tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-78184811110168836582024-03-18T08:33:21.202+05:30Enjoy testingThis is a blog where I (Ajay Balamurugadas) write about my experiences with SOFTWARE, testing software, enjoying defects in software and my learnings in software testing :)Ajay Balamurugadashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18002265306717617426noreply@blogger.comBlogger194125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7818481111016883658.post-21492930180860165712022-10-17T10:55:00.003+05:302022-10-17T10:55:38.763+05:30Requirements keep changing. What to do?<p>One of the common complaints by testers is that the requirements keep changing and they have to rework their testing efforts. I want to highlight my thoughts around the changing requirements scenario.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9vGzVy4I5kwx1tdx49oH24tzxU_TW5_qMIzhElF5CY77M2CiJZMp8LDQ3uBKXdxOcHcLtgqWKGxJ3K52XFpwgqTOQiQViKY9-iJB_XZqHrfdmFzZx9I84m4Ww5Xd23ZeJw3mXeKZ8CQ6AE2Urv2idjhKjgfQ2X4o_8SIBYE7sL-547dqgnfTXgDXR0w/s4395/Changing%20Requirements.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1449" data-original-width="4395" height="132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9vGzVy4I5kwx1tdx49oH24tzxU_TW5_qMIzhElF5CY77M2CiJZMp8LDQ3uBKXdxOcHcLtgqWKGxJ3K52XFpwgqTOQiQViKY9-iJB_XZqHrfdmFzZx9I84m4Ww5Xd23ZeJw3mXeKZ8CQ6AE2Urv2idjhKjgfQ2X4o_8SIBYE7sL-547dqgnfTXgDXR0w/w400-h132/Changing%20Requirements.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Work with the team, understand why the requirements are changing and try to be involved in all the discussions</li><li>Test smarter</li><li>Analyze requirements better</li></ul><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/S4i0XdGvvlw" width="320" youtube-src-id="S4i0XdGvvlw"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Tips to analyze Requirements better</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NUojNfDjIjw" width="320" youtube-src-id="NUojNfDjIjw"></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Product Coverage Outline - Huib Schoots</div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div><br /></div><p></p><div class="bootstrapiso notranslate" data-original-title="" id="mttContainer" style="transform: translate(159px, 269px);" title=""></div><iframe id="ocrFrame" name="ocrFrame" src="chrome-extension://hmigninkgibhdckiaphhmbgcghochdjc/ocr.html" style="display: none;"></iframe><div class="blogger-post-footer">Thanks for reading this post.</div>Ajay Balamurugadashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18002265306717617426noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7818481111016883658.post-12501411904572277602022-07-13T11:05:00.004+05:302022-07-13T11:05:54.050+05:30Focus on the process, not just the outcomes<p>We live and die by our habits.</p><p>When everything goes for a toss, we humans go back to muscle memory and what we have been doing for years. Thinking about testing, I wanted to see what those habits could be to be a sharp tester.</p><p>I tried to list out my habits and open up a discussion about your habits:</p><p><b>Organized Work Desk and Bag</b><br />I can close my eyes and find out my things. I know that the bottle is to my right. The charger is to the left. The book and pen are at the top right and the phone is at the bottom left. When they go into a bag, the earphones go to the first section, laptop and charger to the last section. Books, pen, mobile charger to the middle section. This helps me avoid searching for things in multiple places. The habit to note is that after using, I consciously put back the things in the same place.</p><p><b>Remembering and Using Shortcuts</b><br />As and when I use any application and especially if it is something that I would use often, then I note the shortcut for that feature. I immediately try out the shortcut - one to validate and two to get my muscles used to it. <br />Ex: I use Mac and to format text I copied from any app, I first paste it in Spotlight and then paste to the destination app.<br />The order of shortcuts are <br />Command + C = Copy<br />Command + Space = Open Spotlight<br />Command + V = Paste<br />Command + A = Select All <br />Command + C = Copy<br />Esc = To clear the text<br />Esc = To close Spotlight</p><p>All of these happen so quickly that you wouldn't even realise that I pressed so many keys. You might wonder how many seconds I would save by such actions. Multiply by so many applications and the number of times I would use those apps. </p><p><b>Collecting Fieldstones</b><br />Any fieldstone (anything you feel is interesting and can be of help later) is collected and organised for later use. There are multiple groups in WhatsApp created for this purpose. On Twitter - they are bookmarked and they are also revisited, thanks to Bookmark of the day chrome extension. Link: <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/bookmarkoftheday/jldlnlkjghmljkcbdebeebbafjgdmllc">https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/bookmarkoftheday/jldlnlkjghmljkcbdebeebbafjgdmllc</a><br /><br /><b>Routine websites</b><br />You want to visit certain websites daily to get information? Make a list and visit them - batch them. For me the list is Twitter, LinkedIn, Espncricinfo, Discord and Telegram. I do try to play the guess the number game daily on TTT discord.<br /><br /><b>Online Timer</b><br />I like the simple timer here: <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=online+timer">https://www.google.com/search?q=online+timer</a> I have been using it to write blogs, articles and the timeboxed pressure is helping me get things done.<br /><br /><b>Laptop Stand</b><br />A very recent and late investment has been the laptop stand to ensure the display is at eye level<br />Link: <a href="https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B08R78CSZ5">https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/B08R78CSZ5</a><br /><br /><b>Modeling any application</b><br />The first task is to keep the book and pen handy for any quick notes. I model any application by trying to use it in a systematic manner. Sometimes, the output is a feature map, sometimes it is an excel sheet or just notes in a notebook. What matters is the thought process and not necessarily the end result. Later, I polish the deliverable in a way that it is presentable.<br /><br /><b>Test Data</b><br />Most of the times, the fieldstones come handy here or the groups of testers who help me. Either a tool is used to generate the data or the risk is highlighted. One of the other activities that is associated with test data generation is understanding of the domain. For example, Blood Pressure of a human can have numbers field but it doesn't mean that it can take any number of digits as an input. It also doesn't mean that I will not try entering large digits. Knowing what is acceptable, within limits and what is not is an important skill in testing software.</p><p><b>Using Resources</b><br />Why put in extra effort when you can also take help of existing resources. <br />Are you aware of <br />Heuristic Test Strategy Model: <a href="https://www.satisfice.com/download/heuristic-test-strategy-model">https://www.satisfice.com/download/heuristic-test-strategy-model</a><br />Context Free Questions: <a href="https://www.developsense.com/blog/2010/11/context-free-questions-for-testing/">https://www.developsense.com/blog/2010/11/context-free-questions-for-testing/</a><br />77 Test Idea Triggers: <a href="https://www.thetesteye.com/presentations/REdgren_77TestIdeaTriggers.pdf">https://www.thetesteye.com/presentations/REdgren_77TestIdeaTriggers.pdf</a><br />Ultimate Productivity Tool: <a href="https://leanpub.com/productivitytoolkit">https://leanpub.com/productivitytoolkit</a><br />Test Heuristics Cheat Sheet: <a href="https://testobsessed.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/testheuristicscheatsheetv1.pdf">https://testobsessed.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/testheuristicscheatsheetv1.pdf</a><br /><br /><b>Connect with the team members</b><br />Your connect with the team members should never be just for asking help. Ensure that you have a good relationship even before you ask for help. See how you can add value to them. Thank them whenever you get a chance. <br /><br /><b>Organized Folders</b><br />These also help a lot, especially if you deal with multiple accounts, files, folders which is a given in IT industry. </p><p>What are your habits and muscle memories that you would like to share?</p><p><br /><br /></p><div class="bootstrapiso" data-original-title="" id="mttContainer" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); left: 0px; margin-left: -250px; pointer-events: none; position: fixed; top: 0px; transform: translate(137px, 741px); width: 500px; z-index: 100000200;" title=""></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Thanks for reading this post.</div>Ajay Balamurugadashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18002265306717617426noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7818481111016883658.post-14988276490739642612022-05-30T11:39:00.001+05:302022-05-30T11:39:48.726+05:30The fundamentals have gone for a toss<p> 25 Fundamental Mantras for Good Testing</p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>Why are you testing - Know it</li><li>Ask it if you don't know it</li><li>Confirm it if you are not sure about it</li><li>Test it out before believing anything</li><li>Listen to everyone but you take the final decision</li><li>Save as soon as you see it</li><li>Try for Autosave wherever possible</li><li>Take backups</li><li>Pay attention to the Context</li><li>Pincode can have letters, names can have special characters. Study the domain well</li><li>Document well, read documentation well</li><li>Write clearly, Think deeply, Read widely</li><li>Use tools wherever it helps</li><li>Know limitation of tools</li><li>Have a large network of friends and fieldstones</li><li>Learn to connect the dots across fields</li><li>If you can model well, you can test well</li><li>Know mnemonics and heuristics</li><li>Pay attention to keywords - always, never, must, should, obvious</li><li>Learn Safety Language</li><li>Keep collecting fieldstones</li><li>Start recording and then testing. Never waste time unless it is part of a test</li><li>There is no one good way of testing. </li><li>Testers can get bored easily if you keep doing mundane stuff. Add variety to your questions, ideas, routines.</li><li>There is already a lot of work done by the community. Learn to search well.</li><li>Organize well.</li></ol><p></p><div class="bootstrapiso" data-original-title="" id="mttContainer" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); left: 0px; margin-left: -250px; pointer-events: none; position: fixed; top: 0px; transform: translate(83px, 479px); width: 500px; z-index: 100000200;" title=""></div><div class="bootstrapiso" data-original-title="" id="mttContainer" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); left: 0px; margin-left: -250px; pointer-events: none; position: fixed; top: 0px; transform: translate(155px, 546px); width: 500px; z-index: 100000200;" title=""></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Thanks for reading this post.</div>Ajay Balamurugadashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18002265306717617426noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7818481111016883658.post-42333864277704944892022-05-09T13:02:00.002+05:302022-05-09T13:02:12.304+05:30Can you convert art to algorithms?<p>In a series of experiments, I tried my hand at a toy piano. </p><p>The first song was easy - Hot cross buns... I and Moganesh mastered it in a few minutes. Then, I wanted to try out "Happy Birthday to you". It was a little tough and Abi took up the challenge, learned it soon enough. I and Moganesh were happy with Hot cross buns tune (Lazy guys).</p><p>Then, I realized that there are many more such songs that can be played on the piano. So, the hunt began for the song to be learned. Remember that it is a toy piano and not the actual piano shown in the YouTube videos.</p><p>Think of this toy piano as a model of the actual piano and the mapping of the keys had to be done accordingly. The fun of learning from the YouTube video started. Copying every step, the configuration was setup. Instead of the notes, they were translated to numbers and I had to press the key corresponding to the number. </p><p>Here is the image highlighting the order of keys. There were multiple lines and each line had its own order of keys. So, you see two strips of paper one above the other. Later, I realized that there were few keys which had to be pressed and I had to attach extra bit of paper to accommodate those keys.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg40YRMvBUOZy7j7flfVkfl2pOoii0N_WHW_KGT-l3YsOwKB9tb_yndgDKtfMl6vbYOWz5aIIOf7x8VOkeqPp1JW-KsxikIOm7wY9sbYVDwXrrtpVtfP8Mw8hfGuq28CKdHvRgin7omhnCS8uysGjfw31FV1EkhGdFz_zaj1ql_7sj6XKDczq8oCHS1dg/s1280/WhatsApp%20Image%202022-05-08%20at%2012.17.14%20PM.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg40YRMvBUOZy7j7flfVkfl2pOoii0N_WHW_KGT-l3YsOwKB9tb_yndgDKtfMl6vbYOWz5aIIOf7x8VOkeqPp1JW-KsxikIOm7wY9sbYVDwXrrtpVtfP8Mw8hfGuq28CKdHvRgin7omhnCS8uysGjfw31FV1EkhGdFz_zaj1ql_7sj6XKDczq8oCHS1dg/w640-h360/WhatsApp%20Image%202022-05-08%20at%2012.17.14%20PM.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div>With all that done, the output was decent, if not great.<div>Can you guess the song?</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='317' height='264' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dy0CLCKYcibO1adW4k38KRv1o_oI32BEEoOlE52xMP9lZ5zhgBYBMv1VpjKXlWJmZ1DxqVVLYnAmnv8WlAGGg' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">After this experiment, I couldn't help think how testing is treated like the above experiment.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">If you can run a set of test cases, is that testing? Yes, it helps you confirm few things just like it helps play a tune to an extent.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Can someone finding few bugs or automating few test cases claim to be a tester?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Testing is much more than test cases or automation. If you saw what I did, I also played a tune within minutes but ask me anything around the tune or change few parameters, I will be exposed. Same is the case with many testers who claim to know testing just because they saw early success and are able to replicate certain steps again and again.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Testing is much more than bug hunting or automation. It reminds me of this post I wrote few years ago:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjrmZYOpC1SRIHlmEXXKNJlDlGKkOAcgKyHywiTdJry4L1tC3RUygn1LSPkZZQOybGNUMqa0mamGiJhEoxMelDRAduhqBr0U_FgIPy0313JwuJuLrvt4HABP0QbsKycKDToKIW0WcfvoQ7SfIHLzxK3Eo-_Zib5y-6XkaeLuR13Zyx607WIWh_1-kWuFQ" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="724" data-original-width="1358" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjrmZYOpC1SRIHlmEXXKNJlDlGKkOAcgKyHywiTdJry4L1tC3RUygn1LSPkZZQOybGNUMqa0mamGiJhEoxMelDRAduhqBr0U_FgIPy0313JwuJuLrvt4HABP0QbsKycKDToKIW0WcfvoQ7SfIHLzxK3Eo-_Zib5y-6XkaeLuR13Zyx607WIWh_1-kWuFQ=w400-h214" style="cursor: wait;" width="400" /></a></div><br />If you want to sharpen your skills in testing software and mindset, I am happy to engage you in exercises and feedback. Email me at ajay184f@gmail.com </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Till then, it is fun to play around but if you want to master something, work hard. </div><br /><div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /><br /></p><div class="bootstrapiso" data-original-title="" id="mttContainer" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); left: 0px; margin-left: -250px; pointer-events: none; position: fixed; top: 0px; transform: translate(155px, 573px); width: 500px; z-index: 100000200;" title=""></div><iframe id="ocrFrame" name="ocrFrame" src="chrome-extension://hmigninkgibhdckiaphhmbgcghochdjc/ocr.html" style="display: none;"></iframe></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Thanks for reading this post.</div>Ajay Balamurugadashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18002265306717617426noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7818481111016883658.post-8415851582114517952022-05-04T13:37:00.000+05:302022-05-04T13:37:15.789+05:30 Testing Mistakes that might be hard to spot<p><b>Testing Mistakes that might be hard to spot</b></p><p><b>Hundreds of test cases but not understanding the business use case</b><br />Unless you test the main use case, your 100s of test cases add no value. Do not go by numbers alone. Ask what those test cases cover. Is there a test case for every variation of test data and hence the inflated number? Even with the variation in test data, is it within the same equivalence class? Ask deeper questions.</p><p><b>Automating everyday but no one uses it</b><br />We must be doing good because our automation % is increasing. Do not fall for the trap. Again, ask the question - why are we automating, who is using it, how frequently? <br />Check out the <a href="https://www.stickyminds.com/article/hidden-costs-automation" target="_blank">costs of automation</a>.</p><p><b>Attributing a missed bug to lack of test case</b><br />Many teams add a test case as soon as a bug is missed. If your testing is 100% relying on test cases (which cannot be, even if you claim otherwise), the general tendency is to add a test case as soon as a bug is missed. How about asking the questions:<br />- Was it expected?<br />- Was it a known bug?<br />- Was it a result of the strategy used?<br />- What else could be missed?<br />- How will we capture those bugs?<br />- Why did these bugs come in the first place?<br />- Was there a possibility of catching them earlier - What would be the trade-off?