Testing with your programmer

It has been way to long since I shared my thoughts here, which is a shame because the last half year I have had been thoughts about testing and software development. I just had a really nice experience so I thought I just share it.

So, one of the teams has rewritten some functionality, which affects more or less everything. They came to me 2 days ago saying happily as always "We're done!" I started testing and after 30 minutes I had like 15 bugs so I decided they needed some more time. Same thing happend yesterday. And today. Starting to feel that this is not very productive I asked if one of the developers could join me when I was testing, some good old pair testing. After half an hour the developer had written done at least 20 new bugs. But this time he had seen it for him self, what I did to make it happen. And it was really good having him by my side because of course he saw things I hadn't noticed. I really have to start doing this more, especially when it is an iteration that keeps dragging out because new bugs pops up everywhere. Also when you have IE-browsers always acting strange, it is far more effective having your programmer next to you.

In the zone

It has been almost 2 months since I started at Blocket. Two really interesting months. As always when starting a new job it takes a while to understand how things works. One of my tasks as Test Manager was to get some sort of test process in order. As I support five teams it was challenging to get a clear picture of the bottlenecks, how much testing effort was needed and the work flow. The first weeks I went to every team asking them if they had anything for me to test. Some times they did, some times they didn't. I was always sitting with the feeling that there might be something to do, but it is very hard to keep track of 5 team boards at once.

So I did what I love most, I did my own whiteboard. It is called The test zone. Whenever the developers has something they want to have tested they bring their note and add it to the board. If the note fulfills the entry criteria that are listed of course. Then it's really easy for me to see how much that needs testing for the day and when the board is empty I can focus on for example broadening my domain knowledge.

Beside from being very visually clear how much there is to test, the board also keeps me from acting as a mum or a police to the developers. I function as a service provider, if they don't want the service and my help to test something, that's fine. Then that's their choice. This means I'm not positioning myself as in charge of Quality. Which is a big relief on many levels. At my previous job I would get really nervous and try to keep track on everything that should be tested. Now I let the teams be responsible for that decision. AND, if this "fails", and a lot of bugs are being released etc, it is up to the development process to change how they want to work so it includes more testing.

I also added a timeline to the board so that the teams can mark when they are planing to release. That way we migrate the risk of two teams wanting to release at the same time..

I must also add that this is a great place to work. When I started the fist day I went and said hi to all the teams. Every team said things like "Finally, more testers!" and "Can you start now? We really need you". It not often the whole development department are so unanimous in wanting more testers.. It was a really cool experience :)

Acting on your feelings

Hellooo everybody!

So my last contribution was about taking the big leap of changing jobs. And is was a big leap. But then I figured out that even though there are plenty of perks to being a consultant, it's not my piece of cake. I realised that I love being at the same place for a long time and being able to suggest and implement change. And not just being a resource. Soooo I switched jobs. No fault of Know It, it's still a great company with really fun, skilled people! But for me, my new job is perfect. Starting in October I am the Test Manager of blocket.se. At the moment I manage one person, beside myself. And it's not so much me managing him, as him teaching me..

I think this is a nice challenge, they "do" XP, something I haven't come across before, and I'm intrigued to see how testing from my point of view will merge with that.

So, as I get in to it I'll hopefully have some insight in how to fit XP with QA-testing. From where I'm standing right now they contradict a lot. But as James Whittaker said at Star West a month ago, we tester will be obsolete. I don't fully agree, but being at a place that actually practice the one methodology that I think "should" be able to do with out dedicated testers is exciting! I'll keep you posted...


That's all for now, happy testing

New challanges

And I'm back.. But in a new setting. At the moment I am sitting at my new office at Know IT where I started yesterday. It's true, after 3,5 years I have left bwin. I never thought I would be able to do that! I have had such a great time at bwin it felt so distanced changing job. But I felt that it was time to move on and try something else and I choose Know IT which is a consultant company within IT. The plan is to try as many different areas as possible and broaden myself. It will be very interesting seeing how test is viewed upon depending on company and business.

But it was a hard decision to leave bwin. I have grown up there; my testing family who has taught me so much is there. I have developed as a tester, scrum master, colleague and person at bwin. It has been the best school one could imagine. But sooner or later one has to graduate and go out to the world and stand on your own two legs, and that is what I am doing. It is scary, but exciting.

So hopefully I will have a lot of news from different workplaces that I can reflect upon. So hang in there, it is my intention that I will be writing a lot more from now on!

xo
Ann

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!