In this episode, Russell, Chris, Tara, and David explore what a testing consultancy could look like if you stripped it back and built it around values, experience, and honest reflection. Starting with some light-hearted conference banter, the conversation quickly turns to consultancy models, what works, what does not, and what they would do differently. Outcomes over outputs A recurring theme throughout the discussion is the importance of focusing on outcomes rather than outputs. The group refle...
Mar 24, 2026•36 min•Season 1Ep. 147
This episode of Testing Peers is published in recognition of International Women’s Day (8 March) . International Women’s Day is a global moment to recognise the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women , while also highlighting the continued work needed to achieve gender equality. It is also a call to action to accelerate progress and support women’s advancement around the world. You can learn more about the campaign and its initiatives at https://www.internationalwomensda...
Mar 06, 2026•44 min•Season 1Ep. 146
Welcome to another episode of the Testing Peers podcast. In this episode, Veerle, Chris, Russell and Tara explore how hobbies influence the way we learn, collaborate and grow within testing and quality engineering. Before getting into the main topic, the Peers open with some classic banter, covering unusual fruit sizes, strange dreams and the small details that spark curiosity. The idea for this episode comes from talks and experiences shared within the community, where hobbies such as gaming, s...
Feb 23, 2026•40 min•Season 1Ep. 145
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Testing Peers podcast. This time, join Chris Armstrong, Rachel Kibler, Tara Walton, and Russell Craxford discussing what it means to create change in teams that are worn down, frustrated, or stuck in longstanding patterns. In this episode, the Peers talk frame the discussion around practical reflections on joining difficult team contexts, building agency, identifying friction, and shaping improvements that matter without creating burnout. The group foc...
Feb 10, 2026•47 min•Season 1Ep. 144
Hello friends, and welcome to another episode of the Testing Peers podcast. In this episode, Chris, Dan, David, and Russell come together for a wide-ranging conversation about flow, what it really means, and why it matters far beyond speed or delivery metrics. The discussion starts with some light New Year banter before quickly moving into systems thinking, value, and the often unseen friction that slows organisations down. The group explore flow as something that exists across people, processes...
Jan 22, 2026•44 min•Season 1Ep. 143
Happy New Year, Peers!! Welcome to the latest episode of the Testing Peers podcast, this time panel explores how testers and quality professionals can make the most of their training budgets, whether that budget is zero, modest, or stretches into several thousand pounds. Hosts this week: Russell Craxford, David Maynard, Chris Armstrong, and Tara Walton. The discussion is grounded in real experience and looks at how learning choices change depending on constraints, priorities, and organisational ...
Jan 04, 2026•41 min•Season 1Ep. 142
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Dec 21, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 141
Welcome to another episode of the Testing Peers podcast. In this episode, Simon, David, Chris and returning host, Dan Ashby explore what makes a high-performing team and how leaders can intentionally create the right environment for teams to thrive. The conversation builds on both shared experience and real-world examples of navigating complex team dynamics. Topics Discussed • Psychological safety How teams understand it, how fragile it can be and the different forms it takes, including inclusio...
Dec 07, 2025•46 min•Season 1Ep. 140
Welcome to episode 139 of the Testing Peers podcast. This time, the Peers dive into the sequel to episode 39, for Testing Rants part 2. Hosting this episode is Callum Akehurst-Ryan, Tara Walton, Chris Armstrong and David Maynard. After a brief ranter moment (terrible rant banter portmanteau, sorry), the team move onto the main topic. Topics covered in this episode: Documentation Issues Single Points of Failure: Documentation saved locally or only in one place. Poor Comments: Insufficient or miss...
Nov 23, 2025•40 min•Season 1Ep. 139
Welcome to episode 138 of the Testing Peers Podcast In this episode, Chris, Rachel, David and Russell discuss how people begin their careers in testing and software quality today. After a light-hearted round of “Two Truths and a Lie (But All Lies)”, the conversation turns to the different ways people enter the field, and how those paths have changed over time. The Peers share their own experiences and reflect on what helps new testers succeed. Topics include: Apprenticeships, graduate schemes an...
Nov 09, 2025•41 min•Season 1Ep. 138
Welcome to episode 137 of the Testing Peers podcast! This time, join Callum Akehurst-Ryan, Russell Craxford, Chris Armstrong and David Maynard as we discuss Personal Branding and Social Media. In this episode, the Peers discuss the importance of personal branding and the role social media plays in shaping professional identity within the testing community. The conversation explores how each of the hosts approaches their own personal brand, the motivations behind building one, and the ways in whi...
