Testing Art of War
Applying Sun Tzu's Art of War principles to software testing with 10 actionable strategies. Learn how shapelessness, skill-sharpening, and strategic thinking can transform your testing approach.
Read moreCategory: Testing thoughts
KraQA meetup testing predictions for 2025
Key insights from the KraQA meetup panel discussion on software testing trends for 2025, covering AI impact, automation, skill development, and emerging industry niches.
Read moreSteering the Ship: A Comprehensive Guide for Aspiring Test Leaders
A comprehensive guide for aspiring test leaders covering 17 essential tips from mentorship to continuous learning. Learn how to effectively lead testing teams and drive quality.
Read moreThe Comprehensive Guide to Essential Soft Skills for Testers
Master essential soft skills for software testers including emotional intelligence, communication, leadership, and adaptability. A comprehensive guide to professional growth.
Read moreMastering T-Shaped Skills
Learn how to develop T-shaped skills as a software test engineer, combining deep technical expertise with broad knowledge across multiple disciplines for career growth.
Read moreMaximizing Your Employability as a Software Engineer in Test
Employability refers to a person's ability to quickly find an attractive job opportunity that matches their skills and qualifications. Recent layoffs in Big Tech companies such as Twitter, Google, and Spotify have highlighted the importance of employability for IT specialists. These layoffs have shown that even highly skilled and experienced professionals can be affected by changes in the industry or company-specific issues. Therefore, it is crucial for IT specialists to be aware of their employability and to take steps to improve it.
Read moreOn being multiskilled
Advocates for becoming multiskilled in IT, offering tips like continuous learning, accepting new perspectives, volunteering, varying approaches, perseverance, exploring unknowns, adopting a beginner's mind, and setting realistic expectations.
Read moreHow to get a first job as a software tester?
Advises those seeking a first software testing job to broaden their search to other IT roles and emphasizes learning programming as the key skill to increase hiring chances across the industry, explaining why junior roles are challenging to fill and linking programming skills to antifragility.
Read moreMy road to public speaking + slides from Engineering Productivity talk
Reflects on the author's journey to public speaking, highlighting the roles of blogging, community involvement (KraQA), and teaching experience in overcoming fear, concluding with feedback and slides from an Engineering Productivity talk.
Read moreHow to be a failure as a software tester
A satirical guide offering tongue-in-cheek advice on how to fail as a software tester, covering neglecting personal development, abusing the 'quality guardian' role, avoiding technology, shirking environment responsibility, disrupting team flow, and ignoring the community.
Read moreWhat CIA teaches us about productivity
Draws productivity lessons by contrasting tips from the declassified CIA Simple Sabotage manual, advocating for empowered decision-making, failing fast, prioritizing, avoiding useless meetings, continuous improvement, and knowledge sharing, with applications to software testing.
Read moreAutomated testing vs manual testing - security perspective
Compares automated and manual testing in the security context, arguing that while automation (scanners, static analysis) is vital for CI/CD, manual pentesting is crucial for finding complex flaws and addressing social engineering risks, emphasizing their complementary nature.
Read moreLearning Software Testing Checklist - 2017 edition
An updated checklist for software tester skill development, emphasizing Programming, TestOps (CI/CD, networking, virtualization, cloud, IaC), Security/Pentesting, and Coaching/Persuasion as key areas for continuous improvement.
Read moreMentorship - how to skyrocket your testing career
Advocates for mentorship in software testing, outlining benefits for mentees (fast feedback, gap identification, overcoming blockers) and mentors (deeper understanding, promotion, market value). Lists ideal mentor traits and stresses continuous improvement.
Read moreSystem traps in software testing
Explores common software testing pitfalls through the lens of systems thinking, applying Donella Meadows' system traps like policy resistance, tragedy of the commons, and drift to low performance.
Read moreAnniversary post - Five benefits of blogging
Reflecting on one year of blogging, this post highlights five key benefits: encourages reading, boosts job market value, forces deeper understanding, exposes to new topics, and expands professional networks.
Read moreHow to start learning test automation
A guide for manual testers transitioning to automation, covering prerequisites (Agile, CI/CD, ROI), benefits (fun, career growth, respect, pay), learning at work vs. after hours, and specific learning paths for Selenium GUI and REST API automation.
Read moreHow to become a software tester
Provides 10 practical tips for aspiring software testers: Get relevant education, master English, avoid negativity, develop soft skills, consider ISTQB, learn programming/automation, engage with the community, read SE books, find mentors, and attend meetups.
Read moreArguing Micheal Bolton's 20 statements about testing
Challenges Michael Bolton's 20 statements on testing, arguing against the notion of testers lacking authority and advocating for integrated, empowered testers who share responsibility and credit within the team.
Read moreHow to nail testing job interview
Offers tips for testing job interviews beyond basic etiquette: Research your online brand, the company, and its culture. Present skills confidently but honestly, acknowledge knowledge gaps, and show a learning mindset.
Read moreMapping lean principles to testing
Applies Poppendieck's seven Lean principles to software testing: Eliminate waste (automate smartly, balance costs), Amplify learning, Decide late (BDD, maintainable tests), Deliver fast, Empower the team, Build integrity (perceived & conceptual), See the whole.
Read moreLearning pathways for testers
Outlines learning pathways for testers: Motivation (like your job, beginner's mind, supportive company, fair pay), Learning at Work (use time wisely, step out of comfort zone, seek feedback), and Learning After Work (avoid burnout, read daily, diversify knowledge, choose sources critically).
Read moreDo's and don'ts for testers - 2016 edition
Offers 2016 advice for testers: DO learn continuously, automate checks, manage environments, adopt Agile/Lean & social skills, specialize (pentest, mobile, etc.). Don't rely solely on manual checks, over-invest in ISTQB, expect training shortcuts, be shy.
Read more(In)famous testers
Discusses the concept of a shared "testing brand" in IT, urging testers to uphold its reputation by improving skills and avoiding complacency, referencing negative perceptions of some ISTQB testers and "bad actors".
Read moreSystem Testing
Highlights the lack of clear resources on system testing, contrasts the ISTQB definition with a practical view, and examines potential system testing approaches by analyzing Apple job requirements.
Read moreIdeal tester equals 3.141592..
Discusses the ideal tester role, arguing that both deep technical expertise (T-shaped skills) and strong social/collaboration skills are equally crucial for success, referencing ThoughtWorks articles and Janet Gregory.
Read moreOur future as testers
Discusses the future of software testing roles amid automation trends, arguing testers remain crucial due to production bug costs but need to evolve skills in programming, scripting, UX, DevOps, and business domains.
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