Think you can be a software tester?

Do you breathe? I bet you do.

Can you eat? I'm sure you can.

Are you using things like clothes, chairs and computers fairly regularly? I know you are.

Then you are a user. And if you're a user, you are a tester.

We're all users. We're all consumers. Across the world, we are customers of each other. The man who makes the bar of soap you use every day may, in turn, be using the very software you made to calculate the size and composition of the soap cake. Every second of our lives we're using something that makes our work faster, more efficient, cleaner, pleasanter; our leisure more comfortable, more interesting,...

Read the full article in the June 2015 post of Simple Talk

1900 words
Nonfiction/Software testing
UK publication

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Words from the Wise

"This is excellent... (It) made me smile... (I) agree with what you say"

Andrew Clarke

Editor

Simple Talk

Developer-tester relationships

Pogrammers program. Testers test. In an ideal world, everyone would do what they were good at (or at least what they were employed for) and the result would be a stable reliable fit-for-purpose product that helped the customer stay happy, the shareholders become rich and you survive to work another day.

The world of software development, though, is far from ideal. Tight deadlines, unclear requirements, limited budgets, and human errors make the office a volatile place with constant fire-fighting. Tempers run high. Patience runs low. Programmers and testers are at each others' throats. ...

Read the full article in the May 2015 post of Simple Talk


2065 words
Nonfiction/Software testing
UK publication

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Words from the Wise

"I enjoyed reading it. It is a very interesting article in places and at several places in the article I thought you'd made some very valuable points...The point you made about the testers rating the priority of bugs was an interesting one because I've known that cause conflict...
I like the style of the article, it is good, clear and straightforward. It puts the points across, and is easy to read."

Andrew Clarke

Editor

Simple Talk

We need to talk

Formal and automated communication is usually described in the context of large, widely distributed teams made up of specialists. For many testers reality is different. I work with a small company whose development arm consists of a project manager, a tester (me) and about six programmers. This team handles all new projects. We work closely in an unstructured, informal environment to very tight deadlines.

Tight focus, tunnel vision

Earlier this year, the company was commissioned to deliver a web application. The PM and I had a meeting with the customer's representatives. We went over...


Read the full article in the October 2011 issue of Professional Tester


or

Request to read the original article via email for just 99p! (T&C apply)

1800 words
Nonfiction/Corporate
Europe publication

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Words from the Wise

"Your wonderful writing style would be a fine asset to the magazine. Thank you for sending this: I like it very much. I remain a big fan of your writing ability and style and I want it to appear in PT very much. I want your opinions, stated in your wonderfully clear and descriptive way. I think readers will like this article. I think the article is great and will resonate with many readers. It has the weight needed to balance the last two issues where the agile and automation crews have tended to have things their own way due to HP's influence."

Edward Bishop

Editor

Professional Tester