</p><p><b>We will test everything every time</b><br />We can get into this situation if we don't understand the overall application model in depth. Agreed that there might be cases where every case is critical and thoroughly tested every time. Other than that, why not optimize, go through the impact analysis, analyze better?<br />Have you heard of <a href="https://karennicolejohnson.com/2009/11/a-heuristic-for-regression-testing/" target="_blank">RCRCRC mnemonic</a> by Karen N Johnson? There are more here: <a href="https://www.qualityperspectives.ca/resources/#mnemonics">https://www.qualityperspectives.ca/resources/#mnemonics</a></p><p><b>One dimensional coverage</b><br />Quality being multi-dimensional, it makes sense to think on all the perspectives and stakeholders. One shouldn't need a separate nudge to cover performance, security, accessibility, learnability, usability, compatibility and so on along with functionality. <br /></p><p><b>Incorrect usage of testing techniques</b><br />When was the last time you consciously thought about a testing technique while testing? Many are not even aware of testing techniques, forget about using them. Without knowing the techniques, either an incorrect usage or not using them is hard to find. </p><p>How many of the above are you guilty of committing or ignoring?</p><div class="bootstrapiso" data-original-title="" id="mttContainer" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); left: 0px; margin-left: -250px; pointer-events: none; position: fixed; top: 0px; transform: translate(328px, 242px); width: 500px; z-index: 100000200;" title=""></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Thanks for reading this post.</div>Ajay Balamurugadashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18002265306717617426noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7818481111016883658.post-73229046973407283742022-01-15T08:25:00.003+05:302022-01-15T08:25:54.127+05:30Learn Testing in 20 days - Response turned to post<p><span style="background-color: white; color: var(--color-text); font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Thank you, all for the kind words.</span></p><p style="--artdeco-reset-typography_getfontsize: 1.6rem; --artdeco-reset-typography_getlineheight: 1.5; background-color: white; border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; color: var(--color-text); counter-reset: list-1 0 list-2 0 list-3 0 list-4 0 list-5 0 list-6 0 list-7 0 list-8 0 list-9 0; cursor: text; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: var(--artdeco-reset-typography_getLineHeight); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline); white-space: pre-wrap;">This blog post is a comment turned to a blog post.</p><p style="--artdeco-reset-typography_getfontsize: 1.6rem; --artdeco-reset-typography_getlineheight: 1.5; background-color: white; border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; color: var(--color-text); counter-reset: list-1 0 list-2 0 list-3 0 list-4 0 list-5 0 list-6 0 list-7 0 list-8 0 list-9 0; cursor: text; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: var(--artdeco-reset-typography_getLineHeight); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline); white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></p><p style="--artdeco-reset-typography_getfontsize: 1.6rem; --artdeco-reset-typography_getlineheight: 1.5; background-color: white; border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; color: var(--color-text); counter-reset: list-1 0 list-2 0 list-3 0 list-4 0 list-5 0 list-6 0 list-7 0 list-8 0 list-9 0; cursor: text; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: var(--artdeco-reset-typography_getLineHeight); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline); white-space: pre-wrap;">Original Post: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6887744032022372352/</p><p style="--artdeco-reset-typography_getfontsize: 1.6rem; --artdeco-reset-typography_getlineheight: 1.5; background-color: white; border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; color: var(--color-text); counter-reset: list-1 0 list-2 0 list-3 0 list-4 0 list-5 0 list-6 0 list-7 0 list-8 0 list-9 0; cursor: text; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: var(--artdeco-reset-typography_getLineHeight); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline); white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></p><p style="--artdeco-reset-typography_getfontsize: 1.6rem; --artdeco-reset-typography_getlineheight: 1.5; background-color: white; border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; color: var(--color-text); counter-reset: list-1 0 list-2 0 list-3 0 list-4 0 list-5 0 list-6 0 list-7 0 list-8 0 list-9 0; cursor: text; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: var(--artdeco-reset-typography_getLineHeight); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline); white-space: pre-wrap;">Are there useful resources in the collection? </p><p style="--artdeco-reset-typography_getfontsize: 1.6rem; --artdeco-reset-typography_getlineheight: 1.5; background-color: white; border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; color: var(--color-text); counter-reset: list-1 0 list-2 0 list-3 0 list-4 0 list-5 0 list-6 0 list-7 0 list-8 0 list-9 0; cursor: text; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: var(--artdeco-reset-typography_getLineHeight); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline); white-space: pre-wrap;">Yes.</p><p style="--artdeco-reset-typography_getfontsize: 1.6rem; --artdeco-reset-typography_getlineheight: 1.5; background-color: white; border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; color: var(--color-text); counter-reset: list-1 0 list-2 0 list-3 0 list-4 0 list-5 0 list-6 0 list-7 0 list-8 0 list-9 0; cursor: text; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: var(--artdeco-reset-typography_getLineHeight); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline); white-space: pre-wrap;"><br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /></p><p style="--artdeco-reset-typography_getfontsize: 1.6rem; --artdeco-reset-typography_getlineheight: 1.5; background-color: white; border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; color: var(--color-text); counter-reset: list-1 0 list-2 0 list-3 0 list-4 0 list-5 0 list-6 0 list-7 0 list-8 0 list-9 0; cursor: text; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: var(--artdeco-reset-typography_getLineHeight); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline); white-space: pre-wrap;">Can it be better?</p><p style="--artdeco-reset-typography_getfontsize: 1.6rem; --artdeco-reset-typography_getlineheight: 1.5; background-color: white; border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; color: var(--color-text); counter-reset: list-1 0 list-2 0 list-3 0 list-4 0 list-5 0 list-6 0 list-7 0 list-8 0 list-9 0; cursor: text; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: var(--artdeco-reset-typography_getLineHeight); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline); white-space: pre-wrap;">Yes</p><p style="--artdeco-reset-typography_getfontsize: 1.6rem; --artdeco-reset-typography_getlineheight: 1.5; background-color: white; border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; color: var(--color-text); counter-reset: list-1 0 list-2 0 list-3 0 list-4 0 list-5 0 list-6 0 list-7 0 list-8 0 list-9 0; cursor: text; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: var(--artdeco-reset-typography_getLineHeight); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline); white-space: pre-wrap;"><br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /></p><p style="--artdeco-reset-typography_getfontsize: 1.6rem; --artdeco-reset-typography_getlineheight: 1.5; background-color: white; border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; color: var(--color-text); counter-reset: list-1 0 list-2 0 list-3 0 list-4 0 list-5 0 list-6 0 list-7 0 list-8 0 list-9 0; cursor: text; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: var(--artdeco-reset-typography_getLineHeight); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline); white-space: pre-wrap;">Do they need to be completed in 20 days?</p><p style="--artdeco-reset-typography_getfontsize: 1.6rem; --artdeco-reset-typography_getlineheight: 1.5; background-color: white; border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; color: var(--color-text); counter-reset: list-1 0 list-2 0 list-3 0 list-4 0 list-5 0 list-6 0 list-7 0 list-8 0 list-9 0; cursor: text; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: var(--artdeco-reset-typography_getLineHeight); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline); white-space: pre-wrap;">Maybe not</p><p style="--artdeco-reset-typography_getfontsize: 1.6rem; --artdeco-reset-typography_getlineheight: 1.5; background-color: white; border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; color: var(--color-text); counter-reset: list-1 0 list-2 0 list-3 0 list-4 0 list-5 0 list-6 0 list-7 0 list-8 0 list-9 0; cursor: text; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: var(--artdeco-reset-typography_getLineHeight); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline); white-space: pre-wrap;"><br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /></p><p style="--artdeco-reset-typography_getfontsize: 1.6rem; --artdeco-reset-typography_getlineheight: 1.5; background-color: white; border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; color: var(--color-text); counter-reset: list-1 0 list-2 0 list-3 0 list-4 0 list-5 0 list-6 0 list-7 0 list-8 0 list-9 0; cursor: text; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: var(--artdeco-reset-typography_getLineHeight); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline); white-space: pre-wrap;">Why did you put it as 20 days?</p><p style="--artdeco-reset-typography_getfontsize: 1.6rem; --artdeco-reset-typography_getlineheight: 1.5; background-color: white; border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; color: var(--color-text); counter-reset: list-1 0 list-2 0 list-3 0 list-4 0 list-5 0 list-6 0 list-7 0 list-8 0 list-9 0; cursor: text; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: var(--artdeco-reset-typography_getLineHeight); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline); white-space: pre-wrap;">Thanks for asking. A short story...</p><p style="--artdeco-reset-typography_getfontsize: 1.6rem; --artdeco-reset-typography_getlineheight: 1.5; background-color: white; border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; color: var(--color-text); counter-reset: list-1 0 list-2 0 list-3 0 list-4 0 list-5 0 list-6 0 list-7 0 list-8 0 list-9 0; cursor: text; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: var(--artdeco-reset-typography_getLineHeight); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline); white-space: pre-wrap;">When I saw the post <a href="https://club.ministryoftesting.com/t/does-this-seem-like-a-scam-to-anyone-thinking-of-doing-it-in-march/55987/20 " target="_blank">Does this seem like a scam to anyone? Thinking of doing it in March</a> and discussed with Rahul, we thought - we don't want to say yes/no to Codemify without knowing what they do.</p><p style="--artdeco-reset-typography_getfontsize: 1.6rem; --artdeco-reset-typography_getlineheight: 1.5; background-color: white; border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; color: var(--color-text); counter-reset: list-1 0 list-2 0 list-3 0 list-4 0 list-5 0 list-6 0 list-7 0 list-8 0 list-9 0; cursor: text; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: var(--artdeco-reset-typography_getLineHeight); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline); white-space: pre-wrap;"><br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /></p><p style="--artdeco-reset-typography_getfontsize: 1.6rem; --artdeco-reset-typography_getlineheight: 1.5; background-color: white; border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; color: var(--color-text); counter-reset: list-1 0 list-2 0 list-3 0 list-4 0 list-5 0 list-6 0 list-7 0 list-8 0 list-9 0; cursor: text; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: var(--artdeco-reset-typography_getLineHeight); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline); white-space: pre-wrap;">Instead, what if we suggest Alexandrea Pacheco, materials (learning, practice) for 20 days (days left till March) and then let Alexandrea Pacheco decide what they want to do.</p><p style="--artdeco-reset-typography_getfontsize: 1.6rem; --artdeco-reset-typography_getlineheight: 1.5; background-color: white; border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; color: var(--color-text); counter-reset: list-1 0 list-2 0 list-3 0 list-4 0 list-5 0 list-6 0 list-7 0 list-8 0 list-9 0; cursor: text; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: var(--artdeco-reset-typography_getLineHeight); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline); white-space: pre-wrap;"><br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /></p><p style="--artdeco-reset-typography_getfontsize: 1.6rem; --artdeco-reset-typography_getlineheight: 1.5; background-color: white; border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; color: var(--color-text); counter-reset: list-1 0 list-2 0 list-3 0 list-4 0 list-5 0 list-6 0 list-7 0 list-8 0 list-9 0; cursor: text; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: var(--artdeco-reset-typography_getLineHeight); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline); white-space: pre-wrap;">Can we complete any of the resources in 20 days?</p><p style="--artdeco-reset-typography_getfontsize: 1.6rem; --artdeco-reset-typography_getlineheight: 1.5; background-color: white; border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; color: var(--color-text); counter-reset: list-1 0 list-2 0 list-3 0 list-4 0 list-5 0 list-6 0 list-7 0 list-8 0 list-9 0; cursor: text; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: var(--artdeco-reset-typography_getLineHeight); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline); white-space: pre-wrap;">20 days (20 * 24hrs :D - yes!</p><p style="--artdeco-reset-typography_getfontsize: 1.6rem; --artdeco-reset-typography_getlineheight: 1.5; background-color: white; border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; color: var(--color-text); counter-reset: list-1 0 list-2 0 list-3 0 list-4 0 list-5 0 list-6 0 list-7 0 list-8 0 list-9 0; cursor: text; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: var(--artdeco-reset-typography_getLineHeight); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline); white-space: pre-wrap;">Again, completion is not THE end goal. </p><p style="--artdeco-reset-typography_getfontsize: 1.6rem; --artdeco-reset-typography_getlineheight: 1.5; background-color: white; border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; color: var(--color-text); counter-reset: list-1 0 list-2 0 list-3 0 list-4 0 list-5 0 list-6 0 list-7 0 list-8 0 list-9 0; cursor: text; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: var(--artdeco-reset-typography_getLineHeight); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline); white-space: pre-wrap;"><br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /></p><p style="--artdeco-reset-typography_getfontsize: 1.6rem; --artdeco-reset-typography_getlineheight: 1.5; background-color: white; border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; color: var(--color-text); counter-reset: list-1 0 list-2 0 list-3 0 list-4 0 list-5 0 list-6 0 list-7 0 list-8 0 list-9 0; cursor: text; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: var(--artdeco-reset-typography_getLineHeight); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline); white-space: pre-wrap;">We all know testing is continuous learning, exploring, an information gathering activity. Here is the proof. Hours after that video was made, I had my hands on this book - <a href="https://www.amazon.in/Tech-Simplified-Entrepreneurs-Deepak-Singh/dp/9355664990">Tech Simplified for PMs & Entrepreneurs</a> by <a class="ql-mention" data-entity-urn="urn:li:fsd_profile:ACoAAAMq_aQBxknW7qbswOeQrp3nVZTFOMgABEQ" data-guid="1" data-object-urn="urn:li:member:53149092" data-original-text="Deepak Singh" href="https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6887744032022372352/#" spellcheck="false" style="background-color: var(--artdeco-reset-link-background-color-transparent); border: var(--artdeco-reset-link-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; font-size: var(--artdeco-reset-base-font-size-hundred-percent); font-weight: 600; margin: var(--artdeco-reset-base-margin-zero); padding: var(--artdeco-reset-base-padding-zero); text-decoration: var(--artdeco-reset-link-text-decoration-none); touch-action: manipulation; vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline);">Deepak Singh</a></p><p style="--artdeco-reset-typography_getfontsize: 1.6rem; --artdeco-reset-typography_getlineheight: 1.5; background-color: white; border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; color: var(--color-text); counter-reset: list-1 0 list-2 0 list-3 0 list-4 0 list-5 0 list-6 0 list-7 0 list-8 0 list-9 0; cursor: text; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: var(--artdeco-reset-typography_getLineHeight); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline); white-space: pre-wrap;"><br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /></p><p style="--artdeco-reset-typography_getfontsize: 1.6rem; --artdeco-reset-typography_getlineheight: 1.5; background-color: white; border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; color: var(--color-text); counter-reset: list-1 0 list-2 0 list-3 0 list-4 0 list-5 0 list-6 0 list-7 0 list-8 0 list-9 0; cursor: text; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: var(--artdeco-reset-typography_getLineHeight); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline); white-space: pre-wrap;">Such a brilliant book, I would recommend this book as the first book even before Explore It.