Period of adjustment- Random thought on my first week at a new job

So, I have one whole week under my belt at my new job.  It’s been a bit of a roller-coaster, but that’s to be expected.  Industry changed from insurance to gaming.  Development method changed from waterfall to agile.  And my co-workers changed from women over 40 to men under 40.  That’s a whole lot of different.

Monday and Tuesday were  filled with office tour, meeting people, finding my desk and the bathroom.  I actually had a working computer in the afternoon of my first day!  We got some software loaded and I started playing games to get used to the products.  Day 2 I attended my first scrum meeting and even gave an update (it was about being able to find the bathroom, but still counts!).  

Wednesday I started poking at a game that was being built.  The guy next to me was officially testing that game, so it was interesting to see what issues he found and considered important vs. what I found and thought were important.  I was close on some, but completely missed a few.  I don’t like missing things, even when I’m not sure what I’m looking for.

On Thursday, there was a gap to fill due to an illness.  So that afternoon, I got to dive into the deep end a bit sooner than expected and start testing ‘unsupervised’.  I prefer the ‘jump in and claw your way out’ method of learning, so I was excited to get started.  By the end of the day, I had found a handful of issues and put them in the bug tracker.  I actually felt productive and that I had made a helpful contribution to the team.  Not bad for day 4.

Friday, I continued testing the game and was able to retest the fixes from the previous bugs.  I even found a few more interesting defects that got a ‘good catch’ from the designer.  (A little confidence boost was nice.)

Later Friday afternoon, I met with my manager and his manager to talk about how my first week went and where we go from here.  They have a genuine desire to improve the testing that’s being done.  I’m confident that I can help do that, and they are offering any support I need, including time to get my bearings.  And I have the great advantage that their current testing isn’t bad or broken, it’s just young and a bit disjointed.  

So next week, I’m taking a vacation.  Super classy when starting a new job, but it was previously booked.  When I return, I plan to take a deeper dive into the development process and start formulating some plans for where we go from here.

Thanks for reading! If you have any suggest, comments, input, complaints, recipes, etc., I welcome and appreciate them.

Thank you CAST 2013!!

An open letter to the CAST 2013 community.  (I started this right after CAST, but finished very recently due to recent happenings.)

I want to say thank you.

Thank you for reminding me why I love testing.  In the daily drudgery of my job, I forget about how much I like my work.  I don’t get enough opportunity to do the parts that I love, but it’s up to me to find or make those opportunities.

I needed a recharge.  CAST gave me that.

My training course was with the wonderful Robert Sabourin (@RobertASabourin).  I've started mind mapping some test ideas and other things, something I haven’t done in years.

The testing competition with Olivier Mireault (@mireaulttester), Jonathan Li on Wing, and Rachel Carson (@akiwitester),was a wonderful reminder of how out of practice I was with actual hands on testing.  A painful lesson, but so important and appreciated!  (And now I’ve been practicing!)

Aaron Hodder’s (@AWGHodder) talk about mind mapping for test planning was wonderful and another thing that I’m actually trying to do and implement at work.  (And for announcing, “We’re in a hole!” I was- physically and metaphorically.)

Hallway, break, lunch, after hours, etc. chats with so many people, James (@Zithica007), Clint (@vscomputer), Justin Hunter (@hexawise), (and the list goes on…) were all great.  Too many people to mention, but so many great conversations, ideas, and inspirations.

And that brings be to Matt Heusser (@mheusser).  I first met Matt in 2005.  I did a lightning talk at STAREast.  As I was walking in to register the first morning of CAST, I noticed him in front of me in line.  Thinking to myself “hey, I know that guy.”  Matt saw me and REMEMBERED ME.  This is 9 years later, with no interim contact.  I was amazed by Matt’s memory and his kindness.

We chatted a while in line, and then drifted in our own directions.  I went to grab breakfast and looked for a table, Matt invited me to join him and introduced me in a wonderful manner to a great group of people.  

I am normally quite an introvert, it’s a challenge for me to meet people, introduce myself, or strike up a conversation.  Matt’s welcoming attitude and introduction set the stage for me for the entire conference.  So Matt, thank you, my CAST experience would have been much less if it hadn’t been you starting me off on the right foot.

Which brings me to now, I started tweeting bit again during the conference and went dark not long after due, in part, to vacation, but due in bigger part, to the kick in the pants I got at CAST.  I needed a change, and knew that the place I was at wasn’t going to give me what I needed.  Not that it was a terrible place, they were good to me for many years and I learned much while I was there.  But we hadn't been on the same path for a while, and we were getting further apart faster and faster.  So the last few weeks have been spent finding something new and I’m excited to say that I will start a new adventure in a couple weeks.  I’ll be helping a company build a little structure and process around the testing that they have currently.  And as I said in my interview- it’s about the right structure and process for the situation.  

Thanks to CAST and all those I encountered there for helping me remember that I need to pay attention to MY context as well, and get myself in the right place.

