Ministry of Testing’s Weekly Software Testing Newsletter

Testing Ask Me Anything — Collaboration, Pairing and Mobbing!

This newsletter is kindly supported by Ministry of Testing!

Testing Essentials Intensive — 3 Day Course — 23rd — 25th March 2020

The perfect alternative to a foundation level software testing certification. This is a three-day deep dive into the essentials every tester should be aware of when it comes to creating quality software. Super Early Bird Tickets end on 30th November 2019!

Testing and the Community

• New Course! Introduction to JavaScript — Mark Winteringham — JavaScript is a powerful language to use but getting started with it can be overwhelming. This course will help you get to grips with Javascript.
• Testing Ask Me Anything — Collaboration, Pairing and Mobbing — Elisabeth Hocke — Register for our AMA webinar and ask Elisabeth any question you might have — from “How to foster collaboration in a team?” to “Why Pairing and Mobbing are worth a try?”. Register now.
• TestBash Brighton Super Early Bird Tickets — You can save £100 by booking your ticket now! Bit of a bargain for such an impressive line-up of outstanding speakers. The same discount applies to the workshops and training too! Win
• Power Hour — Operability — On the 27th November, Rob Meaney will spend an hour answering all your questions on Operability. So get your questions in before 7pm on the 27th.
• So you want to learn about test automation? We’ve carefully hand-curated our resources to bring you our collection of test automation resources. TestBash talks, courses, Masterclasses, oh my.
• How do you explain your exploratory testing techniques? — Software testers often struggle with how to explain their exploratory testing techniques. So we reached out to the community to ask them how they explained their exploratory testing.
• What’s the difference between a human test and an automated check? — We do love to be here to give voice to what testers feel about the topic and how they personally define it — what is the difference between a human test and an automated check? How do you feel about it? What should we be saying when people ask this question?
• Goodbye Testing Columns, Part 1: A New Hope — Ever tempted to get rid of that testing column? Bruce is testing it for you.
• Your Overwhelming Product Backlog Is Actually Two — We’ve all encountered those backlogs at some point, might still be wading through one. Some great advice on how to tackle it in a useful way.
• Address Matching with Violet Kovacheva — Not as simple as you might think. I wonder how you can apply the same logic to different testing problems.
• Why I don’t value test certification — Some certification discussions are still ongoing. Should you get a testing certification?
• A matrix for when a bug only reproduces in one environment — A handy matrix with additional info that could definitely help you.
• Learning Through Exploration — As adults, it can often be hard to learn a new skill, have fun with it, explore more.

Upcoming MoT Events

• Power Hour — Operability — 7pm UK Time — 1 hour — 27th November 2019
• Testing Ask Me Anything — Collaboration, Pairing and Mobbing — Elisabeth Hocke — 8pm UK Time — 1 hour — 10th December 2019
• TestBash Brighton — 26th — 27th March 2020
• TestBash Detroit — 23rd — 24th April 2020
• TestBash Netherlands — 28th -29th May 2020

Accessibility

• Tweaking my Workshop Accessibility — Interesting to discover there are lots of things you can do to make your workshop accessible.
• There’s a really simple way to build websites that include everyone — Don’t follow the Domino’s model of fighting web accessibility in federal court. There are already standards in place that businesses can use.
• The business case for accessibility — In an ideal world, organizations would inherently practice accessibility because it is the right thing to do and because it is good for business.

Code Like a Developer… — Some good advice on writing your automation.

• Write Selenium Test Automation with C# SDK — Good information to help you build your Selenium knowledge.

Business Posts

• eCommerce QA: Beyond Load and Performance Testing — Is your company ready for the busy shopping season?
• A Quickstart Guide to Magento Localization — Most ecommerce companies spend a lot of time on advertising and marketing, but few pay attention to localization details, despite their importance.
• Model-Based Testing: The Advanced Level of Test Automation — A strategy that helps leverage test automation more thoroughly, especially when it comes to requirements adjustment.

Podcasts

Check out our forever automagically updated list of software testing podcasts…

• AB Testing — Episode 111: Oredev, DevOps, and Stuff — Talking about Oredev, some more about devops, controversies in the principles, and a bit more about Alan’s role at Unity.
• Episode 627 — What Is Dark Web Identity Scanning — Identity theft protection services are increasing their marketing about Dark web scanning.
• 155: Juicejacking, YouTube hacking, password slacking — A bank has some of the worst password advice ever, travellers are told to be wary when USB charging their smartphones and laptops, and a gamer has his YouTube account hacked.
• The Testing Show: Cyber and Security — Matthew and Michael are joined by Uri Bar-El and by Elle Gee to have a look at the unique challenges we face in the cyber realm and things we can do to meet those challenges head-on.

Security

• Solved: Why in-the-wild Bluekeep exploits are causing patched machines to crash — It turns out the exploits — which repurpose the September release from the Metasploit framework — are also causing many patched machines to crash.
• Here’s How Knightscope’s Security Robots Surveil the Public — Knightscope uses facial recognition and license plate readers to track individuals.
• Google’s ‘Project Nightingale’ Gathers Personal Health Data on Millions of Americans — Search giant is amassing health records from Ascension facilities in 21 states; patients not yet informed.

Jobs

• Agile QA Engineer — Austin, Texas. United States
• Junior Test Engineer — Newhaven, East Sussex. United Kingdom

Meetups

• Implementing BDD as a valuable agile development process — Copenhagen
• PTM Meetup #4.2 — Porto
• Meetup #12 — São Paulo
• Interactive user workshop — Brisbane
• Richard Paterson — Building your personal skillset — Edinburgh
• WEBINAR: Ready Tester One? — Costa Rica
• Leveraging Analytics and Data Visualisation in Test Automation Anthony Seumal — Cambridge
• TestingCR Meetup — Costa Rica
• End of Year Spectacular — Leeds
• Meetup #14 — Rio de Janeiro