How to Utilise Impact Analysis & Dependency for Maximum Benefit

Hello everyone, I wanted to share a few musings around prioritisation, impact analysis and dependency in testing. This topic is of great interest to me because it affects so much of our lives, we do it naturally with varying success; depending upon our core values and many other variables. These includes aspirations, age, upbringing, genetics, level of responsibilities, consequences and experience. We are all consumers and users subconsciously testing the products available on the market, prioritising those which are important to us and our perception of how much value is to be received in using those carefully selected products.

Expert Tips on Reducing Documentation 

As a test manager, for many years, my life has revolved around paper... requirements, documents and reports. I even had the poster!

I must admit I found comfort in my templates and checklists but then came agile! In an agile world, the focus is on delivering working software quickly and efficiently.  Agile methodologies encourage collaboration and communication between team members, including End Users, Testers, Developers and Product Owners. One of the key principles of agile is to value working software over comprehensive documentation. 

Mobile Device Testing: What You Need to Know

This blog was a collaborative effort, bringing together diverse perspectives and expertise to create a comprehensive piece. We extend a special thank you to all the contributors including Jessica Ward and Jane Kelly who generously shared their knowledge and insights.

Hi fellow readers! I’d like to share an insight into my experience with mobile testing, the compatibility issues across a range of mobile devices and its benefits. I’ve conducted testing for many years and find the same topics being debated: time, cost, money, quality and compatibility. 

Exploring the Essential Skills SDET’s need to become a Good Communicator

After reading a previous blog that covered important basics for a career in software testing, ‘What makes an Effective Test Consultant?’; it felt to me that a more detailed look at one of these areas was needed to help illustrate how important soft skills are for people starting out in this space.

Overview of Technical Testing

This week's blog comes from our guest writer, Renée Mineart.

One of the first lessons taught in every writing class I’ve ever taken is the concept of “show, don’t tell”. 

When writing a bit of prose, you always want to show the reader what is happening in a scene as opposed to a short summary telling them what happened. “Bob fell out of the tree” isn’t nearly as impactful as “Bob put his full body weight on the branch beneath his hand as he planned the next stage of his climb but the branch was unable to support his weight."

Insights from Eve Lister: Perspectives on Inclusive Workplace Practices

This week’s national awareness week is one that I feel passionate about and one that involves me directly. Deaf Awareness Week celebrates the achievements of people with a hearing loss but also promotes greater understanding of the barriers and challenges that people who are deaf face in society. As people are starting to talk openly about their experiences, it made me think about my own journey.

Introduction: Exploring the Significance of Software Quality

We talk about 'quality' quite a bit in our line of work, we talk about:

• Quality assurance
• QA & Test
• Improving quality
• Ensuring quality
• The quality of the software

Leveraging Time-Travel Techniques in Testing

I am often asked what are the biggest mistakes that companies, projects or testing teams make in execution. Well, aside from hiring me to do the testing in the first place, there is one area that does keep cropping up as being missed… thinking about and testing beyond the initial or obvious journey.

There are many labels attached to this – one of the best I’ve heard though is 3-dimensional testing. So, what do we mean by that?

Introduction to Software Quality Challenges

This week's blog comes from our guest writer, Renee Mineart. 

I am often (far too often if you ask me) heard saying to my colleagues the phrase, ‘should is my favourite IT word’. 

I normally say this right after someone in development or on a technical team says to me, ‘we’re going to apply this patch and everything should be fine. The customers should not experience any issues.’ or when saying ‘once we’ve installed this new software, the users will just need to reboot and everything should work better than before.’

Developing a Software Test Plan & The Impact of it 

Within every organisation there are a number of documents that have a hieratical order. When it comes to testing deliverables, you would expect to find the test policy document at the top of the tree; this document is only a couple of pages long but does at executive level spell out the quality needs of the organisation and gives the vision of what is expected of every project. This document is owned by the CIO or IT Director and should be mandated to ensure every programme and project works to the same expected standards every time.