December RoundUp of All Things MoT
December was a great month, a nice end to 2018. We’re all ready for 2019 and no doubt full of resolutions. Is one of them to speak at a TestBash? Or maybe to focus on your professional growth with a pro member account?
The Club
A few selected discussions from The Club that we thought you might find interesting.
- How to test a mobile game? posted by nitin1387. When you’re new to mobile games testing, it can be difficult to know where to start or what skills are transferable.
- Do you have beef with the idea that anyone can test software? posted by rosie. How do you respond to the arguments that anyone can test software, so professional software testers are not needed, in a meaningful way?
- How Would You Test An ATM? posted by heather_reid. What behaviour would you expect, and not expect, from the ATMs you use?
- Test Team Structure posted by inkyfreak. What way are teams in your organisation structured and what have you found to be the most effective structure for test teams?
- Your Most Used or Favourite Swag Item posted by heather_reid. We’re mindful of the environment and keeping waste levels low at MoT, so we’re wondering what swag items you use every day no matter where you got them from.
The Club Ninja
Each month we select one of our Club users to be our Ninja of the Month. Our Club Ninja this month is Tuan Tran!
MoT News
New Ministry of Testing Dojo Boss
We have a new boss, Mark Winteringham is our DojoBoss. We’re very excited to have Mark on board, many of you will know him already from his content on The Dojo, or his many other ventures such as the Software Testing Clinic. For those of you who don’t know Mark, you soon will, he’ll be reaching out to you in due course to find out what you’d like to learn on The Dojo and to see if you’d like to contribute content.
CommunityBoss & Remote Work Follow Up by Heather Reid
Simon Knight wrote a blog post recently about remote working and effective ways to work as a remote worker. This blog post was in response to one from Lisa Crispin about the need for feedback. Having read both and Medium kindly reminding me of my read stats on here, I realised I haven’t written a blog post about remote working and what it’s like being a CommunityBoss.
The Dojo
We have big plans for The Dojo in 2019, including the addition of more software testing video courses like this one from Jim Holmes, and the addition of more features.
To get you started with your learning resolutions here is all the new content from The Dojo this month:
All the talks from TestBash San Francisco:
- Techniques for Generating and Managing Test Data — Omose Ogala
- Influence > Authority and Other Principles of Leadership — Elisabeth Hendrickson
- AI Means Centralized Testing Is Inevitable — Jason Arbon
- Extra! Extra! Automation Declared Software! — Paul Grizzaffi
- Power of Models — Dan Ashby & Richard Bradshaw
- Tester at the Table and the Tester in My Head — Adrian P. Dunston
- How to Test Serverless Cloud Applications — Glenn Buckholz
- Quality Assurance in an AB-Test Driven Company — Antonia Landi
- Going Undercover in the Mob — Jasmin Smith
- Stories from Testing Voice First Devices, Such as Alexa — Kim Knup
- Creating a Culture of Quality Assurance — Angela Riggs
- Manual Regression Testing Manifesto — Brendan Connolly
- Testing the Front-end, Back-end, and Everything in Between — Bria Grangard
- The Joy of Monitoring Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Test in Production — Amber Race
- Climbing to the Top of the Mobile Testing Pyramid — Rick Clymer
- How to Defuse a Bomb… Wait, I Mean a Bug — Michele Campbell
- Getting under the Skin of a React Application: an Intro to Subcutaneous Testing — Melissa Eaden & Avalon McRae
- 99 Second Talks — TestBash San Francisco 2018
A great new course: Optimising Manual Test Scripts For An Agile Environment — Matt Archer
For many teams, gone are the days when hours or even days can be spent creating and maintaining manual test scripts. The pace of agile software delivery will rarely tolerate it.
And here lies the problem. If it is the desire of your organisation or team to use manual test scripts, how can you do so in a way that is compatible with the values and pace of agile software delivery?
