Testing & QA Management blog
Best Practices
Find a testing smiley and put it in your desk!
Feb 17th
There’s a weird believe that we Testers need to be pessimistic in order to be good / professional / successful.
In a course I impart (where I am required to use slides made by a colleague) there is even a bullet saying that good testers require “professional pessimism” as one of our main traits.
I apologize to the person who came up with this notion, but what a bunch of crap! Most of the greatest testers I know are Fearless Optimists, and I think this is actually one of the trait that makes them exceptional testers.
Testers need to be optimistic in order More >
What Software Testing can learn from Basketball, games are won with a Great Defense
Feb 15th
I beg forgiveness to all NBA fans, since this post relates mainly to all the rest of the basketball leagues (College-league, Euro-league, etc.) where most players are mere mortals
I read a comment on a newspaper this weekend saying that “Team X” had won a game due to its defense. This reminded me of a game I saw last week while I was *running* in the gym where 2 college teams were playing and it was obvious that the team that was winning, and not by a short margin, did not really have a better percentage from the field but More >
When your message is “clear as mud”
Jan 24th
There is a Marketing Saying along the lines of: “If you do something but you don’t advertise it, it’s like you didn’t do it at all”
This saying is also very accurate in the case of testing, where if you do a test that finds critical issues but then you fail to report them it is as if you had not done a thing (or worst!).
So the trivial lesson is: Find a bug, make sure you report it.
But as Test Managers our problem is more complex than this. At times, even if we work right and report all our findings to More >
The ones who never stop learning new stuff
Oct 11th
Some of the most impressive testers (and some of the greatest developers) I’ve worked with have one personal attribute that sets them apart from the rest of the team: They are always learning new things to apply to their work.
Take a look around your work-place and think about one or two members of your team who fit this criteria. These guys always know about the new methodologies, tools and practices making waves; and they are the ones who introduce these things to the rest of the team. Their opinion is respected since they are a reliable sources of knowledge. And maybe More >
7 habits of highly effective testers
Sep 17th
I’m currently reading a book by Stephen R. Covey called “The seven habits of highly effective people”, highly recommended if you need to understand how to balance and focus your life and your work. The book got me thinking about the fact that looking back over my career I have also noticed some habits that seem to be present in many of what I would call the most effective testers I’ve worked with.
The list does not follow any specific order…
1. Context awareness: always understand the higher objective of what you are doing An effective tester always knows how the task More >
The Value of Peer Reviews (& why we don’t use it more!)
Jun 28th
I am presenting the subject of Testing Intelligence on next month’s CAST Conference.
One of the things I like about the CAST approach is the fact that they promote the dialogue and (safe/constructive) discussions around the topics and sessions presented, allowing presenters and audience to gain from the experience.
The other thing I like, this time solely as a presenter, is the fact that even before the event starts you begin getting feedback on your paper and presentation in order to reach your session as ready and “polished” as possible. In my case this means that some very insightful people went over my More >
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