I’ve just uploaded episode 9 of Testing In The Pub, the regular podcast about software testing which I record with Dan Ashby.
It’s the second part of an interview with Dan Billing about security testing. With security testing being such a hot topic at the moment then it’s well worth listening to.
Head over to the Testing In The Pub website to download, discover the RSS feed, or search for “Testing In The Pub” on iTunes.
Enjoy 🙂
Episode 7 of the software testing podcast that I record with Dan Ashby is now available. In this episode we talk about the idea of ‘schools of testing’ and compare and contrast approaches such as those from the ISTQB and context-driven communities.
You can download it from the site, via RSS or it’ll shortly be in iTunes as usual.
I’ve got an article in the June edition of Testing Circus magazine. It’s called  Left To My Own Devices.
You can download the magazine for free here:Â http://www.testingcircus.com/testing-circus-2014-june-edition/
Episode 4 of the Testing In The Pub podcast that I record with Dan Ashby is now available. We talk about what it takes to be a valuable team member.
You can download it directly from the Testing In The Pub site or via iTunes.
Myself and Dan Ashby (@danashby04) have started a software testing podcast. It’s called Testing In the Pub, primarily because we spend time in the pub talking about testing, and we thought that others in the software testing community may be interested in hearing what we talk about.
We published the first episode yesterday, called “Reviewing the Conferences 2013”, which is about the conferences that we attended in 2013, and the main learnings we took from them.
Testing in the Pub has it’s own website, and, (Apple approval permitting), will be in iTunes very soon.
It’s be great if you had a listen and gave us some feedback. This is the first time we’ve done something like this, and so all feedback will help us make it better.
If you want to appear as a guest on one of the shows then let us know as well. We’d really like to make the podcasts as varied as possible so the more the merrier 🙂
I’ve got an article in the January edition of Testing Circus magazine. It’s called  Reach Out Beyond the Software Testing Community.
You can download the magazine for free here:Â http://www.testingcircus.com/testing-circus-2014-january-edition/
The London Tester Gathering Workshops are back this year, Oct 16th-17th in London. Last year was great (see my blog post with more details).
This year I’ll be running a workshop on mobile testing. More details to come, but Super Early Bird tickets are already available for a bargainous £95 instead of the usual £395 so well worth getting some early.
Other speakers include John Stevenson, Richard Bradshaw, Nigel Stock, Rob Fahey and Peter Houghton.
More details from  Skillsmatter: https://skillsmatter.com/conferences/1912-london-tester-gathering-workshops-2014
There’s just 3 spaces left on my mobile testing course, on March 26th in Brighton. More details:Â http://www.ministryoftesting.com/training-events/an-introduction-to-mobile-testing/
Let me know if you’ve got any questions about the course.
If you are a functional test automation expert then times are good. There’s big bucks to be made in the contracting game, companies are desperate for candidates to ‘automate everything’ and to get to this oddly perceived test automation nirvana that those who are either mis-informed or have hidden agenda’s seem to feel fit to promote.
This has made me think. Primarily about how we have got to this state? Is it because, as the testing community, we have wanted to own test automation? Is it because those outside of the test community see test automation as less important than the production code that it tests? Is it that we just built up an expertise and then protected it just for the money?
Some might say that what has actually happened is that we now have a situation where second rate developers now have a great way to stay in the development game. There is a danger, in the apparent supply-side crisis that we find the industry in, that companies merely employ anyone who says they know something about test automation, without doing the same due diligence that one would do for a development position. This would be a mistake.
In my mind there is a solution to all these problems, and that solution comes from treating test automation just like production code. And that means primarily using developers to write it. Sure, you may choose to have testers involved as well, where they have the skills and expertise, but let’s not try and force skills on people who don’t want them, and let’s not accept second rate people just because they can ‘do some test automation’. One advantage to using developers is that test automation becomes a team thing, and you are less likely to spend time playing catch-up when development slips. One downside; it’s going to look like the team has slowed down. Believe me, it hasn’t. It’s just got more effective, and is playing to the right skill-sets.
Don’t believe me? 🙂 Here’s a couple more examples from Rob Lambert and Amy Phillips which show where continuous or more frequent delivery has been successfully rolled out at New Voice Media and Songkick. The common thread – in both cases the test automation is a development activity.
Recently I’ve started to come to the belief that we can solve a lot of our problems if we just start to think differently about testing. If instead of thinking about software testing only as a distinct discipline, we instead to start to think about it as an activity. After all, testing is just that, an activity. It’s something we do. Something we’d love others to do more. James Bach likes to define software testing as a performance, and what is a performance without some activity to perform?
Once we start to think of testing as an activity then it matter less that it’s not always testers who do it. Everyone in a team should test, it’s just that the tester role can be where the expertise lies, and where the test coaching comes from.
Think of all the problems we can solve if we think like this.
