Geosley Andrades - The Test Tribe

Ten things to do after a conference

by Geosley Andrades
July 2, 2020

THANK THE ORGANIZERS

A lot goes into organizing any event for the community. If you want to know the behind-the-scenes activity, read these two posts here and here. It is easy to complain when things go wrong. It takes a good heart to appreciate when things go right. Do it, you will feel good!

Don’t just say – Thank you for all the efforts. Try to be as specific as possible. Show that you paid attention. Call out the instances which you liked.

PROVIDE FEEDBACK TO THE ORGANIZERS

No one is perfect and it is a good habit to continuously improve. Your feedback to the organizers will help them a lot. How to provide good feedback? Follow this simple questionnaire:

Is it specific? Will the receiver know what should be changed?
Are there examples? Either good or bad, examples help in better understanding.
Is it real or perception? Remember to use the right words. Do not generalize.
Do you know how it can be better? Any actionable advice? Share it.

THANK THE SPEAKERS

If you liked any talks, thank the speakers. Send them connection requests (LinkedIn, not Facebook). Follow their blogs, read related articles, work on the exercises, and then get back to them with questions. Show them that you have put in the effort. No one has infinite time. The chances of you getting an answer increases especially when you have done the background work.

REVIEW AND EXPAND YOUR NOTES

You might have taken notes in a hurry, used some shortcuts, jotted some ideas to work on later. This is the time to review your notes, expand them.

COMPARE OTHERS NOTES

Others have also attended the same sessions. You will now know what have you missed and is there any other perspective to the same point. This is a good way to make new friends.

NETWORK WITH OTHER ATTENDEES

There must be some medium where other attendees asked questions or shared useful information. Connect with them. Maybe you could find a learning partner. You could also exchange notes.

CHECK OUT THE SPONSORS

Very few events would be without any sponsors. Check out the sponsors. Use their products, give them feedback. Don’t be surprised if they give you a free version of their product or even hire you for freelancing. You never know 🙂

WRITE ABOUT YOUR EXPERIENCE

Write a blog/article. I am so happy that multiple people have shared their experience of #TribalQonf. Faiz, Shefali, Jainam, Sunny, Ashish, Nithin are some examples. Enjoy them.

PLAN AND WORK TOWARDS YOUR GOALS

In a software testing conference, I got to know about a topic and I deep-dived in learning more about it. Think about what interests you, what you can deep-dive, and plan with measurable steps. Some sample goals:

Write at least one article every two weeks (Online portfolio)
Setup a 1-1 with my manager (To understand the impact of my work)
Download and provide feedback to Arjuna framework
Record my testing and practice explaining my testing
Present in next #TribalQonf

VOLUNTEER

Volunteer and support the community. It helps you in learning, online portfolio, satisfaction and helps you connect with other people with similar interests.

TTT 856

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In Conversation with Tribal Qonf Speaker – Ramit Kaul

by Geosley Andrades
June 23, 2020

To connect our Tribal Qonf Speakers and Audience better, we interviewed our speakers over a few important questions. The conversations we had were just amazing.

In this edition, we are publishing the Interview we did with Ramit Manohar Kaul ( Hands/Hasta at testAIing.com). Ramit answered many interesting questions and we are sure you will enjoy the read.

Geosley: Where according to you Testing in India is heading?
Ramit: The answer to this question is not easy. As far as testing is concerned, we can be definite about only one possibility. Automation. Whether someone likes it or not, automation is the key to the future. It will be difficult to survive without automation skills. However, this message doesn’t mean that we will ONLY need functional automation. Having the knowledge of automation, and not tools, means you know how languages, their dictionaries, and their usage works in your day to day work.
I train a lot of testers and can safely divide Indian testers into two categories. One who acts like an ostrich and feels everything is good around them. Their jobs are safe and they have learned what they need to survive. Sadly, so far, the majority fall in this category. This year should be a wake-up call for them. Others, very few, know that they need to learn new things. Sadly, most of them have fallen in the trap of learning tools.

Geosley: What or who has been the greatest influence in your professional life?
Ramit: In one of the Hindu scriptures I was reading some years back, I found that in order to succeed, we need three things to be in the right balance in our lives. Sthan, Kaal, Patra which means meeting the right people at the right time in the right place. God has been very kind and generous on me and I have always found these three in abundance. Since this forum is about testing, I will stick to the testing world. To start with, one of the greatest influencers in my life is Vipul Kocher, being my friend and guide. Rahul Verma and Pradeep Soundararajan for accepting me as a friend. Karundeep Gill for removing the fear in me. Satish Kant Thakur for teaching me things beyond imagination.

Geosley: How are you practicing your skills during COVID-19?
Ramit: Being a practicing tester associated with multiple projects, I really never needed to think about practice. I am working on a very challenging project right now and need to learn a lot of new things. Covid-19 has no impact on it.

