This Week in Quality

In episode 125 of This Week in Quality (Friday 27 February 2026), co-hosts Nataliia Burmei and Eamon Droko welcome the community for a wide-ranging conversation about careers, confidence, and the support systems that make tough work moments easier to navigate. Nat opens with a simple code of conduct reminder, “Be nice, be human, be supportive, be engaging, be fun,” setting the tone for a chat that mixes practical advice with plenty of warmth and humour, including confusion about a “fake Eamon” while the real one races in from a client UAT.Fresh from the first MoT London chapter event of the year, Eamon shares highlights from a packed evening at RAM Space, praising the organising team and reflecting on talks that bridged disciplines, including a standout session on testing authentication. With Nat starting a new job on Monday and reflecting on time between roles, the conversation naturally turns to job hunting and how the market is feeling in early 2026.Community members bring powerful perspectives. Maithilee shares how the job market is beginning to feel more positive than late 2025 and how staying active in the MoTaverse can make unemployment feel less isolating. Ady recounts two times he left roles without a clear next step, including the shock of having a signed contract rescinded at the start of the first COVID lockdown, and how community connections helped him recover quickly and find new opportunities. Shawn adds a “third-order connections” lens from sociology, highlighting how wider networks can surface roles you would never otherwise see. Gary celebrates a surprise shout-out from his CTO and shares a personal story about encouraging his daughter to leave a damaging work situation, which led to her landing a dream job in publishing. Preeti reflects on making the hard choice to leave a role in a tough market, and credits community learning, sessions, and one-to-one conversations for helping her rebuild strategy and confidence until offers came through. Finally, Judy offers the counterpoint of staying too long for stability, describing how it can be easy to ignore cultural warning signs until the breaking point forces a reset.Along the way, the chat keeps things human with playful threads about eggs and other everyday moments, underscoring a key message of the episode. Careers are hard, job searches are emotional, and quality people need both practical guidance and community humour to keep going.

In episode 124 of This Week in Quality, host Ady Stokes kicks off with a birthday celebration for co-host Demi Van Malcot, a quick time-warp reflection on how fast the show has grown, and a week packed with community energy. Demi shares a bumpy “birthday week in quality” that includes a test data crisis, a perfectly-timed article on cognitive load, and the buzz of the Epic Test Quest launch party. Ad highlights the momentum around WIZZO, an AI helper embedded in Slack that’s being shaped by the testing community through real feedback and iteration.The conversation quickly turns into a lively and honest debate about AI guardrails and the growing sense of “enough already.” Demi talks about struggling to concentrate on audio content, laughing at MoT wordplay, and eyeing chapter meetups as a “meetup tourist.” Ady shares his own packed week, including a Call for Insights conversation with Simon about making “thinking in testing” more visible and an aspirational goal of writing a book, alongside ongoing work on the Software Quality Engineering Certificate and shout-outs to community contributions showing up in newsletters.From there, the episode leans hard into the AI dilemma. Ad raises the growing public conversation about AI in high-stakes domains like healthcare and online safety, asking what responsibility belongs to platforms versus users. Judy joins with a candid “big sAIgh,” pushing back on pressure to adopt AI tools that require constant supervision and verification, and questioning what “genuine” even means when AI-generated content floods professional spaces. Her rant lands so well it becomes a running theme, affectionately labelled “rainbow vomit,” complete with new community emoji energy.The stage fills with real-world stories. Christine celebrates Epic Test Quest’s graduation and launch, shares what it took to ship while wrangling AI hallucinations during refactors, and invites the community deeper into building tools by testers for testers. Chris Pratt reflects on how in-person MoT London events became an inflection point for his confidence and involvement, and shares a sponsor update plus a reminder to unregister if you can’t attend so people on the waitlist can join. Shawn adds a skeptical perspective on AI adoption, pointing out the risk of using AI to fill roles nobody in the organisation can properly validate, and reframing the dream as AI reducing burnout rather than replacing human empathy. Nadja shares a behind-the-scenes view from an AI-driven project where she’s effectively “the guardrail,” putting processes and checks in place after months without a tester and watching developers finally prioritise quality thinking.Across the episode, the group returns to a few sharp ideas: AI might make us more efficient but not more effective, quality folks are often the ones forced to provide the guardrails, and the industry is inventing new vocabulary to describe what’s happening, from hallucinations to confabulation. The result is a funny, messy, and very real community conversation about how to keep standards high when the tools are moving faster than our ability to trust them.

