Testing Resources to Boost Your Skills and Energize Your Career

1. Testing Resources to Boost Your Skills and Energize Your Career Boulder QA Meetup August 14, 2013 Teri Charles tericharles@juno.com @booksrg8 http://bouldertester.blogspot.com/

2. Background • This presentation is some of the resources that I have discovered on my journey as a Tester that I hope will add to your skills as a Tester. • I hope you’re able to take some nugget of information from this that will help you along on your journey. • And I hope that you add your own nuggets and pass it on to the rest of us! Teri Charles August 2013

3. Part of My Journey • Committed to journey of self-learning • Read James Bach’s “Secrets of a Buccaneer-Scholar” (and other books) • Worked with a Testing coach • Began learning/studying about Testing (blogs, articles, books, etc.) • Started my own blog on Testing • Joined Testing Twitter community • Took BBST Foundations course with Association for Software Testing • Took other online Testing trainings • Joined several Test groups (AST, STC, etc.) • Dove more into the technical (HTML/CSS, Python, etc.) • Weekend Testing sessions • Became co-organizer of Boulder QA Meetup • Rapid Software Testing with James Bach • The journey continues! I try to learn something everyday (or every week)

4. Several Testers to Check Out (websites) • James Bach: http://www.satisfice.com • Michael Bolton: http://www.developsense.com • PradeepSoundararajan: http://testertested.blogspot.com • Anne-Marie Charrett: http://mavericktester.com • Keith Klain: http://qualityremarks.com/ • Paul Holland: http://testingthoughts.com/ • Elizabeth Hendrickson: http://www.testobsessed.com • Michael Larsen: http://mkltesthead.com • James Whittakerblogs.msdn.com/b/jw_on_tech • Lisa Crispin: http://lisacrispin.com • Colin Cherry: http://itesting.com.au/ • Jerry Weinberg: http://www.geraldmweinberg.com • Teri Charles: http://bouldertester.blogspot.com • And many more!

5. Several Testers to Follow (Twitter) This is a small list just to get you started. There are so many great Testers to follow. Feel free to take a look at who I or some of these folks follow to get more ideas. • James Bach: @jamesmarcusbach • Jerry Weinberg: @JerryWeinberg • Michael Bolton: @michaelbolton • PradeepSoundararajan: @testertested • Anne-Marie Charrett: @charrett • Keith Klain: @KeithKlain • Paul Holland: @PaulHolland_TWN • Elizabeth Hendrickson: @testobsessed • Michael Larsen: @mkltesthead • Colin Cherry: @cherryAKAtism • Jerry Weinberg: @JerryWeinberg • Ajay Balamurugadas: @ajay184f • LorindaBrandon: @lindybrandon • James Whittaker: @docjamesw • TeriCharles: @booksrg8

6. International Testing Groups • Association for Software Testing (AST): www.associationforsoftwaretesting.org • Software Testing Club: www.softwaretestingclub.com • Ministry of Testing: www.ministryoftesting.com • Software Test Professionals: www.softwaretestpro.com • Satisfice: www.satisfice.com • Software Testing Spot: www.testingspot.net • Testing References: www.testingreferences.com/index.php

7. International Testing Groups to Follow on Twitter • Association for Software Testing: @AST_News • Software Testing Club: @testingclub • Weekend Testers: @weekendtesting • Europe Weekend Testers: @europetesters • Australian Weekend Testers: @WTANZ_ • Satisfice: @satisfice_inc • Moolya Testing: @moolyatesting • TeaTime with Testers: @TtimewidTesters • StickyMinds: @StickyMinds

8. Online Publications (most are free) • Tea-time with Testers: www.teatimewithtesters.com • Testing Circus: www.testingcircus.com • Better Software: www.stickyminds.com/BetterSoftware/magazine.asp • Professional Tester: www.professionaltester.com • Test Magazine: http://www.testmagazine.co.uk/ • C0re Magazine: www.coremag.eu

9. Trainings & Skills Improvements • BBST (w/Association for Software Testing): www.associationforsoftwaretesting.org/training • Rapid Software Testing: www.satisfice.com/info_rst.shtml • Weekend Testers Americas: weekendtesting.com • Codeacademy, uTest, Udemy, etc. • Practice (on your own or with others) • Videos • Test Conferences • Tools

10. Books to Start Out With • Secrets of a Buccaneer-Scholar by James Bach • Lessons Learned in Software Testing • Explore It! by Elisabeth Hendrickson • Perfect Software and Other Illusions About Testing, by Jerry Weinberg • Managing the Testing Process: Practical Tools and Techniques for Managing Hardware and Software Testing by Ron Black • Testing Computer Software by CemKaner • How to Reduce the Cost of Software Testing by Matthew Heusser • How to Break Software by James Whittaker • Beautiful Testing by Adam Goucher • The Art of Software Testing by Glenford J. Myers

11. Training & Skill Improvements to Consider (and keep adding!) • Context Driven Testing • Exploratory Testing • Heuristics/Oracles • Automation (done smartly) • Mobile • Tools • Agile • Modeling • Coding/Scripting • General Systems • Epistemology (studying how do you know what you know) • Tacit (experience, insights) vs. Explicit (formal, documented) knowledge • Sapient processes (relies on skilled humans)

12. Have an online presence • Twitter: following, tweeting, favoriting, retweeting • Blog: write, comment on others, follow • LinkedIn (A means to an end. The reality is the recruiters do almost 100% searches on LinkedIn): detailed, up-to-date, buzzwords (of things you actually do!), skills, attach resume • Facebook: follow, likes, comments

13. Last Tidbit • Start YOUR journey sooner rather than later. • Don’t wait until you lose a job or decide to look for another job to start networking, learning new skills • Don’t be afraid to ask for help (or to admit you don’t know something) • Commitment to learning • Mentor, find a mentor, mentor each other • Share/teach others (you don’t have to be an expert!) • Network • There’s more to testing than automation. Discover the fine art of testing! • Get involved with local Meetups (and not just Testing!) • Volunteer to present at local Test Meetups (again, you don’t have to be an expert)