Testing Peers
110 episodes - English - Latest episode: 12 days ago -Four like-minded testing peers who have come together to support and challenge each other on their journeys as testers and leaders. We'll discuss general topics on leadership, line management, testing and the wider sphere of software delivery. Join... Russell, Simon, Chris and David on their audio adventure.
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Episodes
Owning Your Career
April 07, 2024 23:00 - 43 minutes - 30.1 MBWelcome to episode 104 of the Testing Peers podcast. This time around we have a special trio of Callum Akehurst-Ryan, Russell Craxford & Ben Dowen, as the Peers talk about owning your career. Callum starts us off with important banter on snackage, before we head into sharing our own career stories and discussing what owning your career means along with our own challenges and some words of wisdom. [email protected] Twitter (https://twitter.com/testingpeers) LinkedIn (https://ww...
Saying No
March 24, 2024 23:00 - 31 minutes - 21.5 MBWelcome to another episode of the Testing Peers podcast. Beth Marshall joins Chris, David and Russell to discuss the topic of saying no. Chris starts with the banter, asking the peers which films they have turned off or left the cinema because they were rubbish, various films mentioned, although the northerners on the recording seem to never walk out on anything. On the main topic, the discussion around what we've said no to in the work/community environment, from not doing talks or taking...
Measuring
March 10, 2024 23:00 - 30 minutes - 20.5 MBWelcome to episode 102 of the Testing Peers podcast. This time around join Tara Walton, Chris Armstrong, Russell Craxford & David Maynard, as the Peers talk about measuring. On the week of our first #PeersCon event, Tara breaks the ice, asking us our favourite and least favourite parts of conferences. Then we dive in. The team discussed the traps of bad metrics, gamification, toxic culture and talk about the importance of value and relevancy in what we report on with a few tales from Chr...
Changing Face of Automation
February 25, 2024 23:00 - 33 minutes - 23.1 MBIn this episode Rich Bradshaw, Simon, David and Chris talk all things automation. Banter this week is brought to by Rich as we discover TK Maxx is the perfect way to explain exploratory testing. We dive into our first experiences of automation, going back a while, talking about different tools, tech debt and the frustration. We talk about the joys of source control. We talk about going full circles from automation to aid us to focusing on the UI automation then end to end testing then bac...
Testing Peers 100
February 13, 2024 21:00 - 47 minutes - 32.5 MBTesting Peers podcast has reached 100 episodes! Beth Marshall (10 episodes), chairs this special look back and forward episode, joined by Simon Prior (78 episodes), Russell Craxford (88), Chris Armstrong (93) and David Maynard (96). Beth skillfully guides the conversation to talk about the podcast and beyond, what are we most proud of? A few little peeks behind the curtain, including some insight into how long the editors typically take per episode. Many thanks to you David and Russell <3...
Failures
January 29, 2024 21:00 - 34 minutes - 22.7 MBOne away from the big 100, what better way to celebrate than talking about our experience with failures? Simon, Chris, Russell and David share stories of failures from their careers and what they have learned from them. Before diving into the main topic, Chris leads the banter and asks the Peers about their failures when it comes to computer games, which ones did they really suck at? :) Sports games seems to be the main theme here. The peers cover a lot of ground on the topic of failures, ...
Meetings
January 14, 2024 23:00 - 37 minutes - 24.8 MBWelcome to another episode of the Testing Peers podcast. On this episode, Chris, Russell and David are joined by a new guest, Jon Robinson. The topic they all discussed was the wonders (or lack of wonder) around Meetings. Jon leads the banter and asked everyone for their weirdest/craziest meetings, this covers everything from awkward situations, to lack of context, to managers taking over and sending meetings in different directions. Russell asks the peers for their favourite meetings, thi...
Collaboration
December 31, 2023 23:00 - 36 minutes - 25.1 MBHappy New Year from the Testing Peers! In this episode, the FullSnackTester, Ben Dowen joins Russell, David and Chris as we talk collaboration. Before the main event, Ben asks the group about resolutions, where the group talk about reading, fitness, cooking, answering conference calls for papers and our own conference #PeersCon, coming March 14th 2024 in Nottingham, more information can be found at testingpeerscon.com Ben starts the group off by talking about collaboration at work, from p...
