Thanks to everyone that attended my webinar with AppliTools called “Testing is Not a 9 to 5 Job”. In the next week, AppliTools will be sharing with me the questions that were not reviewed during the webinar. I will plan to answer each of those questions here with another blog update.
Until then, I had promised to provide two things before Monday, March 19th, and I wanted to share them with you below:
Question #1: In the webinar, we discussed crowdsourcing and crowd testing. Which sites would you suggest to learn more about, and participate in, crowdsourced testing?
Answer #1: I personally have used www.uTest.com for the crowd testing that I have participated in. Two other popular sites that I have been the most familiar with have been www.99tests.com and www.passbrains.com. I was researching this weekend and found the following link, which is a very good writeup for their opinion on the top crowd testing sites. You can find the link here: The Top 11+ Most Popular Crowdsourced Testing Companies in 2018. The 11 that were discussed in the article are mentioned below (unsure why uTest is not on this list!):
Crowdsourced testing
Global App Testing
Crowdsprint
Bugfinders
rainforest
Pay4Bugs
Testbirds
Test IO
MyCrowd QA
99tests
UncoverBugs
Bugcrowd
TESTBATS
Question #2: Also, in the webinar, I suggested that even if your company does not have your test team conducting Security Testing, everyone should become familiar with how it works, and some of the tools that are used to conduct security testing. A question from the webinar was — What sites, articles, and tools would you suggest to read and learn more about Security Testing?
Answer #2: There are many leaders in the security testing realm. I will add more to this blog as I get more folks involved. For now, I would like to share with you a blog site from Ken De Souza, who recently did a webinar for Software Test Professionals on security testing and created a quick start list for those wanting to know the basics of security testing. You can find the following about Ken and his site below:
On February 28, 2018, I was honored to be the keynote speaker for the TISQA 2018 Conference in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
My talk was “Testing is Not a 9 to 5 Job” and I’m happy to share with you the link to the video for all of those that are interested in hearing the keynote.
My brother is well known for a silly joke that he told for years…..
Let me set the scene for you. There is a guy and girl sitting in the lower level seats at a sporting event. People are everywhere. The two are talking, having a great time, enjoying some nachos and cheese, and taking in the event.
All of a sudden, a guy several rows behind them yells “HEY JOE!!!!”. The guy stops talking, looks to his left, as far as he can see. Then he turns to this right, looking and looking. Turns back and starts talking to the girl again.
A minute or so later – same thing…..”Hey Joe!!!!!’ same situation….
A minute or so later – same thing…..”Hey Joe!!!!!’ same situation….by this time the guy is getting frustrated. He has stopped talking three times now, looked around, and tried to see who is yelling.
A minute or so later – same thing…..”Hey Joe!!!!!’
The guy turns to the girl – with an angry look on his face – hands her the nachos and says “hold these for a minute!” and stands up turns toward the back of the ground and yells “MY NAME IS NOT JOE!!!!”
My brother used to tell this “joke” everywhere he went. It was not uncommon for someone in my family to say “HEY JOE” to my brother at family events, and he would turn around and say “MY NAME’S NOT JOE!!”. It is something that will stick with my brother for the rest of his life, I’m sure.
Whether you laugh at this ridiculously corny joke or not, there is a story to be told.
In his book, “The Purpose Driven Life”, Rick Warren opens with four simple words…..”Its not about you”. And there could be no more true statement. The young man in my joke was sitting in a whole crowd of people. As you are listening to the joke, I’m sure you were thinking that this guy’s name would be “Joe”. Why would you not? He kept looking everytime the guy yelled “Hey Joe!!”. But the punchline tells us the story. A story about a young man who assumed that everyone was talking to him, and that surely this guy must be talking to him but have the wrong name.
Now I don’t think any of you would do this at an event. If you or I heard someone yelling “Hey Joe!!”, we would just assume that this person was not calling for us (unless, of course, your name is Joe). But thing I want you to think about today is beyond this story. Are you living in a world where you think it’s all about you?
I’ll be honest….our society has evolved to the “me” concept. As much as I love Apple products, they put “I” in front of each of them (iPhone, iPad, iTunes, etc). We didn’t even have “selfies” until just recently. But now everyone is posting pictures of themselves on social media everywhere. Don’t get me wrong, everyone does it. And if you’re a selfie fan, it doesn’t mean you’re doing something wrong, or that you’re not a good person. It’s just an observation of how our society has changed.
I remember growing up – it WAS about me. I had to study to pass my classes, I had to decide what I wanted to study in college. I had to take that job so that I could pay for my expenses in college. I had to search and find that first job after I graduated, and I had to take care of myself.
But today I’m here to share with you 3 times that I realized it was not about me:
The first time I realized it was not about me, was when my son was born. The delivery was difficult, and the doctors decided to do an emergency C-section to bring him into the world. When he arrived, they handed him to me, and went back to taking care of his mom. I remember that day very well. The way he looked at me, as if to say “Are you the dude that is going to take care of me?”. They say when you become a parent you finally realize unconditional love. That was true for me. And that was the day I knew I had to take care of myself, my health, my finances, and everything else, so that I could also take care of him. It no longer was about me. I was about me and him.