</p><p style="--artdeco-reset-typography_getfontsize: 1.6rem; --artdeco-reset-typography_getlineheight: 1.5; background-color: white; border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; color: var(--color-text); counter-reset: list-1 0 list-2 0 list-3 0 list-4 0 list-5 0 list-6 0 list-7 0 list-8 0 list-9 0; cursor: text; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: var(--artdeco-reset-typography_getLineHeight); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline); white-space: pre-wrap;"><br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /></p><p style="--artdeco-reset-typography_getfontsize: 1.6rem; --artdeco-reset-typography_getlineheight: 1.5; background-color: white; border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; color: var(--color-text); counter-reset: list-1 0 list-2 0 list-3 0 list-4 0 list-5 0 list-6 0 list-7 0 list-8 0 list-9 0; cursor: text; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: var(--artdeco-reset-typography_getLineHeight); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline); white-space: pre-wrap;">So, thank you all for your comments, suggestions, feedback. Much appreciated.</p><p style="--artdeco-reset-typography_getfontsize: 1.6rem; --artdeco-reset-typography_getlineheight: 1.5; background-color: white; border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; color: var(--color-text); counter-reset: list-1 0 list-2 0 list-3 0 list-4 0 list-5 0 list-6 0 list-7 0 list-8 0 list-9 0; cursor: text; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: var(--artdeco-reset-typography_getLineHeight); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline); white-space: pre-wrap;"><br style="box-sizing: inherit;" /></p><p style="--artdeco-reset-typography_getfontsize: 1.6rem; --artdeco-reset-typography_getlineheight: 1.5; background-color: white; border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; color: var(--color-text); counter-reset: list-1 0 list-2 0 list-3 0 list-4 0 list-5 0 list-6 0 list-7 0 list-8 0 list-9 0; cursor: text; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: var(--artdeco-reset-typography_getLineHeight); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline); white-space: pre-wrap;">Will we talk about automation so early in their career?</p><p style="--artdeco-reset-typography_getfontsize: 1.6rem; --artdeco-reset-typography_getlineheight: 1.5; background-color: white; border: var(--artdeco-reset-base-border-zero); box-sizing: inherit; color: var(--color-text); counter-reset: list-1 0 list-2 0 list-3 0 list-4 0 list-5 0 list-6 0 list-7 0 list-8 0 list-9 0; cursor: text; font-family: -apple-system, system-ui, "system-ui", "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", "Fira Sans", Ubuntu, Oxygen, "Oxygen Sans", Cantarell, "Droid Sans", "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Lucida Grande", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: var(--artdeco-reset-typography_getLineHeight); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: var(--artdeco-reset-base-vertical-align-baseline); white-space: pre-wrap;">My personal take: Not really. Introduce them to concepts and let them dive deep once they understand what we do, why we do and let them suggest if there can be tools to help us save time, energy and do at scale.</p><div class="bootstrapiso" data-original-title="" id="mttContainer" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); left: 0px; margin-left: -250px; pointer-events: none; position: fixed; top: 0px; transform: translate(29px, 152px); width: 500px; z-index: 100000200;" title=""></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Thanks for reading this post.</div>Ajay Balamurugadashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18002265306717617426noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7818481111016883658.post-74280937979429819702022-01-05T08:33:00.004+05:302022-01-05T08:33:48.420+05:30Part 1: Shout-out to TAU, BBST<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhIZinzxUe6lE9i9xqon4od2KRbKwUh7P3IjSf587VmBEa-Kz_Sy5lYT2c2-_EP_wNw1F-LXOSJjQ14Nbqc1GFRCVMOHL3zQULMJWU6KzurWjMuj-VmfCOD3DUmLhcbUlpr_moAKi7NFISVMcHHfnxCDEtPEJ6aZ_6eGOHao62z6AYF3zMTD9npA9l8-Q=s1914" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1914" data-original-width="788" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhIZinzxUe6lE9i9xqon4od2KRbKwUh7P3IjSf587VmBEa-Kz_Sy5lYT2c2-_EP_wNw1F-LXOSJjQ14Nbqc1GFRCVMOHL3zQULMJWU6KzurWjMuj-VmfCOD3DUmLhcbUlpr_moAKi7NFISVMcHHfnxCDEtPEJ6aZ_6eGOHao62z6AYF3zMTD9npA9l8-Q=s16000" /></a><br /></div><br /><p></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>This is a shout-out to <a href="https://testautomationu.applitools.com/learningpaths.html" target="_blank">Test Automation University</a> and the Learning Paths. While there are many courses, trainers on YouTube on automation, this one I loved the most.</p><p>The next one is the evergreen <a href="http://testingeducation.org/BBST/" target="_blank">BBST (Black Box Software Testing)</a>. This one helps you get the fundamentals right and the references, additional reading - all of them have value. Is it outdated - NOT really.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgwCOeAywU2Qhq-FroY4Aqo2dz9jVnz_JE7ayKRPOanWg27CVtl2GjpVhn5eqHxPtBdHInu92-a2aI_v10YwAYSQhQvpTsHoT38yWMFeyjI4NiwMWEcsfTiF0pDbKlhiDfk5WEEzOsszY1FKlYcWesY4xblNy-EyC8QSnDs_qXiLc3GHoopasnmCBoJKw=s1066" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="258" data-original-width="1066" height="154" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgwCOeAywU2Qhq-FroY4Aqo2dz9jVnz_JE7ayKRPOanWg27CVtl2GjpVhn5eqHxPtBdHInu92-a2aI_v10YwAYSQhQvpTsHoT38yWMFeyjI4NiwMWEcsfTiF0pDbKlhiDfk5WEEzOsszY1FKlYcWesY4xblNy-EyC8QSnDs_qXiLc3GHoopasnmCBoJKw=w640-h154" width="640" /></a><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">If you have not visited TAU or BBST websites till now, do check them out. If you have <strike>better</strike> alternatives, do suggest. I will be happy to learn. Hope to add more such learning opportunities in the coming weeks.</div></div><div class="bootstrapiso" data-original-title="" id="mttContainer" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); left: 0px; margin-left: -250px; pointer-events: none; position: fixed; top: 0px; transform: translate(257px, 739px); width: 500px; z-index: 100000200;" title=""></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Thanks for reading this post.</div>Ajay Balamurugadashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18002265306717617426noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7818481111016883658.post-70199260705242563292022-01-04T13:56:00.000+05:302022-01-04T13:56:05.368+05:30Few Chrome browser extensions <p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjEuVi4CeWJN7I5pPDdxCfTa0XOJiSFtWrZpgrTk6ICStEnNkP0Hs0M5KcPVCplrNdhkVt8JOSonBQszWGZpuT1PLHesPLX55l49QKbi5tVFsR6hFjg7ssf6fMTpYtA5bSmDEmog8V--LRh_cesR-MNY97loN3dLVsN3rlvUiRX84lxKPOYOv2f1W6x0Q=s2006" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1514" data-original-width="2006" height="483" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjEuVi4CeWJN7I5pPDdxCfTa0XOJiSFtWrZpgrTk6ICStEnNkP0Hs0M5KcPVCplrNdhkVt8JOSonBQszWGZpuT1PLHesPLX55l49QKbi5tVFsR6hFjg7ssf6fMTpYtA5bSmDEmog8V--LRh_cesR-MNY97loN3dLVsN3rlvUiRX84lxKPOYOv2f1W6x0Q=w640-h483" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgYKlgb0P2_dVlYx5HLzVuZ3TT474fvAob9PRE8PJCFXT_YetC9U7RvVWDAi9QLlS42zR8f9uIAsAq5Mvr8JIyPCEU9s4h4qL0kCayX7WdrPTk9nOd3XHU8JyPwe4D7ft95JxIBv-ivuYMM1UyPh-5JIfztjXWr2Avg3o3BocnNWIJuSuJMl1h16yX3oQ=s2008" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1776" data-original-width="2008" height="566" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgYKlgb0P2_dVlYx5HLzVuZ3TT474fvAob9PRE8PJCFXT_YetC9U7RvVWDAi9QLlS42zR8f9uIAsAq5Mvr8JIyPCEU9s4h4qL0kCayX7WdrPTk9nOd3XHU8JyPwe4D7ft95JxIBv-ivuYMM1UyPh-5JIfztjXWr2Avg3o3BocnNWIJuSuJMl1h16yX3oQ=w640-h566" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEizR3F62264qn8ixuqDvoS0JqgzHtWjTltLKjExGRL6WXzEQpX1RzUcFi_2VfCHthqnKmDeDoQxPNCnzjztXPrbS62s5O8PP2_tpO2SaFo1_fjkwFiuKweWNPOzgRK3ELE2mAHywjL6mOcJxPKMV_3s9dX1U7kAZnjFVIyJ1O9Wd9SOnl2ykAq-r5yiCA=s2000" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1776" data-original-width="2000" height="568" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEizR3F62264qn8ixuqDvoS0JqgzHtWjTltLKjExGRL6WXzEQpX1RzUcFi_2VfCHthqnKmDeDoQxPNCnzjztXPrbS62s5O8PP2_tpO2SaFo1_fjkwFiuKweWNPOzgRK3ELE2mAHywjL6mOcJxPKMV_3s9dX1U7kAZnjFVIyJ1O9Wd9SOnl2ykAq-r5yiCA=w640-h568" width="640" /></a><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">And more at Ultimate Productivity Toolkit...</div></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi0ylJDentD5iS7sy6dyWlVz3SBYWR6VpncJtEUl4E9iHGlEVO0go39eQ-XvZsOPwRDyGpvIdRrt1bqruHdVMreBMfj1l49-ddACiSLnEFAGP4kIH0Q56I6hiX46Q34kCnZbcRnPNIreIUHZTnRuhrMclemTJ2TLBosCY0nTd-2TDw3vSIdIZMkAeAPiA=s828" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="828" data-original-width="640" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi0ylJDentD5iS7sy6dyWlVz3SBYWR6VpncJtEUl4E9iHGlEVO0go39eQ-XvZsOPwRDyGpvIdRrt1bqruHdVMreBMfj1l49-ddACiSLnEFAGP4kIH0Q56I6hiX46Q34kCnZbcRnPNIreIUHZTnRuhrMclemTJ2TLBosCY0nTd-2TDw3vSIdIZMkAeAPiA=w494-h640" width="494" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Link: <a href="https://leanpub.com/productivitytoolkit">https://leanpub.com/productivitytoolkit</a></div><br /><p></p><div class="bootstrapiso" data-original-title="" id="mttContainer" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); left: 0px; margin-left: -250px; pointer-events: none; position: fixed; top: 0px; transform: translate(344px, 9px); width: 500px; z-index: 100000200;" title=""></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Thanks for reading this post.</div>Ajay Balamurugadashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18002265306717617426noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7818481111016883658.post-30190829996797116072022-01-04T10:30:00.004+05:302022-01-04T10:30:19.682+05:30Sachin's 241* and Discipline in software testing<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1908" data-original-width="1208" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjOTH7T3q-hjtj5Lxrqj4s2ELWMQ6qVdWKEVjB9jE8u7rG-oXmn05p_0akwli5dHpldY3Q-FFYhxpMb5nDstIqNHVtj1vnbLWNa7RjBKqq2ldo0OxWgAhiBwq9b3oqCfiVELCg3hRlRt1Oz19FSuToC6ixnX6vH-GD1AyauoJCEYEB-i6f_p8xQUXEX8A=w405-h640" width="405" /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;">Three days in 2004, the Master Blaster demonstrated what is considered one of his best innings.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;">Those who follow cricket, know it. </div><div style="text-align: left;">For those who don't, here is a brief:<br />"Cover drive" is a type of shot played by a batter and Sachin's cover drive was an important shot in his range of shots. In this innings, Sachin did not play a single cover drive. Imagine if you are suddenly asked to not use your thumb and index finger while typing. How difficult it would be? And you still managed to type out an entire book.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">That was the kind of discipline displayed by Sachin Tendulkar in this innings. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhRyLpw7DCg0B-3ibO7tWHH1x2iplsL-73-HSJyL2AXPBjGB7ktYdX19hQOSTZUpyOUAT9WVS1fb7Nyd8DcCSwBrJcD2N6AkIGYDkxJtA9njfpJtUynlezf5sQTiB13oIy-JtGZ5PVe2C8fU-tncJnRCtDQPBZN5D2fvY2TRYkp5Q4_f13MT16d_66mqQ=s1730" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1730" data-original-width="1188" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhRyLpw7DCg0B-3ibO7tWHH1x2iplsL-73-HSJyL2AXPBjGB7ktYdX19hQOSTZUpyOUAT9WVS1fb7Nyd8DcCSwBrJcD2N6AkIGYDkxJtA9njfpJtUynlezf5sQTiB13oIy-JtGZ5PVe2C8fU-tncJnRCtDQPBZN5D2fvY2TRYkp5Q4_f13MT16d_66mqQ=w440-h640" width="440" /></a><br /><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Now think of software testing and the various ways in which we are tied to a certain habit, tool, behavior, approach.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>People:</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Are we so comfortable working with certain people that we will struggle a lot when we switch teams?</div><div style="text-align: left;">I do understand the bonding aspect within good teams. At the end of the day, it is very rare that there are teams which work with the same members all the time. How are we preparing for it?</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Thinking systems, processes, checklists? Think of the tasks that you do and how you do it. Is there a set pattern to it? Are you aware and well versed with the alternatives?</div><div style="text-align: left;">A handy guide to jiggle your thought process is here - <a href="https://www.ministryoftesting.com/dojo/lessons/what-do-software-testers-do-version-0-1" target="_blank">What Do Software Testers Do? by Ministry of Testing</a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Process and Approach:</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">How attached are you to a specific process? Suddenly something changes in the process - how quickly can you adapt?</div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Tools:</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Do you have favorite tools? What if they suddenly disappear? Do you have backups?</div><div style="text-align: left;">I felt handicapped for sometime when Jing, TestBuddy decided to move on.</div><div style="text-align: left;">Start browsing and using <a href="https://leanpub.com/productivitytoolkit" target="_blank">Ultimate Productivity Toolkit</a> sponsored by <a href="https://testproject.io/" target="_blank">TestProject</a> and <a href="https://thetesttribe.com/" target="_blank">The Test Tribe</a> to start with.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Data and Domain:</b></div><div style="text-align: left;">Are you using the same data, relying on the same source and adding minor variations? Where are your new sources? You could try out five new sources and still stick to the old one. By the way, if you are looking at the next weekend testing session, we are targeting Game Testing on Mobile Apps. </div><div style="text-align: left;">Details here: <a href="https://weekendtesting.com/?p=4680">https://weekendtesting.com/?p=4680</a> See you there.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;">When was the last time you tried something new? </div><div style="text-align: left;">Unless we try, how will we know our potential and areas to improve?</div></blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The key takeaway I want to leave you with is:</b><br />Process, Tools, Approaches all help. THE key is a nice combo of Skill, Discipline and Practice. <br /><i>Next time you feel too attached to anything in software testing or life in general, remember 241*</i></div></div><p></p><div class="bootstrapiso" data-original-title="" id="mttContainer" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); left: 0px; margin-left: -250px; pointer-events: none; position: fixed; top: 0px; transform: translate(676px, 724px); width: 500px; z-index: 100000200;" title=""></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Thanks for reading this post.</div>Ajay Balamurugadashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18002265306717617426noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7818481111016883658.post-16024909005364472432022-01-03T07:47:00.001+05:302022-01-03T07:47:20.618+05:30Navy SEALS and Software Projects<p>I woke up to Inc's tweet -<a href="https://twitter.com/Inc/status/1477803901986430977" target="_blank"> https://twitter.com/Inc/status/1477803901986430977</a> titled "<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light";">Navy SEALs use this 7-step process to achieve any goal. You can too."</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light";">Anything related to the military excites me like a kid gets excited with the latest gadgets.<br />I nodded multiple times as I read the above <a href="https://www.inc.com/jessica-stillman/navy-seals-use-this-7-step-process-to-achieve-any-goal-you-can-too.html?cid=sf01001" target="_blank">article</a> and it struck me that the same principles apply well with software/any project too.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light";">1. Ask clarifying questions<br />2. Identify all your resources<br />3. Clarify roles and responsibilities<br />4. Focus relentlessly on your goal<br />5. Think through all possible contingencies<br />6. Train until you're stress-proof<br />7. After-action review</span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEikbZDD3JLJpLTzA43KRfYoS3xnojvyBRi_PQ0ShgbH1ZIaXnxbgjyA_qnKtRWMQRrwtWqG33APHqyU-7dpvMqSdYIHpLEBGDomsJq5FpLDOX1qUK7jxM60_ajgj9ehoOhjswRjXusx41OWo__UH6DNM1R3i-2X_D6pWIyZABMGCtFHCSSDnrM00pS9Qw=s2221" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2221" data-original-width="2174" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEikbZDD3JLJpLTzA43KRfYoS3xnojvyBRi_PQ0ShgbH1ZIaXnxbgjyA_qnKtRWMQRrwtWqG33APHqyU-7dpvMqSdYIHpLEBGDomsJq5FpLDOX1qUK7jxM60_ajgj9ehoOhjswRjXusx41OWo__UH6DNM1R3i-2X_D6pWIyZABMGCtFHCSSDnrM00pS9Qw=w626-h640" style="cursor: wait;" width="626" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue Light";"><br /></span><p></p><div class="bootstrapiso" data-original-title="" id="mttContainer" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); left: 0px; margin-left: -250px; pointer-events: none; position: fixed; top: 0px; transform: translate(154px, 12px); width: 500px; z-index: 100000200;" title=""></div><iframe id="ocrFrame" name="ocrFrame" src="chrome-extension://hmigninkgibhdckiaphhmbgcghochdjc/ocr.html" style="display: none;"></iframe><div class="blogger-post-footer">Thanks for reading this post.</div>Ajay Balamurugadashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18002265306717617426noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7818481111016883658.post-33749874400322297572022-01-02T11:17:00.000+05:302022-01-02T11:17:01.179+05:30Cost Time Value Risk<p> It has been more than 15 years since I first started testing software. From the first software I tested to the last client interaction I had, few points have not changed at all.