Although I’ve tried to avoid writing about test automation since publishing The A Word four years ago, I suppose I should probably take some time soon to add a few more chapters before the book (like my last one) becomes largely obsolete. Not too long ago, I posted some predictions. In those predictions, I said: Testers writing…
Time has flown, but it’s now been six months since I quit my job at Microsoft. That’s nothing compared to the 22 years I worked there, but still a minor accomplishment. I won’t rehash the differences between Microsoft and Unity – so I’ll just say it’s a different and (for me) pleasant experience. I spend…
Today, I had a few minutes, and wanted to try, yet again, to make some positive change to the article on software testing on wikipedia I failed. It’s a mess, and I don’t know where to start. It’s too long. It’s unorganized. Many / most of the citations are a decade or more old. Some…
Between my talk at the online testing conference, and in discussions with Brent on AB Testing – and my day job thinking about service quality at Unity, I’ve spent a bunch of time lately pondering the role of the tester in modern software engineering, and what it means for today’s crowd of software testers. …
In just under 5 days, I’m giving a presentation on Technical Testing at the Online Testing Conference – http://www.onlinetestconf.com/ If you’re wondering, “WTF is technical testing?” I’ll give you my opinions (as well as some examples) along with the usual angry weasel rants. Here’s the twitter preview if you missed it.
The inevitable follow up to my last post is a discussion on career growth, and how to manage it effectively. For the record, I am not against career growth – in fact I think it’s one of the most important parts of my job. What I’m against, is employees making decisions based on growing their…
If you can believe it, it’s been 4 months since I left the big M. I miss a lot of people there, but I can’t say I’ve missed working there. Sure, I’m still in the honeymoon phase here at Unity – but so far, it’s been fun, challenging, and most of all, just plain refreshing….
Earlier this month, I spent a week in beautiful Copenhagen at what’s called a R&D Training week. The goal is that every new Unity engineer spends a week at the Copenhagen office, learning about the systems we use, and about engineering at Unity. Granted, since I’m on the services side, a big chunk of the…
In my role on Teams, I was “in charge” of quality – which eventually turned into everything from the moment code was checked in until it was deployed to our end-users. At one point during development, we had a fully usable product with no known blocking issues. We were missing key features, performance was slow…
A long time ago (for most of us), we built products over a long period of time, and hoped that customers liked what we built. It was important to give them all of the features they may need, as we wouldn’t be able to get them new features until the next release, which was usually at…
It’s been six years since James Whittaker proclaimed that test was dead (and many people still haven’t figured out what he really meant), and since then testing has continued to change dramatically. For some of us. But not for others. Earlier this week, I linked to an article titled “Stop Hiring Testers”. The title,…
A lot of people, both co-workers and not, have asked me why I “chose” Unity for my post-Microsoft career. Although I documented (sort of) why I broke up with Microsoft, and talked in a few other places about my role, I guess I haven’t publicly shared why I’m at Unity (vs any other tech company)….
The folks at Hexawise just published an interview with me as part of their new “Testing Smarter” series. It’s the typical stuff plus one mini-rant. The interview is here, and there’s a(n empty) reddit thread as well.
Calendar math says I’m a few hours into the 39th day since I started at Unity. I’m still well within the honeymoon window, but my optimism and excitement about working here continue to grow. It’s just a pretty damn cool place to work. I’ve met most of my team face to face, and will spend more…
Last week, Katrina Clokie (@katrina_tester) asked this question on twitter: Has anyone dynamically ordered automated checks so that those most likely to fail are executed first, then the build can fail fast? — Katrina Clokie (@katrina_tester) February 24, 2017 I gave a few abbreviated answers based on my experience, and promised to write up…
I mentioned on twitter that Barack Obama and I both left our old jobs on the same day. The world has been a very different place for both of us since then. Twitter is full of politics – and I’m completely ok with that, and happy to join in with my own opinions and thoughts….
For those of you who missed it on Twitter or in the AB Testing Podcast, my unemployment lasted (as planned) just a bit over week. On January 30, I started work at Unity, heading up quality for their various services. I spent most of last week trying to learn as much as I can and…
This one goes out to the one I love. This one goes out to the one I left behind -REM Relationships are both challenging and rewarding. As adults, we’ve all gone through dozens of relationships – some short, some long, some very long. They all have their ups and downs; their ebbs and flows; and…
I love reading twitter after I give a talk, because I can review what I said and make sure I agree with it (I never know what will come out of my mouth when I’m on a stage in front of people – it’s part of my presentation style). At TestBash in Philadelphia, I (apparently)…
Way back in 2008 when I wrote chapter three of HWTSAM, I briefly mentioned the HiPPO in the context of ship room (war room) meeting structure: Everyone’s voice is important. A phrase heard in many war rooms is “Don’t listen to the HiPPO”—where HiPPO is an acronym for highest-paid person’s opinion. It was a term…