In this Friday 13th episode of This Week in Quality, first-time co-hosts Oleksandr Romanov and Claire Norman lean into the date’s reputation and explore the superstitions that quietly shape how teams test, release, and demo software. Claire opens with a collaboration win, bringing designers and engineers closer together and proving that small invitations can unlock earlier, better involvement. The hosts then share MoT updates, including new Call for Insights conversations with Simon and the newly announced 2026 MoT Ambassadors, before inviting the community to unpack the rituals and “bad luck” rules we all recognise.The chat lights up with classic beliefs and their origins, from why Friday the 13th became notorious to the evergreen “don’t ship on a Friday” rule. Oleksandr adds a familiar developer-flavoured superstition, “it works on my machine,” and the group discusses how missing information, pattern-seeking, and bias can harden one-off incidents into lasting process rules. They also ask the bigger question: which superstitions are actually useful heuristics, and which ones deserve a gentle challenge with data?Community voices bring the theme to life. Ady shares a packed week, including recording SQU(e)C content on accessibility and navigating the emotional rollercoaster of briefly being “404 not found” on the ambassador list, plus a reminder that bugs love to disappear the moment you screen share. Gary describes how a Friday release disaster led to a long-lived quality gate checklist, even after the original causes were fixed, while Demi recounts the familiar pain of “cursed demos” where last-minute deploys and restarts sabotage confidence right when it matters most. Then we hear a high-stakes story involving mismatched builds across customer and merchant apps, payment gateway panic, and the hard lesson that transformed their release and sign-off process.The episode wraps by reframing superstition as psychology. Claire highlights how our bias toward assuming the worst can be useful for testing, but also stressful if left unchecked, and how learning about biases can help teams stay grounded. The result is a lively, relatable conversation that turns Friday 13th energy into practical reflections on risk, rituals, and building calmer release habits.

In this episode of This Week in Quality, Simon welcomes a returning legend to the virtual stage as Deanna comes back from maternity leave and dives straight into everything that’s evolved across the MoTaverse. Together they turn the chat into a rapid-fire “what changed while Deanna was away?” tour, calling out highlights like Into the MoTaverse, My Reports, company pages, thank-you stars and badges, membership updates, SQU(e)C, and the growing momentum behind chapters as the next evolution of local meetups.The conversation then zooms in on why chapters matter and what becomes possible when in-person events connect directly to MoT profiles, memories, recordings, and the star system. Chris Pratt, a new organiser for MoT London, shares behind-the-scenes insights on stepping into a fresh organising team, raising the bar after a strong year, and what to expect at the next London event. He previews talks that reframe everyday testing work, including one on authentication that treats login as an adversarial system and another on how quality assurance is evolving into quality engineering, plus a call for potential event sponsors to support food and drinks.Deanna also invites Mat on stage to reflect on community moments he’s enjoyed, including the MoT Christmas quiz, and to share the real-world grind of job hunting in 2026. Mat talks candidly about being asked for “commercial experience” with specific tools, using that pressure as fuel to keep learning, and leaning on the community for momentum. Building on that, Simon encourages professional members to book recorded one-to-one insight conversations that can be published back into the MoTaverse, and hints at future ambassador-led conversations as the programme grows.Later, Ady Stokes shares an energising update from the Leads chapter, describing an “I Am Remarkable” workshop focused on self-promotion without the cringe. The session helps people push past imposter syndrome, recognise their achievements, and practise saying them out loud. Sean Ye joins from Ottawa with a practical quality win of his own, containerising APIs for on-demand sandbox environments to enable automated integration and regression testing, and using AI tools to navigate dense AWS documentation more effectively.The episode wraps with a wave of excitement about how fast the platform is evolving, how following and activity feeds help you stay connected, and why showing up, online and in-person, keeps the MoTaverse moving.#ThisWeekInQuality#MoTaverse#Chapters#Community#CareerGrowth#QualityEngineering