Would Heu-risk it? at Christmas
December 17, 2023 17:00 - 45 minutes - 31.5 MBMerry Christmas, season's greetings and happy holidays from the Testing Peers! Welcome to our fourth annual festive episode. Steve Watson, Tara Walton, Lena Nyström & Dermot Canniffe join Chris, Russell, David and (eventually) Simon as we engage in Would Heu-risk it? at this time of the year. Before we dive into the main event, Russell asks the Peers our favourite thing at Christmastime:- anything from food, family, old movies, presents and time off. We then kick-off with Would Heu-Risk ...
Do we Need Managers?
December 03, 2023 15:00 - 34 minutes - 18.2 MBThank you for joining the Testing Peers for another episode. On this one, Chris, David, Simon and Russell discuss the role of the manager and whether we still need them. Before jumping in, David asks the peers what things they can't live without, we have answers from people, the internet, books and coffee machines. Simon starts the main conversation of whether we could live without managers. Of course, context is key here, every company is different and the needs for a Test Manager or mana...
Being Not Doing - #PeersCon24 Programme Theme
November 19, 2023 23:00 - 36 minutes - 24.4 MBWelcome to another episode of the Testing Peers podcast. This time, join Chris, David, Vernon and Russell as they discuss the topic of 'being not doing', the theme for the Testing Peers Conference #PeersCon, on March 14th 2024. https://testingpeerscon.com/ After breaks the ice asking us 'where is your favourite place to be?' we jump into what we mean with being not doing. The conversation opens with Chris talking about 'being agile, rather than just doing agile', 'being a tester, rathe...
Fighting Fires
November 05, 2023 22:00 - 32 minutes - 22 MBWelcome to another episode of the Testing Peers. The Awesome foursome back together again with the topic of fighting fires and some of the additional effort that is needed when it is all hitting the fan. Chris starts off the banter with asking us about memes we may use in the workplace, we have everything from Homer Simpson, Bryan Danielson, Barney Stinson and Mr Bean. We then dive into the main topic and Chris kicks us off with an story of his time testing games with the bugs not being pr...
First Impressions
October 22, 2023 22:00 - 40 minutes - 27.6 MBWelcome to the latest edition of the Testing Peers podcast. This time, David and Chris are joined by Dermot and also brand new host Sanne. The peers are talking about first impressions and how reputations can sometimes proceed you. Sanne starts the conversation off with a great question of "what do you friends know you best for?", for any of you that know the peers, what do you think of when you think of them? Once on to the main topic, the conversation starts with Sanne's thoughts on firs...
Flow Work
October 08, 2023 21:00 - 34 minutes - 23.9 MBWelcome to another episode of the Testing Peers, this week David, Beth, Chris and Russell. This week we focus on flow work Russell is on banter duty this week and we start with what gets us singing along to songs, it seems it doesn't take much to get us singing. How do you get into a flow state? Beth introduces the topic and David starts us off with a mention of the Pomodoro Technique. Chris talks about the different parts of focus with the book Learning How to Learn: How to Succeed in S...
Testing Misconceptions
September 24, 2023 22:00 - 34 minutes - 22.9 MBWelcome to another episode of the Testing Peers and in what is fast becoming a rare event, the band are back together, with Russell, Chris, David and Simon all present at the same time for a recording. We decided to talk about something which has been touched upon in previous episodes, the misconceptions of the testing world and what we can do to prove they are myths. Chris starts us off with the banter, he asks the peers to remember scenarios when we had used something for a purpose it was...
Risk Appetite
September 09, 2023 22:00 - 43 minutes - 17.7 MBWelcome to another episode of the Testing Peers. Chris and Simon are absent again so David and Russell are joined by 2 new guest hosts in Dermot Canniffe and Beren van Daele. Dermot asks the peers about what they have recently committed to and enjoyed regarding TV and film. A variety of answers from the latest Mission Impossible to German TV shows. Beren starts the main conversation by talking about RiskStorming, giving some detail on the workshops and discussions he has been having. Then ...
