Tag Archives: Brian

Recruiting for testers – a hiring perspective

In recent times I have been heavily involved in hiring testers. This is includes fine tuning the hiring process, screening CV’s, interviews, take home exercises and so forth. It also includes spending time with recruiters. I have found two aspects of hiring interesting and we’ll look at one vital component of the process in this post.

Recruiters

I have found recruiters fall into two categories – those that listen and those that don’t. I have met some very good recruiters who have gone out of their way to build a rapport before trying to sell me their wares. I have appreciated this as I have found that they’ve listened to what we were after (our ‘requirements’ if you will) and we got to know each other better. This is important as testing (and the tech business) is about people after all. An example of this is when I recently spoke at a testing conference in Melbourne, Australia (ATD2K16) – three people from the same recruiting firm came to support me because we had established a very good relationship before hand!

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Test Metrics Debunked – Residual Risk (1/5)

Metrics and the desire to measure things (especially in software testing) is often used and abused.  The craft is rife with misplaced, misunderstood, and at times dangerous measures.  In particular, a recent post entitled “5 examples of metrics that matter” goes some way to support fallacies in the software testing space (http://blog.softed.com/2014/04/28/5-examples-of-metrics-that-matter/).

What follows is a series of five explanations as to why these metrics miss their mark.

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KWST#3

The Association for Software Testing (AST) has this year funded large parts of KWST. So I wrote a report for them on what we did. I thought I’d share here too.

The Third Kiwi Workshop on Software Testing

by Oliver Erlewein

KWST#3 Attendees

KWST#3 Attendees

It’s winter in the southern hemisphere: The weather is getting cold and windy, and people are staying inside.  But not all! Testers from all over Australia and New Zealand were flocking to one of the testing highlights of the year, the two day long Kiwi Workshop on Software Testing (KWST) held in Wellington, New Zealand.

This is the third time round and we’re going from strength to strength. This time 19 people were sharing their experiences – LAWST style – about “Lighting the way; Educating others and ourselves about software testing”.

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Testing Leadership Down Under

Well hello, Hello Test World.

Firstly, it’s an honour to be included as part of the team here.  What a great bunch of thinking testers to blog with!  Since KWST #2 in 2012 (where we met) I have formed a wonderful friendship with these Kiwi dudes, and have learned a great deal in the process.  Their passion for our craft is infectious, and for that I thank them.

The below article was originally put together by myself and Brian Osman for submission in The Testing Planet.  Unfortunately deadlines got the better of us and we didn’t polish it in time.  I thought it might be a good idea to share this with you all for my first ‘official’ post on HTW.  Being a joint piece helps with my HTW beginners nerves.  ;0)

First we discuss our thoughts on leadership, then what we’re trying to do for our little pieces of the world.  Oh, it’s long… but stick with it.

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Structured v Unstructured

Below is a response we wrote to the latest Tester Magazines Newsletter article; what’s All the Fuss About? Structured vs Unstructured Testing. This was email directly to the author Geoff Horne but after his reply suggested this be used in the next edition of his magazine we felt it would be best published on our own Hello Test World blog.

If you have any thoughts, we’ll be looking forward to the in the comments.

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WeTest Workshop #1

Last week (25.10.2012) the first WeTest Meetup Workshop was held in Wellington. This is a Meetup group that meets loosely bi-monthly and conforms to the same experience report style as KWST, OZWST and LAWST does.

Needless to say the event, instigated by Aaron Hodder, Katrina Edgar and Brian Osman, was quite a success. The topic was “Experiances in Test Automation”. Discussion was lively and there was lots to take home & think about. Read up on the details in these blog posts:

Assurity BLOG

TestSheep NZ

Thanks go to Assurity for helping fund the venue, food and drinks! Also thanks to everyone there for the great participation. The next Workshop will be on the 6th of December. Places are filling up quickly.

Author: Oliver Erlewein

WeTest Workshops

http://www.meetup.com/WeTest-Workshops/

The brain child of Aaron Hodder and Katrina Edgar… and thanks to Richard Robinson and David Greenlees for sharing their experiences on setting up a meet up group for software testers….

For testers in Wellington who are interested in testing discussions with other practitioners.

Monthly workshop events of a similar format to KWST – a presenter introduces a topic to the group, and attendees are then encouraged to discuss, question, challenge, and share ideas on that topic. Participation is expected, so come prepared to contribute!

Meet thinking testers in the Wellington testing community, engage in practical discussion, and eat pizza.

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Thoughts on one New Zealand test community

In November 2009, I created software testers new zealand google group. It’s not limited to just Kiwi’s (we have members from Australia, India and the US that I know of). The point of the group was to provide a *local* forum to communicate matters related to testing. Since then, I’ve notice some interesting behaviour about the group which I would like to share here….

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Hello Test World!

Hello all to this new testing Blog of Aaron Hodder, Brian Osman, Oliver Erlewein and Richard Robinson. Some of us have our own testing blogs but the thought here is that, since we think along the same lines and together seem to pack more testing-punch, it is natural for us to meld our minds into one blog. Our hope it is that you will be the main beneficiary of this and we can help you reflect and learn new things as you progress in your testing career and the profession in general.

You will also see our twitter streams at the bottom and rhs of this blog so follow us to stay on top of things.

Since STANZ 2011 is on next week in Wellington we’re rushing a bit to get this blog out the door and start reflecting on what’s happening in the scene. So please check back regularly to see new stuff.