In episode 121 of This Week in Quality, co-hosts Simon Holmes and Judy Mosley settle in (coffee vs. missing tea!) and zoom in on how the community is shaping the year ahead through goals, risk thinking, and career growth moments worth celebrating. They highlight the #MyGoals memory-post challenge on ministryoftesting.com (and the Goal Setter badge), reflecting on how different people approach goal-setting and why “showing up” each day can matter more than the end result.Simon shares updates from the MoTaverse, including the latest releases in the Software Quality Engineering Certificate (SQUEC), especially a set of short, practical audio perspectives on quality culture. A standout theme is framing quality in terms of risks people actually care about, and making consequences visible beyond test cases and requirements. Judy connects this to a real-world “bug surfaced at the worst possible moment” story, fuel for MoT’s Bugs in the Wild learning collection, and the group explores Cassandra Lung’s powerful idea of mapping “circles of consequences” to help teams (and leaders) feel the real impact of “low priority” issues.The conversation then opens up to the community on stage. Helene shares the pain of repeatedly flagging an issue that only becomes urgent when a deadline hits, and the challenge of being trusted while also being overloaded. Cassandra expands on building buy-in through human impact, “nightmare scenarios,” and deliberate risk decisions, plus a very relatable dose of consumer-side quality frustration while moving apartments. Daria Zion celebrates her first MoT article going live, Five practical ways to use AI as a partner in quality engineering, and shares how she’s improving interview feedback and hiring workflows. Ujjwal Kumar Singh talks performance reviews, experimenting with Playwright tooling, and proposing a move from test reports to a quality narrative, while Simon flags new My Reports features in MyMoT for tracking course progress and community activity. Finally, Demi Van Malcott closes the episode with a brilliant win: an official promotion to Quality Manager, and a reminder that growth often starts by taking on the work before you feel ready.#ThisWeekInQuality#MyGoals#QualityCulture#Risk#QualityNarrative#CareerGrowth#MoTaverse

In episode 120 of This Week in Quality, co-hosts Eamon Droko and Simon Tomes focus on the power of sharing as a learning strategy, in Eamon’s first time co-hosting the show. They kick off with a look at Eamon’s new Into the MoTaverse episode, touching on themes of showing up, bias and inclusivity in hiring, and the value of talking openly about your day-to-day work. Simon reflects on how speaking and writing in public helps you notice your own progress, and they both champion memory posts on ministryoftesting.com as small, frequent reflections that build a visible learning journey and strengthen your profile.The conversation then turns to what’s new inside the MoTaverse, especially the launch of chapters as the next evolution of local meetups. Eamon shares his new role as a co-organiser of MoT London, while Simon explains how chapters connect to the MoT star system, making activity a proxy for learning and career growth. Community member Neil Taylor joins the stage to compare old-school one-and-done training courses with MoT’s ongoing community-supported learning, and to explore how long-term testers can move towards quality engineering by identifying and closing gaps over time.Later, Ayesha Saeed shares her excitement about becoming Accessibility Guild lead at her consultancy, where an accessibility lab and an expanding team are raising awareness across roles, experimenting with AI tools to support audit work, and helping people experience assistive technologies first-hand. Gary Hawkes celebrates completing the A tester’s role in continuous quality course and talks about using memory posts as micro-blogs, pushing for a legacy automation refactor, and the frustrations of accessibility losing priority once contracts change. Throughout, the group returns to a simple idea: start small, find one ally, share one thing you’ve learned, and let the community carry that learning further than you could alone.#ThisWeekInQuality#Sharing#Accessibility#QualityCommunity#MoTaverse

