Welcome to episode 117 of the Testing Peers podcast. This time, join Chris, David, Russell and Heather as we discuss closure and letting go! Heather kicks us off with a discussion around last-minute travel decisions and we think Russell probably wins! The Peers then jump into a discussion about letting go. Changing roles. What is your identity? Who am I (professionally)? What am I good at? What do I enjoy? What will I do when I retire? Is it out of your control? What can we do as leaders? How ca...
Oct 06, 2024•39 min•Season 1Ep. 117
Welcome to another episode of the Testing Peers podcast. This time, Jesper Ottosen joins Russell, David and Chris as we discuss single points of failure. As ever, we begin with our first email handles - as it turns out ours weren't so embarrassing and have persisted, but at least we break the ice! Diving into the main topic, the group quickly talk about the single points of failure as people. "what if they go on holiday?" " what if so and so wins the lottery?" and so on. Are there robust handove...
Sep 22, 2024•33 min•Season 1Ep. 116
Welcome to another episode of the Testing Peers podcast. This time, join Chris, Russell, Callum Akehurst-Ryan & Leigh Rathbone as we talk on the topic of "No Testers, No Problem". Before the main topic, Callum asks the group for their favourite fictional AI. From GLaDOS, I.N.T.E.L.L.I.G.E.N.C.E., the Terminator and Max Headroom. What's your favourite fictional AI? Leigh then introduces the topics of trends in the industry, touching on his #PeersCon24 talk, are we moving towards or away from ...
Sep 08, 2024•34 min•Season 1Ep. 115
Thanks for joining us for episode 114 of the Testing Peers podcast. This time, Ben Dowen joins Russell, David and Chris as we dive into the topic of learning fast (as a different take on failing fast). For this episode's banter, Ben asks the group about what their reasons to be cheerful are. A lot of learning, project closing and summer time activities (or lack of activities) ahead! The Peers then dive into the main topic. Russell explains the power of the language and cognitive biases around fa...
Aug 27, 2024•38 min•Season 1Ep. 114
Thank you for joining us for episode 113 of the Testing Peers podcast. This time, Sanne Visser & Vernon Richards join Chris & David to discuss Emotional Intelligence. By the way, if you haven't already heard - Vernon hosts the Vernon Richard show: https://www.youtube.com/@TheVernonRichardShow After Vernon's hot drinks ice-breaker we dive into the main topic. Emotional intelligence ( EI ) is defined as the ability to perceive, use, understand, manage, and handle emotions. People with high...
Aug 11, 2024•32 min•Season 1Ep. 113
Thank you for joining us for episode 112 of the Testing Peers podcast. This time around we are talking on the topic of building testing teams, with Simon, Russell, David & Chris. The banter focuses in on favourite or memorable plot twists. Then Simon poses this hypothetical scenario - If you landed in a role and you were the first person there who has been given the task to build a [test] team, what would you do? Russell wins the 'it depends on the context' prize, but of course he is right. ...
Jul 28, 2024•31 min•Season 1Ep. 112
Thank you for joining episode 111 of the Testing Peers podcast. This time Chris, David, Dermot & Sanne talk on the theme of 'This is the way', otherwise known perhaps as the gospel according to.... Before the main discussion, Sanne asks the group about any new to the Peers recipes or restaurants, so now I'm a little hungry. *good time to pause for a snack* Chris then introduces the Mandalorian theme. What are those absolute truths that we see some follow. Is it testing/checking? The testing ...
Jul 17, 2024•37 min•Season 1Ep. 111
Welcome to another episode of the Testing Peers Podcast. Chris, David, Russell and Simon talk about one of the big buzzwords in the industry at present being the term of Quality Engineering, what it means, how it differentiates from "Testing" and what it means for the future. For the banter, Russell asks us all what our favourite pizza toppings are, unsurprisingly there is talk of "it depends", and pretty much every topping is mentioned from the peers. We start by talking about what Quality Engi...
Jul 01, 2024•34 min•Season 1Ep. 110
Hello friends, thank you for joining us for the latest episode of the Testing Peers podcast. This time, join Russell, David, Chris & Dermot as we discuss Presentations. Before diving into the main event, Chris asks the group to go back in time to when they first travelled for work. Our thoughts and experiences of that, and how that will have changed over our careers. As the Peers move on, we discuss different presentation styles, contexts, tools and 'weapons of choice' - hello PowerPoint my ...
Jun 17, 2024•39 min•Season 1Ep. 109
Welcome to episode 108 of the Testing Peers podcast. This time, join Russell, David, Callum & Dermot as they talk requirements, emergent ones at that! Before diving into the main event, Dermot kicks the Peers off with a conversation around fandom and eras, initially with Dr. Who. Moving on, the group discuss what emergent requirements are. Undocumented, not (yet) asked for, potential unknown complexity, not refined, just an idea. The team talk about maturity, the need to sometimes be comfort...
Jun 02, 2024•37 min•Season 1Ep. 108
Welcome to another episode of the Testing Peers. Chris, David and Russell are joined by Bruce for this one to discuss the topic of "Square Peg, Round Hole" and how we sometimes may not always feel like we or some tools fit and how we can address those challenges. Bruce starts with the banter and asks everyone what gets them up in the morning, everything from running, coffee and children are mentioned as things that get us started every day. Chris starts off the topic by asking about using the wr...
May 21, 2024•38 min•Season 1Ep. 107
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 t...
May 06, 2024•46 min•Season 1Ep. 106
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 conversations Chris 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 th...
Apr 21, 2024•33 min•Season 1Ep. 105
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.com Twitter ( https://twitter.com/testingpeers ) LinkedIn ( https://www.l...
Apr 07, 2024•44 min•Season 1Ep. 104
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 to...
Mar 24, 2024•31 min•Season 1Ep. 103
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 (...
Mar 10, 2024•30 min•Season 1Ep. 102
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...
Feb 25, 2024•34 min•Season 1Ep. 101
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 <3 The...
Feb 13, 2024•47 min•Season 1Ep. 100
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 th...
Jan 29, 2024•35 min•Season 1Ep. 99
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 cove...
Jan 14, 2024•37 min•Season 1Ep. 98
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.com Ben starts the group off by talking about collaboration at work, from pairing ...
Dec 31, 2023•37 min•Season 1Ep. 97
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? ...
Dec 17, 2023•46 min•Season 1Ep. 96
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 in...
Dec 03, 2023•34 min•Season 1Ep. 95
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, rather than jus...
Nov 19, 2023•36 min•Season 1Ep. 94
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 prioriti...
Nov 05, 2023•32 min•Season 1Ep. 93
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 impr...
Oct 22, 2023•40 min•Season 1Ep. 92
Welcome to another episode of the Testing Peers, this week David, Beth, Chris and Russell. This week we focus on flow work Russell 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 Wi...
Oct 08, 2023•35 min•Season 1Ep. 91
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 not ...
Sep 24, 2023•35 min•Season 1Ep. 90
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...
Sep 09, 2023•44 min•Season 1Ep. 89
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 - ...
Aug 27, 2023•44 min•Season 1Ep. 88