Oct 28, 2025•33 min•Season 1Ep. 137
Welcome to episode 136 of the Testing Peers podcast. In this episode, David, Chris, Russell and Tara dig into a question from #PeersCon25 speaker, Stuart Pates: what’s the difference between a test strategy and a quality engineering strategy? The peers explore: Whether strategies are rigid documents, living guides, or something in between How context drives whether you need a test strategy, a quality strategy, or both Why language and labels (“test” vs “quality”) can help or hinder collaboration...
Oct 05, 2025•35 min•Season 1Ep. 136
Welcome to episode 135 of the Testing Peers Podcast. This time join Chris, Russell, David and the returning Jon Robinson as we talk all things AI in testing. Artificial intelligence is already reshaping how we approach testing, QA and quality. But what happens when the pace of change accelerates? In this episode, the Peers explore what AI might mean for our profession, our skills and the value we bring. We discuss: The future of QA roles in the next 3–5 years and which functions may fade or evol...
Sep 19, 2025•36 min•Season 1Ep. 135
Welcome to Episode 134 of the Testing Peers podcast. This week, join Simon, David, Tara and Chris. How do we explain testing and quality to people who are not testers, in a way that actually lands? In this episode, we talk about meeting stakeholders where they are, translating quality into the language of risk, cost and outcomes, and building trust through visible work and data. We also share practical ways to bring non-testers into the quality journey, from testathons to storytelling. What we c...
Aug 24, 2025•34 min•Season 1Ep. 134
Welcome to episode 133 of the Testing Peers podcast. In this episode, the Peers (Chris, Callum, David and Russell) explore the complex and often subtle art of influencing quality within teams, organisations and wider cultures. The team share stories from early careers to more recent consulting and coaching experiences. The conversation examines how influence operates in practice and what it truly means to be a voice for quality. This is a discussion about mindset shifts, not mandates. About pati...
Aug 10, 2025•35 min•Season 1Ep. 133
Welcome to episode 132 of the Testing Peers Podcast. This time, joining David and Chris are the returning Rachel Kibler and first-time host Vanessa Zettler, with the Peers discussing Software That Cares. Key Quote “There is no average user.” – A reminder that designing for the “average” often excludes everyone. Accessibility as a Civil Rights Issue Digital access is essential in modern life. The team explore why accessibility is about equity and inclusion, not just regulations. Temporary vs. Per...
Jul 27, 2025•33 min•Season 1Ep. 132
Welcome to a special episode of the Testing Peers to announce our Programme Committee and Theme for PeersCon 26, which is happening on 12th March 2026 in Nottingham, UK. Join our Co-Chairs David and Simon as they introduce you to the rest of the committee: Suman Bala Dan Ashby Beth Marshall Rita Avota More on the committee can be found here . After the usual banter, the team dive into talking more about the theme for the conference, which is: Context is Everything: Lessons from the Universality ...
Jul 20, 2025•35 min•Season 1Ep. 131
Welcome to episode 130 of the Testing Peers Podcast. This time join David, Russell, Chris and Dermot as we talk Knowledge Resilience. After an ice breaker where Russell poses the question to the Peers of what have we wanted to learn, but have not yet achieved. Then Dermot sets up the main topic with the following question: "what would you do with the knowledge that you acquired? If you learned it, it's fine, but if you wanted to share that knowledge. How would you transmit that? We talk about: H...
Jul 14, 2025•34 min•Season 1Ep. 130
Welcome to the latest episode of the Testing Peers podcast. This time, join David, Chris, Sanne and Beth as we discuss Bad Quality By Design (a more SFW term for ensh!ttifcation ). Where products and services become deliberately less usable or joyful over time, often to drive monetisation. This isn’t accidental degradation, but intentional design choices aimed at nudging users towards subscriptions, upsells, or ad exposure. Examples the Peers discuss include: Getting a “premium” experience tempo...
Jul 02, 2025•28 min•Season 1Ep. 129
Welcome to another episode of the Testing Peers Podcast. On this episode, Chris, Simon and David are joined by first time co-host Rachel Kibler. The Peers discuss the topic of making work visible. David starts us off with the banter on the topic of fashion mistakes, everything from dress down fridays to bright shirts being used as a prank. David also hints at his 80's fashion challenges and his ties he wore as a teacher. Rachel kicks off the main topic, giving the back story of where the topic c...
Jun 09, 2025•38 min•Season 1Ep. 128
Welcome to another episode of the Testing Peers Podcast. On this episode, Chris, Russell, David and Simon talk about how we can ensure Quality has a seat at the table of discussions, projects and all such scenarios where it should be there. Before that, Mr Banter (Chris) leads us off down a wonderful trail of memories of social media when it all began, everything from MySpace, Bebo, Friends Reunited and MSN Messenger covered and of course, the old Twitter during the pandemic. Simon leads us into...
