Testing Peers

Welcome to another episode of the Testing Peers. On this episode, Simon, Chris, David and Russell look back at the huge success that was the first Testing Peers Conference held in Nottingham on 14th March.Before diving into it, David leads the banter and asks the peers about the most retro thing we all own and the Peers all reminisce with all things tech, cars and movies.With the main retrospective, the Peers divide the conversation into 4 main sections using our MetroRetro board - including ...

Welcome to another episode of the Testing Peers podcast. Simon, David, Chris and Sam spend some time discussing the topic of linguistic gatekeeping and how sometimes our language can exclude people from conversationsChris starts us off with the banter topic of our experiences of "I Told You So" moments, after discussing several scenarios from our childhood, with everything from beach balls in the sea to broken bones as the outcome, it seems we have definitely learned the hard way.The key to t...

Welcome 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. ContactUs@TestingPeers.comTwitter (https://twitter.com/testingpeers)LinkedIn (https://www....

Welcome 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 on t...

Welcome 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 Chris (a...

In 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 back to us...

Testing 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 <3The ...

One 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, but t...

Welcome 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, this cov...

Happy 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.comBen starts the group off by talking about collaboration at work, from pairing ...

Merry 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 it? a...

Thank 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 manager i...

Welcome 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, rath...

Welcome 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 priorit...

Welcome 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 first imp...

Welcome to another episode of the Testing Peers, this week David, Beth, Chris and Russell. This week we focus on flow workRussell 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 School W...

Welcome 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 no...

Welcome 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 askin...

Hello 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 valuable - s...

Welcome 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.The ...