- Introduction
- Understanding The Risks
- Removing Unnecessary Information
- Generalising Less Relevant Information
- Refactoring Common Information
- Summary
Some heartwarming MoT Scholarship stories:
- A Very Special Place — My Story at TestBash San Francisco by Felipe Oliveira
Soon after I started working in QA, I discovered the Ministry of Testing and their Dojo. Something that particularly caught my attention were the TestBashes the Ministry of Testing organizes and the MoT Scholarship, which grants entrance to these events for participants who qualify. - Embrace TestBash Family: Eyes Wide Open Experience in San Francisco from a Beijing Tester by Tracy Zhou
I first found out about TestBash through my former co-worker Stephanie Dukes. I always wished to attend, so you cannot imagine how excited I was when I found 2018 November conference would be held in San Francisco, which is headquarters of the company I work at! - My Amazing Trip To TestBash San Francisco With Ministry of Testing by Yicela Cordoba
I am a Colombian woman very passionate about the topics of QA and software development. I have 10 years of experience in testing and I am always interested in attending new events that allows me to learn new trends and contribute my knowledge about QA.
A brill Testing Ask Me Anything on Testing in Compliance and Regulation with Milan Kuveljic
Covering so many aspects, from how automation can help with creating the necessary documentation to the different types of compliance and regulation roles.
An unmissable Masterclass with Marianne Duijst on Storytelling & Narratology for Software Testers.
Learn to approach software from a different angle. Improve your critical thinking by applying lessons from analyzing literature to analyzing software. Seek out fresh perspectives to supplement and inform your own. Examine your assumptions and logical leaps. Be explicit in creating safe spaces to allow underrepresented voices to be heard. Discover how you can be more effective in advocating for your bugs and the value you deliver.
A new and final podcast from the brilliant Super Testing Bros: Super Testing World
Advice for new testers, and, what excites us about testing in 2019! Featuring Alix Klingenberg, Francis Ho, Bas Dijkstra, Lee Hawkins, Victoria Lee, Mike Clarke, Vera Gehlen-Baum and Rick Tracy.
An inspirational Community Story: Ash Coleman & Angie Jones by Noel Wurst
When Noel attended ATD, he had an experience that he felt he needed to write about. A story to tell about two remarkable women, testers, giving their time and talents to the community. When what’s not normal but should be, there is a need to make it visible and share the story. This is his story about Ash Coleman and Angie Jones.
A great last instalment of The Testing Planet 2018: What Makes A Good Software Tester, Or What Makes A Software Tester Good? By Kate Paulk
Before talking about what a good software tester is or what makes a good software tester, it helps to define what’s meant by a “good software tester”. Depending on who you ask, there are at least as many definitions of “good software tester” as there are testers, and any of them can be valid in someone’s circumstances.
January Online Events
Testing Ask Me Anything — Robots in Automation — Jason Huggins 15th January 8pm UK Time
Once you’ve registered you could ask Jason any question you might have around Robots in Automation, here are a few more examples:
- Why would a tester need a robot?
- What can robots do that Appium or Selenium can’t do?
- What are some scenarios where a robot is the right tool for the job?
Once registered we encourage you to ask some questions on the topic in advance, ready for the webinar and upvote any questions you’d like to see answered. The event is free and completely online, click register below to reserve your place and ask some questions!
Masterclass — From Testing Hell to Testing Well — Adopting Whole Team Approach to Testability — Rob Meaney — 22nd January 8pm UK Time
In today’s competitive landscape, where failure can be catastrophic and speed to market is a critical business advantage, development teams are under more pressure than ever to get software from concept to customer in as short a time frame as possible. The speed with which teams can safely get changes into Production is constrained by their understanding of the implications of those changes.
In this masterclass, Rob will recount his testability journey and the lessons he has learned. He will present the models, exercises and workshops he used extensively as a test coach to build a whole team focus on testability.
Future Events
Just a quick sneak peek at what events are coming up in the next few months
- Testing Ask Me Anything — Robots in Automation — 1hour — 15th January at 8pm UK time
- Masterclass — From Testing Hell to Testing Well — Adopting Whole Team Approach to Testability — 22nd January at 8pm UK time
- TestBash Essentials Brighton — 1 day — Wednesday 3rd April 2019 — Early Bird Tickets on Sale!
- TestBash Brighton — 1 day — Friday 5th April 2019 — Early Bird Tickets on Sale!
- TestBash Netherlands — 2 days — Thursday 23rd — Friday 24th May 2019 — Super Early Bird Tickets on Sale!
- London Tester Gathering Workshops — 3 days — Wednesday 26th — Friday 28th June — Sign up to the launch list
- TestBash Germany — 2 days — Thursday 12th — Friday 12th September — Submit your talk now!
- TestBash Australia — 2 days — Thursday 24th — Friday 25th October — Submit your talk!