May 19, 2025•35 min•Season 1Ep. 127
Welcome to another episode of the Testing Peers. Chris, Russell and David are joined by the returning Sam to talk about a topic close to all testers hearts, the ability of storytelling. Before diving into the main topic, Russell asks the Peers what their favourite cars are, lots of classics mentioned including the almost predictable choice from Russell of the AC Cobra (which he may have mentioned before). Part of the testers role includes storytelling, whether this is in bug reports, presentatio...
Apr 03, 2025•32 min•Season 1Ep. 126
Hello and welcome to episode 125 of the Testing Peers podcast. This time, joining Chris, Russell and David is the returning guest host, Al Goodall. Before diving into the main topic, Al asks the group to think about book collections, a nice mix of techno-thrillers and classic prose on offer. Russell kicks off the main discussion around testability, what is it in which context? The Peers talk through implementation, pitches, prompts, value, maintainability and more. Chris also brings out the Test...
Feb 20, 2025•29 min•Season 1Ep. 125
Hello and welcome to the latest episode of the Testing Peers podcast. This week join Chris, David, Shey and Russell as the Peers talk about transformations. The banter for this week's episode comes from Shey, asking the group which sport they would have love to have been a professional in. Then the Peers dived into the main topic, introduced by Shey. We talk about the good, the bad and the ugly of our experiences with transformations. What role do we, as testers, play in transformations? We are ...
Jan 29, 2025•29 min•Season 1Ep. 124
Welcome to another episode of the Testing Peers podcast. David, Russell and Chris are joined by Sergio Friere to talk about all things Professional Development. Sergio leads the banter and asks the peers what their oldest memories are, everything from canal boat parties to visiting a zulu hut are mentioned, with ages ranging from age 3-6ish between the peers. As we start the main topic, Sergio shares his journey of going into teaching now to educate students on testing (win for #MakeATester). He...
Jan 13, 2025•46 min•Season 1Ep. 123
Seasons Greetings! Thank you for joining us for our fifth annual podcast at Christmastime, this year's festive cheers with the Testing Peers brings Russell, Simon, David, Tara, Beth & Chris together to refine the holiday season backlog [see the footnote after the sponsor message for more details]. Who doesn't feel the festive warm & fuzzies over a refinement session? Before we jump in, Russell warms us all up with an ice breaker based on Christmas drink preferences. The we all dive in. C...
Dec 20, 2024•1 hr•Season 1Ep. 122
Thank you for joining us for episode 121 of the Testing Peers Podcast. This time, join Chris, Tara, Russell and David as we discuss tools for testers. Before diving into the main topic, to mark the festive period, Tara poses the ice-breaker question of the Peers' favourite Holiday movie. It's a Wonderful Life, Die Hard, Home Alone, Spirited, The Grinch and Violent Night are included. Then we move on to the main event.....tools for testers. The Peers discuss screen readers and recorders, AI, comp...
Dec 03, 2024•34 min•Season 1Ep. 121
Welcome to another Testing Peers podcast episode. This time, join Chris, David, Richard Bradshaw and Al Goodall (whose surname Chris had some real issues remembering, sorry Al!) In this episode, the Peers talk about the role of the SDET. Is it SDEad? To break the ice, Al leads the group into a discussion about the best live albums, in our humble opinions. Shout-outs to Linkin Park, Sky, Raye, Live Aid, Iron Maiden, U2, Seal and Hoobastank! The main topic dives into the main topic - the role of t...
Nov 22, 2024•34 min•Season 1Ep. 120
Welcome to another episode of the Testing Peers. On this episode, Chris is joined by Vernon Richards, Heather Carter and Richard Hinton to talk about career journeys and making that decision around next steps. Before that, Heather kicks off the banter by asking for 2 Truths and 1 Lie from each of the hosts. You'll need to listen to work out which ones are which. Chris starts the conversation about what is next for our careers, and the topic moves toward Personal Brand/Professional Reputation and...
Nov 07, 2024•38 min•Season 1Ep. 119
Hello and welcome to the latest episode of the Testing Peers podcast. This time, join Chris, David, Simon and first-time host, Butch Mayhew. Ahead of the main topic, Butch asks the group about their ideal superpower. We discuss controlling time, teleportation, flying, awareness (we'll come back to that later in the episode) and Butch's idea to have mustard and ketchup fly out of his fingers, because why not? The Peers then dive in the topic of authenticity - inspired as a topic by Simon's post o...
Oct 20, 2024•34 min•Season 1Ep. 118