In episode 119 of This Week in Quality, co-hosts Demi Van Malcot and Simon Tomes explore the theme of goals and how sharing them in public can spark motivation, support and community. The episode begins with a busy week in quality updates and a look at the Ministry of Testing goals challenge, where people post goals on ministryoftesting.com, tag them with my-goals and earn badges for goal setter, goal netter and goal getter. The chat joins in as Demi and Simon introduce the idea of goal thievery, encouraging listeners to steal useful goals from others and make them their own.A highlight of the session is a game of Whose goal is that, where real goals from the collection are read aloud and the live audience guesses the author. This brings up goals about getting back on conference stages, contributing more to This Week in Quality and Lean Coffee, writing for MoT and making better use of profiles and memberships. The group also normalise small goals, weekly goals and what Simon calls goal riffing, removing the pressure to set a perfect year-long plan.Later, community member Ady Stokes joins to share his ambition to make thinking in testing more visible, intentional and teachable, a long-term effort that may grow into a book supported by articles and workshops. Rosie Sherry, CEO of Ministry of Testing, talks about establishing the MoTaverse as a member driven organisation and offering community as a service, including a new Into the MoTaverse podcast. Demi reflects on her own journey from joining a session to co-hosting and speaking at MoT events, reinforcing the message that you do not need to do goals alone. Sharing helps others support you and lets the community lift you up.#ThisWeekInQuality#Goals#GoalThief#QualityCommunity#MoTaverse

In episode 118 of This Week in Quality, co-hosts Ben Dowen and Simon Tomes are joined by community members Gary Hawkes, Maithilee Chunduri and Richard Adams for the first live session of 2026. Recorded on Friday 9 January, the episode opens with New Year energy, MoT goals, badges and “fill up your MoT profile” prompts, plus a reminder about the MoT Ambassadors programme and all the ways people can get involved in events this year.From there, the conversation quickly anchors on a powerful article about AI, testing and getting “back to basics.” The group explore over reliance on AI, shallow understanding and blind spots when tools drive the work instead of human analysis, collaboration and shared understanding. Simon and Ben keep returning to essentials like critical thinking, systems thinking, communication and risk focus, picking up key lines from the article such as “AI is most valuable once humans have already done the thinking” and “AI helps us move faster, but humans still decide where to run and why.”Across the episode, the panel share real examples of using AI in practice. Ben talks through his Playwright work, using AI powered tooling to add data-test-ids, only to catch a subtle but important mistake later during testing. Richard describes using AI agents with Jira, root cause analysis and Confluence to surface risky areas and guide exploratory testing, highlighting how useful context makes AI genuinely helpful. Gary walks through how his team tried AI coding tools, what happened when the initial push was “faster and cheaper,” and how developers themselves became more cautious and selective over time. Maithilee shares how AI is now a core part of how she learns, stressing the need for clear goals, good prompts and not taking outputs at face value.Threaded through it all are themes of accountability, risk appetite and the AI quality human loop. The group discuss exploratory testing supported by AI, where tools help with ideas, heuristics and note taking, but humans still own the charters, decisions and debriefs. They return several times to the idea that AI is a tool, not a solution for quality work, and that testers add value when they question, validate and refuse to outsource judgement. By the end of the hour, one message is clear. AI might run fast, but meaningful quality still depends on people who ask good questions, understand context and are willing to stay accountable for the outcomes.#ThisWeekInQuality#AIandTesting#ExploratoryTesting#HumanInTheLoop#QualityEngineering

In this special end-of-year recording, This Year in Quality, co-hosts Rosie Sherry and Simon Tomes do something a bit different.This end-of-year special is live. It’s community-powered. It’s a quiz. The rules are simple. Wrong answers only.Instead of a polished wrap-up or a neat reflection on the year, Rosie and Simon invite the community to join in and have a bit of fun. Together, they look back on the year through questions, numbers, stats, mascots, stars, badges, meetups, glossary terms, rebrands, and all the small moments that made 2025 what it was.There are name changes, silly answers, serious pride in what the community has built, and the occasional bug with the platform along the way. Because of course there is.The episode celebrates what This Year in Quality has become. A space for shared learning, curiosity, experimentation, and showing up as a community. It’s light-hearted, messy, and very on-brand. A reminder that quality is not just about certainty and correctness, but about people thinking together.A fitting way to wrap up the year and look ahead to what comes next.#ThisYearInQuality#SoftwareTesting#QualityEngineering#TestingCommunity#MinistryOfTesting#TestingPodcast#QualityCulture