</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>If it can be done quicker, people want it to be done quicker</li><li>If it can be done at a lower cost, people want it to be done at a low cost</li><li>If you can gain more value, people want you to work towards gaining that additional value</li><li>If you can reduce the risk, people want you to reduce the risk. </li></ul><div>Think of these as four points on the circumference of a circle. It is slightly difficult to keep all four at the maximum length from the centre. You increase any one, the other three take a hit. </div><div><br /></div><div>Welcome to the interesting world of software testing :)</div><div><br /></div><div>Let us dive a bit into the four points and how software testers can try balancing the four points near maximum most of the times.</div><div><br /></div><div>If you are thinking if all four are equally important or is there a prioritised list, good question! You are thinking like a good software tester. My answer is - No, there is no one standard list. Based on the context, the priority might change. At the same time, all four are important and the margin between each is minimal.</div><div><br /></div><div>Are people okay with a software that is too costly to build, takes a lot (I know a lot compared to what) of time, doesn't give as much value as possible, doesn't cover all the risks known? <b>A BIG NO.</b></div><div>Are people okay with a software that takes reasonable cost, time, value and covers reasonable risk? <b>Maybe Yes, Maybe No.</b></div><div>What is reasonable is a topic for some other day. </div><div><br /></div><div>Back to the four points and how software testers can balance:</div><div><b>Cost</b></div><div>As software testing is an information gathering activity and we don't have infinite time available, we should be conscious of the cost to the project every second. Every action we take or we don't take has a cost associated with it. Keeping the environment up also has a cost associated with it - relate it to the cloud services and the charges per minute of usage.</div><div><br /></div><div>As testers, can we /try/ to be conscious of the following costs:</div><div>- cost of software used to test the software</div><div>- cost of people's time utilised for the project</div><div>- cost of repeating an action because we forgot to make a note of what was the response of the action first time</div><div>- cost of delayed action</div><div>- cost of incorrect action</div><div>- cost of not communicating our expectations </div><div>- cost of not listening</div><div>- cost of not asking enough questions</div><div>- cost of missing the use case</div><div>- cost of brooding over a past mistake ( I remember the slip fielder in cricket who has to be focused and ready for the next ball even if they missed a easy one the last ball)</div><div>- cost of not using the right tools</div><div>- cost of using a tool because we have the tool</div><div>- cost of being in meetings even though you are not contributing</div><div>- cost of using the incorrect medium for communication</div><div>- cost of making people wait in meetings </div><div>- cost of jumping in to test without bothering to understand the why behind the software and/or the testing</div><div>- cost of not venturing into the unknown early</div><div><br /></div><div>Is there a specific order in which the costs need to be thought of? No, not really. You can get better with experience, if you pay attention to all the experiences. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Time</b></div><div>Somewhere all of Cost, Time, Value, Risk are so much related to each other that you can have the same questions and replace one of the four words with the other three and it would still make sense.</div><div>Ex: Time lost because something was not done right the first time (when there was the chance to do it right first time)</div><div><br /></div><div>Maybe the following mind map will help you think about <br />Cost: What is the cost of this action?<br />Time: What is the time needed to do this action? Can it be done quicker?<br />Value: What is the value of this action? Is there a better way to do it to get more value?</div><div>Risk: What is the risk of this action? What is the risk of NOT doing this action? </div><div><br /></div><div>I used to think on the lines of Cost, Time, Value and Michael Bolton helped me realize the importance of considering Risk too in my thought process. </div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjAxGwRdIL2TfwYQjckgidnK7JGHEj1r2iGaNsZeYH9QTwB36C9_aMpj0aFDC5wpGWP7U_MSqeEElAqIoz4pLkVqebPiyM_Ofz6FFYheKWaTXXPqn_8MhczA0A5LEuqssu03PrDwnPyPecd8SV767viVEk0F-mJCXBlr7Em7egPfE53tTtcVECJ96G0yQ=s4169" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1917" data-original-width="4169" height="294" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjAxGwRdIL2TfwYQjckgidnK7JGHEj1r2iGaNsZeYH9QTwB36C9_aMpj0aFDC5wpGWP7U_MSqeEElAqIoz4pLkVqebPiyM_Ofz6FFYheKWaTXXPqn_8MhczA0A5LEuqssu03PrDwnPyPecd8SV767viVEk0F-mJCXBlr7Em7egPfE53tTtcVECJ96G0yQ=w640-h294" width="640" /></a></div><br /><b><br /></b></div><p></p><div class="bootstrapiso" data-original-title="" id="mttContainer" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); left: 0px; margin-left: -250px; pointer-events: none; position: fixed; top: 0px; transform: translate(121px, 17px); width: 500px; z-index: 100000200;" title=""></div><iframe id="ocrFrame" name="ocrFrame" src="chrome-extension://hmigninkgibhdckiaphhmbgcghochdjc/ocr.html" style="display: none;"></iframe><div class="blogger-post-footer">Thanks for reading this post.</div>Ajay Balamurugadashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18002265306717617426noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7818481111016883658.post-5825920249513943652022-01-01T11:26:00.001+05:302022-01-01T11:26:34.062+05:30Time for a new year post?<p>Everywhere there is New Year Celebrations going on. I am happy for them. I was thinking how would a tester approach a new year...If you have a computer and internet connection, you can do wonders. </p><p><b>Learn about your company</b><br />What does your company do?<br />Since when?<br />For whom?<br />Who are your competitors?<br />Future plans?<br />What does your company avoid?<br />How much do you know about the management and other teams?<br />What are the problems your company is facing?<br />Who are your customers? <br />What are their top use cases?<br /><br /><b>Learn about the industry</b><br />What is the industry your company is into?<br />What is the industry your customers are into?<br />What are the industry trends?<br />How much do you know about the history of the industry?<br />What problems does the industry face in general?<br />How have other industries solved similar problems?</p><p><b>Learn about your craft</b><br />What are the fundamentals?<br />What are the trends and the history?<br />If there is a topic, are there books, websites, articles, courses, workshops on it? Go through them.<br />Talk to the practitioners. Don't stop with the fundamental questions. Do your homework, show them your hard work and approach with specific questions.<br /><br /><b>Practice your skills<br /></b>Pick up any skill that you think you want to improve and practice. Take feedback and implement the feedback. <br />Understand that there are types of skills and a lot of them too.<br />- Problem Solving<br />- Learning<br />- Testing (Questioning, Test data generation, <a href="https://leanpub.com/productivitytoolkit" target="_blank">Using the right tools for the context</a>, <a href="https://thetesttribe.com/worqference-ajay-balamurugadas-balaji-ponnada/" target="_blank">Modelling an application</a>, Foundations, Bug Advocacy, <a href="http://testingeducation.org/BBST/testdesign/" target="_blank">Test Design</a> and more like the ones mentioned in <a href="https://whose.associationforsoftwaretesting.org/index.php?title=Main_Page" target="_blank">WHOSE (WorksHop for Self-Education in Software Testing)</a><br />- Pick up any session from <a href="https://weekendtesting.com/" target="_blank">Weekend Testing</a>, practice and compare with others' approach.</p><p><b>Read Books</b><br />There are hundreds of them listed here: <a href="https://www.huibschoots.nl/wordpress/?p=1361">https://www.huibschoots.nl/wordpress/?p=1361</a> by Huib Schoots</p><p><b>Watch videos</b> of conference/meetup talks on YouTube. Check out the list of conferences here -<a href=" https://testingconferences.org/"> https://testingconferences.org/</a> maintained by Chris Kenst.</p><p><b>Participate in contests and community</b> activities. There are many. Check out <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgOwnU0QgjE" target="_blank">My Testing Dreams</a> which has references to multiple such platforms.</p><p><b>Make new friends and stay in touch</b> with old friends. Check out <a href="https://coffeemug.ai/">Coffeemug.ai</a></p><p>In short, LIVE.<br /><br />Be Happy for what you have.<br />Learn more for growth and new opportunities<br />Take care of health as it is difficult to deliver at 30% energy :)<br />Say no to things that take you away from your goals<br />Think long term, start now with short term goals.<br />Experience the moments.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhLdtnlaUHnICYS5CyfixV6xQghVvGPqNDF-Wx_T1oUj4kTw2IikS7lcoieycxf90lWJHXmteGZO6-HkEsNhDaH3fHxo1trnmvMU10qYFExJqTJjtbsXrAQbUylVZZDc2zg564MUBlVHkOyYR3OjY-GnE7EgT4TyUwyODW6o5GkeMjEe5VjD5u0YUsN7A=s2500" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1875" data-original-width="2500" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhLdtnlaUHnICYS5CyfixV6xQghVvGPqNDF-Wx_T1oUj4kTw2IikS7lcoieycxf90lWJHXmteGZO6-HkEsNhDaH3fHxo1trnmvMU10qYFExJqTJjtbsXrAQbUylVZZDc2zg564MUBlVHkOyYR3OjY-GnE7EgT4TyUwyODW6o5GkeMjEe5VjD5u0YUsN7A=w640-h480" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.testingreferences.com/testingtimeline.php">http://www.testingreferences.com/testingtimeline.php</a></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p><br /></p><div class="bootstrapiso" data-original-title="" id="mttContainer" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); left: 0px; margin-left: -250px; pointer-events: none; position: fixed; top: 0px; transform: translate(312px, 53px); width: 500px; z-index: 100000200;" title=""></div><div class="bootstrapiso" data-original-title="Severe" dir="ltr" id="mttContainer" style="background-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); left: 0px; margin-left: -250px; pointer-events: none; position: fixed; top: 0px; transform: translate(91px, 297px); width: 500px; z-index: 100000200;" title=""></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Thanks for reading this post.</div>Ajay Balamurugadashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18002265306717617426noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7818481111016883658.post-77304857915391811092021-10-07T17:25:00.001+05:302021-10-07T17:25:21.701+05:30The game of right questions<p></p><blockquote>You always say that testing is all about asking questions. </blockquote><blockquote>How do I know if I am asking the right questions?</blockquote><p>Many testers have asked me the above question. Recently in my 1-1 coaching too, this question was raised. I thought it is now time for writing the detailed answer. </p><p>Testing is all about asking questions about the product and evaluating the answers to see if there is a problem or not. Testing is also a sampling activity. Due to the limited amount of time, effort, it will be great if the right questions are asked early. The problem comes when we need to figure out which are the right questions and which are not. It is similar to asking how do I find the critical bugs first compared to the minor ones. The answer to both the questions is similar - CONTEXT.</p><p>The more we know about the Context, our questions and our test ideas have a greater chance of being more pointed and useful. Let us work through an example. </p><p>Let us consider two systems at work.</p><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><blockquote>A web application that acts as the dashboard for the temple administration to view the darshan slots and count of devotees. Mobile application for the devotees to book the slots for the darshan. </blockquote></span></h4><div>Though we can start from anywhere, I would like to focus on the below questions for a start:<br /><br /></div><div><b>Mission:</b> </div><div>Why are we testing? </div><div>Is it a new release or upgrade? </div><div>Based on the answers, your questions should change. </div><div>If it is a new release, more focus is on what the customer has been promised. </div><div>If it is an upgrade, the things that are already released should not break at any cost. </div><div>The focus shifts drastically at just one answer. </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Deadline: </b></div><div>How much time do we have for the release? </div><div>How much time do we have for the testing? </div><div>Is the development complete or still in progress? </div><div><br /></div><div><b>Users/Customers: </b></div><div>Who are existing customers? </div><div>Who will be our target customers? </div><div>In this case, will the temple board be our first customer or individual temples manage the website on their own? </div><div>Will devotees be only the senior citizens or will the apps be managed by agents who will help the devotees do the slot booking?</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Key Features: </b></div><div>Is there an existing list of features, documented in any form (Design docs, Code, Requirement documents)? </div><div>Can we use the application to learn about the features? </div><div>Are there test ids available?</div><div><br /></div><div>Then start thinking about the four components of a test</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Configuration</b></div><div>Which platforms will the applications support?</div><div>Supported OS Versions? </div><div>Which are supposed to be supported?<br />How much of load can we expect? </div><div>Which other components are in play?</div><div>How are the website and the mobile app connected? </div><div>How frequently or how soon the data is synced?</div><div>Any specific time when the load of booking slots will be high?</div><div>Are there backup systems?</div><div>Where is the data saved? For how long?</div><div>How will we know if any of the systems go down? Is the scenario handled?</div><div>How is the temple onboarded?</div><div>How are the users onboarded?</div><div>Which other systems will take the load (SMS, notifications)?</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Operation:</b></div><div>How would one book the slot?</div><div>How many slots can be booked in one shot?</div><div>How quickly can the slots be booked?</div><div>How long is the session active?</div><div>Any other modes other than online mode? (SMS?)</div><div>What about cancellations?</div><div>Is there a hold period?</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Observation:</b></div><div>What happens to the UI before, during, after booking?</div><div>What gets printed in the logs?</div><div>What gets stored temporarily and permanently in the DB?</div><div>Are there other mediums of communication (SMS, Notifications, Emails)</div><div>Any download options (thereby invoking other systems and applications) of tickets?</div><div>Error messages and information messages throughout the booking process?</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Evaluation:</b></div><div>What is the oracle here - the requirement document? the product owner? the product? similar products? user expectations?</div><div>How do we know that whatever we see on the dashboard is right?</div><div>Should we trust the website or app or something else?</div><div><br /></div><div>Now, which of these questions are important and which of these are not?</div><div>We don't know till we ask these and get the answers. </div><div>Good testers will not just go through some list of questions but modify the list on the fly based on the answers to previous questions or information gained midway. </div><div><br /></div><div>What do you think? How to win the game of right questions?</div><div>The more we know about the application, context, the right questions will appear quickly.</div><div><br /></div><div>Meanwhile, join me for TestFlix - <a href="https://www.thetesttribe.com/testflix-2021/">https://www.thetesttribe.com/testflix-2021/</a> by registering with your teams.</div><p></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">Thanks for reading this post.</div>Ajay Balamurugadashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18002265306717617426noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7818481111016883658.post-35348484813303604962021-05-02T18:58:00.000+05:302021-05-02T18:58:05.169+05:30A growing problem to be solved soon<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-q6YvgmQtU4Y/YI6osc11FdI/AAAAAAAACWw/EM6zceihISomHamhaQec559oNEHbybMPQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/alex-knight-2EJCSULRwC8-unsplash.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1365" data-original-width="2048" height="266" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-q6YvgmQtU4Y/YI6osc11FdI/AAAAAAAACWw/EM6zceihISomHamhaQec559oNEHbybMPQCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h266/alex-knight-2EJCSULRwC8-unsplash.jpeg" width="400" /></a><br />Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@agk42?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Alex Knight</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/s/photos/automation?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText">Unsplash</a></div><div><br /></div>Somehow the current batch of testers are more inclined towards Automation, call themselves SDET / Automation engineers and look down on the role of functional tester. I am not here to stir up another debate of which term is the right term to use.
