Five for Friday – March 14, 2025

I’d like to elaborate on something from a previous post on SDETs at Microsoft. One thing that is perhaps a bit different about the test role at Microsoft is its tie to the career path. We are, for better or worse, big believers in career growth and expect growth in scope and impact from all…

In January of 1995, I began some contract work (testing networking) on the Windows 95 team at Microsoft. Apparently, my work was appreciated, because in late May, I was offered a full time position on the team. My first official day as a full time Microsoft employee was June 5, 1995. That was twenty years…

I think this is the first time I’ve blogged about automation since writing…or, to be fair, compiling The A Word. But yet again, I see questions among testers about the value of automation and whether it will replace testers, etc.. For example, this post from Josh Grant asks whether there are similarities between automated trucking…

Once again – here are five things I found worth sharing this week. Steve Denning investigates The Hidden Heart Of 21st-Century Management Dawid Dylowicz wrote a fine blog post on what it’s like Joining A Startup As The First QA I’m sure you’re all aware of the recent malicious dependency issue that was blazing the internet. If…

I’m not sure if this is a musician’s perspective of learning or something more universal, but it’s something that I think about often. When learning, there’s value in training, lessons, reading, and other learning opportunities, but there’s much more value (IMO) in practice – but I’m not sure if that’s how everyone sees it (or…