In episode 116 of This Week in Quality, co-hosts Ben Dowen and Demi Van Malcot are joined by Ady Stokes and Judy Mosley for a story-driven conversation about trust, systems, and what happens when reality and “what the computer says” don’t line up. Billed as the penultimate episode of the year, the discussion opens with end-of-year reflections before quickly diving into everyday quality problems.The episode centres on real-world examples where systems get it wrong. Parcels delivered to the wrong house because the scanner says so, cars confidently reporting incorrect speed limits, and checklists that are followed perfectly while the actual problem sits right in front of you. Ady shares a classic server-room story about power cables and blind checklist following, while Demi reflects on teaching computers through explicit instructions and how easily assumptions creep in when context is missing.As the conversation develops, the group explore trust in data, AI, and automation. Judy raises questions about people relying on confident but incorrect answers, relationships with chatbots, and how easily we accept what tools tell us without validation. Ben repeatedly brings the discussion back to first principles, sense-making, and the risks of outsourcing thinking to systems that cannot see the wider situation.Across the episode, the theme is clear. Quality breaks down when we stop questioning, stop validating, and defer to tools simply because they sound certain. Quality shows up when people notice mismatches, challenge assumptions, and ask, “does this actually make sense?” even when the system insists it does.#ThisWeekInQuality#TrustAndQuality#DataQuality#FirstPrinciples#QualityThinking

In episode 115 of This Week in Quality, co-hosts Nataliia Burmei and Simon Tomes are joined by Clare Norman and Gary Hawkes for a conversation full of “fizzy minds” and quality problems. The group start by reflecting on end-of-year pressures, learning goals for 2026 and the launch of the new Thanks button in the MoTverse before turning toward the main topic: quality coaching and how people understand it in their day-to-day work.The discussion centres on situational quality coaching and the idea that there is no cookie-cutter coaching template. Clare talks about working with teams based on their ability and motivation, and how bridge building across roles helps people care about quality when competing priorities make it hard. Gary shares stories from his organisation, where shrinking teams have made shared ownership essential. He describes whole-team exploratory sessions, giving product managers prompts to think about quality and helping developers “zoom out” instead of getting stuck in the weeds of Jira tickets.Across the episode, the group return to a simple message: you don’t need “quality coach” in your job title to coach. As soon as you step out of your bubble, ask better questions, help teams see the bigger picture or create space for quality conversations, you are already doing the work. It’s about encouraging learning, care and collaboration so teams can tackle their quality problems together.#QualityCoaching#QualityEngineering#TeamCollaboration#ContinuousImprovement#QualityAsCare

In episode 114 of This Week in Quality, co-hosts Ben Dowen and Simon Tomes are joined by Dan Caseley and Maithilee Chunduri for a focused and practical conversation about the realities of mobile testing. The group begin by reflecting on recent discussions in the community before shifting into the core theme of the episode: how mobile testing has become both simpler and more complex at the same time.Dan brings experience from years of mobile work and talks through the shift from physical device cupboards to cloud device farms, the limitations of both, and why testing on “all the things” is neither practical nor necessary. Maithilee adds insight from distributed teams, where reproducing issues across locations, devices and settings becomes a real challenge. Their stories highlight how mobile testing often stretches further than teams expect.The conversation explores why teams increasingly build and run apps locally, how analytics guide device choices, and why API-level checks remain essential. The group also dig into the constraints of mobile releases, the difficulty of rollbacks, and the need to balance depth, breadth and pragmatism when planning mobile test coverage.Across the episode, the discussion stays grounded in day-to-day practice. It encourages listeners to rethink their approach to mobile testing, make risk-based decisions, and accept that chasing every device permutation isn’t the path to quality. Instead, thoughtful choices and clear collaboration help teams move faster with confidence.#MobileTesting#QualityEngineering#RiskBasedTesting#ModernTesting#DistributedTeams

