podcast – Let's Talk About Tests, Baby

Ep 73: There is no spoon!

23FebruaryletstalktestsShow Notesbiases, Interview, podcast, QA

This week on the show we’re talking to Maaike Brinkhof about cognitive biases! There are so many biases, but we talk about a few here, and share some resources for learning more. Why are we biased? Four categories Too much information → We filter it Not enough meaning → We fill in the gaps The

Ep 56: And our survey says

11AugustletstalktestsShow NotesInterview, podcast, shownotes, survey, where do testers come from?

An interview with Rosie Hamilton! This year Rosie did a large survey of software testers and then did the number crunching to produce a snapshot of testers in 2016. All the data and the scripts she used are up on GitHub for transparency, and for others to do their own analysis if they wish. Rosie

Ep 55: FOMO

28Julyletstalktests2 CommentsShow Notescommunity, mental health, podcast, shownotes, software testing

Or, fear of missing out. Quick news: I’m at Liverpool Tester Gathering on Thursday 5th August. Come say hi if you’re there! Next week I’m interviewing Rosie Hamilton! The google form for telling me your origin story will be closed on Monday 1st August, so get going if you’ve not filled it in already! This

Ep 54: Origin Stories

14JulyletstalktestsShow Notesaudience participation, origin stories, podcast, shownotes, software testing

A series of unconnected things: I’ll be at the Liverpool Tester Meetup on 4th August! Come say hi! I’ve got more interviews coming up and that is my plan for August – start reaching out for interviews. 30 days of testing! This is a thing that Ministry of Test is doing, and though I got

Ep 53: You have no control who lives who dies who tells your story

30Juneletstalktests5 CommentsShow Notesbug reports, communication, podcast, shownotes, storytelling

Thiiings: I have 3 potential interviews coming up for the podcast and I am excited! More details when I get them. I am panicking about Testbash Manchester as I said I’d do a practice talk at the local Drupal User group in August and lols I’ve not even written the thing yet. Ministry of Test is

Ep 52: And I say, Zangief you are bad guy, but this does not mean you are bad guy

16JuneletstalktestsShow Notesdoubt, mental health, Mindfulness, podcast, QA, shownotes

Okay, I want to talk about something that rips me up when my mental health is being particularly hard, and when deadlines are looming. I want to talk about being the bad guy. This was mentioned in Nicola Sedwick’s fantastic TestBash talk on testers being human; a talk that is well worth the watch if

Ep 50: Vocab or What do you do?

19MayletstalktestsShow Notesjob titles, podcast, shownotes, vocabulary

Podcast recommendations! I’ve just started listening to The Bright Sessions, which is a fantastic podcast about therapy sessions for ‘unusual individuals’. Also, if you’ve not listened to The Black Tapes or Tanis yet, and you love your supernatural/paranormal/creepy mysteries, then you’re missing out! We testers bloody love vocab don’t we? Some of the debates and

Ep 49: Leading the Witness

5MayletstalktestsShow Notesbelaboured metaphors, communication, doubt, podcast, QA, shownotes, software testing

Firstly, an announcement: LTATB is moving to fortnightly episodes. I need to level up my content game, and I can’t do that in weekly slots, so there will be an episode every two weeks. The next episode will be on 19th May. People are really bad at telling you what they want. Really bad. They

Ep 48 – (Tron) Legacy

21AprilletstalktestsShow Noteslegacy, podcast, shownotes, software testing

Gotta have a Wanz reference in there, though he may hate that it’s a reference to the new Tron… We inherit a few legacy systems in our line of work. We have to get to grips with them across the board – PMs, QA, devs. We all need to know what the system does, how,

Ep 47 – Beyond Unreasonable Doubt

14Aprilletstalktests2 CommentsUncategorizedcommunication, community, failing, mental health, podcast, shownotes

As I said last week, I’m going to talk about unreasonable doubt. ‘Unreasonable’ doubt (for these purposes) is when you doubt your own abilities wrongly – imposter syndrome, or under estimating your own abilities, maybe due to inexperience. Sometimes this can be a good thing; doubt about a skillset you have can be a motivator