Geosley: Could you share your experience being on the Technical advisory group of the Indian Testing Board?
Ramit: I was mostly involved with the content and syllabus review of ISTQB. The content was from different organizations that wanted to be training partners. Looking and reviewing such work helps you in understanding different perspectives as you see how the world perceives the information given in the syllabus.
The real fun is reviewing the syllabus as it needs one to go in-depth and do deep dive into the area. Because of this, I can safely say that my knowledge today around test design techniques is a little better than the average knowledge my fellow testers have. I am not saying that I know everything, which in any way, is not possible. I am trying to say that because I was the reviewer of the few things, I had to read a lot about these topics and over a period of time, I kept accumulating knowledge in that area and that greatly helped me shape as a tester.

Geosley: What’s your learning from training testers on ISTQB certifications?
Ramit: I have learned less about testing, more about humans. Humans are simple. We have unnecessarily complicated our lives. I see most of us confuse and don’t know why we are doing things. My learning is that do what makes you happy. One classic example is Mahesh Chikane. When almost everybody would have thought of what we can do to the testing community, look at what Mahesh has achieved in so little time. As the famous saying goes,

Please do what you like otherwise you will be forced to like what you do.

Geosley: How will your talk motivate the attendees and one lesson they will carry at the Tribal Qonf?
Ramit: I don’t know. I will try to ignite their minds. Motivation and learning are very personal things and I do not want participants to get biased. I can assure only one thing, my session will not be Boring.

We thank Ramit for his time and energy to do this amazing interview. Stay tuned to hear from more Speakers. Register to Tribal Qonf happening 27-28 June 2020 here.

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In Conversation with Tribal Qonf Speaker – Anand Bagmar

by Geosley Andrades
June 18, 2020

To connect our Tribal Qonf Speakers and Audience better, we interviewed our speakers over a few important questions. The conversations we had were just amazing.

In this edition, we are publishing the Interview we did with Anand Bagmar ( Software Quality Evangelist, Essense of Testing ). Anand answered many interesting questions and we are sure you will enjoy the read.

Geosley: Tell us a little bit about what inspired you to become a tester?

Anand: Not really by choice as a first job, but wanted to get started somewhere. My 2nd job, in Customer Service, was an eye-opener for me. I used to be on-call 24×7 via email & phone for enterprise customer complaints about the expensive software they had purchased, but didn’t work well and the guidelines/policy of how our responses needed to be, as well as how the Engineering team used to respond to Customer issues appalled me. That was the turning point for me in my career. It became a mission for me to ensure I, regardless of my role, gave it my best, to build a good quality product for the customers of my product.

Geosley: What or who has been the greatest influence in your professional life?

Anand: As mentioned above, my 2nd job in Customer Service has been the greatest influence in my professional life. Along with that, the countless mentors and colleagues I worked with, who challenged my thought process in the good and the not-as-good way, along with my positive and willing-to-learn attitude has helped me grow as a professional.

Geosley: What are your thoughts on Analytics in Testing & Automation?

Anand:

Analytics is to a product like blood or oxygen is to a human.

Without analytics, you would not be able to know the usage and impact of your product on the end-users. Given this is so crucial, unfortunately, few professionals in the software industry know about it, or how to test it. My session, my open-source contribution – WAAT, is a way to help people understand this concept and test it effectively & efficiently.

Geosley: You have written about the paths a tester can take. Is there any change in that now?

Anand:

Each person is unique and has unique skills, capabilities, strengths, and liking.

The Career Path of a Tester article I wrote in 2016 is still valid. Note that this is a guideline. I would hope that the readers instead of “blindly following” or “aspiring to become like another person”, would take inspiration from it, and create their own path based on their individuality.

Geosley: What were the thoughts behind building MAD LAB (Mobile Automation Devices LAB) and what advice would you give testers planning to build one?

Anand: It is not easy to build your own LAB. There is a huge cost involved – in terms of personal cost, infrastructure, maintenance, and extending its functionality as per requirements. However, there are times when an existing off-the-shelf solution (commercial/free/open-source) may not fit your requirements. In that case, you are left with no choice, but to build a LAB yourself.

In such cases, follow these steps:

first define a clear objective of what you want to achieve, and why?
identify and prioritize the requirements based on the above
start implementing and building the lab

Remember, this has to be a stepping stone approach.

Being Agile, getting quick feedback, and knowing the limitations of your lab are crucial for getting value from this investment!

Geosley: How will your talk motivate the attendees and one lesson they will carry at the Tribal Qonf?

Anand: I am hoping to inspire attendees to look beyond their day-to-day work and feel motivated and challenged to find interesting solutions to problems that exist around us at work.

We thank Anand for his time and energy to do this amazing interview. Stay tuned to hear from more Speakers. Register to Tribal Qonf happening 27-28 June 2020 here.

