Question: “Why the state of Testers and state of Testing is the way it is? Why don’t we see enough passionate Testers around who would want to break through the comfort zone, learn at scale, evolve, and help others evolve?”
Answer: Probably because there isn’t enough awareness. We will have to go out there and see what is the ground reality which we may not be knowing, with our limited view.
“So let’s try something outside for a larger group of Testers?”, I asked my passionate bunch at Zycus.
The passionate bunch I am referring to is Steffy Thomas, Kunal Ashar, Shubham Karun, Amar Singh, and Ram Samal who were working closely with me back then, and still most of them continue to work on many things The Test Tribe or something interesting.
Sure. Why not. Yes, we can try. We collectively got the nods we were looking for.
Question: “Ok, so what do we do?”
Answer: “Maybe a Meetup at a Company level where we share some insights for Testers?”
Answer: “Or something at Mumbai City level? Nothing much is happening here for Testers. We also need a wider circle to learn from.”
“Ok, so let’s start two tracks. One for the internal meetup and let’s also start towards doing something at City level?”, I added.
We all agreed.
Maybe a day or days later~
“So to do something like what we are thinking, we will need a name and a logo. Let’s research on names and let Kunal think on Logo designing once we finalize the name.”
After tons of suggestions, the name Test Tribe, a suggestion by Kunal struck us all well.
“Looks good. But let’s add some weight to it. Let’s make it THE TEST TRIBE.”, I added.
“Cool, I will start experiments on the logo then.”, said Kunal.
This element, that element. This color, that color. Can we add this concept? Doeable? and many more such questions and suggestions kept on coming as we arrived at our final design.
I was going through an interesting phase of my life for two reasons. Was about to enter the phase of fatherhood, and at the same time, The Test Tribe was taking a shape.
Fatherhood started on 29th December 2017. With a little trouble which we had to get resolved through basic care through NICU.
Surprisingly, I was not stressed as much as I would have been even in this stage, and rather was super optimistic about everything.
Surprisingly again, my brain was still functioning properly and was able to cater to different things while I was on paternity leave and taking care of the medical situation at hand.
I used to sit on any desk or chair at NICU day and night and was optimistically painting the future.
The launch date of The Test Tribe was decided during one such sitting session while I was talking to myself.
I drafted a Twitter thread and scheduled it for launch.
Start of brand new year #2018. There can't be a better time to announce something as wonderful as this. We are a group of passionate software #testers united for a cause. This initiative is really very special to us. We call it 'The Test Tribe'. (1/X)
On the 11th of January, 2018 the first tweet, the launch tweet went. And, The Test Tribe was born.
Probably the first time I revealed the behind the scenes details to such a degree. The reason also is very special, which allowed me to do so.
The Test Tribe turned 3 today.
Looking back, I can’t believe how we progressed and just can’t help but be immensely proud of this feat.
Just can’t thank enough every single soul who contributed, sent support and good wishes.
Can’t thank enough the bunch who believed in the vision, stood together, and enabled us as a whole to take the first big step of going out there.
Ok, let me tell you one more story.
The talks around hosting the first Mumbai meetup began again. Finding the speaker, keeping it casual and easy for attendees was the key agreement.
Preparations began, but on the sideline, I thought about contacting Paras whom I had met at the Bugasura Testing Hackathon by Skillenza(now Venturecity). Our Zycus teams had swapped all the top awards there for all 3 products by the way. 🙂
I contacted Paras and asked how about doing a Testing Hackathon together? He being the community guy he is, without any delay said let’s do it.
So with that, The Bug Feast Hackathon was born and took precedence before the first meetup which was going live in parallel.
The Bug Feast was a huge hit, with 108 Testers under one roof competing as they test three different products.
The reason to tell you in-depth about The Bug Feast was to bring you to the below two pictures. These are the people who made those first few steps happen.
Of course, there were many more passionate folks who joined us throughout the last three years and made things happen. City Heroes, Core Team members, Volunteers, Speakers, Community Partners, Sponsors, Venue Partners, and many more. We are equally thankful to them.
Ok, one more story. Last for today, I promise 🙂
Does it always happen that things go precisely the way you wanted?
So the 1st Mumbai Meetup track was going on while we were riding high on the success of The Bug Feast and we were happy that the Meetup too received good 44 registrations.
Little we knew about things like drop off rate, followups. 😀
On the event day, apart from our 5-6 members, and 1 Speaker, 2 more people turned up. And God, how scary that was.
While I was trying to engage the available folks within the rooftop venue at 91Springboard Andheri, I could see everyone else calling up the attendee list and checking if they were coming.
By the time the meetup progressed, 2 more folks joined us.
So in all, we were still around 10-11 folks there.
But what I discovered there was the real beauty of connections and community building.
The kind of candid chat we had there on technical, career-related, and personal things was just amazing.
The fact that we are up to something special struck me.
I tried hard to find a picture or two from that event for you.
Shubham, Ram, Amar, Me, Hamza (left to right)
So with this high, and a low (which turned into a high by the end of it), The Test Tribe journey started. That also the whole point I wanted to make today with this post, that the path till today was not easy, but it was definitely super fun and satisfying. Today I particularly wanted to talk about how we started, but that does not mean the things we did after that to date do not matter. So many passionate folks joined the movement and I may just mess up if I decide to name them all as there are so many wonderful souls who contributed across these years.
So now that we are three, what keeps us going even after three years, all the busy weekends and with no full-time person working? Definitely your love and support.
And those random messages at odd hours where you feel we are worth sharing your story, how we impacted it for good, how we could change your life for good, or helped solving a particular problem. We always kept those candid conversations close to our heart, but they really have been the biggest source of my motivation at least. So a big thank you to everyone who found us/me worth sharing a part of your life.
Fast forward to today, and we have done:
Thousands of interactions with thousands of Testers across the globe in our Online Community
And we created that confidence, courage, and good vibes for thousands
Extremely proud of what we achieved and the path we all walked together.
Stay with us, as an even more wonderful ride awaits us. 2021 would be the best and the most amazing, for all of us.
Ohh yes, did you know we launched our brand new Logo today on the occasion of our 3rd Anniversary?
Have a look 🙂
Not only the logo but many more things are changing soon and many more interesting things are coming. Stay tuned 🙂
Few call to actions:
If you want to be part of an interesting future and volunteer for us, please drop an email at contact[at]thetesttribe.com with a quick intro, skillset of yours which you think can help us do things together, and ideas if any
Bonus Tip: If you are reading this blog on the same day, that is the 11th of January 2021, head right away to The Test Tribe Community as there are tons of contests running there.
Mahesh is the founder tribal at “The Test Tribe,” India’s largest software testing community. With over 10 years of experience in the field of software testing, Mahesh is an expert in leading complex enterprise products and designing automation frameworks. He is passionate about the craft of testing and is dedicated to building a strong and engaged community of testers through The Test Tribe. In addition to being a software testing professional, Mahesh also blogs about testing and communities, sharing his knowledge and insights with others in the field.
0 thoughts on “The Test Tribe Turns Three!”
What an Amazing Journey it has been and looking forward to all the wonderful years ahead!
0 thoughts on “The Test Tribe Turns Three!”
What an Amazing Journey it has been and looking forward to all the wonderful years ahead!