In episode 113 of This Week in Quality, co-hosts Simon Tomes and Ben Dowen are joined on stage by Callum Akehurst-Ryan for a thoughtful and humorous exploration of what “good enough” really means in software quality. The trio begin with a story about a restaurant refusing to serve a dish that didn’t meet its own standards, which sparks a wider discussion about transparency, honesty, and the courage to say no.That story leads into a deeper look at quality thinking traps. Simon, Ben, and Callum unpack why teams often chase perfection when bronze-level quality is all that’s needed, how ego can get in the way of good decisions, and why pragmatism is an essential quality enabler. They reflect on Cloudflare’s recent outage report as an example of human-centred communication done well, and connect it to the importance of clarity, ownership and care in engineering teams.Callum brings insight into the broader impact of quality beyond end users, highlighting how marketing, support and engineering teams all experience quality in different ways. The group talk about outcomes over output, how to avoid over-engineering, and why narratives are more powerful than reports when influencing culture. The conversation also touches on the risks of “gold-plated” delivery, the curse of knowledge, and how testers can move from tragedy takers to narrative givers.Throughout the episode, the discussion stays grounded in real situations from day-to-day work. It encourages listeners to reflect on their own expectations, question how they set quality bars, and consider where saying “this is good enough” is the most responsible choice.It’s a warm, honest session that invites the community to rethink what quality looks like in practice and to embrace care, clarity and healthy pragmatism in their work.#QualityCulture#QualityNarrative#GoodEnough#Pragmatism#Transparency#QualityEngineering#HumanFactors#QualityMindset

In episode 112 of This Week in Quality, co-hosts Judy Mosley and Ben Dowen welcome Scott Kenyon and Ady Stokes to the stage for an honest and energetic conversation about the meaning of quality engineering in today’s teams. The group explore how the term is used across companies, why definitions vary so widely, and what happens when people bring different expectations to the same role.The discussion begins with a light detour into biscuits and snacks, which quickly becomes a reflection on how familiar words can mean very different things in different contexts. This leads into the main theme of the episode. The panel talk about the blurred vision of quality engineering, the mix of strategy and execution in the work, and the confusion caused when companies use the title to describe very different jobs.Scott shares a moment that sparked his own existential crisis about test leadership and identity. Ady adds perspective on the difference between testing the product and influencing the systems that build it. Judy and Ben help surface the real tension many testers and quality engineers face when role titles shift or expectations grow without support.Throughout the episode the conversation stays grounded in lived experience. The panel explore the rise of tool focused job descriptions, the pressure to fit automation heavy roles, and the growing need for curiosity, resilience, collaboration, and clear communication. They also highlight ongoing work on the new Software Quality Engineering Certificate and invite the community to share audio stories about their day to day work.It is a warm, thoughtful session that encourages listeners to look beyond titles and focus on purpose, clarity, and the real impact of their work.

In episode 111 of This Week in Quality, co-hosts Ben Dowen and Simon Tomes welcome Christine Pinto and Jesper Ottosen to the stage for a lively conversation about the role of quality feedback in modern software teams. The group explore how testers and quality advocates can influence product direction early, not just through testing artefacts, but through meaningful conversations, shared understanding, and timely insights.The panel discuss why testing artefacts such as test cases and plans can become outdated, heavy to maintain, and sometimes disconnected from the real value testers bring. Instead of collecting documents for the sake of documentation, they focus on the usefulness of feedback loops, learning through collaboration, and asking the right questions at the right time. Christine and Jesper share stories from their own experience where feedback changed decisions, shaped better outcomes, and reduced waste.Throughout the episode, Ben and Simon spark discussion with a quick quiz on leadership ideas from recent Leading with Quality conversations. The guests reflect on shifting perceptions of testing, influencing teams without authority, and supporting quality as a shared responsibility. It is an energetic, thoughtful session that encourages listeners to prioritise learning, alignment, and improvement over artefacts that no longer serve a purpose.

In episode 110 of This Week in Quality, co-hosts Simon Tomes and Demi Van Malcot host a spooky Halloween special filled with ghostly bug stories from across the MoTaverse. The episode opens with a chilling introduction from the “digital graveyard” before diving into community tales of fright and fun. From “Wrong branch deployed to production on a Friday” to “It worked on my machine,” testers share their creepiest and most relatable quality nightmares.On stage, Judy Mosley tells of a haunting MUI upgrade that removed all her test IDs and broke dozens of checks. Gary Hawkes recalls a true testing horror from a police system project gone wrong, filled with catastrophic bugs and painful lessons. Ady Stokes brings comic relief with The Rise of the Zombie Emails, a flood of thousands of messages he could not stop. Heleen Van Grootven reminds everyone why you never test in production, after one mistake triggered 100,000 phone calls at once.Between scares, laughter, and community wisdom, Simon and Demi celebrate how testers turn mistakes into learning moments. Episode 110 shows that even in testing’s darkest corners, curiosity, collaboration, and a sense of humour keep the MoT community alive and well.

