I recently re-read one of Tony Bruce’s blog posts the other day: “Which do you have? A job or a career?”. The post poses the question about whether you see yourself as someone who has a “just a job” mentality; where you don’t enjoy what you are doing day-to-day, you clock watch, your day seems [...]
Category: Software Testing
What about Priority and Severity?
I wanted to write about the consistently hot topic of "severity vs Priority" - which I’ve noticed that many people seem to get confused about, and that there is so much conflicting information about out there on the web. It’s been bugging me (excuse the pun) for quite some time now. And even the great, [...]
My thoughts on “Testing Positive” – Trish Khoo’s talk at the LTG
I attended the London Tester Gathering last night, and was very intrigued by Trish Khoo's talk about "Testing Positive". I regularly read Trish's blog too, so was keen to hear what she had to say! Trish highlighted that sometimes testers can have a bad reputation, and that's mainly down to the belief that us testers [...]
I’m speaking at next month’s Next-Gen-Testing Conference!
It feels like it's been a while since I last wrote a blog post - almost a full month, but that's because I've been preparing for my first time ever talking at a conference, which I've signed myself up to do next month... It'll be at the Next Generation Testing Conference on the 23rd of May [...]
Lessons Learned from TestBash2.0
I was lucky enough to be able to attend the TestBash2.0 Testing Conference on Friday, which was fantastic. I would say that this year's TestBash event topped last year's event. It was bigger, packed full of influential people, and was such a friendly fun environment that was full of people sharing knowledge and stories. There [...]
“The Shoe Test” – does this test really add value??
I recently read an e-book from Elisabeth Hendrickson, entitled "Exploratory Testing in an Agile Context" (definitely worth a read if you havent already). In this e-book, Elisabeth uses an example of a test that James Bach performed called "the shoe test". For those of you who have never heard [...]
Learn from the “Inattentional Blindness” in your testing!
I've been researching a lot about "Inattentional Blindness" lately, and have been relating it to the world of software testing... Inattentional Blindness is a phenomenon where, if you are focussing intensely on something that is mentally demanding, you fail to notice other things happen around the thing that you are focussing on. There is a [...]
The wonders of learning through exploration
So the first week in the new job has come to its end successfully! I've had a great start! Everyone has been very friendly and helpful, and I've had a couple of tours around the company, which has helped me to better understand the business processes. It's brought the challenges that any new job brings... The [...]
Adios Amigos… New employer, here I come!!
So, this is my final week working at Fivium... Friday is my last day. I've been reminiscing about all the things that I've learned from working at Fivium over the past 2 years, and have also been wondering about the impact that I've made within the organisation. Fivium never had a tester before I joined them, [...]
What’s the first task a tester should do?
At the London Tester Gathering event last week, I overheard someone ask the question: "What's the first task that a tester should do on a project?". There were various contrasting responses, such as: "write test case documentation", "play with the product", and "give an estimate for the testing effort". Although many projects are run differently (which is probably [...]
Dan Ashby 