Thank you for sharing

Some say information is power, I am inclined to agree, if you have information you are in the loop and act strategically, more so then if you are at the bottom of the information chain. Being at the bottom is a place you end up being at some point whether you like it or not, it can be because your company lacks transparency, or that you are just novice and haven't learned to pick up on information. But I always struggle to get to the top and get the information. This is important to me for various reasons, but it makes me appreciate when information is easy accessible. And I have different channels for picking up my information, breakfast seminars, conferences, book clubs or going online. There are testers blogging, commenting in communities, writing test tools, giving online coaching. If you google enough you can find just about anything! But Internet is a tool to make information accessible, but it is the persons behind all the communities and blogs that are the produces of the information. And it is to them I want to send out my thanks; for giving me power to improve and better my work and develop as a tester. If it wasn't for my peers, I would still be stuck thinking counting test cases makes sense...

Putting Sweden on the map

Last week was really intense! On Thursday I held a presentation with Michael Albrecht from AddQ Consulting and James Bach at SAST's 15 years anniversary in Stockholm. It was one of the most scary and fun experiences I ever had in my carrier! If you are interested in hearing how it went you can go to this page First you can see James Bach's keynote, or you just skip about 1h 33 minutes forward and you'll see our presentation. I am really nervous in the beginning, but it gets better. I figure if I have held my first presentation ever in front of 250 persons, with James Bach and in English, I can do about anything. And not much can be scarier than this, so next time can only get better.

Anyhow, that was not the only conference I participated in that week. I was also invited to a peer conference. At this conference I met some very skilled and interested ET-testers, the creme de la creme of ET-Sweden. During the conference the participants presented real life experienced which we later could discuss. It could be a good experience or a bad, it didn't matter. The point is that it should be something you had experienced, otherwise you end up discussing ideas and vision, and that had a history of ending badly. Of course that is what I ended up. I sometimes want things too much, too fast. I saw an opportunity to get help from some experts with a problem i have. And I ended up getting flashed by rat-hole cards and red cards and it was more or less a disaster. I think I should have realized that mentioning the word KPI can never go well in a group like this.. So I ended up being strongly questioned by James. For all of you who had had that experience you know it is not very pleasant.. But, as he writes in his blog I'll bounce back. I think I already have, I was very upset for a while, mostly because I blew a really good chance to show what I have done SBT-wise. But now my head is full of new cool stuff I want to do with our process. Some of them are already being implemented, Per Almström is always a step ahead, and has already blog about it. I think this will be great!

Anyhow, my head is full of new testing stuff, hopefully I can sort out some of them and share with you soon!

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!

Learning acronyms

This week my boss informed me that management wishes to see some KPI´s (Key Performance Indicator) regarding SBT. Of course they don't know which KPI's they want, but I have to deliver them anyway. I had a workshop with my test team trying to identify relevant data that can be easily measured. I got some really good input and hopefully I can present some examples by next week. But it is always silly to work on something when you don't know what they want and if it is right. But it is needed anyhow, I can see that we have to move forward with the SBT process, and identifying KPI's might be a good way to do this.

This week I visited a company that will be audited by James Bach in a couple of weeks, the same way we were in March. They are just getting started using SBT and I was there to give them some tips of how they can arrange their meeting with James. It is really good to see other companies trying to change their way of testing and trying new things! And it will be great to have a company that we can cooperate with and compare our process with. We can learn from each other and hopefully build a great network. I am really looking forward to it!

Less happy news is that one of my favorite consultants, Olof Svedström, is leaving us today. He has been part of implementing the SBT process at bwin Games. He has given us invaluable input and experience during two years and he will be truly missed!!!

Red and black numbers

There are things you as a tester can't control. There are many actually, sneaky commits, crappy environments to mention a few. And poorly communicated decisions from upper management. A couple of weeks ago a great tradition of bwin's was erased; Friday candy and free soda. We're saving money. This means letting our skilled consultants go too, even though there is no one to pick up after them. This has been painfully obvious this week since we haven't had a stability test environment all week. But we are still expected to deliver so we can make more money? I don't get it, I suppose if I was more into red and black numbers that would make sense to me. All I see is untested software and frustrated team mates that can't work properly. bwin are making one crappy job of motivating me right now…

Hopefully things will feel more cheerful next week, see you then

Back on track

Hi evereybody!

Once again there has been a bit of radio silence here.. But now my head is full of new stuff after the SAST-conference and the peer conference last weekend.

If you feel that you miss my writing I am blogging every week for bwin: http://www.bwingames.se/Insights/Blogs/AnnsBlog.aspx

I'll move over some of the relevant entries to this one..