How I feel sometimes in the world of Software Development...

Testers: Be more like a Super-Villain!

Who doesn't love a Super Hero? Talk to my son, and he'll tell you how much he loves them, talk to many adults and they'll say the same! Deep down, we all love to be the Super Hero, we all want to save the day! However, I want to talk about the flip side of Super Heroes, the Super Villains... I often play Imaginext with my son, and I (unfortunately?) am nearly always the Super Villain! Be it Lex Luthor, Joker, Two Face, Mr Freeze or The Riddler! These are all great characters and great Super Villains, but why would I want to write about Super Villains? A while ago where I worked, we had a few Super Heroes, people who would be able to come in and "fix" things that had broken and help deliver projects on time. We then shifted, we decided to do away with the Super Hero culture and try and prevent from being in that position in the first place, whilst we didn't go as far as wanting to hire Super Villains, it's definitely a story that has stuck with me and t...

Value in QA Courses/Qualifications?

I have in the past questioned the value in getting certifications/going on courses for the sake of getting a certificate in testing. Whilst I do still question the worth of such an issue, I have recently read some articles which has shown me there is more value in these courses/certificates than I previously gave them credit for. The main positive that I can think of, upon completing a course like an ISEB Foundation, is that it ensures that testers are on the same page when it comes to communicating. A bug is a bug, or if I'm speaking to someone about Integration testing, they know exactly what I am talking about and won't get confused. I think in ensuring that everybody is on the same page when it comes to discussing testing issues/testing activities, it helps in gaining respect and confidence from other teams and other team members, as we are all singing from the same hymn sheet. It isn't just about communication in the term of words however, it is impor...

Famous Movie Quotes applied to Software Engineering - Cool Hand Luke

I thought it might be a bit fun to do a series of blog posts where we take a famous movie quote, and apply it somehow to QA/Testing or even the software engineering life-cycle. This is one famous movie quote, and I think it applies greatly to Engineering in general (or anywhere in fact)! I don't think a week has gone by in my career where I couldn't have uttered the following: What we have here is a failure to communicate (Cool Hand Luke) I saw this quote (although I haven't seen the film), and I don't even think it needs any explanation.... But I'll explain anyways! I would say that 80% of problems that are in a workplace are down to a failure in communication, if a bug is found, a failure to communicate the effects of the bug properly can lead to a false severity, or a false priority. That's not the only time when a failure to communicate can be damaging, especially for QA, but a failure to communicate when understanding requirements or when explain...

Testing the Waterhouse

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