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In Conversation with Tribal Qonf Speaker – Ajay Balamurugadas

by Geosley Andrades
June 13, 2020

To connect our Tribal Qonf Speakers and Audience better, we interviewed our speakers over a few important questions. The conversations we had were just amazing.

In this edition, we are publishing the Interview we did with Ajay Balamurugadas ( AVP Delivery, Qapitol QA ). Ajay answered many interesting questions and we are sure you will enjoy the read.

Geosley: Tell us a little bit about what inspired you to become a tester?

Ajay: When I was offered my first job as a software tester, I had no idea that there existed a profession known as software testing. I am a graduate in Printing Technology and was hired as a future/budding subject matter expert to assure the quality of the software to be used by the printing industry. After 15 days of training, I had to find bugs in the application. Then, I searched for “How to become a software testing expert” and landed on James Bach’s video – Becoming a software testing expert. One thing led to another and testing has become an integral part of my life now.

Geosley: What or who has been the greatest influence in your professional life?

Ajay: Every interaction has taught me something useful. Each influence has been great in that context. If someone has taught me how to test, someone has helped me improve my communication skills, while some have helped me manage projects, some leading teams, conducting workshops, some teaching testing. A lot of people have influenced me. I would like to take this opportunity to thank my family here to help me sharpen my skills by taking care of everything else.

Geosley: You are a passionate learner, Why do you think learning is important? Could you share your major learnings from attending testing workshops like BBST and RST?

Ajay: The pace at which the industry is moving, you would be left out if you don’t learn.

BBST Foundations:
Gave a wonderful foundation and helped me understand the context, mission, oracles, heuristics. What I would have discovered in 2 years, I learned in 1 month.
BBST Bug Advocacy:
It taught me everything about finding bugs, test ideas, bug investigation, and how to sell bugs. One of the top three courses that has helped me a lot in my career.
BBST Test Design:
It was a survey of testing techniques and helped me understand the depth of testing. It demonstrated how much more is pending to be learned.
Rapid Software Testing:
How to increase value, how to reduce cost and risk – I learned in RST. RST is like meditation for testing. This helped me tie everything I knew in testing and everything I need to know to be a valuable tester for any team. Exploratory skills were boosted by RST course. And then, I started conducting workshops on Exploratory testing.

Geosley: Tell us 5 most important things, habits, or events that have shaped Ajay Balamurugadas of today.

Ajay:

1. Everything is an investment. Look at it that way and work hard to master the subject till you get 3x out of the investment
2. The limits are the ones we place on ourselves.
  
  Be free and achieve success. Go for the target with courage and proper planning.
3. Say yes first and then learn how to do it.
  
  I have gained so much by first saying yes and then learning how to do it and then doing it.
4. Keep collecting dots, they will make sense eventually. As time spent is also an investment, make use of it. I went to calligraphy class, studied typography in engineering, learn from design discussions on Telegram, I now use that combined experience to find UI, UX bugs, and help improve the usability of products. I am part of multiple communities on Slack, Telegram, and one learning feed into another. An exercise from the UX course led me to a marketing course that led to growth hacking to a connect who gave me a freelancing opportunity.
5. Investing in learning which has now given me the confidence to conduct workshops on the same topics.
  
  If you succeed, good
  If you fail, you learn, which is great.

Geosley: How will your talk motivate the attendees and one lesson they will carry at the Tribal Qonf?

Ajay: I am planning to do something different this time in terms of presentation and I hope it passes the message – nothing is impossible and be courageous. What is one lesson they will carry? I will leave it to them. Once in a testing conference, I learned that I should exercise. So, learning is interesting and personal. I leave it to the audience. I will share probable learning points 🙂

We thank Ajay for his time and energy to do this amazing interview. Stay tuned to hear from more Speakers. Register to Tribal Qonf happening 27-28 June 2020 here.

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In Conversation with Tribal Qonf Speaker – Mike Talks

by Geosley Andrades
June 5, 2020

To connect our Tribal Qonf Speakers and Audience better, we interviewed our speakers over a few important questions. The conversations we had were just amazing.

In this edition, we are publishing the Interview we did with Mike Torkelson (Tester, Author & IT Anthropologist). Mike answered many interesting questions and we are sure you will enjoy the read.

Geosley: Tell us a little bit about what inspired you to become a tester?

Mike: I started to program in the 80s, often copying code for games you’d get from books before going on to make enhancements.

A key part of programming was running it and using it, and both finding and diagnosing issues. That feedback loop of build-use-enhance was a lot of fun, and why games I created evolved.

To me, the joy of code is running it in anger.

Geosley: What or who has been the greatest influence in your professional life?

Mike: I grew up in a family of engineers. So there’s always been a mindset within our family to be really practical and have a common sense within our field.

We’re not perfect though, my Grandfather was sure the Moon landings were faked.

