Posted on Saturday, January 31, 2015

QA or the Highway 2015 – Speaker Series – Featuring Jim Holmes

The one day testing conference, QA or the Highway 2015, is scheduled for February 17th, 2015 in Columbus, Ohio.

There are some excellent tracks and speakers listed for the event. I thought I would reach out to those speaking at the event and ask them a few questions. A number of the speakers graciously took time out of their schedule to respond. Leading up to the conference, I will be featuring those speakers and their responses.

The first speaker to respond (and in record time) was Jim Holmes. Today he has the honor of kicking off the “QA or the Highway 2015 – Speaker Series.”

1. What attracted you to speaking at QA or the Highway?

I’ve been involved in a lot of the region’s developer conferences; finding a tester’s conference here was great!

Posted on Saturday, January 31, 2015

Software QA & Testing Meetup – February 2015 Meetup Scheduled

Attention: Ohio Testers

Our January meeting recently concluded and we had quite a lively discussion on the topic of trends in testing. Look for a recap of the meetup coming to a blog post in the near future.

And now, it’s time to announce the topic for our next meeting scheduled for Tuesday, February 24, 2015!

Our Topic for February: What I Learned at QA or the Highway 2015

The one day conference, QA or the Highway 2015, is scheduled for February 17th, 2015 in Columbus, Ohio. There are some excellent tracks and speakers listed for the event. We are going to dedicate our testing meetup to sharing our experiences at the conference answering the following questions:

Posted on Sunday, January 25, 2015

Testing Bits – 1/18/15 – 1/24/15

Here is this week’s collection of articles, blogs, and announcements covering the days of 1/18/15 – 1/24/15.

Articles & Blogs

10 Lessons Learned from 10 Years of Career in Software Testing – Bhumika M. – http://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/10-lessons-learned-from-10-years-of-career-in-software-testing/
A Novel-long Standard. Intervew with James Christie – A1QA – http://a1qa.com/blog/a-novel-long-standard-intervew-with-james-christie/
A World Without “Heroes”? – Michael Larsen – http://www.mkltesthead.com/2015/01/a-world-without-heroes.html
Adjusting to Working in a Cross-Functional Team Part I – Nicola Owen – http://nickytests.blogspot.com/2015/01/adjusting-to-working-in-cross.html
Agile Testing – The Dangers of putting off Automation – Joe Colantonio – http://www.joecolantonio.com/2015/01/20/agile-testing-the-dangers-of-putting-off-automation/
Ask the Expert: Michael Larsen Answers Testing Careers Questions – Ryan Arsenault – http://blog.utest.com/2015/01/20/ask-the-expert-michael-larsen-answers-testing-careers-questions/
Blog: Very Short Blog Posts (22): “That wouldn’t be practical” – Michael Bolton – http://www.developsense.com/blog/2015/01/very-short-blog-posts-22-that-wouldnt-be-practical/

Posted on Monday, January 19, 2015

Testing Bits – 1/11/15 – 1/17/15

Here is this week’s collection of articles, blogs, and announcements covering the days of 1/11/15 – 1/17/15

Articles & Blogs

A learning journey with unit tests just starting – Maaret Pyhäjärvi – http://visible-quality.blogspot.com/2015/01/a-learning-journey-with-unit-tests-just.html
A rant – QA CAN’T CODE – Graeme Harvey – http://www.iteststuff.ca/2015/01/a-rant-qa-cant-code.html
A Story by an Anti-Bottleneck Tester. Interview with Eric Jacobson – A1QA – http://a1qa.com/blog/a-story-by-an-anti-bottleneck-tester-interview-with-eric-jacobson/
AD Hoc Testing | Best Practices – David Tzhmach – http://www.dtvisiontech.com/2015/01/ad-hoc-testing-best-practices_14.html
Avoid Becoming a Lonely Cowboy Performance Tester – Jun Zhuang – http://www.stickyminds.com/article/avoid-becoming-lonely-cowboy-performance-tester

Posted on Thursday, January 15, 2015

State of Testing Survey 2015 – Coming Soon!

On Thursday afternoon, I was pleasantly surprised to come across Joel Montvelisky’s Tweet that he was working on the State of Testing Survey for 2015.