Feedback
August 27, 2023 22:00 - 44 minutes - 19.6 MBHello and welcome to another episode of the Testing Peers podcast. This time, join Chris, David, Tara and Callum as we discuss the topic of feedback. Before diving into the main topic, Callum asks what type of adventurer we would be. Both Callum and Tara have a background producing content around Dungeons & Dragons from a quality perspective. Links to these will be at the bottom of these show notes. The Peers then move onto the main topic of feedback, talking about what they find valuabl...
Testing as a career: is it worth it?
August 13, 2023 22:00 - 35 minutes - 15.3 MBWelcome to another episode of the Testing Peers podcast. This week join Russell, David, Chris and first-time host, Beth Clarke, as the Peers discuss careers in software testing. After a cuddly toy-themed opening, the group talk about paths into software testing, with the group's academic paths coming from biology, astrophysics, architecture, humanities & politics. We have talked before about #MakeATester and the clearly defined entry points into a career in testing is once again debated. ...
Content Creation
July 30, 2023 22:00 - 48 minutes - 18.4 MBWelcome to another episode of the Testing Peers podcast. Tara Walton and Vernon Richards join Chris on this week's episode as we talk about content creation. Before diving into the main topic, Vernon introduces the banter topic of travelling pet peeves - familiar topics covered included comfort, fear, other people, hidden costs and more. Then we dive into the main topic of content creation. We cover what motivates us to create content? To vent, respond, share, build a personal brand, sh...
Red Flags
July 16, 2023 10:00 - 33 minutes - 23 MBWelcome to another episode of the Testing Peers podcast. This time, join David, Chris, Simon and guest-host, Steve Watson, as we talk about red flags. Before diving into the main subject, the Peers discuss if they've ever been told that they're a lookalike for anyone famous. Diving into the topic of red flags, the Peers cover all manner of red flags that they look for, have experienced and any advice that they might have for dealing with these things. From culture, to processes, microman...
Deadlines
July 02, 2023 22:00 - 37 minutes - 15.4 MBWelcome to episode 84 of the Testing Peers podcast. This week, Sam Nitsche joins regular hosts David, Russell and Chris as we discuss deadlines. After initially covering our relationships with deadlines while in school, we jump into the main topic, deadlines that impact, or are impacted by testing. The conversation touches deadlines as a tool, agility, cadence, quality and risk. Are deadlines fixed, negotiable, a chance for a conversation? Are deadlines a necessary evil? We hope you fo...
Delegation
June 18, 2023 21:00 - 39 minutes - 26.9 MBWelcome to another episode of the Testing Peers. A fully stacked panel for this episode with Simon, Russell and David being joined by Shey and Beth (shows the hole that Chris leaves when he's not around that we need to replace him with 2!). The topic for this episode was to focus on the leadership activity of delegation, looking at it from both the leader who is delegating and the team being delegated to. How to do this effectively and any stories from our experience over the years. Russell...
Healthy Workplace Expectations
June 03, 2023 22:00 - 45 minutes - 18.8 MBWelcome, this week, join Russell, David, Chris and special guest host, Vernon Richards as we discuss healthy workplace expectations and if we're normal! Before diving in, the Peers discuss annoying software from ITV player to MsTeams and banks software, a lot of software seems to annoy us. Russell introduces the topic, how we balance the pressures we put on on ourselves and other put on us for doing our work. We talk about increased flexible and multinational companies changing the simp...
Anxiety - Mental Health Awareness 2023
May 21, 2023 19:00 - 38 minutes - 26.2 MBWelcome back for another episode of the Testing Peers. We are releasing this on the back of Mental Health Awareness Week 2023, which has the theme of Anxiety, so the Peers will dive into their experiences with Anxiety and how they have combatted it in the past. Before going into the main topic, Simon brings up the topic of "Peers Con" which the Peers have aspirations to run this year, but has hit a stumbling block around finding a venue which will then allow us to get a date, call for paper...
What do testers do?
May 07, 2023 22:00 - 34 minutes - 23.6 MBWelcome to another episode of the Testing Peers podcast, and this release falls almost three years after episode one. Thank you for joining us on this journey. This week, regulars David and Chris are joined by Steve Watson and our first American, Tara Walton. In Peers tradition, we kick off with some banter, and Tara gets the ball rolling by asking the group about our most recent board gaming experiences. A couple of standouts there are Hue and Blokus. Steve then leads the discussion, as...
