I was inspired by @wildtests to join in #30DaysWild - Something run by the Wildlife Trust to encourage more of us to get outside more regularly.
I often end up spending hardly any time outside during the week and only going outdoors on the weekend. So I’ve made a conscious effort to enjoy being outside - either for a lunch break, or for a walk/yoga/cycle, to play with the cats outside instead of indoors. Basically moving my activities outside!
I’m loving it. Even if I’m just lying on the lawn looking at the sky or listening to the birds.
So my win has been looking after my mental health. What’s your win this week?
Worked on a job description with my manager, and vacancy for a new position is now out!
Reopened a bug which was closed years ago as a won’t do (corner case). Added reasoning, and people now see the need to fix it.
8th day in a row I’m wearing shorts
Fails
At least this feels like a fail. I thoroughly tested a version of one of our software, didn’t find any regression. Handed it over to a colleague, and 5 minutes in they managed to crash it.
I managed to walk 3kms one day this week. Was pretty huge for me!
Professionally, and oddly, my win is unsubscribing from newsletters that I won’t get to read while out on leave. I’ve put them all in a folder to resubscribe to once I return. Might help keep the inbox manageable
Not a WIN yet - more a deadline today, relay… I’m currently writing the lasts paragraphs about test in a tender/bid reply we’re shooting for. 100+ pages on testing, test management and automation so far.
If you work for a company that develop and maintain systems for others - test management should surely be part of the bid team. (Just remembered I wrote about that previously on my blog. Read more here: Getting Testing in Early | Complexity is a Matter of Perspective)
The Epic one is making rackets, specially the one with @bethtesterleeds and I enjoyed all other testers rackets, feeling like rackat creators know each others even more than coworkers
I also challenged myself to make rackets without any preparation, but can’t ignore that some of the rackets I shared, I prepared some written notes before start recording.
Organizing 2 meetups within my MOT Sfax community
I participated in BOOST YOUR INSPIRATION, it was not trivial at the beginning, harder than 30 min talk but their coaching to speakers is the best ever at least 3 or 4 meetings before plus whatsapp followup messages, to make your 7 min talk totally inspiring. Felt like someone preparing me for a TED talk. I enjoyed my experience with them
Recorded a video in our garden you will see it in the right moment, sorry can’t give you more details now, let’s make it a surprise for coming weeks maybe.
This weeks bootcamp session was the Showcase where all the Students gave lightning talks. It was so good, just like a mini conference. Watch out for these as they will definitely be coming to a TestBash in the future as speakers
Gave feedback for a talk on accessibility which I can’t wait to see
Had a mixed first week after vacation with 2 very positive surprises.
Since 3 releases I am running debriefing sessions with the product and the development manager. For addressing things we noted during the testing, but haven’t been worth to become proper bug fixes, more minor things, or improvement suggestions.
So, on Monday I realized that some of the mentioned issues from the last session made it to software changes. Which encouraged me to continue those sessions.
The second surprise it, that after a knowledge transfer session about performance and memory analysis. A developer, a DevOps person and I will sit next week together to bounce ideas on how we could turn it into automation. It would probably never happen without the session and I hope we could use the momentum.
I booked my ISTQB Agile exam for a week on Wednesday.
Why do I keep doing this to myself???
Hahaha, I empathize entirely. The first time I tried to pass the ISTQB fundamentals I was just one answer shy of passing - I was so pissed of I thought steam would start blowing out of my ears.
It did help me land a promotion, followed by a nice raise and in the next company it impressed the client (for some reason), Personally, I think ISTQB is kind of dry and boring, and a lot of it is opinionated and outdated stuff. I prefer the Modern Testing Principles over the ISTQB ones.
In Europe ISTQB certifications are still more valued than elsewhere, it seems. From what I noticed, people looking for their first testing job can have better chances if they have it. Another benefit may be that you will get acquainted with terminology so you can be a better bullshiter (excuse my French) - this is was important to me as I like to write blogs.
But, real-world experience trumps certifications any time, in my opinion.
I think an alternative view could be that the ISTQB Foundation exam shows you have the solid level of you need to successfully build on with higher level courses, just like at university foundation course. Plus it gets you jobs
My win was speaking at a conference yesterday. I spent a lot of time and energy in preparation, so now I’m looking forward to some time away from the screen.