My concern is somewhere else - The understanding of "testing" as a craft and focus on the "testing skills". <div><br /></div><div> Some of the questions have no answers with this batch of testers: </div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Why do we test? (We test to automate - Yes, I was shocked on listening to this answer) <br /><br /></li><li>How do you test this product? (I will automate using <tool name=""> - Automation is one of the activities based on the context. Don't approach testing with tools. Use tools if they help you in testing) <br /><br /></tool></li><li><tool name="">What kind of bugs have you found? (UI, Usability..) <br /><br /></tool></li><li>When was the last time you designed your tests? (Oh, we received them from the manual or functional team and we went ahead and automated them) </li></ul><b><br />Garbage In - Garbage Out</b> <br />All I can say is: Garbage in - Garbage out! I am not against automation. Automation is very useful. It helps you achieve the things that you might not be able to do without the tools. </div><div><br /></div><div>Without having the right test ideas, what are you going to automate? </div><div>Won't they be incorrect or way too shallow? Think about it. </div><div>Are the checks even valuable? Are they going to answer the questions that matter? </div><div><br /></div><div>So, now without your test ideas being strong, I don't understand how you can add value as a tester!</div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>
<b>Systematic Product Modelling</b> </div><div>Have you seen the testers who say that they have not tested the feature and hence have no idea about the feature even though it is part of the same product they are testing? On top of it, the two features would even be interacting with each other.
Why would one not want to learn about the whole product? </div><div><br /></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Do we even spend enough time and the right techniques to model the whole application? <br /><br /></li><li>Do we think across layers - UI, API, DB?<br /><br /></li><li>Do we think about the different users - the first-timer, the legacy, just started, the one who has not updated?<br /><br /></li><li>Do we understand how the data flows across features and how it gets transformed?<br /><br /></li><li>Do we know the defaults?<br /><br /></li><li>Do we know how the product is marketed?<br /><br /></li><li>Do we know the complaints the users raise to our customer support teams?<br /><br /></li><li>Without modeling the overall application, I wonder what use is the automation skill?<br /><br /></li><li>Isn't it a very narrow-minded approach?<br /><br /></li><li>Won't the power of automation be well used if you exactly know where to use it rather than using it at every opportunity? </li></ul></div><div><br /></div><div><b>Who /also/ encourages them?</b>
<br />Think of all the questions that are asked in the interview. </div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>How much do we focus on the fundamentals? <br /><br /></li><li>Do we jump straight to the tools?<br /><br /></li><li>Do we fill up the positions even if we know that this tester is not a well-rounded tester?<br /><br /></li><li>Do we give higher emphasis to automation skills?</li></ul></div><div>Check out the job descriptions that are posted as well. No mention of the core skills. The tools form the majority of the JD. We can't blame the testers with such JDs.
<br /><br />Soon, we will get to a state where testers have no idea what testing is, the bigger picture, the multi-dimensional aspect of quality, and how one can add value. We should get away from the zone of robots with tools ready to automate anything and everything without understanding testing. <br /><br /><blockquote>The next time you have a chance to influence any of the above three factors - <b>"Decide what to automate"</b>, "<b>Knowledge of the product</b>", "<b>Interview the testers</b>", dive in and help the industry move ahead!</blockquote><br /></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">Thanks for reading this post.</div>Ajay Balamurugadashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18002265306717617426noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7818481111016883658.post-37761833599212991332021-01-03T13:33:00.000+05:302021-01-03T13:33:54.737+05:30A-Z of Testing Tips: A for Awareness<p>Wish you all a very happy new year 2021. <br />Let us use the experience gained in 2020 to make the best use of 2021.</p><p>Based on the talk given at #TestFlix - https://www.thetesttribe.com/testflix/, I want to expand my eight minutes talk into a series of blog posts. </p><p>Here is the first of such posts where I will talk about <b>A - Awareness</b></p><p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NUe-S1tAlEA/X_FlMXwKG3I/AAAAAAAACU8/Mvpj6pPdKrouJsMwXNIAyzUSRTJYeZWvgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1166/Awareness_A-Z_of_TestingTips.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1166" height="309" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NUe-S1tAlEA/X_FlMXwKG3I/AAAAAAAACU8/Mvpj6pPdKrouJsMwXNIAyzUSRTJYeZWvgCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h309/Awareness_A-Z_of_TestingTips.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Awareness</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><b>Awareness Stage</b></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><b>The four stages of awareness and knowledge</b><br />Know that you know<br />Know that you don't know<br />Don't know that you know<br />Don't know that you don't know<br /><br />Where are you in these four stages w.r.t testing?<br /><br /></li><li><b>Awareness of your time</b><br />Many testers when test, are not even aware of what they are upto. <br />Do you know how much of your time is spent on which activity in testing?<br /><br /></li><li><b>How do you test?</b><br />Is there a structure of how you test and most of your actions are consciously thought of?<br />Do you just follow someone's instructions without even understanding the why behind the how?<br /><br /></li><li><b>Industry trends</b><br />Are you so behind the trends that someone who interacts with you feels that you are ages behind, especially if you are supposed to be the expert at that task?</li></ul><div>Be super-aware of what's happening both in the industry and also when you test, work with your team members. I have seen many testers perform actions and chit chat or play games that they have absolutely zero idea of what's happening on the system. They are not testing. They are going through the motions, as they say. Don't be one of them.</div><div><br /></div><div><i>If you are not aware, how will you improve? </i><br /><i>If you don't improve, be ready to be replaced by someone who is less expensive than you :)</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><b>Application Stage:</b></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><b>What's your next step?</b><br />Once you know that you have to be aware, what will you do now?<br />Do you know in which situations you need to improve? Based on that you can now focus on improving.<br /><br />For example, if you feel that you make a lot of mistakes in understanding the requirements, pay attention to what you do when they are being discussed. Are you really listening or waiting for your chance to speak? I know that it is not as easy as I have written in the sentence above. And that is where the practice - conscious practice - comes into the picture.<br /><br />Remember that if you know and you don't apply in situations which demand application, it is as good as not knowing. <br /><br /></li><li><b>Being more self-aware</b><br />It comes down to habits, retrospections and the cost of mistakes. Being aware 100% of the times in 100% of the activities might be taxing. Instead pick certain high value/cost activities and practice being aware. Slowly, you might observe that you are getting better at self-awareness, till it becomes part of your muscle memory.</li></ul><div><b>Growth Stage</b></div></div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><b>Did you follow-up?</b><br />Many, almost everyone wants to improve. The first stage is to be aware that one needs to improve. The second is to take actions. The third (growth stage) is to evaluate the actions taken and the results and course correction (if needed). <br /><br />I have seen many take the first two steps and then lose track because they are not tracking it. If you don't track, unless you have mastered it and made a habit part of your muscle memory, the chances are high that you might get back to old habits.<br /><br />Let me give one classic example here:<br />When the appraisals happen, the majority promise that they will act on the feedback. The first few weeks after the appraisals, you see the changes. Then the changes disappear. To grow, one needs to be aware of the key items all the time and not just temporarily. <br /><br /></li><li><b>Any changes required?</b><br />You tried few changes, you now see the results. What do you do now? Are the actions yielding the right results or do you need to do any more changes? Close the loop.</li></ul></div><div>To summarise:</div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Be aware of what you do</li><li>Be aware of what's expected of you</li><li>Do the necessary changes</li><li>Review after performing the changes</li></ul></div><p></p><p>The full talk is available here: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysuRCwBhFkA" target="_blank">A-Z of Testing Tips</a><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysuRCwBhFkA" style="font-weight: bold;"> </a><br /><br />My other videos: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/AjayBalamurugadas/videos">YouTube Channel</a></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">Thanks for reading this post.</div>Ajay Balamurugadashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18002265306717617426noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7818481111016883658.post-89956833706517565702020-05-14T08:09:00.000+05:302020-05-14T11:20:19.066+05:30Tribal QONF: Reason #2 to attend the conference<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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If you have not checked out my previous post - <a href="http://enjoytesting.blogspot.com/2020/05/tribal-qonf-reason-1-to-attend.html" target="_blank">http://enjoytesting.blogspot.com/2020/05/tribal-qonf-reason-1-to-attend.html</a>, please do.<br />
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For someone who is not aware of <a href="https://www.thetesttribe.com/" target="_blank">The Test Tribe community</a> or <a href="https://www.thetesttribe.com/tribalqonf-virtual-2020/" target="_blank">The Tribal Qonf</a>, I thought I will share a few pointers on why this is a must-attend event for any software tester.</div>
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In my last post, I highlighted the opening six speakers. In this post, I want to touch upon the next set of six speakers.</div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-69vUs_IiYis/XrykMrHAmHI/AAAAAAAACRc/AmzeNwfCvFI1oB1F-5b2HXTc0bugIREeQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Speakers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="752" data-original-width="1440" height="207" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-69vUs_IiYis/XrykMrHAmHI/AAAAAAAACRc/AmzeNwfCvFI1oB1F-5b2HXTc0bugIREeQCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/Speakers.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b>Mike Talks</b></div>
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<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-talks-3423348">https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-talks-3423348</a></div>
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I know Mike for close to a decade now and met him for the first time last year at Test Leadership Congress. I love his tweets and blog posts and his books too! When I was writing my book - 50+ mistakes of my software testing career, I had my first mindmap with all the mistakes. I shared it with Mike and within minutes, he gave me feedback on how I could make new sections and club a few mistakes. He is speaking at this conference. If you want to have a small bite of Mike's talk at Test Leadership Congress, check this link - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9ZWnbinAxI" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9ZWnbinAxI</a></div>
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<b>Aprajita Mathur</b></div>
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<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/aprajitamathur/">https://www.linkedin.com/in/aprajitamathur/</a></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: left;">Aprajita at TLC </span></td></tr>
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I met her in the Test Leadership Congress (TLC) conference. Before that, I was in the same panel discussing Leadership. I felt she is someone who is bold, would say the truth at all times with a lot of attention to details and get things done. She is working with data to fight cancer. Beat that for real-world impact. </div>
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You can listen to her TLC talk here - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlFceDqTxpc">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlFceDqTxpc</a>. I am looking forward to her energetic talk once again in the Tribal Qonf conference panel discussion. </div>
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<b>Anand Bagmar</b></div>
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<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/anandbagmar/">https://www.linkedin.com/in/anandbagmar/</a></div>
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He has his own fan following. People consult him for his automation, mobile, analytics expertise. One thing I have always noticed is his smile when he greets people. It immediately makes the other person comfortable. He will be speaking on Testing and Automation Analytics. Looking forward to his talk. Do not miss his talk! </div>
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<b>Nishi Grover Garg</b></div>
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<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/nishi-g-02127aa/">https://www.linkedin.com/in/nishi-g-02127aa/</a></div>
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From a time when she applied to Miagi Do school of testing founded by Matt Heusser to giving talks all over the world, I would say Nishi has crossed many levels with ease in a short time. If you are active on social media, you would notice a talk at a conference or a blog post or an article published in one of the reputed websites or she would have finished training to eager participants. Ever busy, ever willing to share her knowledge, she deserves more and I am happy to see her present in Tribal Qonf. </div>
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<b>Santhosh Tuppad</b></div>
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<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/santhosh-tuppad-338b7412/">https://www.linkedin.com/in/santhosh-tuppad-338b7412/</a></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Craziness is the new normal :)</td></tr>
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What do I say about him? We have our birthdays in the same week and there are multiple moments where we exactly know what the other is thinking or about to tell. We have worked together for Test Maniac meetups and workshops and continue to collaborate even now. His talks always continue even after the time is up and no one complains. They just love him. I am sure some of you will buy the tickets just to listen to him and I am sure it will be worth it even this time as well.</div>
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<b>Priyanka Halder</b></div>
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<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/phalder/">https://www.linkedin.com/in/phalder/</a></div>
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Again, I and Priyanka were in the same panel discussion at Test Leadership Congress and then we met at the conference. I have this habit of shifting tables every few hours and one such shift helped have a 15-20 mins discussion with her. Her weight loss journey and her speaking journey will motivate anyone!</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">After we discussed about the Decision Deck</td></tr>
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If you are asking me, how to purchase tickets for this conference, this is the link: <a href="https://www.townscript.com/e/tribal-qonf-2020-a-virtual-conference-by-the-test-tribe-431224" target="_blank">https://www.townscript.com/e/tribal-qonf-2020-a-virtual-conference-by-the-test-tribe-431224</a></div>
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I also have a small discount coupon for you - <b>TTTQONF1 </b></blockquote>
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and if you are buying more than three tickets and don't want to fill all details in the townscript form, contact me at ajay184f at gmail</div>
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See you at the conference and stay tuned for more reasons why one should attend TRIBAL QONF!</div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Thanks for reading this post.</div>Ajay Balamurugadashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18002265306717617426noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7818481111016883658.post-41031377260898927312020-05-12T08:05:00.002+05:302020-05-12T09:29:24.405+05:30Tribal Qonf: Reason #1 to attend the conference<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I am so excited about the 2 days virtual conference organized by <a href="http://www.thetesttribe.com/">The Test Tribe</a> community.<br />
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When I think about it, it is natural for me to be so excited considering Mahesh (Founder of The Test Tribe) and I discuss every other day on how to help testers and help them see the power of the existing testing community. </div>
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For someone who is not aware of The Test Tribe community and <a href="https://bit.ly/tttqonf">The Tribal Qonf</a>, I thought I will share few pointers on why this is a must-attend event for any software tester.</div>
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<b>Speakers: One of the best lineups you will ever see! Check it out yourself.</b></blockquote>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-D01Tkg1kVcw/Xrn42a_SQLI/AAAAAAAACQo/RjIWC0hi1HEUM5oRNORk5WDaVSv7JmggACEwYBhgLKs0DAL1OcqyPrImuSiSBN0fgd9NFVlejt98XBXrXjPONKMJ8tyKlRd8bAfmMuX5BPLqFMsUXLQTxiNyCuUCoYkizOAkMlJb_CxHio8vEkzOJioTTIapuQj5J3obp31VrCYLdmOjXi23KAMyP127mosAdKfgwTtxsO57bG1gHCBfxMchtVqFmORAGpoPFp4QTDibJ05HOyhg1PG9L53LSWGkBPAzhe5d8NXuC6sAVslqwQUaSFi45Nxg_057JsWT9sl70ySQvgntbWndjjV5JVfn2Z5GFw582-4s8wgx56AuIaab_oZ5pxqYP6eUIUclGcarhdEZsyzBL4myqpDP09MySfi3CcH7zbQdAaYS0J8iUX58fsRz9fugSLMVXfu_2gapjuDMPAn-kLv9IWVjgw_vN6sN3OsboTIzshznHY8OWGFPQ-Oot92OYtS_HezOzb_yTtN5ke_KwGbQVblLplrOrsevcSTR0nsG_ArZk7HkxHQVKVguSwVkU-mLf_DIhrOGpp7b_ns7Q3q1ADzRVux4lFm--81Pa3WdtORT7LpAqSUlHop6ZDH6cRPouBnjy420VOqR9iBGBaLC4WxiXbuHBS6Fhsm2NrlbsQVQ7X0Uwgvvn9QU/s1600/Conf.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="752" data-original-width="1440" height="208" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-D01Tkg1kVcw/Xrn42a_SQLI/AAAAAAAACQo/RjIWC0hi1HEUM5oRNORk5WDaVSv7JmggACEwYBhgLKs0DAL1OcqyPrImuSiSBN0fgd9NFVlejt98XBXrXjPONKMJ8tyKlRd8bAfmMuX5BPLqFMsUXLQTxiNyCuUCoYkizOAkMlJb_CxHio8vEkzOJioTTIapuQj5J3obp31VrCYLdmOjXi23KAMyP127mosAdKfgwTtxsO57bG1gHCBfxMchtVqFmORAGpoPFp4QTDibJ05HOyhg1PG9L53LSWGkBPAzhe5d8NXuC6sAVslqwQUaSFi45Nxg_057JsWT9sl70ySQvgntbWndjjV5JVfn2Z5GFw582-4s8wgx56AuIaab_oZ5pxqYP6eUIUclGcarhdEZsyzBL4myqpDP09MySfi3CcH7zbQdAaYS0J8iUX58fsRz9fugSLMVXfu_2gapjuDMPAn-kLv9IWVjgw_vN6sN3OsboTIzshznHY8OWGFPQ-Oot92OYtS_HezOzb_yTtN5ke_KwGbQVblLplrOrsevcSTR0nsG_ArZk7HkxHQVKVguSwVkU-mLf_DIhrOGpp7b_ns7Q3q1ADzRVux4lFm--81Pa3WdtORT7LpAqSUlHop6ZDH6cRPouBnjy420VOqR9iBGBaLC4WxiXbuHBS6Fhsm2NrlbsQVQ7X0Uwgvvn9QU/s400/Conf.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b>James Bach</b><br />
