Katja Obring

How important is domain/industry knowledge within QA? Lots of companies see it as a big bonus when they’re hiring, with some even having it as mandatory - but do they really need it? Or are they just assuming it’ll bring them more value + less time spent on mentoring and getting someone up to scratch in those specific areas. There’s certain industries that I can see the argument for, whether that’s a specific financial platform, or companies that have to adhere to specific regulations (as an example) - but does the new ideas and skills that someone can bring in from a completely different industry, potentially outweigh that? Also, are these skills that difficult that no one pick them up - everyone has to start somewhere, right? Like anything, there’s pros/cons and this is just a generic overview - but being narrow minded and not considering an ‘outsiders view’ maybe isn’t always the best option.

27

9 Comments

Agile Testing Coaching Cards buff.ly/3zrDI4S Used by agile teams to discuss testing mindset and practices used for testing software With these cards, they can explore their way of testing and define actions to improve it Digital download, great agile coaching tool!

2

STOP blaming yourself for not understanding that bug. It's not your fault. Why? It's almost always a tooling issue. I've spent thousands of hours... ...wondering... "WHY is the code doing that?" It's so frustrating. If you're under pressure with an outage... ...it's more than frustrating. For every minute you try to understand what's going on... ...you're losing the company money. There's not a second to lose. And yet... ...when every question you ask results in: "DUNNO" It's a terrible feeling. When you improve observability? You can ask your app ANY question. And get an answer in seconds. This is a superpower. And as an engineer? You feel invincible! And bugs can be fixed in minutes. DM me EXAMPLE and I'll share some examples with you! .

3

1 Comment

Michael Lloyd recently made a post comparing saying Agile existed before the software development implementation is like saying there were orcs before Tolkien. This analogy tickled my fancy, so I've been swapping in "orcs" for common Agile platitudes/observations/debates. Here are some of my favorites: - Orcs are a mindset! - Don't DO orcs. BE orcs. - Are you talking about Orcs with an uppercase O or orcs with a lowercase o? - Orcs are dead. - Maybe we should stop arguing about which orc framework is best and focus on the basic practices that make us orcs. - Orcs do not make you go faster! - What you're doing does not sound very orc. That impedes orcasity. - I got burned out being an Orc Coach. I'm much happier as a Scrum Master.

30

30 Comments

Test Driven Development (TDD) is an essential tool for ensuring high quality and speedy development. But can we really understand the value of TDD if we haven't been burned by NOT practicing TDD?

10

2 Comments

A light hearted post but I can't resist the urge to test UIs on self service checkouts I use, then send the manufacturer a defect report. Why do I do it other than I want to? One reason is to "Sharpen the Blade" as a tester I need to keep honing my skills and mindset, this is an easy low cost way to do that. Second reason is "Sympatheia" a stoic principle that encourage us to recognise your interconnectedness with others. Contribute to the common good and support those around you. Keep your testing skills sharp and contribute to the common good. #testingskills #sympatheia #greatergood #thestoictester

17