Quality Shift
April 24, 2023 16:00 - 33 minutes - 23.2 MBWelcome to another episode of the Testing Peers. Regular hosts Chris, David and Russell are joined by the Semi-Regular host Shey to discuss all about Quality Shift moments, where our understanding or perspective around aspects of testing/quality may have changed forever. Before diving into this, Chris starts the banter with looking at "aha moments" and without doing it intentionally, anchors the discussion into computer games, before David breaks the mould and talks about when his swimming ...
Testers' Growth
April 09, 2023 22:00 - 36 minutes - 24.1 MBWelcome to another episode of the Testing Peers podcast. This week, join Russell, David, Simon and special guest host, Dan Ashby as we discuss growth as testers. Before diving in, the Peers discuss things that they have grown and taken pride in, from careers, to children, to plants. The topic is introduced by Dan, speaking to the current climate in our industry, discussing personal growth, motivators and helping others in their growth, as leaders. The conversation covers both formal and ...
Testing Leadership
March 26, 2023 14:00 - 39 minutes - 17 MBWelcome to another episode of the Testing Peers! This week, join Simon, David, Russell and (semi-regular) Shey as they talk about leadership in testing. The episode kicks off with a discussion about leadership icons outside of testing, before diving into leadership in testing. Shey shares his journey into leadership, and how he discovered unhelpful leadership traits from his first lead. The Peers discuss what makes a good leader, words like passion, respect, confidence, humility and more...
Testing Opportunity Knocks
March 13, 2023 08:00 - 31 minutes - 21.4 MBWelcome to the new episode of the Testing Peers. On this episode, the peers talk about experience with moving onto new opportunities. For this we had a special extended panel, joining Chris, David and Simon were Beth Marshall and Samuel Nitsche. For the banter, Chris asks us about any new equipment we've received when joining a new role which didn't work for us, we discuss everything from ergonomic mice for Left Handers, old monitors, CEOs cleaning our desks for us. This lead us onto leavi...
Strategies for Testing
February 26, 2023 23:00 - 31 minutes - 22 MBWelcome to another episode of the Testing Peers. Regulars Chris, Simon, Russell and David this week talk all things strategies. Before diving into the main topic, we talk about strategies in our home life. We then try our best to describe what is a strategy, we all have slight different yet similar definitions. We share how context impacts strategies and we mention Janet Gregory and Lisa Crispin agile testing books and a few things they share to consider. The discussion moves on discuss ...
Building Team Resilience
February 12, 2023 23:00 - 32 minutes - 22.2 MBWelcome to another episode of the Testing Peers. Chris, Russell and David are joined by a special guest and artist of the amazing Testing Peers logo, Bruce (the Legend). Before diving into the main topic, Bruce leads the peers into a discussion about their skincare routines, do the Peers wash their faces? Do they use moisturiser? How do they improve the resilience of their skin? This was certainly a curveball with the banter which we all learned something new about our heroes! Russell and...
Glue Work
February 01, 2023 10:00 - 31 minutes - 21.5 MBHello and welcome to episode 73 of the Testing Peers podcast, where this week we are talking about glue work. This week, regulars Chris, David and Russell are joined by the brilliant Vernon Richards. Before diving in, Vernon asks the Peers about their favourite non-work books. Chris then introduces the main topic of glue work, shouting out to Cassandra Leung for bringing the brilliant talk 'Being Glue' by Tanya Reilly into their world. You can find the talk here: https://noidea.dog/glue ...
30 Things Every New Tester Should Learn - 6 Years On
January 15, 2023 23:00 - 42 minutes - 27.6 MBelcome to another episode of the Testing Peers podcast, this time we have a slightly different show for you. Regular host, Chris is joined by the wonderful Heather Reid, as we look back over the brilliant article Heather wrote back in 2017 - 30 Things Every New Software Tester Should Learn on the Ministry of Testing site. Before we look back at Heather's article, we talk about anything from our past online that we might find a little cringey. Then we review the article, written almost exa...