<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-bach-6188a811/">https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-bach-6188a811/</a><br />
<br />
When I started my testing career, I wanted to be a testing expert and searched in Google - "How to be a testing expert". To my surprise, there was already a video - <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhfVK_ubk8U">Becoming a Software Testing Expert</a> by James Bach. That video played a very important role in how I started focusing on testing skills. I am in constant touch with him and learning with every interaction.<br />
<br />
His website - <a href="http://www.satisfice.com/">www.satisfice.com</a> will definitely satisfy your hunger for testing.<br />
<a href="https://www.satisfice.com/tools/htsm.pdf">Heuristic Test Strategy Model</a> is my favorite article. There are many more.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WHAKhQja8aw/Xrn_eh829aI/AAAAAAAACQw/tLVeS6ZnoXwz6tb-zmERl7h8aA2gh7HFwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2020-05-12%2Bat%2B7.14.03%2BAM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="595" data-original-width="960" height="247" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WHAKhQja8aw/Xrn_eh829aI/AAAAAAAACQw/tLVeS6ZnoXwz6tb-zmERl7h8aA2gh7HFwCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2020-05-12%2Bat%2B7.14.03%2BAM.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Heuristic Test Strategy Model</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<b>Ashok Thiruvengadam</b><br />
<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashokstag/">https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashokstag/</a><br />
<br />
From the time I got introduced to Shrini Kulkarni (<a href="https://shrinik.blogspot.com/">https://shrinik.blogspot.com</a>), he always referred Ashok as a sharp thinker and his teacher. I attended the <a href="https://www.slideshare.net/stagsoft/hypothesis-based-testing-hbt-cookbook">Hypothesis Based Testing</a> workshop by Ashok. Shrini was right. Humility and Knowledge - I saw reside within the same person.<br />
<br />
Also, his articles on testing give a different perspective on the same topic.<br />
I loved this mind map by him <a href="https://smartqa.org/blog/50-software-testing-terms-that-are-most-often-abused/">https://smartqa.org/blog/50-software-testing-terms-that-are-most-often-abused/</a><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_NJYg-hKFJk/XroBDSr8z1I/AAAAAAAACQ8/I5bbdCR7peAx7SSlR8IK5mHI0g5AJ0KMgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/50-Terms-Mindmap-989x1024.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="989" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_NJYg-hKFJk/XroBDSr8z1I/AAAAAAAACQ8/I5bbdCR7peAx7SSlR8IK5mHI0g5AJ0KMgCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/50-Terms-Mindmap-989x1024.png" width="385" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">50+ most often abused terms</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<b>Michael Bolton</b><br />
<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-bolton-08847/">https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-bolton-08847/</a><br />
<br />
I first met Michael Bolton in his Rapid Software Testing for Managers workshop. I paid my one month's salary for 2 days workshop. And the rewards were mindblowing. The lessons from the workshop helped me with opportunity after opportunity.<br />
<br />
His twitter bio reads:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"<span style="background-color: white; color: #14171a; font-family: , , , "segoe ui" , "roboto" , "ubuntu" , "helvetica neue" , sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I solve testing problems that other people can't solve, and I teach people how they can do it too."</span></blockquote>
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I agree with that statement. I remember one incident where I pinged him for his 30 minutes time as I was struggling with self-doubt and negativity. He listened patiently, gave me actionable ideas, and inspired me to kickstart my career again. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Pradeep Soundararajan</b></div>
<div>
<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/testertested/">https://www.linkedin.com/in/testertested/</a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The world loves him and his talks are always houseful. The first testing workshop I attended was his workshop and he introduced me to the Context-Driven school of software testing and thinking. He was the one who introduced me to James, Michael, Cem, and many other expert testers. In the first BWST (Bangalore Workshop on Software Testing) - a peer workshop, I met Shrini Kulkarni, Rahul Verma, Rahul Mirakhur, Manoj Nair, Santhosh Tuppad, Ravisuriya and other testers who were so passionate to share their stories. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pmIzwjxVOjo/XroFQHTWhFI/AAAAAAAACRI/k1FpqkwPY84vr5cIBV3iBlTuDFjOlj18gCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/bwst1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="400" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pmIzwjxVOjo/XroFQHTWhFI/AAAAAAAACRI/k1FpqkwPY84vr5cIBV3iBlTuDFjOlj18gCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/bwst1.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">BWST1 Participants</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
His book - Buddha in Testing is a hit with many testers. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Anna Royzman</b></div>
<div>
<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-royzman/">https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-royzman/</a></div>
<div>
I met her first in Agile Testing Days, Berlin and then in CAST. I used to ping her on Skype when I started leading teams and her advice helped me. She then invited me to <a href="http://enjoytesting.blogspot.com/2019/07/test-leadership-congress-mind-blowing.html">Test Leadership Congress</a>. I was amazed by the community feeling I felt during a conference and most of the participants are still in touch with each other. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
We both along with <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/praveen-daga/">Praveen Daga</a> are bringing the same conference to India with a small twist. Stay tuned :)</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Rahul Verma</b></div>
<div>
<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/rahul-verma-india/">https://www.linkedin.com/in/rahul-verma-india/</a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I would like to use my testimonial to describe him<br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.9); font-family: , , , "segoe ui" , "roboto" , "helvetica neue" , "fira sans" , "ubuntu" , "oxygen" , "oxygen sans" , "cantarell" , "droid sans" , "apple color emoji" , "segoe ui emoji" , "segoe ui symbol" , "lucida grande" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; white-space: pre-line;">Clear thinking, excellent articulation, thorough research, superb oratorical skills are some of the qualities one could learn from Rahul Verma. His blog posts, workshops and talks have been inspirational to many and I am one of them. He is a great role model for many testers. His usage of mind maps in workshops to demonstrate complex points and his efforts behind the hands-on exercises is commendable. Given a topic to learn, you could be sure that he would start from basics and move on to the most advanced. You can question him and he would not feel bad. He would listen to you and answer your questions to your satisfaction.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: rgba(0 , 0 , 0 , 0.9); font-family: , , , "segoe ui" , "roboto" , "helvetica neue" , "fira sans" , "ubuntu" , "oxygen" , "oxygen sans" , "cantarell" , "droid sans" , "apple color emoji" , "segoe ui emoji" , "segoe ui symbol" , "lucida grande" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; white-space: pre-line;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
I have covered just 1/3rd of the speakers till now. </div>
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If you are asking me, how to purchase tickets for this conference, this is the link: <a href="https://www.townscript.com/e/tribal-qonf-2020-a-virtual-conference-by-the-test-tribe-431224">https://www.townscript.com/e/tribal-qonf-2020-a-virtual-conference-by-the-test-tribe-431224</a></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I also have a small discount coupon for you - <b>TTTQONF1 </b></blockquote>
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<br /></div>
<div>
and if you are buying more than three tickets and don't want to fill all details in the townscript form, contact me at ajay184f at gmail</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
See you at the conference and stay tuned for more reasons why one should attend TRIBAL QONF!</div>
</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Thanks for reading this post.</div>Ajay Balamurugadashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18002265306717617426noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7818481111016883658.post-37302066887500040242020-04-08T17:59:00.000+05:302020-04-13T13:06:01.665+05:30The Hidden Costs of Automation<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>Summary:</b> While automation can help you save time and money in your testing activities, there are a few hidden costs that many teams overlook. Aspects that don't have a price tag initially—such as what it will take to learn, adopt, and maintain a new automation tool—will end up costing you in the long run. Think through these considerations and answer some questions before jumping into your automation initiative.</div>
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Most of us understand the advantages of automation in testing: Automation helps you run the checks faster, multiple times, and for a long time.</div>
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However, while automation can help you save time and money, there are a few hidden costs that many miss.</div>
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<b><br />Maintenance costs</b></div>
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Even if you can offset the tool costs by opting for open-source or free tools like <a href="https://www.selenium.dev/documentation/en/"><span class="s1" style="color: #e4af0a;">Selenium</span></a>, <a href="https://link.testproject.io/4us"><span class="s1" style="color: #e4af0a;">TestProject</span></a>, there are maintenance costs to be aware of. Look for tools that are up to date with changes such as browser versions and advancements in technology.</div>
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Automation projects are like marathons and need to be able to work continuously for a long time. Most of the time, any technological change demands a lot of rework, and the tool must accommodate that. There is hardly any project where the automation team wrote the scripts and they were never required again. </div>
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However, I remember a project where the Ruby version was not upgraded after 2.4, as the scripts and framework would need a lot of rework to be compatible with the latest version, 2.7. Everyone was comfortable with the decision, even though they had to sacrifice a lot of newer capabilities.</div>
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There have been projects where every line of code worked as expected and a simple change, be it a different browser version or a flow change, broke the script beyond repair. Lack of testability and flexibility can delay progress. Be aware of such costs. </div>
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<span class="s2" style="color: #454545;">Read more at <a href="https://www.stickyminds.com/article/hidden-costs-automation"><span class="s1" style="color: #e4af0a;">https://www.stickyminds.com/article/hidden-costs-automation</span></a></span></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Thanks for reading this post.</div>Ajay Balamurugadashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18002265306717617426noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7818481111016883658.post-73311871379290341672020-01-03T10:55:00.002+05:302020-01-03T10:55:58.974+05:302019 - The Lovely Year. <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6UsP5i5sT0w/Xg7PILgrt_I/AAAAAAAACPs/bpruneXMkVEpQEmgtAxoq2qHXEPiPTvyQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/2019%2BReview.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1132" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6UsP5i5sT0w/Xg7PILgrt_I/AAAAAAAACPs/bpruneXMkVEpQEmgtAxoq2qHXEPiPTvyQCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/2019%2BReview.png" width="452" /></a></div>
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<b> Learning:</b></div>
<ul>
<li>Exposed to multiple new domains: healthcare, foodtech and fintech</li>
<li>Handled 10+ projects for the first time, each with its own challenges and learning</li>
<li>Multiple training sessions, learning activities and initiatives at work. Qapitol QA topped the GTR Leaderboard<br /><br /><b>Community:</b><br /></li>
<li>Speaker at TestCon (Clavent), TestAway Shimla (The Test Tribe), Test Automation Day (1.21GWS ), Global Testing Retreat (Agile Testing Alliance), Test Leadership Congress (Test Masters Academy). 10+ workshops.</li>
<li>Tricentis Exploratory Tester of the Year</li>
<li>2 articles in Top Ten Articles in StickyMinds 2019<br /><br /><b>Looking Forward To: </b><br /></li>
<li>Qapitol QA - Delivery at Scale</li>
<li>Indian Test Leadership Conference (Aug 2020)</li>
<li>SoftwareTestingUniversity</li>
<li>New opportunities in 2020<br /><br /><b>Thankful To:</b><br /></li>
<li>Family, Friends, Mentors and the Testing Community</li>
<li>QAPITOL QA for a brilliant and challenging, learning work environment</li>
<li>Community Support</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Thanks for reading this post.</div>Ajay Balamurugadashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18002265306717617426noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7818481111016883658.post-47725103883527088682019-08-25T16:44:00.002+05:302019-08-25T16:44:57.615+05:30"Anthony Naveen - A Learning Experiment" & Request for Votes :)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<iframe allowfullscreen="true" allowtransparency="true" frameborder="0" height="315" scrolling="no" src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fajay.balamurugadas.7%2Fvideos%2F10162245337020241%2F&show_text=0&width=560" style="border: none; overflow: hidden;" width="560"></iframe>
Today, I spent a good eight hours mentoring and coaching Anthony Naveen as he expressed interest to improve his testing skills. He has around two years of work experience and now out of job.<br />
<br />
It started with me asking Anthony to call me on Skype at 9.00 pm on Friday and I will resolve all of his queries. He pinged me at 8.58 pm and I was impressed (hint). We chatted for a few minutes and I asked him about his plans for Saturday. When he told that there were no plans, I asked him if he can come over to my home and we could test peacefully.<br />
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I was home alone and slept around 1.30 am. I woke up around 8.30 am and I received Naveen's message at 9.00 am sharp. I asked him to come at 10.30 am as I would be able to get ready, have my breakfast by then. He said ok and reached before time (10.12 am).<br />
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I also had a visitor at 9.30 am. With my plans fully going haywire, I was a bit upset - lack of sleep, no food, no bath and two visitors (one of them unplanned and the other early).<br />
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I and Naveen started discussing testing from 10.30 am. I decided to order lunch at 12.30 pm and ordered breakfast. I was having a running nose and was confident that it's just a matter of a few minutes and everything would be fine again.<br />
<b><br /></b>
After asking Naveen to tell everything he knew about testing and his background, I told him the agenda:<br />
<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Introduction to Software Testing</li>
<li>Understanding the Context</li>
<li>Modelling the Application</li>
<li>Test ideas to test any application</li>
<li>Bugs and bug advocacy</li>
<li>Tools for testing</li>
<li>Test Reporting</li>
<li>Continuous Learning</li>
</ul>
<div>
By lunchtime, we had finished modelling the application. I was going through my slide deck and explaining each term. My plan was to finish the slide deck and then move on to hands-on. He was making notes, asking questions, acknowledging and then I asked him a few questions. </div>
<div>
<b>His answers were my words. Cross questions did not yield any new words. Either blank stares or I don't know or some other unrelated terms popped up.</b></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The language was not the biggest problem as he used the next logical technical term and words in our conversation. I was struggling to find what is the root cause. I wanted to find out what was blocking his progress:</div>
<div>
- Lack of practice - Mostly yes</div>
<div>
- Fear - Partially?</div>
<div>
- Peer pressure - Young guy, probably yes</div>
<div>
- Lack of mentoring - Clearly visible</div>
<div>
- Lack of exposure - A big Yes</div>
<div>
- No encouragement - Most probably</div>
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- Language, Culture issues - Don't know</div>
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and many more</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I paused, took a deep breath and called up Mahesh Chikane and discussed a few things. </div>
<div>
It gave me an idea for some other problem, me & Mahesh are trying to solve.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I closed the laptop and shared the simple process of software testing:</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Requirements > Test Ideas > Test > Bugs > Investigate > Report</b></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
That's it. Nothing more, nothing less.</div>
<div>
We started our 90 mins of a hands-on demonstration of how to test and also complete the above stages in software testing. I was giving a live commentary of why am I doing whatever I am doing, what else can be done and why the current approach is preferred. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
We finished the 90 mins. The timer helped us remind about the deadlines. The recording tools helped us record. The mind mapping tool helped us organize our thoughts. Google helped us get test data. There was instrumental music, food, mosquito coil for company. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>What did I learn?</b></div>
<div>
# A journey of ten plus years cannot be given in eight hours.</div>
<div>
<br />
# There are multiple factors that are at play - confidence, maturity, intelligence, personality, learnability, self-awareness, skills, discipline, interests, approach and a few more (I need to think deeply to articulate them better)</div>
<div>
