The Social Tester (The Social Tester Book)
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The Social Tester

8 years worth of thoughts on Software Testing and hiring Testers

About the Book

This book is a collection of my top rated blog posts from The Social Tester, my favourite articles and a few previously unpublished articles. It represents my ideas and thinking about software testing from the last 8 or so years. It shows how I moved from thinking about testing to thinking about how testing fits with the wider organisation - this parallels my journey from Tester to Engineering Manager. You may resonate with this journey.

This book includes ideas and thoughts on testing, agile, recruitment, management, metrics and of course, certifications!

I started blogging in 2007/2008 or sometime around then. My goal was to keep a record of my work. It soon turned in to a place to help others and I've tried to remain true to that over the years. I've now closed the The Social Tester blog although the content will remain online. My work has taken me in a different direction. This book represents the metaphorical closing of the door on the blog.

I published well over 500 articles on my blog. This book contains over 100. It's a big book. It's 8/9 years worth of thinking about software testing. I do hope you enjoy the book.

Please do join me at my new ventures : Cultivated Management and Parent Brain.

Rob..

About the Author

Rob Lambert
Rob Lambert

Rob Lambert has been lucky enough to be part of some amazingly forward thinking companies. It lead to a rich understanding of how businesses succeed, but more importantly for Rob's life, a deep understanding of how to remain relevant and employable in ever changing markets. 

Rob teaches communication skills, how to be an amazing manager and how to remain employable in our changing world. He loves to teach and engage audiences through writing, podcasting and public presentations. 

He's a family man with three kids which keep him busy, but when he's not working, he's writing content. The thread that runs through it all is about constant change and personal growth. You'll see this in his books. 

Rob lives in Winchester, England with his family. He's also a keen photographer, podcaster and car enthusiast.  

He owns the Cultivated Management and Parent Brain brands.

Table of Contents

  • Introduction
  • 10 Reasons Why Being A Scrum Master Sucks
  • 10 Ways To Hire Niche Employees
  • 10 Ways To Initiate Change In An Organisation That Doesn’t Want To Change
  • 60 Day Proof
  • A Conference Story
  • Running A Proof Of Concept
  • Acceptance Criteria - It’s A Good Friend
  • Accessibility Testing and Ownership
  • Agile: It Will Make Your Face Melt And Your Mind Burst
  • Agile Scared Me
  • An Introduction To Mind Mapping For More Than Test Design
  • Anchoring
  • Apparently There’s Nothing New
  • Are Certifications Relevant?
  • Are You Hiring A Certificate Or A Person?
  • Are You Offering A Career In Testing Or Just A Job?
  • Battle Testing
  • Cannot Reproduce
  • Career Paths And Testing
  • Certifications Are Creating Lazy Hiring Managers
  • Compare and Contrast
  • Cloud As A Test Enabler
  • How To Create A Test Lab
  • Do You Need More Than A Certification?
  • Don’t Be A Follower, Be A Tester
  • Don’t Judge People Too Quickly
  • Don’t Let Anyone Hold You Back
  • Don’t Rush In To A Hiring Decision
  • Double Check Your Audiences Values
  • Easy Tiger - Don’t Dismiss Record And Playback Just Yet
  • How To Create Effective Adverts For Recruiting Software Testers
  • Effort On The CV Is A Good Indicator Of Interest
  • Eliciting Requirements
  • Explaining Exploratory Testing Relies On Good Notes
  • Follow The Work - Bad News For Test Managers?
  • Forget DevOps - Focus On DevMOps
  • Gaining Customer Insights
  • Getting Hired At Conferences
  • Goal Setting Towards Agile
  • Ha Ha - Told You So
  • How To Help Your Recruiters Create A Great First Impression
  • How To Kick Start Change In Your Organisation
  • How Do You Measure The Effectiveness Of A Tester? The Only Calculation You Need.
  • Working With Recruiters When Hiring Testers
  • I am Going To Be A Tester - That Will Be Easy
  • Ice Cream Sauce and Cigarettes
  • Is Software Testing Really A Service?
  • It Will Never Work Here
  • It’s A Social Revolution
  • It’s All About The People
  • It’s Not A Blame Culture But It’s Definately Their Fault
  • Let’s Say I Gave You A Giant Box To Explore
  • Look Behind The Screen
  • Look Out….Snot
  • Lost In Translation - A Lesson Learned At A Hot Dog Stand
  • Managing Exploratory Testing
  • MVP - Minimum Viable Test
  • My Software Was A Complete Success. The User Was A Failure.
  • Outside The Loop
  • PAC - Purpose, Audience and Context
  • Planning For When Cows Attack
  • Bad Requirements
  • Push The Button
  • Why Quality Can Never Be Achieved By Just The Testers
  • Releasing Software Is Your Goal
  • Reliance On Colour
  • Shine A Light
  • Staple Yourself To It
  • Stubborn Cat
  • T-Shaped Testers And Their Role In A Team
  • Test Case Completion - A Story
  • Testing Is More Than Having An Expertise In Testing
  • Testing Sucks. I Hate Testing.
  • That Tester’s Incompetent….Hide Them
  • The Whole Is Not Broken
  • The Impossible Job
  • The Myth Of The Standard Tester
  • The Product You Test Can Make Or Break You As A Tester
  • There Are Bugs I Like And Bugs I Don’t Like
  • There’s Method In The Madness
  • This Is The Team To Get It Done
  • Turn Off, Tune In And Get Stuck In
  • We Are All On A Journey
  • What Would A Customer Say If You Shipped It Now?
  • What A Lot Of Tests
  • What Can You Do With A Brick?
  • What Do You Do When Hiring Managers Are Looking For A Set Of Skills You Don’t Have But You Sorely Want? You Learn.
  • What Do You Want From Me?
  • What Does The Future Hold?
  • What Makes You Less Interchangeable?
  • What Problem Is Hiring A Tester Solving?
  • What’s In The News Today?
  • When Your Stats Are Telling The Test Manager A Glorious Lie…Jump Ship
  • Devops Includes Testers
  • Why Listening Is The Best Weapon For Testers
  • Why Written Communication Is Essential
  • Word. Search.
  • Work Experience And Work Placement
  • You Know Something I Don’t Know, But If You Don’t Share Then We Can’t Grow
  • You Need To “Test It Better”
  • Your Customer Support Team Is Your Customer
  • Thank You

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