Just because we have common sense in one field doesn’t mean we have it elsewhere.

Geosley: How are you practicing your skills during COVID-19?

Mike: Are you kidding me? Hahaha …

Oh, you’re serious? Every aspect of working from home is a test scenario. From working out whether to be on VPN for video calls, troubleshooting the video call tech, working out how we test environments that need to be restricted.

Knowing we were likely to WFH, we even ran tests of it before to find issues we could work through before it became critical.

Geosley: What advice would you give budding and existing Testing enthusiasts?

Mike: Have fun!

Geosley: You are an author of many popular testing books. What inspired you in writing these unique creations?

Mike: How To Test – there was a lot of talk about people getting ISTQB to get on the rung to become testers. Usually by companies who’d promise “pay $$$ and you’ve ensured a job”.

I wanted to create an introduction to the craft which focused on the basics at a level of someone new to the industry. And then importantly, make it free.

We thank Mike for his time and energy to do this amazing interview. Stay tuned to hear from more Speakers. Register to Tribal Qonf happening 27-28 June 2020 here.

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In Conversation with Tribal Qonf Speaker – Santhosh Tuppad

by Geosley Andrades
May 31, 2020

To connect our Tribal Qonf Speakers and Audience better, we decided to interview our Speakers over a few important questions. The result was just amazing. We are sure you will love this.

Geosley: Tell us a little bit about what inspired you to become a tester and fascinated with Security Testing?

Santhosh: If I had to answer this question in one word, then that would be a “Computer”.

The first computer that I laid my hands-on was the “Disc Operating System” where I used to play around with various command-line inputs. Most of my time was spent playing “Prince of Persia” [ Monochrome and not High-Definition like today ] and “F1 Race”. My age during these times was 12.

Nowadays, people know me as a professional ethical hacker/security expert/security researcher / passionate software tester etcetera. However, I got into “Hacking” when I was 16 because I got entered into the “Beautiful Internet”. I grew as an IRC addict [ IRC = Internet Relay Chat ] and my initial hack was to decrypt the credentials of “Dial-up Internet Connection” so that I could use someone else’s account during midnight time when they used to not connect to the internet.

Long story short, professional ethical hacker and software tester is not about getting into it for me; but I already had this in me and I followed what I felt within my visceral. That’s not only about ethical hacking and software testing, because that’s how my life in general works. I do what I love to do and that’s what keeps me lively.

The main inspiration to me was and is myself while everything around me is a catalyst to unlock the potential. I am thankful for everything in this life. It wouldn’t be wrong if this attitude makes me chutzpah.

Geosley: What or who has been the greatest influence in your professional life?

Santhosh: I believe everything that has lived and is living around us influences how I stride.

Geosley: How are you practicing your skills during COVID-19?

Santhosh: COVID-19 doesn’t change my situation. I have been a learner and enjoying what I love doing. I have remained a fan of learning a variety of subjects based on whatever I believe at that moment. Furthermore practicing is something that I have always enjoyed.

As long as I am living, events such as COVID-19 doesn’t change my learning attitude.

Geosley: Why is Security Testing so important in every project and what is scope for the same in the near future?

Santhosh: Are we still discussing this? OMG! I cannot imagine we still ponder over this question even in today’s world. I won’t speak about the future just to become “famous” by using jargon such as “This is the trend, that is the trend” etcetera.

Stop using doors and locks of your houses if you believe that it is not important really

For the very same reason, now think about “ software security ”. You will get an answer 😉 If you still don’t get it, then you have to invest time in learning and thinking.

I don’t want to waste my time explaining this again and again. It’s been over a decade I have explained this to people. I am tired now!

If you trust me, go and test your application security as though someone is breathing down your neck.

Geosley: What advice you give budding and existing Security Testing enthusiasts?

Santhosh: The study, learning, practice, and repeating will take you a long way. Not always you need a “Guru”, you have it inside you and you just got to give it a sweet tap.

Geosley: How will your talk motivate the attendees and one lesson they will carry at the Tribal Qonf ?

Santhosh: I understand that most or some of them will have no experience in security testing / ethical hacking, but I have always been a person who provides examples and makes the topic look easier to assimilate and cement it in their brain. In my talk, everyone will take the first step towards security testing by just observing and understanding the concepts. Yes, it’s about HTTP Headers and I will be focusing on how one can inspect and report misconfiguration of HTTP headers. Also, they will understand the kinds of attacks that can exist if these secure HTTP headers are not configured at all. I promise that it will be fun and a great learning experience for participants. One lesson that they shall carry will be saying the following to their self:

I need not be scared of learning security testing/ethical hacking as I just need to make an effort to take that first step.

We thank Santhosh for his time and energy to do this amazing interview. Stay tuned to hear from more Speakers. Register to Tribal Qonf happening 27-28 June 2020 here.