Don’t judge people too quickly

In the testing world there often appears to be a lot of hatred, resentment, hostility and anger between various camps of people. Obviously this is not just limited to the testing world but it’s the world I mingle in, so it’s on my radar. All too often people are jumping to conclusions about the way

Apparently there’s nothing new..

At a conference I attended a few weeks back someone asked a simple question. In actual fact it wasn’t a question, it was a statement. And an angry one at that.   “What you’re talking about isn’t new. There’s nothing new at this event. Where’s the new content?”   He then proceeded to walk out

Talent imitates, Genius steals

Talent imitates, Genius steals   A very pertinent phrase for what’s been happening in the testing world recently. There’s been some high profile stealing or imitating of ideas and concepts but also some low key ones too. It seems we are in an increasingly competitive (and open media) world and those with the really great

Taking a break from the old routine

I’m a regular on many of the testing forums and mailing lists and I’ve noticed recently a very worrying trend. That is that many testers simply cannot appreciate different ways of working. Their way is a Best Practice. But it’s more than that, it’s not just about Best Practices but the vitriol in which they

Rapid Acclimatisation Process

I saw the term “rapid acclimatisation process” for the first time in a blog I follow. The term struck an instant chord with me. In the blog, the author Jan Chipchase is describing the initial period of time when he lands in a new town or city. He spends that time acclimatising to the new

I’m confused….crowdsourcing

I may well be opening a can of worms with this blog but I am genuinely interested to see what people think about crowdsourcing and in particular services like uTest.   I’ve read some glowing reports about uTest and heard nothing negative – which is unusual in our community. We often see past the gloss

Pair Programming and Pair Testing

Our programmers here at iMeta now wax lyrical about pair programming and it’s easy to see why. The quality of code coming through to the test team now is exceptional. There’s very few fix-fail episodes and the programmers seem over the moon with how great pair programming is fairing. Sure, there were teething issues and

Stubborn Cat

There’s a cat down the road from me who is so stubborn it’s untrue. He refuses to budge – literally. He saunters out to the middle of the road and sits there with his smug little smile taunting drivers and cyclists. He refuses to move out of the way and it’s not uncommon to have