Testing Market Trends
January 01, 2023 23:00 - 27 minutes - 18.7 MBHappy new year! We hope all our listeners have a great 2023. Thank you for being with us on the journey, we hope you all continue to enjoy the podcasts we provide. In relation to that, in this episode, we review what the Software Testing Market Trends are for 2023. Joining Simon, Chris and David for this episode is long time friend, fan of the podcast and all round testing superstar, Beth Marshall. Before diving into the main topic, Mr Bantz himself, takes us on a trip down memory lane ab...
Christmas Past, Present and Future
December 18, 2022 22:00 - 36 minutes - 25.3 MBHello and welcome to episode 70 of the Testing Peers podcast. As we're drawing toward Christmas this week we thought we'd do a special. Taking a leaf from 'A Christmas Carol' by Charles Dickens we do a little retrospective and take a look at Christmas past, present and future. We're joined by the usual crew David, Simon, Chris and Russell and we have some festive messages from some of our testing friends Dan Ashby, Steven Warburton, Beth Marshall, Emna Ayadi and Neil Studd. We share some...
Staying Connected
December 04, 2022 23:00 - 32 minutes - 22.4 MBWelcome to another episode of the Testing Peers. The original crew (Chris, David, Russell and Simon) are discussing how we can stay connected in the testing world, especially in the times of the social media landscape changing. Before diving into the main topic, Russell takes us on a journey back to times in our lives where we had enjoyed successes as part of a team. We had stories of football team successes (well, almost), D of E expeditions, Military marching events and basketball success...
Planning and Estimation
November 20, 2022 22:00 - 38 minutes - 21.5 MBThank you for joining us for another episode of the Testing Peers podcast. Join David, Simon, Russell and Chris as we talk about planning and estimation. But, before we dive into the topic we take a brief look into the approaches the Peers take towards researching personal purchases and we discover Simon likes a good review! This week's topic was inspired by Jo Richards and her tweet about story points. https://twitter.com/iamjorichards/status/1583146372873990144?s=20&t=YFF4jtmXM8bRgskw...
Testing Conferences
November 09, 2022 23:00 - 36 minutes - 25.3 MBHello and welcome to episode 67 of the Testing Peers podcast. This week we have special guests Beth Marshall and Steven Warburton who joins regulars, David and Russell, as we discuss Testing Conferences and what they mean to us and our teams. Before we delve into the main subject Beth takes us down memory lane on funny stories at conferences. We start discussing conference season and our bucket lists of conferences. We talk about DevOps conferences, RoboCon, not just testing and wanting t...
Testing Debt
October 09, 2022 21:00 - 34 minutes - 24 MBHello and welcome to episode 66 of the Testing Peers podcast. This week we have a special guest Ugne Litvinaite who joins, David, Russell and Chris as we discuss Testing debt. Before we delve into the main subject we first explore our favourite Dinosaurs. Chris explains what we mean by debt and references back to a blog he wrote in 2020 "It's all just a little bit of history repeating..." and the different types of debt: culture, document, shortcut, later, and process debt. He also quote...
Switching Off
September 25, 2022 22:00 - 37 minutes - 26.1 MBHello and welcome to episode 65 of the Testing Peers podcast. This week, join Simon, David, Russell and Chris as we discuss Switching Off. Prior to the main topic, Simon introduces the topic of switching off in meeting horror stories. We discover how triggered the Peers get over shared screens and talk about a few awkward situations. Moving on, Russell introduces the main topic. Starting off by defining what we mean by switching off from work and if we have any mechanisms that we use. D...
Test Cases
September 14, 2022 14:00 - 42 minutes - 23.5 MBWelcome to another episode of the Testing Peers podcast - and sorry this one is a little late. This week, join Simon, Russell, David and Chris as we discuss the topic of test cases. Before we dive in, David asks us to fill our suitcases (see what he did there?) and we see another cheeky mention of the PeersCon idea that we've been playing around with. After the banter, we introduce the topic and ask are test cases valuable, are they still important? We talk through our experiences, touch...
