and DNA are mentioned and David gives us some insights into his teaching life too.

Let us know of your learning journeys, what motivated you? Are there things you wish you’d learned earlier? 

We welcome feedback, please reach out to us Twitter, LinkedIn or email [email protected]

Also, feel free to support us on Patreon at https://patreon.com/testingpeers

As we announced on our previous podcast we are now sponsored by Saffron QA. 

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 12 of the Testing Peers Podcast.

This time the Peers are using a Donna Summer reference for all you music fans to discus when is enough testing enough. The question that drives many a test discussion be it with a stakeholder or amongst testers, when is enough testing enough?

As we meander to our discussions you'll find out a little insight into the Peers competitiveness at family games. Are we all win at all costs people or more meh whatever. You'll have to listen to find out!

The Peers share a little on their experience on helping guide enough is enough in the world of testing. We'll cover some of the key leavers that help you plot a path though the fog and varies depending on what your doing and where your doing it. 

We end on mentioning 'The One Page Test Plan' by Claire Reckless which is a great tool and as promised on the podcast it can found on the Ministry of Testing Dojo here.

Hopefully you wont' have had enough of us after this episode and keep on listening a new episode will be with you in 2 weeks. Until then feel free to listen back to our previous episodes.

We welcome feedback, please reach out to us Twitter, LinkedIn or email [email protected] 

Also feel free to support us on Patreon at https://patreon.com/testingpeers

As we announce on our last podcast we are now sponsored by Saffron QA. 

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/

Our initial goal with this sponsorship is to improve the quality of the audio equipment which were hoping to source next week, fingers crossed.

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 11 of the Testing Peers Podcast.

This time the Peers are following on from episodes 6 and 8, where we covered CVs and preparing for interviews with our Patreon voted topic of Telephone Interviews.

Patreon you say? 

Why yes, we have a Patreon available at https://patreon.com/testingpeers

If you like what we do and want to support us, then please do visit and consider becoming a Testing Peers Patron.

Anyway, back to the episode at hand.

The Peers touch on experiences as interviewers and as candidates. 

We cover preparations, accessibility, considerations, questions, timings, distinguishing the difference between a phone interview and an in-person interview.

Multi-staged interviews aren’t going anywhere. Ultimately, we really see the future of initial ‘screening’ interviews taking place more on the likes of Zoom and Google Meet.

Thank you for taking the time to listen to our podcast. If you have any feedback, please reach out on Twitter, LinkedIn or email [email protected]

We are pleased to announce that we now sponsored by SaffronQA. 

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/

Our initial goal with this sponsorship is to improve the quality of the audio equipment. We have found Ben from SaffronQA 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 10. We’ve made it to double figures! Thank you to everyone who has downloaded one or more of our earlier episodes and given us the encouragement to keep this going.

In this episode, the Peers talk about our thoughts on what testing may be like in 10 years time. What will the tech world look like? How will testers have evolved? Will we still be debating whether manual testing is needed? 

We also cover what we as leaders will need to do to enable our teams to progress and stay relevant as technology advances. 

Chris tells us about the ketchup competition he entered and this triggers the peers discussing their successes (or lack of) with competitions. Including Simon winning a “Pontins Prince” competition which he has added a pic to our Twitter.

No puppy update this week but Simon has now got his puppies and Russell’s is arriving in a week or so. Check out #PeersPaws on twitter for more pics. David will also be adding some pics of his beloved Digby.

 We thank you once again for taking the time to listen to our podcast and would love more of your feedback. Please reach out on Twitter @testingpeers or via email: [email protected] 

If you like what we are doing and want to support us as we strive to create more content, please consider becoming a Testing Peers patron at https://www.patreon.com/testingpeers

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Welcome to episode 9 of the Testing Peers podcast.

In this episode, we talk about passion.

This is a topic that was inspired by a post by Philip Wong in the Podcasters Club in Ministry of Testing’s The Club: https://club.ministryoftesting.com/t/introduce-your-podcast/40932/5?u=christovskia

We are conscious that the word passion can mean quite different things depending on the context.

In this episode, we talk about how we might define passion, how we have experienced it and also how we perceive it. We talk about how people display their passion in person and also in written form, and we joke about our own use of the word in our CVs, social media etc.

We discuss some of the pitfalls of passion, as well as the benefits.

The Peers also touch on childhood passions, before it obviously became all about quality!

We thank you once again for taking the time to listen to our podcast and would love more of your feedback. Please reach out on Twitter @testingpeers or via email: [email protected] 

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Welcome to episode eight of the Testing Peers podcast.

This week, the Peers are following on from our CV episode (Podcast Episode 6 – CVs) with a discussion around interviews. Tips, techniques, pet peeves and of course, David's potato harvest.

We discuss how to prepare for an interview as both an interviewer and an interviewee, how we use CVs and research the company.

Bias and objectivity are covered, and the struggles around that.

Peeves covered include salary conversations and communication of next steps.

We hope you enjoy the episode, and we look forward to hearing any of your feedback.

Thank you!

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Welcome to episode 7 of the Testing Peers Podcast. Yes, we made it to 7 episodes!

This week the peers are going to reflect a little on who initially inspired our testing journeys and also give you an insight into some of the books that have helped us on our way.

As a group of peers, we can all say it was a talk or an event that inspired us to be more engaged in testing.  Hearing someone passionate about a subject talk and share their knowledge ignited a desire in us to learn more. Right now more and more events are online and many are free. Check out @TestConferences on twitter, meetup.com or Mot Meetups, MoT events, testingconferences.org to name a few places to get ideas.

Events aren't the only way to find inspiration, everyone finds inspiration in different ways. If you're reading this you'll already be looking at blogs or podcasts they're also a great way to find inspiration. You can also read articles, newsletters and twitter is home to many testers.  In this episode, we also mention a few of the books that we found useful but we'd love to know your suggestions so feel free to comment on our blog, twitter @testingpeers, or email us [email protected].

Finally thank you for supporting us, we've had over 1200 downloads in our first 90 days which is amazing!  If you've liked what you've heard and want to support us improve its quality (we really could do with some microphones) we'd really appreciate you becoming a patron or reach out to us if you'd like to sponsor an episode.

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Welcome to episode six of the Testing Peers Podcast. This week the peers are talking CVs.

In a time where lots of people are finding themselves looking for new roles, we thought it might be a great time to discuss CVs.

We summarised our tops tips on our blog - testingpeers.com

Let us know your thoughts on CVs, what works or doesn't work when your sifting CV's. Send us your feedback via email to [email protected] or @TestingPeers on Twitter. 

NOTE: After Chris so boldly claimed that he had never found a job through a recruiter, he only went and found a job via a recruiter. Thank you to all the recruiters out there!

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Welcome to episode five of the Testing Peers Podcast, we're practically old hat at this podcasting malarky now. Hope you are still enjoying our random wittering with each other.

In this episode, we dive into the topic of reporting your testing, the various forms that may exist in, corporate or regulatory demands on how you should report your results, and what benefits these reports provide to you as a test leader and also to the wider business. In many respects, articulating your testing results is an art and it really depends on the audience you need to report your results to.

The discussion does morph (as all our conversations do) into also talking about the end to end process and especially around Change Control getting changes live in production

Let us know your thoughts on this episode, maybe you have unique ways in which you reported your results which worked for you. Send your feedback to us either via email ([email protected]) or @TestingPeers on Twitter.

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