Wednesday 30 January 2013

London Tester Gathering - Thurs 7th February - The Shooting Star

The February London Tester Gathering will be on Thursday 7th February at The Shooting Star.



Address:
125-129 Middlesex St, London E1 7JF

The plan:
We have a room from 6:00pm onwards

Talks:
Are we negative people? - Tony Bruce

Being a SDET at Skype - Martin Hall



  Sponsorship:









RSVP:

Hope to see you there.

Cheers and Kind Regards

Tony Bruce.

Total awareness of conditioning

How do I free myself from my conditioning of the culture in which I was born? First, I must be aware that I am conditioned; not somebody telling me that I am conditioned. You understand the difference?

If somebody tells me I am hungry, that’s something different from actually being hungry. So I must be aware of my conditioning, which means, I must be aware of it not only superficially, but at the deeper levels. That is, I must be aware totally.

To be so aware, means that I am not trying to go beyond the conditioning, not trying to be free of the conditioning. I must see it as it actually is, not bring in another element, such as wanting to be free of it, because that is an escape from actuality. I must be aware. What does that mean?

To be aware of my conditioning totally, not partially, means my mind must be highly sensitive, mustn’t it? Otherwise, I can’t be aware.

To be sensitive means to observe everything very, very closely; the colours, the quality of people, all the things around me. I must also be aware of what actually is without any choice. Can you do that?

Not trying to interpret it, not trying to change it, not trying to go beyond it or trying to be free of it; just to be totally aware of it?

Jiddu Krishnamurti - The Awakening of Intelligence

Sunday 27 January 2013

Why would I need excuses?

Recently uTest posted "8 Common Excuses in Software Testing" and within the comments there was a link to "Excuses for testers when bugs are caught in later testing cycles/UAT/Production".

My immediate thought was 'WTF? Why would I need excuses?'.

Reasons, yes, explanations, yes, but excuses? Hell no.

Am I wrong? Do I need excuses?

Or am I getting reasons and excuses mixed up?  Are some people taking them to mean the same thing?

At the end of "Excuses for testers when bugs are caught in later testing cycles/UAT/Production".  There is this sentence 'Well these are not actually excuses. These can be the actual reasons why an application is shipped to client with major bugs.'

The way I understand the two in this context are:

Reasons
1.a basis or cause, as for some belief, action, fact, event, etc.: the reason for declaring war. 
2.a statement presented in justification or explanation of a belief or action.

Excuses
1.to regard or judge with forgiveness or indulgence; pardon or forgive; overlook (a fault, error, etc.): Excuse his bad manners. 
2.to offer an apology for; seek to remove the blame of: He excused his absence by saying that he was ill. 
3.to serve as an apology or justification for; justify: Ignorance of the law excuses no one.

I am not a gate keeper, I am an information provider, I have limited time to provide what information I can.

I will do my best, the people around me will do their best and sometimes we will not be able to investigate everything.

I'm happy to explain things but make up excuses?  I think that will do more harm than good.

There are plenty of reasons why issues end up in production, learn from them, explain, improve how you test and what you test.

Don't make excuses.


28/01/13 Update.
Forgot to add, what and how you are testing and what you are not testing should be communicated and continuously communicated as you delve deeper into the software.

Thursday 10 January 2013

Weeknight Testing....BRB..

So a while back a bunch of clever people started this thing called Weekend Testing

About us
WT formerly known as Bangalore Weekend Testers is the acronym for Weekend Testers. We are a group of testers who have synergy towards testing software and learning from it. We also belong to the group of testers whose vision is to improve the craft. We are bringing Weekend Testing through our first chapter – Bangalore Weekend Testers, to find people with similar synergy.
Mission of WT
A platform for software testers to collaborate, test various kinds of software, foster hope, gain peer recognition, and be of value to the community.
You should already be aware of it, if not, look into it. Good times.
 
And out of it grew Weeknight Testing.

Weeknight Testing slowed down as we all got busy with life and there hasn't been a session for quite while.

Sharath has been in contact and we're looking at reviving it.

If there is anything you would like covered or if you're interested in running a session let us know.

I think (tbc) we're going to be looking at running it in different ways, not sure exactly yet but I think we'll mix between in person and on-line sessions.

Details on a couple of past sessions:

WNT – Black Box Security Testing

Week Night Testing: Requirements analysis & testing traps

Weeknight Testing #04 – an experience report

Agile Testing UK:Weeknight Testing Live 


  - Live video streamed between Germany, San Francisco and London.

Get involved.


Test. Learn. Contribute.


Cheers

Tony.

Wednesday 2 January 2013

London Tester Gathering - Tues 15th January - The Shooting Star

The January London Tester Gathering will be on Tuesday 15th January at The Shooting Star.

Address:
125-129 Middlesex St, London E1 7JF

The plan:
We have a room from 6:00pm onwards

Talks:
Weeknight Testing Q&A
Net-A-Porter are hiring.

Sponsorship:
Net-A-Porter
http://www.net-a-porter.com

Hope to see you there.

http://www.meetup.com/agiletesting/events/95777622/

Cheers and Kind Regards

Tony Bruce.