Hybrid Working
August 28, 2022 22:00 - 38 minutes - 20.6 MBWelcome to another episode of the Testing Peers Podcast. Join Shey, David, Russell and Chris as we discuss hybrid working. We begin with Russell asking the Peers about favourite festivals and live music we've experienced. Then we dive straight into the topic. What does hybrid working even mean? How the pandemic has swung the pendulum from office-first focus to home-first focus toward hybrid working for many of us. The Peers then talk about the value of time spent together in person and...
Communication
August 14, 2022 22:00 - 35 minutes - 24.5 MBWelcome to another episode of the Testing Peers Podcast. In this episode we're joined by two special guests, Shey Crompton and Steven Warburton in lieu of Simon and Russell. We discuss the best and worst ways we find to communicate in this modern era of remote/distant working. Naturally the Testing Peers are drawn to discuss context but this time from the view of meeting invites - do you tell people what your meetings are about? Do you use a meeting when a message is good enough or me...
Communication
August 14, 2022 22:00 - 35 minutes - 24.5 MBWelcome to another episode of the Testing Peers Podcast. In this episode we're joined by two special guests, Shey Crompton and Steven Warburton in lieu of Simon and Russell. We discuss the best and worst ways we find to communicate in this modern era of remote/distant working. Naturally the Testing Peers are drawn to discuss context but this time from the view of meeting invites - do you tell people what your meetings are about? Do you use a meeting when a message is good enough or me...
Complacency
July 31, 2022 21:00 - 35 minutes - 18.9 MBWelcome to another episode of the Testing Peers Podcast. Before diving into the topic of complacency, the newly crowned 'Mr. Bantz' asks the Peers to dive into their memory vaults to reveal which computer games consumed their adolescent years. Chris introduces the definition of complacency that will be used for this episode: a feeling of calm satisfaction with your own abilities or situation that prevents you from trying harder https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/complace...
How Testing Impacts Business Goals
July 17, 2022 22:00 - 31 minutes - 21.6 MBWelcome to another episode of the Testing Peers. Chris, Simon, David and Shey are here to discuss another great topic. This time it is one that was suggested by a friend and podcast listener, Mr Stuart Crocker (@StooCrock) Shey starts off the session with the banter around which fantasy world would we like to visit. Lots of great answers, most in places where we may be in some form of potential danger On the main topic, we discuss the benefits of aligning testing to business goals and how ...
Toxicity in Testing
July 03, 2022 22:00 - 29 minutes - 20.6 MBWelcome to another episode of the Testing Peers. Chris and Russell have returned from their EuroSTAR adventures, to join the other regulars to talk toxicity in testing. Before diving in, Simon leads the banter around what three apps would you keep on your phone, if you were allowed only three. Thankfully, no toxicity there! Onto the main discussion, the Peers discuss everything from behaviours, misunderstanding, misappropriation, unrealistic expectations to politics and more! On the not...
#MakeATester Update
June 19, 2022 22:00 - 30 minutes - 21.1 MBWelcome to another episode of the Testing Peers. With Chris and Russell galavanting off at EuroStar 2022 in Copenhagen, Simon and David drafted in some equally awesome replacements in Shey and Beth from the Testing Peers bench and with that, two who have been involved in our #MakeATester endeavours. So we thought it made sense to provide an update on what we have been up to. We started with "Banter with Beth" and she asked us all about how we make Testing fun. A lot of the collaborative act...
Testing Models
June 05, 2022 22:00 - 31 minutes - 21.4 MBWelcome to another episode of the Testing Peers. On this episode, we talk about our experience with models for testing. This takes us down the journey of identifying the models we have found most useful during our testing careers. Before diving into the main topic, David asks us what our first model of car we owned was, which was a fun trip down memory lane, particularly for our resident petrol head (Russell!). Chris certainly wins the award for the biggest death trap out of the 4 of us. C...
Public Speaking
May 22, 2022 22:00 - 39 minutes - 22.4 MBHello and welcome to another episode of the Testing Peers. On this episode, we will discuss our experiences around Public Speaking. This covers everything from our own talks to any tips and suggestions we have to help people get into performing public speaking. Chris starts us off with asking us about our experiences during our youth with public performances and any horror stories. We had everything from drill commands in the Air Cadets, school performances and Christmas shows. We dived in...