Testing "Software" Times

Its been a while since I have last blogged, its been hectic for one reason or another but I find myself with a bit more time so I can finish this series of blog posts. In this post I will complete the set of posts on testers perception. This post will describe ways in which testers can change how they are interpreted. Testers can change how they are interpreted by showing how they add value by changing their behaviours. Below are a few ways we can change how we are perceived as testers,  1) Don't shout louder, improve your argument Shouting louder than anyone else does not necessarily always work. We've all been there, you get quite heated in a discussion about a subject that you feel passionate about and someone else does the same and it all ends in disagreements and potentially damaged relationships. You need to think smarter. If you feel passionately about something on a project then do some research. Come up for valid reasons why you want something to be dif...

Now if we are viewed as people on a project that do not 'build' anything, how can that effect our perception as testers? Lets start with a quick definition of perception "the way in which something is regarded, understood, or interpreted. " So the definition of perception contains the word interpretation. If we are interpreted, there is a risk that the interpretation could be wrong, which in turn can affect how we are viewed as testers. Whether it be how we are regarded in our teams or how we are viewed in the wider software community. In either case there is chance that this could be disastrous for us as a community as well as individually. The word interpretation instantly (for me) brings to mind the translation of a foreign language. My wife is German but speaks very good English and there are times where she is trying to interpret what I have said in English, to German. Now sometimes it is very hard to interpret because there is no equivalent word in Germ...

Now the inspiration for this series of blog posts was quiet uninspiring (and expensive). I was having some building work done on my house and this work involved screeding a floor. Basically this is when a sand/cement mix (more sand than cement) is laid on a floor to give a level finish so that it can have some flooring laid on top of it. Whilst I was chatting to the builders (after I had made them a bacon Sarnie and cuppa tea - I like to treat workman well) I thought to myself what do we produce as testers? These guys are 'building' something that will add value, for me the stakeholder. Now, as the stakeholder I could see a difference in what was there when they started and what was there when they finished. To me these builders had 'built' me what I needed. They were, in my opinion, the 'developers'. So it got me thinking about what we produce as testers. If the builders had a tester what would they do in the process of screeding this floor? I would im...

In this blog post I will be talking about testing and conflicting information. Now I am a new Mac user and whilst I was playing around with my new toy a while ago I wanted to see how much storage I had left available. So I went into 'About this Mac' and bought up the storage dialogue box.  Can you see spot any issues...........? Now, I did not notice the issues when I first looked at the dialog box as my eye was drawn to the text that stated how much space I had left. I thought "Great,  I have loads of space left" as I had over 140 GB of space left. I then had a closer look........ You will notice that the total amount of space I have left is 140.41 GB but the white space in the space bar (which represents free space) looks a little too short to represent 140.41 GB. Also it states that I have 249.78 GB of space in total but the disk icon text states that I have 251 GB of flash storage.  All of this tells me that there is some conflic...

It was said in jest whilst I was walking to my car after work. Me and a developer were having some tester/developer chat at the end of a hard day and he said jokingly : "Its testing - how hard can it be". That got me thinking........ how hard is testing? What challenges do we have testers have to face that can turn a great day into a 'should of stayed in bed' day. Here are some reasons why testing is not always easy and how you can make it a little easier and enjoyable. Just a 'Button Presser' Perception Unfortunately some people have the perception that testers are just people that press buttons and make a few mouse clicks. Yes I'm sure there are testers out there that do this but any tester worth their salt would object to this stereotype. For a 'context' driven tester (by context driven, I mean a tester who sees them selves as part of the context driven testing community) these button presses and key strokes have come after some cognit...

Before I start going through the lessons I have learnt whilst in the midst of writing a Selenium Framework I would like to say that I am by no means a 'Hard Core Developer'. By this I mean coding is not my day job and I am not up together with all of the latest coding practices and lingo. Yes I have done some coding in the past but it has usually been with the help of more experienced developers. There is some debate about automated testing vs manual testing. Automated testing (which I believe should be called automated checking) can compliment a more exploratory testing approach and can provide useful information to the test team about the quality of the software under test. I think there is a market for both types of testing and combined they can teach teams a lot about the software they are producing. Overview The Selenium framework that I have started writing I have done in any spare time I have managed to find myself with. As mentioned previously I have done some cod...

How aware are you? Do you live in the here and now or is your mind always somewhere else? This blog post is about Mindfulness. Mindfulness is a simple meditation and is defined as (According to Wikipedia): "The intentional, accepting and non-judgemental focus of one's attention on the emotions, thoughts and sensations occurring in the present moment" Now Mindfulness has become more popular in the west in recent years as it has shown to have benefits for people who are suffering from Depression and Anxiety. It has been around for a while and is often thought to of originated from Buddhism and some people believe it started thousands of years ago. Now modern life is hectic and I’m sure we all have lots of things going on in our lives that keep our Brains busy and trying to focus on one thing at a time can be a challenge. I can't remember the number of times I've been doing something and my mind is somewhere else entirely. Mindfuln...