Why I love and hate the software-testing group

There's a group on Yahoo for software-testing. It claims to be a
group that focuses on context driven testing. But when it comes to
dealing with questions posted to the group, they rarely take the
context of the question in to account when providing an answer.
A recent poster asked for a simple way to explain the difference
between retesting and regression testing. This is a fairly simple
concept. However, this group turned it into pages of argument and
discussion on semantics, theory, and who's the latest guru of all
things test. No one ever answered the guy's question. I finally did,
in part to give the dude some info he could use, and partly to see how
quickly they will rip me to shreds as an interloper and, therefore,
lesser person.

I love this group for the same reason. Theory and semantics are
fascinating topics to me. I could spend hours arguing the merits of
which vocabulary word is best in which situations. But I think a
simple question should first be given a simple and respectful answer,
then let the battles rage.

I can't not test

so I've been have a bit of an early mid-life crisis. Mainly, I'm tired of/hate my job. This feeling has come and gone in the past, but this time it seems to be sticking much longer. Because of this, I decided to go on a bit of a 'desk strike'.

For those of you not familiar with my terms, a desk strike is a period of time, sometimes hours and sometimes weeks, where I am at my desk and I appear to be working, but I am not. My record for desk striking is 3 weeks. This turned out to be not the best idea since it took me at least 3 months to make up all the work I had faked doing during the strike. Far more fascinating is the fact that no one caught on, not co-workers, not supervisors, no one.

This time around I am modifying how I approach my strike. Rather than doing nothing, I am doing exactly what I am asked and not a single stitch more. At least that's what I am trying to do.
I am finding this much more difficult than doing nothing at all. Example: on my current project, (well one of my projects) I am a tester only. No leading. No getting fancy. I mentioned early on that I was concerned about the limited coverage on a vendor feed. I was told if I get a number back, everything is fine- no need to make sure the number is in the right place, properly calculated, nothing. So that's what I attempted to do.
However, I am apparently incapable of being this mindless. (And I love nothing more than shoving someone else's smugness back in their face.) I just knew, based on past experience with both system and vendor, that things could not be so smooth. So as much as I tried to convince myself that I was just doing as I was told, I tested anyway.
I honestly believe that this was a subconscious act. Through sitting in status meetings trying to listen to my audio book, I gather information about risky data, shaky calculations, and holey interfaces. Then earlier this week, some strange force put all of these items together to uncover a major fault. I used data that was not specified and criteria that I rarely select. I compared results with a system I avoid at all costs. And most importantly, I paid attention when I really didn't want to, and while watching Little Britain on my ipod.

I am a tester possessed. A possester? I didn't want to do it. I couldn't help it. I am not a woman of conscience. I rarely act for the greater good. Perhaps this was just a rare and much needed reminder that while I may not be happy where I'm at, I do like what I do.

Who knew?

ok, so clearly I'm a procrastinator

first off, I'm trying to post this from my iPod so please understand if my spelling is awful. Although, the smart spelling thing on this thing is pretty amazing. So I haven't posted in a long time for a million reasons none of which are very believable.

On the testing front, I recently sent in papers to renew my CSTE buy I have mixed emotions about it. Since I am looking for a new job, I thought I had better suck it up and do it no matter what my personal qualms.

And if your hiring, I'm available.

Number 1

I've been told by several peers, mentors, friends, that I should blog. I fear that I am too much of a procrastinator to keep up with it, but I'm willing to give it a try.

I intend this to be mainly about testing (which is my current career), yet other things may creep in from time to time.

In this first post, I'll start with a simple 'where have I been and where am I now'. No way I'm getting into where I am going, as that's any one's guess at this point.

So, I'll skip birth through high school as nothing important happened. College- the only thing worth noting is that I have a degree in music with a minor in anthropology. So, while I ended up in somewhat of a technology based career, I had only incidental background in the field.

After college I managed to finagle my way into a job at the local insurance company making calls to unsuspecting applicants asking them personal questions. It quickly became apparent that this was not for me. I'm more of a 'back office' type as I have very little patience for the general public. Then an opportunity arose for some one to help test a new software program. They needed some one who was familiar with the part of the business that I had been so miserable doing. I volunteered at once and my eyes were opened to an amazing new world.

To this day I am amazed that I get paid to do what I love- point out the mistakes of others. While everyone in the testing field has a different interpretation of what it is that we do, this is the one that keeps me happy. When my non-techie family members ask me what it is that I do, I say "I spend my day telling other people what they've done wrong". The consistent response is "You must really love that". I do.

So, I've been doing that for nearly 10 years now. Personally, I think I should be farther along in my career than I am. My downfall is that I am easily sucked into daily processes of getting through the work and time passes faster than I would like. Now things are changing where I work. We are starting to move to a 'co-souring model'- which is what we are calling the process of sending all of the actual testing work off shore and turning the few testers that are left into administrators. While I lament the loss of the hands on work, I find that this may actually afford me more time to progress in my career. I will still be involved in the daily work, but (hopefully) not in the tedium that is such a black-hole for me.

I'll provide more details in a later post, as I must be going now. It is 10 below here and my pc is near a drafty window. (great for keeping my processor cool- terrible for keeping my fingers functioning)

thanks for reading
feel free to comment
be kind