I found the Survey from 2013 to be quite interesting. Last year there were around 630 respondents. If you missed out on last year’s survey results, you can go to: http://qablog.practitest.com/state-of-testing/year-2013

The purpose of the 2015 survey is to “identify the existing characteristics, practices and challenges facing the testing community in hopes to shed light and provoke a fruitful discussion towards improvement.”

Posted on Sunday, January 11, 2015

Testing Bits – 1/4/15 – 1/10/15

Here is this week’s collection of articles, blogs, and announcements covering the days of 1/4/15 – 1/10/15

Articles & Blogs

Automate Your Way to Sanity: An Interview on Mobile with Josh Anderson – Cameron Philipp-Edmonds – http://www.stickyminds.com/interview/automate-your-way-sanity-interview-mobile-josh-anderson
Bringing Development and Quality Assurance Teams Together – Raj P. Sharma – http://appdevelopermagazine.com/2264/2015/1/8/Bringing-Development-and-Quality-Assurance-Teams-Together/
Bringing manual and automated testing together – Cullyn Thomson – http://qablog.practitest.com/2015/01/bringing-manual-and-automated-testing-together/
Employees are People Too – Colin Cherry – http://itesting.com.au/2015/01/08/employees-are-people-too/
Encouraging Exploratory Tests. Interview with Alan Richardson – A1QA – http://a1qa.com/blog/encouraging-exploratory-tests-interview-with-alan-richardson/

Posted on Saturday, January 10, 2015

Testing Tweet Bits from #CodeMash 2015

Code Mash 2015

CodeMash 2015 just finished up and while being known as a Developer Conference, there are a number of tracks that cover aspects of testing as well.

Here is the conference schedule to get an idea of the speaking tracks and sessions.

I took several minutes this Saturday afternoon and sifted through the #codemash Twitter feed of several thousand posts looking for references that had to do with testing.

Below you will find the majority of the references that I could find on the topic.

Thank you to those would took the time to live Tweet at the event.

1/9/15

Emma Armstrong ‏@EmmaATester
Thank you so much if you came to my talk on adapting your testing for Agile. The slides are here http://slidesha.re/1I3X7mY #codemash

Emma Armstrong ‏@EmmaATester
Thanks @g33klady for live tweeting in my talk and all the others. It has made me get snippets from talks I could not make it to. #codemash

Kelsey Robertson ‏@kelsrob101
@justjoehere is explaining amazing concepts about thinking fast and slow. A session well worth hearing. @centric #codemash

Posted on Wednesday, January 7, 2015

Software QA & Testing Meetup – Back for 2015!

Attention: Ohio Testers

After our typical November/December break, it’s time to resume the Software QA & Testing meetup on Tuesday, January 27th, 2015.

Our Topic for January: Testing Trends 2015 and Beyond

In this meetup, we will be trying to answer the question, “What trends/changes do you see developing over the the next few years for testers and the testing industry?”

The evening will be a discussion format covering a wide range of topics that may include:

Posted on Sunday, January 4, 2015

Testing Bits – 12/28/14 – 1/3/15

Happy New Year and welcome to the first edition of Testing Bits for 2015! Here is this week’s collection of articles, blogs, and announcements covering the days of 12/28/14 – 1/3/15.

Articles & Blogs

Are too many testing jobs going abroad? – Alex Siminiuc – http://test-able.blogspot.com/2014/12/are-too-many-testing-jobs-going-abroad.html
Are You Using Best Practices for Your Performance Testing? – Melissa Jacobson – http://eyeonquality.com/are-you-using-best-practices-for-your-performance-testing/
Checklist for Usability testing – David Tzhmach – http://www.dtvisiontech.com/2015/01/checklist-for-usability-testing.html
Effective communication for Testers – Raj Subramanian – http://www.rajsubra.com/2014/12/30/effective-communication-for-testers/
Exploratory Testing is not the antithesis of structured testing – Jean–Paul Varwijk – http://arborosa.org/2015/01/02/exploratory-testing-is-not-the-antithesis-of-structured-testing/
Four Simple Steps to Becoming the Best Tester You can be – Mike Talks – http://www.testingcircus.com/four-simple-steps-to-becoming-the-best-tester-you-can-be/
Hard Skills > Culture Fit – Ash Winter – http://testingisbelieving.blogspot.com/2014/12/hard-skills-culture-fit.html