<br />
# Feynman Technique - I need to get better at explaining this to a toddler.</div>
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<div>
# There is a need for simple exercises. I will work on these. Examples need to be easy to understand.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
# A 90 min demo is different from coaching someone. You can wow someone with your work. The challenge starts when you want to discover their talents and also coach them towards their betterment. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The upcoming months are definitely going to be interesting.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
And about Anthony Naveen - he has potential, just like all the testers. He will get better with practice. Today is his Day 02. Let us see how he turns out by Day 100. Meanwhile, let me ping him and ask how did Day 02 practice affect him.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
I also remembered that "Testing Heroes" voting has started.<br />
Link to vote: <a href="https://www.tricentis.com/testing-awards/">https://www.tricentis.com/testing-awards/</a><br />
<br />
I have been selected as a finalist for "The Explorer" category. I am also proud to say that my friend and colleague Satyam Dixit is also a finalist for "The Performer"<br />
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Link: <a href="https://www.tricentis.com/testing-awards/vote/" style="text-align: left;">https://www.tricentis.com/testing-awards/vote/</a></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Thanks for reading this post.</div>Ajay Balamurugadashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18002265306717617426noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7818481111016883658.post-37374243251875521792019-08-16T01:59:00.002+05:302019-08-16T01:59:34.067+05:301st Anniversary with Qapitol QA Family<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Strange things happen in life. I messaged Dheeraj Karanam asking if there is anything for me at Qapitol QA as I will start looking for new opportunities after 6 months. In ten days, I had the offer in hand! The vibes were good and as we say there was a thought process DNA match!<br />
<br />
And what happened next is a story worth continuing. <br />Let me try to wrap it in five key points - a journey that started 12 months ago.<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zv6pkUEIFUk/XVW9JVcJZTI/AAAAAAAACN4/j3nPBBKudGMDnxBc5ljtL97TTXIDx0fnQCLcBGAs/s1600/66384649_1126772280843651_145747052310036480_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="425" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zv6pkUEIFUk/XVW9JVcJZTI/AAAAAAAACN4/j3nPBBKudGMDnxBc5ljtL97TTXIDx0fnQCLcBGAs/s640/66384649_1126772280843651_145747052310036480_o.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<br />
<b>(Q)uality - Problem Solving at its best</b><br />
I am witness to so many expert problem solvers and problem solving examples everyday that I enjoy working at Qapitol QA. Every employee has solved one or the other problem in such an innovative way that it motivates me to be at my best to stand upto their expectations and meet the high standards everyone expects from each other.<br />
<br />
<b>(A)ttention to test design and automation</b><br />
Wonderful balance between testing fundamentals and using technology to assist testing. There are companies who think automation can solve any problem and there are companies who don't scale because they don't use the right tools at the right time. In between, there is a sweet spot and we are there. We know when to say No and we know how to learn anything to delight customers.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>(P)eople & Projects</b><br />
Who is on leave? Who needs help? Who needs course correction? Who is facing issues because of travel? Who needs immediate training? Who needs a confidence booster? Every employee is closely observed and groomed with the freedom to make /new/ mistakes.<br />
<br />
The projects are awesome just like the people. Some of the toughest problems are being solved by the QAPIOS. One could solve a problem that is visible to everyone. One could highlight the problems that no one has realised them and solve those, which is sometimes more interesting than solving the visible problems. I have been in projects where the clients were shocked that testing could be done in this way too - we reduced 5 days regression to 8 hours and the clients were shocked, surprised and pleased!<br />
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<b>(I)ndividual Freedom and Responsibility</b><br />
I had experienced such freedom and responsibility in Fiberlink (2012) and in Tyto Software (2016). It was good to get back to the deadly combination. It is not just at the management level. Every employee is empowered to take decisions and when things go wrong - the question asked is: "What can we all learn from this?" and not "Why did YOU mess up?"<br />
<br />
<b>(O)rganization focused on learning</b><br />
Every day is a learning sprint and I am learning how to solve new problems every day. I worked on three different domains in a single year and enjoying the challenges each domain presents. All the experience of working with different teams, different stakeholders and different company cultures is helping me here! I would have never thought that the mistakes I did early in my career would help me after so many years. I am learning with every guest speaker too! We had James Bach, Sanjay (Chropath) and Sundaresan (Pact) so far.<br />
<br />
More power to QAPITOL QA and all the QAPIOS!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/goog_1610098598"><img border="0" data-original-height="635" data-original-width="1031" height="245" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-dYHUyt8UiRQ/XVW-FOXcW_I/AAAAAAAACOE/VBlYn5ZEHJgfc7RnC243ES_PswQG7YABwCLcBGAs/s400/Screenshot%2B2019-08-16%2Bat%2B1.47.54%2BAM.png" width="400" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.qapitol.com/">www.qapitol.com</a></td></tr>
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<br />
Twelve runs scored and the pitch seems to be a good one for batting! <br />Should be an interesting innings. Bring it ON :)<br />
<br />By the way, we are always on the lookout for smart folks to join the smart teams. <br />Interested? Ping me on LinkedIn - <a href="https://in.linkedin.com/in/ajaybalamurugadas">https://in.linkedin.com/in/ajaybalamurugadas</a></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Thanks for reading this post.</div>Ajay Balamurugadashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18002265306717617426noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7818481111016883658.post-9044497476291522542019-07-02T01:25:00.000+05:302019-07-02T01:25:52.076+05:30Test Leadership Congress - Mind blowing experience<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Test Leadership Congress 2019 - New York</td></tr>
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I recently spent a week in USA attending The Test Leadership Congress conference. It was the first time, I conducted a tutorial in a conference in USA. So, let us look back at the whole experience from where it started.<div>
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<div>
<b>Preparation - Background dots</b></div>
<div>
Anna Royzman - the conference founder is a good friend of mine. We met at Agile Testing Days or at CAST - I am not sure but what matters is that she is the founder of two conferences - <a href="http://contest-nyc.testmastersacademy.org/" target="_blank">conTEST NYC </a>and <a href="https://testleadershipcongress2019.sched.com/info" target="_blank">Test Leadership Congress</a> and is a true leader. We have had multiple interactions over Skype and she helped me learn a lot about test leadership. So, I kept hearing about the conferences and there were multiple good reviews about the conference. Meanwhile, I had also attended Problem Solving Leadership workshop facilitated by Jerry Weinberg and Esther Derby in 2016. In the recent roles at multiple companies, I was handling key leadership roles. All of this dots connected well and I wanted to present the <a href="http://bit.ly/leadnyusa" target="_blank">Problem Solving for Leaders and Managers</a> at Test Leadership Congress. The proposal was accepted and I was all set to travel to New York for the first time. </div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Acceptance and Marketing</b></div>
<div>
Once the proposal was accepted, I was super excited and wanted to give it my best shot. I conducted multiple workshops in India on the same topic and was happy with how the audience liked the overall experience. With any conference, there is a lot of marketing just close to the conference dates and you get very less time to know the speakers. In this case, everything was well planned, in advance. There was a separate Slack channel created for the speakers. There was no push to get the slides in by a certain date. The information was passed to all the speakers in one email and it was slowly turning to be a huge gathering of close friends. What surprised me was the list of events before the actual events that the speakers could <i style="font-weight: bold;">volunteer</i> to be part of and get their brand visible. The hotel information was also provided well in advance. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
LinkedIn posts about each speaker were posted regularly and not bombarded. Individual attention was given to each speaker. You really wanted to know more about the speaker after reading the posts. Even before the conference started, you could sense that this conference was going to be a totally different experience.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Hotel and Speakers Attention</b></div>
<div>
The hotel was 2 mins away from the conference venue and there was speakers dinner, reception and after party arranged for the three nights. There was individual attention on the speakers and any request was met with a standard - "Of course - it can be done" attitude. There were just three tracks. I am happy that there were just three - I will tell you soon, why!</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
There was not much of a crowd. You could sense that it was on purpose - every attendee got to meet/greet every other attendee at least once everyday. It helped break the barrier and know more about each other and share knowledge. Most of them were either test lead, director, team lead, qa manager helped as everyone was literally on the same boat. Guess what - the badge did not carry anything about company or designation. Just the name and an indication of whether you were a speaker or an attendee. It was just BRILLIANT. Talk about inclusion.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-64sPe5Cw2RE/XRpjWsFaUWI/AAAAAAAACNA/eB__3aRHUJM8lUvuM0gB056wZZ6xcphbACLcBGAs/s1600/happy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="960" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-64sPe5Cw2RE/XRpjWsFaUWI/AAAAAAAACNA/eB__3aRHUJM8lUvuM0gB056wZZ6xcphbACLcBGAs/s400/happy.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">happy attendees</td></tr>
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<b>About Program</b><br />
<div>
The topics were diverse. No one topic was repeated. The entire schedule was designed as if an artist had separated the silk strands and arranged it based on thickness and color. Such precision and judgement of which session should follow which other session and excellent diversity in terms of experience, context, first timer vs seasoned, country, gender, age, roles, designations and presentation styles. I had so much difficulty in choosing the track to attend not just once or twice but for the entire 2nd day - yes, the entire second day! Luckily, one of the tracks was recorded. There was no "You sponsored, get a slot and sell your product" kind of talk. Every talk was selection worthy. </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZDPjRlyRvCs/XRpjdwKloPI/AAAAAAAACNQ/TjvSxsPY9fIc1k5nFo3Fs0mm2345Z-vAwCLcBGAs/s1600/reflect.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="720" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZDPjRlyRvCs/XRpjdwKloPI/AAAAAAAACNQ/TjvSxsPY9fIc1k5nFo3Fs0mm2345Z-vAwCLcBGAs/s320/reflect.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Reflect</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
People keep getting the questions in many conferences about which track has which talk and which room. In this case, everything was on Sched and the room number was clearly mentioned. Here is where attention to detail was highlighted. On the second day, when you clicked on Schedule to check, you would expect to see the first day schedule too and then scroll to the second day! In this case, it was updated to the closest hour. What an excellent user experience. Loved it.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>About Conference</b></div>
<div>
The entire conference started and ended on time. The wifi was excellent and there were lots of power slots available and end result - I could tweet without worrying about battery or internet. Many would agree to my points as they also tweeted happily. Check out the tweets here with #leadtest: <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/leadtest?src=hash" target="_blank">Link</a> My tweets are available at <a href="https://twitter.com/ajay184f" target="_blank">ajay184f</a> </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bAKtnrRyVjw/XRpjcrFNhhI/AAAAAAAACNM/vTPQ0g5Cjds76RIqIKB9uUF59Qq8LER9QCLcBGAs/s1600/Collage_Workshop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="960" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bAKtnrRyVjw/XRpjcrFNhhI/AAAAAAAACNM/vTPQ0g5Cjds76RIqIKB9uUF59Qq8LER9QCLcBGAs/s320/Collage_Workshop.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Workshop collage</td></tr>
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<div>
</div>
<div>
The simple stuff was brilliantly handled:<br />- Stick to schedule</div>
<div>
- No sales pitches</div>
<div>
- Excellent wifi and food<br />- Photographer to capture key memories</div>
<div>
- No nonsense of speaker felicitation and wasting time</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<b>Last Day</b></div>
<div>
The whole three tracks was now just one track for the last day. Looking back, there was talks, keynote, games, breaks, hallway discussions, group discussions, tutorials, performances. There were first timers, seasoned speakers, experts and plenty of networking opportunities. You could sense that whatever happened was the right thing to happen.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ViszYAm67qA/XRpjcrNWUjI/AAAAAAAACNI/aQIJlAP23OkfFMZ-VU1YVyxjw_-FTQJCQCLcBGAs/s1600/lovely.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="960" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ViszYAm67qA/XRpjcrNWUjI/AAAAAAAACNI/aQIJlAP23OkfFMZ-VU1YVyxjw_-FTQJCQCLcBGAs/s400/lovely.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Happy</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div>
If I have to summarise in one line - <i>Jerry Weinberg would have been proud of this test leadership conference</i></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8sOH5bH7_WU/XRpjcv_5HSI/AAAAAAAACNE/of7qsm4T0Uc3DeAAYd3esYu9Kq9m4H2OgCLcBGAs/s1600/gratitude.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="960" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8sOH5bH7_WU/XRpjcv_5HSI/AAAAAAAACNE/of7qsm4T0Uc3DeAAYd3esYu9Kq9m4H2OgCLcBGAs/s320/gratitude.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gratitude</td></tr>
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<div>
Thank you to Anna for inviting me to the conference. Thank you to the program committee (I got to know who you are ;) ) for selecting my proposal. Thank you to the speakers who gave your best and made it a wonderful learning experience. Thank you to the attendees who trusted in all of us and made the whole experience beautiful for everyone. Thank you to all my well wishers!</div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Thanks for reading this post.</div>Ajay Balamurugadashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18002265306717617426noreply@blogger.com0New York, NY, USA40.7127753 -74.005972839.9423093 -75.296866299999991 41.483241299999996 -72.7150793tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7818481111016883658.post-85856570286162062562019-05-25T22:25:00.000+05:302019-05-25T22:25:22.381+05:30ATA Meetup #22 - Bangalore - Amazing experience<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b>Reached super early</b><br />
The session was supposed to start at 9 AM and I reached by 7.45 AM. I did not want to be late. Due to weekend's minimalistic traffic and super driver, I surprised myself and I thought I can just enter and wait in the hall. The security asked me the contact person name and I told him that there is a meetup by Agile Testing Alliance - did not help. I called up Aditya Garg and somehow the security got convinced that I can at least pass the main barricade and sit on the makeshift park seats.<br />
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It was nice to experience fresh air, have fruits and dive into an interesting book called <a href="https://www.amazon.in/gp/product/9386867109/" target="_blank">"The Practicing Mind"</a> by Thomas M. Sterner.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Practicing Mind</td></tr>
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I remembered the discussions with <a href="http://shrinik.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Shrini Kulkarni </a>about consciousness, mind, awareness as I read the book. Around 8.40 AM, Thrivikram and Venkata P from HCL welcomed and escorted me to the induction hall where we had the meetup. The conversation between them and the security folks was an interesting one making me think of the process adherence vs value addition.</div>
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<i><b>Learning for me: </b></i><br />Know the contact person in advance and keep them informed about surprises in plan.</div>
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<b>HCL Services</b><br />
The first session was by HCL management represented by Prashantha M who highlighted the various services offered by HCL, the case studies and the learning. There were few really good questions by the audience who wanted to know more details about the insights shared to them.<br />
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<i><b>My tip: </b></i><br />Knowing something and applying directly to your context might be dangerous. Know about the context in which it worked/failed. <br />
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<b>We messed up the craft - Ajay - Qapitol QA</b><br />
We went for breakfast and after making new friends by consciously sitting with strangers, it was time for my talk. The slides took some time to appear. Thanks to this, I could express myself at the whiteboard and have the audience involved in answering few questions - did we mess up the craft or is everything perfect?<br />
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There were just two slides and here are the images:<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cQ6SAb7CuDs/XOlxel669cI/AAAAAAAACMQ/FzUQgAdTg6czO5mMen5mkw8Tl6hS9ZCcACLcBGAs/s1600/Screenshot%2B2019-05-25%2Bat%2B10.16.16%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="814" data-original-width="1439" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cQ6SAb7CuDs/XOlxel669cI/AAAAAAAACMQ/FzUQgAdTg6czO5mMen5mkw8Tl6hS9ZCcACLcBGAs/s400/Screenshot%2B2019-05-25%2Bat%2B10.16.16%2BPM.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Five ways we have messed up the craft</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7cl3ylC2sXE/XOlxem1WX-I/AAAAAAAACMM/idwi5YVG1X0nTxhYLSeaxybttN2BeXMKwCEwYBhgL/s1600/Screenshot%2B2019-05-25%2Bat%2B10.10.59%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="812" data-original-width="1440" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7cl3ylC2sXE/XOlxem1WX-I/AAAAAAAACMM/idwi5YVG1X0nTxhYLSeaxybttN2BeXMKwCEwYBhgL/s400/Screenshot%2B2019-05-25%2Bat%2B10.10.59%2BPM.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Time to clear the mess</td></tr>