In episode 109 of This Week in Quality, co-hosts Simon Tomes and Nataliia Burmei guide another happy Friday gathering packed with stories, ideas, and reflections from across the MoTaverse.The episode opens with Nataliia exploring new mobile testing tools, connecting MCP servers to AI agents, and tackling team conversations about shared ownership of testing. Simon shares updates to Ministry of Testing profiles, including new filtering features, GitHub links, and the growing importance of stars, badges, and community recognition.On stage, Scott Kenyon sparks a debate with his question, “Is AI removing curiosity and creativity from testers?” This leads to a thoughtful conversation about critical thinking, collaboration, and human judgment. Neil Taylor joins to share lessons from moving API work from Postman to Bruno and reflects on communication wins across development and support teams. Nadja Schulz celebrates hosting her first MoT Berlin Meetup and stepping onto the public speaking stage. Christine Pinto talks about using MCP servers, cloud code, and Playwright automation in real projects. Gary Hawkes reflects on sharing his MoTacon insights at work and championing continuous quality. Maithilee Chunduri closes by connecting two decades of learning and reminding us that while technology evolves, curiosity remains the same.From AI debates and first-time talks to stars, profiles, and community spirit, “Curiosity Killed the Chat” shows how the community keeps questioning, learning, and celebrating quality together.

In episode 108 of This Week in Quality, host Simon Tomes flies solo for a lively Friday session full of news, bugs, and community updates. The show opens with a real inbox mystery when some attendees receive four reminder emails for the same event. Simon then shares announcements about Professional Membership now including in-person events, new course completion badges, and highlights from MoTaCon 2025, including Rahul Parwal’s photo collection and new talks going live.On stage, Stan Desyatnikov joins for the first time to reflect on balancing manual and automated testing in a long-term project. Ady Stokes shares a simple badge completion tip and updates on the Software Quality Engineering Certificate, while Eamon Droko talks about learning accessibility testing and becoming a conduit for community knowledge. Ben Dowen introduces Service Level Objectives (SLOs) as a practical way to define and measure quality.To close, Judy Mosley expands on her new article “Quality Insight: How to Ignite Quality Conversations,” exploring how listening and curiosity help teams connect around quality. From bug reports and badges to principles and people, this episode celebrates how the Ministry of Testing community keeps quality at the heart of everything they do.

In episode 107, the very first under the new name This Week in Quality, co-hosts Demi Van Malcot and Simon Tomes “test in production” as the show moves to a brand-new hosting platform for the first time. They celebrate the rebrand from This Week in Testing to This Week in Quality, exploring what the shift means for the community and why it reflects the growing focus on quality as a whole-system mindset.Joining them on stage, Eamon Droko, Heleen Van Grootven, Ben Dowen, Ady Stokes, and Nataliia Burmei share their post-MoTaCon reflections, from crafting tables and karaoke moments to first-time talks, community stars, and the power of connection. Together, they test out the new Wistia platform live, find a few bugs along the way, and prove that quality is as much about learning, experimenting, and laughing together as it is about software.

In episode 106 of This Week in Testing, co-hosts Simon Tomes and Ben Dowen look ahead to TestBash Brighton with slide-writing crunch, laptop tips for workshops, and the new Leading with Quality notebook. They also celebrate the buzz of MoT meetups and remind listeners how stepping on stage, even for a 99-second talk, can grow confidence and connection. Joining them on stage, Maithi Chun shares her motivation and learning journey, Ady Stokes brings stories from Test Up North and the roots of accessibility, and Iziren John Chima sparks a lively discussion on taking lead roles without manager pay. Together, they mix career advice, community laughs, and practical tips that show why quality people gather.