Nicola has been involved with different testing communities, from Stockholm all the way to New Zealand and has as well worked on projects in various industries including Education, Retail and e-Commerce, giving her a great position to be able to answer anything, really anything about testing!
Weāll use this Club thread to share resources mentioned during the session and answer any questions we donāt get to during the live session.
We have reserved this session for the end of TestBash World 2022 to give you the opportunity to ask anything, really anything about testing which might not have been covered by all the previous sessions.
In this AMA, Tristan Lombard is joined by the amazing Nicola Lindgren.
Nicola has been involved with different testing communities, from Stockholm all the way to New Zealand and has as well worked on projects in various industries including Education, Retail and e-Commerce, giving her a great position to be able to answer anything, really anything about testing!
Takeaways
Get your burning testing questions answered
About Nicola!
Iām Nicola , a Senior QA Engineer/QA Manager based in Malmƶ, Sweden. Iām constantly looking for ways to learn, grow and adapt. In the past, I have worked on projects in various industries including Education, Retail and e-Commerce.I was the founder of the Stockholm Software Testing Talks meet-up and a co-founder of the WeTest Auckland testing meet-up. I was also a frequent co-instructor for the BBST Foundations course. If you want to read my thoughts on software testing, feel free to check out my blog: https://nicolalindgren.com.
@fullsnacktester .- how do you speak to Developers about Testing?
@friendlytester .- What aspect of testing do you enjoy the most? and why?
@karentestsstuff .- What frustrates you about testing currently?
@heather_reid .- How did you make the time to write your books? Have you any tips for anyone considering a similar path?
Rich.- What is the biggest change in testing that youāve seen so far and what might be the next big change?
@pennytests .- What advice would you give to those who are mentoring testers who are new to automated testing. Any doās or donāts while helping them on that journey?
@parwalrahul .- What is that one question that you wanted to answer via this AMA but has not been asked yet?
Anonymous.- how do you keep your testing team motivated?
Not answered
Anonymous.- Should a tester learn about test automation?
@mtomlins .- How do you help testers from burn-out? Likeā¦self-care for the testerās mind and soul?
Anonymous.- Which advice would you give to someone who struggles creating test plans/documents?
Anonymous.- How do you question your biases when testing? How does someone learn to improve awareness of their biases?
Anonymous.- Any suggestions about implementing the testing process in a development team that is not used to work with QAs?
Ben Dowen.- How do you record a bug that has been prevented?
@cpentecost13 .- Is there still room for Manual Testing in the world of QA or will it be totally phased out by Automation and Machine Learning?
Anonymous.- What do you see when the CTO says we want 100% test coverage?
Penny Howard.- What advice would you give to those who are mentoring testers who are new to automated testing. Any doās or donāts while helping them on that journey?
@simon_tomes .- You give so much back to the testing community! Thank you. What motivates you to do that?
Ben Dowen .- what was your journey into software testing?
Elizabeth Hurley.- What, if any, challenges have you overcome in your career? How? What have you learned and how did you apply it?
Jen Bauer.- What are your test portfolio recommendations when oneās day-to-day work is confidential and otherwise not shareable?
@maaret .- I talked a developer who said he but did not like testing because it is hard to say when you are doing a good job. How do you know if you are doing a good job?
Diana Dromey.- In three words only, what is software testing for you?
Anonymous.- Whatās the biggest social media gaffe about software testing that you made when sharing knowledge on social media and what did you learn from it?
I think it depends but Iām leaning towards a yes. I state my reasons why and factors I would consider in this blog post.
@mtomlins i havenāt (directly) worked with a tester who has suffered from burnout. (That I know of). But in terms of taking care of the mental health of my team members, I do try to keep track of what each personās ānormalā behaviour is and if/when they deviate from that.
While I like to think Iām a good listener, I realise Iām not the person to confide in for everyone in my team. So I may ask if they have someone to support them and suggest they talk to someone (if not me).
Iād be curious which aspect you are struggling with and what have you tried so far? There are a lot of resources and templates online including on the MoT site you can check out.
I also like to ask for feedback from other testers and non-testers to make sure the document is actually adding value. (I donāt like creating documentation for the sake of it)
Feel free to DM me if you are comfortable going into which aspect you are struggling with.
I admittedly struggle with this at times because itās easy to get into your own patterns.
Once every few weeks or so I do try to take a step back and question why am I doing what Iām doing. And I try ti come up with a different way to go about things and then ask myself why am I not doing it that way instead? (Forces me to justify my current way of doing things).
In terms of improving awareness of their biases I suggest you get the Testsphere deck of cards which has dedicated bias cards and check out these books:
The Art of thinking Clearly
Thinking Fast and Slow
Include them and make them part of the test process creation. Hold a discussion with some ideas you have and ask for their input.
I think this will help you get buy in if they are part of the decision and are given an opportunity to raise concerns.
After a few weeks, follow up and ask people whatās working and whatās not, then adapt/adjust.
With regards to machine learning, I donāt have any work experience in that area so I canāt give an informed opinion.
Ask them why and ask them to be more specific with how this coverage would be measured exactly.
Then I would lead them to talk about risk and ask what value exactly would come out of this relative to time needed to make something like that happen. (Would be way too much time)
Instead of just saying no, I would try and lead them to my reasoning as to why I donāt think itās a good idea- so they understand.
@pennytests I think I covered this question last night but feel free to message me if you want me to dive deeper into my answer.
For me, software testing is all about learning.
Learning about the software; learning how to communicate your findings; learning how to help improve the quality of the software (with the information you have).
Iāve probably made a few but canāt remember any big ones right now.
My only small regrets is getting in some little arguments on Twitter or LinkedIn but then when Iāve realised that I canāt see how either side can learn or gain value from it, I back out.
While I wouldnāt describe myself as non-comfrontational, I am very intentional with how I spend my time. I donāt want to waste my time if thereās nothing to be learned or nobody is being helped.
On a personal level, seeing my mums side of the family in Philippines later this year. My children havenāt met them yet. (My mum has come to visit though)
On a professional level, my keynote at SANAE in Bratislava. Iām looking forward to sharing my story of being made redundant and being intentional with developing my career.