The second time I realized it was not about me was when I became a manager: In 6th grade, I took a test on an Apple II/e computer and got my “computer certification” in elementary school. I remember going home and telling my mom, “I’m going to be a programmer and I’m going to do that all of my life!!”. Well, the first part was true. I went to school to be a programmer, I got a job as developer, and I loved it. But the true passion in my career came when I became a manager, and it was no longer about me. The situation was very similar to having that first child. I was now responsible for a “team” and not just myself. My decisions would affect them just as much as me. It was no longer about me at work, I was about the team.
The third time I realized it was not about me was when I became a speaker: We love meetings in the office. I participated in many meetings. I even led many of them. I had given advice and guidance, but in 2012, I realized a new passion that would change my future forever. I was asked to speak at a conference on software testing. Halfway through my 2 hour session, I started to notice something. People actually “WANTED” to hear me talk. They were listening to every word, and they were asking questions. They were involved. It felt like that moment, years before, when my son was looking at me on his “Day 1” – as if to say “are you going to take care of us?”. I have made sure that along the way, as I speak more at conferences and events, I try to give each and every attendee something to take away with them that they can never forget. It is no longer about me. It is now about EVERYONE.
I leave you with this challenge. Who do you meet often that you could make a difference in their lives? What can you do today to build those relationships and make a difference in someone’s life, career, or future?
But wherever you go…whatever you do…never forget, “It’s not about you”.
Calling all software testing and IT professionals. I need your inputs and questions that I will ask at the next STPCon software testing conference in San Francisco, CA from April 4 to 7, 2016.
I am going to be moderating a keynote panel with three well known names in software testing, and we will be taking questions from this blog, other social networks, and the audience at the conference.
Please take a look at the members of our panel, think of your question(s), and please submit your questions as comments to this blog post. I appreciate, in advance, any questions you submit, and I promise to try to ask them to our panel when we are live on Thursday, April 7, 2016.
One last note before I introduce you to the panelists. I hope that you not only submit a question, but you also plan to attend. You can see all of the conference sessions, workshops, and keynotes at the official site for STPCon at this link: STPCon Official Site .
Now let’s meet the panelists. I will give you their biography and then share with you some additional information that I know about each of them:
Panelist #1: Smita Mishra
Smita Mishra
Bio: Smita Mishra is the Founder of PoolWallet – an online expense sharing app and is the CEO and Chief Test Consultant at QAzone Infosystems, which is a software testing organization. She enjoys problem solving. She supports her customers in identifying the risks their applications are carrying and / or passing on further to their end customers, through carefully crafted skills of product development and software testing. She also engages with different forums to assist growth for women in her field and otherwise too.
Smita will speak to the advances in the testing practice, where we are going with outsourcing and services, the changes for women in testing, and how organizations must realize the need for setting the context for strategic growth.
Additional Information: Smita is a well known testing professional across the globe. She has a great following. She has led multiple testing meetups, and recently held a major conference in India, called ThinkTest, where the conference sold out and was overbooked, and included James Bach as the headliner speaker. She was honored with an invite to be part of an expert panel for a Sheroes conference (Sheroes Website) where she spoke about her new product (PoolWallet – PoolWallet Website), women in technology, and work-life balance.
Panelist #2: Dave Haeffner
Dave Haeffner
Bio: Dave Haeffner is the writer of Elemental Selenium (elementalselenium.com), a free, weekly Selenium tip newsletter read by thousands of testing professionals. Dave is also is the creator and maintainer of ChemistryKit (https://github.com/chemistrykit/chemistrykit) an open-source Selenium framework, and the-internet (https://github.com/tourdedave/the-internet) an open-source web application that’s used to help teach test automation. He’s also the author of The Selenium Guidebook (seleniumguidebook.com) — a concise guide that will teach you how to use Selenium successfully. He’s helped numerous companies implement automated acceptance testing including The Motley Fool, ManTech International, Sittercity, and Animoto. He’s also a founder/co-organizer of the Selenium Hangout (an entirely online Selenium meetup), Selenium Conf (the annual conference put on by the Selenium project), and frequently speaks about automated acceptance testing at conferences and meet-ups around the world.
Dave will speak to the advances in tools used for testing, how we have grown in the testing practice, our constraints and our opportunities, and how testing is complemented by the complex growth in tools to support the testing practice.
Additional Information: Dave has established his name to be synonymous with Selenium for several years now. His expert trainings and books have changed the way Selenium is used across the globe. He consistently looks for new ways to leverage the tool and to use automation to increase the success of organizations.
Panelist #3: Damian Synadinos
Damian Synadinos
Bio: Damian Synadinos started testing software—on purpose and for money—in 1993. Since then, he has helped build better software and build software better using various methods and tools in numerous roles at many companies in diverse industries. During the past ten years, Damian has focused primarily on teaching and leading testers and improving processes. Currently, he is the enterprise quality lead of metrics and reporting at a large Midwestern bank, helping to answer questions and tell stories about quality with data. In addition to testing, Damian enjoys improv, golf, poker, gaming, acting, cartooning, and spending time with his family.
Damian will speak to leadership and mentoring of testers in today’s world, how we define measurement and metrics to accurately represent our progress and success, and how to work collaboratively with our stakeholders and partners.
Additional Information: Damian will surprise you with his acting and improvisational experience. When you hear him talk, its like watching a performance. He is engaging with the audience, and it is his belief that this is how you engage not only with audiences, but with your team. He has extensive knowledge in leading teams, and coaching others and his experience with metrics and measurement is extremely exciting to learn.
Thank you so much for your participation and I look forward to seeing your questions for this great team!