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<b>EarlGrey - Satadip Ghosh - Coviam</b></div>
Many years ago, I had bet that Srinivas Kadiyala would become a tester to watch out for and it is true today. I predict now that Satadip Ghosh will be the next one to watch out for. I am impressed by his organizational skills at such a young age. If he continues to work hard on his skills, he will be a super hire for any company. His presentation on EarlGrey was a decent one and well paced!<br />
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<b>How to be a Test Jumper - Sushma MB - Qapitol QA</b><br />
I was super nervous for Sushma's talk and Sushma watching me every now and then during her presentation did not calm my nerves at all. She did a great job for her first community presentation. The attitude with which she approached the whole task when I asked her to present at ATA meetup is commendable. The feedback from Chaithra and Balakrishnan from Qapitol QA helped her deliver a good talk. She was ready to incorporate most of the feedback and defended some of her decisions - a good quality! All the best, Sushma for more talks!<br />
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<b>ChroPath - Sanjay Kumar - Autonomiq</b><br />
I knew Sanjay from The Test Tribe session where Sanjay demonstrated ChroPath and I was lazy to attend it live. I wanted to pay attention to the session and it was mind blowing. I was relating some of the points to <a href="http://www.sahipro.com/" target="_blank">Sahi Pro</a>'s ease of use. Sanjay is the creator of ChroPath and the story of why he created the tool was also inspiring. I have installed the addon and will conduct an exercise at my company to get everyone familiarised with the tool. <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanjay-kumar-445a9658/" target="_blank">Sanjay</a> is open to conducting a session at your company too if you can prove the numbers.<br />
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<b>Toll gate</b><br />
I was mentally exhausted after all the lovely sessions and slowly losing physical energy as the Ola auto was taking its own sweet time to reach the location. I had bought double toll and it was wasted as auto went below the bridge. I kept thinking if autos are allowed over bridge and suddenly I was asleep.<br />
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<b>More events coming up</b><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.testwithajay.com/" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="724" height="640" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-S_zqVWZS2fs/XOlw8B9hzUI/AAAAAAAACME/Q1FBBVVaR9gGJLq_s4C2Xa6YBLa3vHnhgCLcBGAs/s640/AjayB_May_July_Schedule-724x1024.png" width="451" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">June-July Schedule</td></tr>
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<b>More Details at <a href="http://www.testwithajay.com/">www.testwithajay.com</a> </b><br />
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My thanks to the organizers - Agile Testing Alliance, Nagesh, Thrivikram and everyone involved in making this meetup a memorable one.<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SbcZHpWiUX4/XOlzBHmMePI/AAAAAAAACMg/E9ahJwCBO6wkQz80N69jSwn6oKaIAA2RgCLcBGAs/s1600/Screenshot%2B2019-05-25%2Bat%2B7.32.09%2BPM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="441" data-original-width="931" height="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-SbcZHpWiUX4/XOlzBHmMePI/AAAAAAAACMg/E9ahJwCBO6wkQz80N69jSwn6oKaIAA2RgCLcBGAs/s640/Screenshot%2B2019-05-25%2Bat%2B7.32.09%2BPM.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Thanks for reading this post.</div>Ajay Balamurugadashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18002265306717617426noreply@blogger.com1Plot No. 3, Surya Sapphire, Hosur Road, Near D-Mart, 1st Phase, Electronic City, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560100, India12.8437594 77.671793999999977-12.6782751 36.363199999999978 38.3657939 118.98038799999998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7818481111016883658.post-10547767099260684712019-01-25T08:44:00.000+05:302019-01-25T08:45:26.170+05:30Call for Speakers from STeP-IN Forum and First meetup of the year<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Meetup Details</td></tr>
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The first meetup of STeP-IN Forum was successfully conducted on 20th January at Verity Training office and was attended by 10+ testers. For the first meetup, we had picked the theme of testers' role in Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence and data Science.</div>
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Interesting discussions revolved around the future of mundane jobs, the history of ML algorithms, what each participant felt about AI, the skills required to get started on these fields and how to apply them in software testing. We also discussed about the repercussions of these and how they have started affecting us in a negative way to some extent or the other.</div>
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Is it beneficial or harmful - definitely upto how we apply them in our lives.</div>
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As testers, what is our role? Continue to be critical thinkers, point out the loopholes and finally bring in the human/social impact in all our decisions.</div>
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Machines and algorithms will amplify what is fed. What needs to be fed should be a humane decision.</div>
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We did not realise how time flew and we were at the end of the meetup and we wrapped it up with a photograph and exchanging contact details. A happy meetup for sure!</div>
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Looking forward to the next month's meetup with a similar interesting topic and more participants.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1Opg1IyQUOE/XEkscWEwhCI/AAAAAAAACKA/nVuRq246lLUnTJlCgh-d3nWbc1MLAnJNgCLcBGAs/s1600/Meetup_Jan.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="774" data-original-width="1032" height="300" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1Opg1IyQUOE/XEkscWEwhCI/AAAAAAAACKA/nVuRq246lLUnTJlCgh-d3nWbc1MLAnJNgCLcBGAs/s400/Meetup_Jan.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Meetup Participants</td></tr>
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And it is that time for year when you can put on your thinking caps and submit your thoughts for the most awaited conference in India running across cities - the STePINSUMMIT and the city specific conferences - DSTC (Delhi), HSTC (Hyderabad) and PSTC (Pune).<br />
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kGdnvkSAOGY/XEp75JWxtLI/AAAAAAAACKg/VJoUIifNXNAQpKTkYCStS30-J0VV2pJDQCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2019-01-25%2Bat%2B8.30.00%2BAM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="520" data-original-width="1015" height="203" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kGdnvkSAOGY/XEp75JWxtLI/AAAAAAAACKg/VJoUIifNXNAQpKTkYCStS30-J0VV2pJDQCLcBGAs/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2019-01-25%2Bat%2B8.30.00%2BAM.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">STEPINSUMMIT 2019</td></tr>
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The call for speakers is open and early bird tickets are available as well. The two days would be worth it considering the diversity and expertise of the speakers, the audience interaction and the sponsor booths where you can learn from the companies first hand how they can solve your problems. In our day to day work, we are so close to the problems that we may not get the spark or a different perspective to solve it. Listening to the speakers from different organizations, interacting with them, making new connections, meeting friends again, participating in multiple contests would be a great experience. The value one would get out of the two days would be very high compared to the early bird costs of the two day conference.<br />
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Think about it, buy the early bird tickets and immerse yourself deep in software testing over the two days. Book your calendar and let us meet there!<br />
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<b>Call for Speakers: </b><a href="https://stepinforum.org/call-for-speakers-2019">https://stepinforum.org/call-for-speakers-2019</a><br />
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<b>Book Tickets:</b> <a href="https://www.townscript.com/e/stepin-summit-2019-442441/booking">https://www.townscript.com/e/stepin-summit-2019-442441/booking</a><br />
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If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me. </div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">Thanks for reading this post.</div>Ajay Balamurugadashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18002265306717617426noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7818481111016883658.post-80493310056741659662018-12-02T08:18:00.001+05:302018-12-02T08:30:17.795+05:30Oct-Nov-Dec: Qapitol QA, API Testing, Workshop at Hyderabad & much more<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The last few months have been fully packed with both professional and personal work. Right from a photo shoot of my son to learning about APIs in depth to interacting with testers at Qapitol and learning to play PUBG, it has been a memorable two months. Let me give a sneak preview of the activities I am involved in for the past few months.<br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GIkmLyFoqhM/XANFF6c9LbI/AAAAAAAACIw/UsMZFtzOTmAdyrMbYgaOPC2EDmSgjETeACLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-12-02%2Bat%2B8.05.18%2BAM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Stickyminds" border="0" data-original-height="80" data-original-width="514" height="49" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-GIkmLyFoqhM/XANFF6c9LbI/AAAAAAAACIw/UsMZFtzOTmAdyrMbYgaOPC2EDmSgjETeACLcBGAs/s320/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-12-02%2Bat%2B8.05.18%2BAM.png" title="" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.stickyminds.com/article/3-methods-better-communication-and-more-effective-testing" target="_blank">Stickyminds: 3 Methods for Better Communication and More Effective Testing</a><br />
Successful delivery of software requires the entire team, so it’s imperative that everyone choose their words carefully so they convey what they really mean, are sensitive to others’ feelings, and consider all aspects of a problem. Here are three questions to remember when communicating about your software testing projects to ensure you’re considering the power of words.</div>
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Check out the <a href="https://www.stickyminds.com/article/3-methods-better-communication-and-more-effective-testing" target="_blank">article</a> to know my thoughts on how communication plays a very important role in any project. It can make or break the project. </div>
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<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BH0m2xX1Ftc/XANF1CgQacI/AAAAAAAACI4/dcgdu13hFecrgkIl6BVDWaZ2w-2fA0BWwCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-12-02%2Bat%2B8.08.51%2BAM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Ministry of Testing" border="0" data-original-height="279" data-original-width="533" height="167" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-BH0m2xX1Ftc/XANF1CgQacI/AAAAAAAACI4/dcgdu13hFecrgkIl6BVDWaZ2w-2fA0BWwCLcBGAs/s320/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-12-02%2Bat%2B8.08.51%2BAM.png" title="" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://www.ministryoftesting.com/dojo/lessons/30-days-of-api-testing" style="font-weight: bold;" target="_blank">Ministry of Testing: 30 Days of API Testing</a><br />
MOT announced a 30 days challenge on API testing. It piqued my interest and I started to learn from scratch on my own syllabus. I started with <a href="https://zapier.com/learn/apis/">https://zapier.com/learn/apis/</a> and slowly moved to <a href="http://toolsqa.com/postman/api-testing-with-postman/">http://toolsqa.com/postman/api-testing-with-postman/</a>. I am enjoying the journey and have plans to learn about API performance, API security (Troy Hunt's course on Pluralsight) and finally API automation using different tools. To challenge myself, I found a partner who is willing to learn and my task is to take a session every day on something I learned about APIs. By focusing on one topic - API testing, it also helps me not worry about the hundred things I want to learn.<br />
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-n_bOXPlR6UU/XANGOFSFHOI/AAAAAAAACJA/JmXJWqP4NUctqXq8hvuRZkJsA3C_aBSUACLcBGAs/s1600/Qapitol%2BQA.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Qapitol QA" border="0" data-original-height="345" data-original-width="1000" height="110" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-n_bOXPlR6UU/XANGOFSFHOI/AAAAAAAACJA/JmXJWqP4NUctqXq8hvuRZkJsA3C_aBSUACLcBGAs/s320/Qapitol%2BQA.jpeg" title="" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScBgAiJph5H76-F3hxgn2FTDu1ZIV2dfeaBAsjUeHAwmjeiYA/viewform" target="_blank"><b>Qapitol QA is hiring again</b></a></div>
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We are looking for Software Test Engineer 2-4 years in following skill sets in REST API, API Automation, Core Java / Python, Web and Mobile Automation (Android & iOS ). We are growing and would love to work with smart folks in the industry. One can expect an environment of learning, freedom and an opportunity to work on the challenges in the testing industry.<br />
<b>Apply here:</b> <a href="http://bit.ly/QQAishiring">bit.ly/QQAishiring</a></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-etQ2w6SmNwQ/XANG060m8BI/AAAAAAAACJM/bc5txH8Tf_cZMZ3ODM4L2wHhwijbDPrBQCLcBGAs/s1600/PUBG.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="PUBG" border="0" data-original-height="377" data-original-width="271" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-etQ2w6SmNwQ/XANG060m8BI/AAAAAAAACJM/bc5txH8Tf_cZMZ3ODM4L2wHhwijbDPrBQCLcBGAs/s320/PUBG.jpg" title="" width="230" /></a></div>
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<b>PUBG and testing - </b><b>Multiple factors at play:</b></div>
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I got a phone with 128GB compared to the 16GB I had before. So, I started installing all the apps I wanted to and PUBG also found its way. I couldn't help realize the similarities between a test strategy and a winning strategy at PUBG. </div>
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PUBG: A total of 100 players are in the same game.<br />
Testing: There are so many quality criteria to focus on.</div>
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PUBG: The playing area is continuously shrinking.<br />
Testing: The risks of time and money running out.</div>
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PUBG: Collect resources before attacking<br />
Testing: No point jumping into test execution before you have the right resources (configuration, test data, tools)<br />
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PUBG: Use the compass to gauge the direction.<br />
Testing: Use the right tools to get the best in testing.</div>
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<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IwNTACS_KdY/XANHAyiOZTI/AAAAAAAACJQ/CQhyffy9K801076KKP-QYdqtFeEjPLjuACLcBGAs/s1600/MLDS%2BDay.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="MLDSDay" border="0" data-original-height="340" data-original-width="1020" height="106" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-IwNTACS_KdY/XANHAyiOZTI/AAAAAAAACJQ/CQhyffy9K801076KKP-QYdqtFeEjPLjuACLcBGAs/s320/MLDS%2BDay.jpeg" title="" width="320" /></a></div>
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<b>MLDS Day conducted by Agile Testing Alliance</b>I attended the MLDS day conducted by Anand Vyas and organized by Agile Testing Alliance. It started with the difference between Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Deep Learning and how Data Science plays a role in everything. In the session, I used Evernote and made notes for two hours before I realised that I have lost more than half of my notes. I got back to pen and paper. </div>
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Some links from my notes:</div>
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<a href="https://www.kaggle.com/">https://www.kaggle.com/</a></div>
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<a href="https://darshanhegde.wordpress.com/2014/08/19/learn-machine-learning-the-hard-way/">https://darshanhegde.wordpress.com/2014/08/19/learn-machine-learning-the-hard-way/</a></div>
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<a href="https://in.udacity.com/course/intro-to-machine-learning--ud120-india">https://in.udacity.com/course/intro-to-machine-learning--ud120-india</a> </div>
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<a href="https://titanicfacts.net/titanic-passenger-list/">https://titanicfacts.net/titanic-passenger-list/</a></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZxHuDJRrNyU/XANHZMlBtoI/AAAAAAAACJc/rkQfUGBxjHAa-UHRwiedRc3F5ITPQo4WgCLcBGAs/s1600/50%252B%2BTools.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="50+ Tools Workshop at Hyderabad" border="0" data-original-height="160" data-original-width="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZxHuDJRrNyU/XANHZMlBtoI/AAAAAAAACJc/rkQfUGBxjHAa-UHRwiedRc3F5ITPQo4WgCLcBGAs/s1600/50%252B%2BTools.jpg" title="" /></a></div>
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<b>Workshop at Hyderabad </b><a href="https://www.townscript.com/e/50-tools-workshop-hyderabad-303340" target="_blank">50+ Tools: Know, Learn and Apply in your Testing</a></div>
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Organized by Verity Software, I am conducting a full day workshop at Hyderabad on different tools. </div>
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Great engineers choose a tool based on the type of the problem. They have a strong arsenal of multiple tools and attack any problem with the right tool. Software testers are no different. They face multiple scenarios in their testing cycles and they need to keep their toolkit updated with multiple tools - be it open source, paid, browser add-ons, standalone, nifty scripts or a combination of tools. In this hands-on workshop, we will survey multiple tools spread across different domains and stages of testing cycle. Be ready to try some tools, test some, know some more and finally walk away with a strong and customized tool kit after the workshop</div>
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<a href="https://www.townscript.com/e/50-tools-workshop-hyderabad-303340/booking" target="_blank">Register here: Link</a></div>
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Let us learn more and in depth in Dec and finish the year on a high!</div>
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">Thanks for reading this post.</div>Ajay Balamurugadashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18002265306717617426noreply@blogger.com1