Prank week at bwin Games

It has been a long summer and people are starting to come back from their vacations. It has become a tradition to prank our colleague's work place while they're away. Last summer I came back to this. We had to top that, so I and Carl decided to prank our friend Hasse. After going through different suggestions we decided on a treasure hunt. So we photographed all of Hasse's office equipment, pc, screens, keyboard and such. Then we recorded a video. After that we started hiding all the stuff. It went like this:

Hasse found a note on his desk with the link to the video. In the video Carl informs him of the rules and where to find the first clue, a map. The map led Hasse to the 9^th floor where he found one of his screens and a picture of a desert, a rose and a grid. The clue led him to a conference room called Desert Rose. In the ceiling we had hidden his mouse and a new clue, the combination to one of the safes. In the safe he found his slippers and a clue to call his office phone. By ringing his own phone he found that and a telephone number. When calling the number he was ordered to go to the rehearsal studio. There he found his earphones and a Spotify list. From every song he had to take a word and then make it into Internal IT. There he found his second screen and a clue that said he should look under every waste bin. After doing so he ended up with three pieces of paper with a code that he had to break. That lead him to a colleague who gave him a new clue which was "Christmas gift". He then found the Christmas tree (yes, we have one during the summer as well) and a package with his second pair of slippers and a new lead to go down to Seven Eleven and sing a song. At Seven Eleven he was rewarded with his joystick and a clue to a test environment. By logging in on one of the nodes he found a file and was lead to the library. In the library he found his keyboard and a lead to the reception. In the reception he got his dock back and a locator device. By starting the locator he then found his computer

It took him about one work day. We did of course film everything and can present you with the director's cut in a couple of weeks.

Until then you can enjoy another prank that was pulled off in the office last week.

The Devil is in the details

I love solving problems. Give my brain a bit of a stretch and keep it fit. My iPhone has proven itself to be an invaluable source of games with problems to solve. Take Angry Birds for instance: The stupid pigs have taken our eggs, and so I launch my birds on them and try to kill them. And if I fail they laugh at me. The smirk at me. And it gets me even more angry and then I cannot quit playing for another hour.

But it is not only about killing the pigs. It's figuring out how to do it. If I adjust the height of the bird he will fly differently. It's like testing, trying many different ways to solve the problem, or nail a scenario. And the funny thing is that you can see how changing something just a pixel can do all the difference. So even if the big picture is very valuable it is when you get to know the details you see how tweeking something just a bit might change a whole outcome.

And since it is raining cats and dogs right now in Stockholm I'll continue my quest to save the eggs! Next week I'll have something really funny to tell you that will make you apply for a job here right away since we have so much fun at the office!

Who am I?

During summer many colleagues goes on vacation which means that somebody has to fill in for them. So we end up with a few persons with multiple personalities. Right now I am stand in for our test lead, who is stand in for the original team lead. So I am Ann, who is Ola who is Andreas. Messy? Perhaps a bit. ;)

But it is not so much to lead right now, but I did hold a workshop for my test team this week. We discussed how working with SBT (Session Based Testing) has changed our work in regards with communication within the team, our domain knowledge and how we have developed as testers. It was really interesting to get everybody's view on how their work has changed. And it was especially rewarding to get feedback from two new testers in the team, and their experiences.

The rest of the week I have been working with my presentations. I don't remember if I have praised the site I'm using yet, if I have it is well worth mentioning again. If you are bored with the same old PowerPoint slides that never changes and where people insist on using clip art from the 90's go to www.prezi.com and discover a whole new world of presentations! It is so easy, so much fun to do and your audience will love it! Take a quick look at this for example: http://prezi.com/learn/looping-and-zooming/ and scroll down to the bottom of the page to the one called "Sweet recipe to solving problems". And never use PowerPoint again!!!

Now I'm off for a well deserved aw. See you next week!