It’s not them, it’s YOU!

By on October 3, 2010 in Communication, Management, Testing Intelligence

Stop blaming your development for not being able to influence your team as a tester. The change needed depends on you and not on the rest of your team.
Take charge of the value you add to your team and you will see how you start becoming part of the decision making staff.

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The simple job of a Tester

By on September 21, 2010 in Communication, Test Process

What is so difficult about being a tester?
This is a legitimate question from someone who has never done any good testing or who has never seen good testing being done. So let’s take a closer look at what a tester needs to do as part of his tasks and what does that require from him with regards to skills and knowledge.

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Dear Managers, remember to get your hands dirty once in a while

By on September 15, 2010 in Best Practices, Management

Have you noticed how specially in larger organizations we see some (or even most) managers becoming paper-pushers, spending all their time in meetings and answering emails (in their iPhones & BlackBerries!).  It’s not surprising how this behavior also starts disconnecting them from the real work being done “in the trenches” by their testers and developers. [...]

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Test Size Matters: THINK BIG, test small!

By on September 7, 2010 in Automation, Best Practices, On-Going Improvement

- Is the size of a test important?
- How big and comprehensive should a test case be?
- Should tests be always small, or should you write comprehensive tests that cover end-to-end and complex scenarios in “one-go”?

All of these are important questions, and even if there is no text-book answer for them there are some guidelines you can consider when you are wondering about this subject.

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A chance to take a look back

By on August 30, 2010 in Best Practices, Communication, Management, Testing Intelligence

After a break of 2 months from posting I found myself reviewing the subjects I’ve talked about in the past in this QABlog. I found some interesting points to revisit briefly before renewing the regular posting.

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Why test only 20% of your day???

By on July 4, 2010 in Communication, Management, Test Process

In many organizations testers do testing work ONLY 20% of their time, and spend a lot of time on less important tasks. Treat your time as a valuable resource and make sure others do the same!

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