Testing Peers

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Testing Peers podcast. In a show of our busyness recently, we chose our topic right before recording and it was decided on "Outside Influences to our Testing".

Before diving into the main topic, Russell asks us what our goals are for 2022 and we share everything from making a new role a success to reading more to even doing a handstand. "Peers Con" is mentioned too which is our conference we would love to find a way of running.

On the main topic, we discuss some of the things we experience outside of work which could provide an influence on our testing, Russell starts by talking about woodwork and this leads to a conversation about destructive testing which links to kids playing with toys for the first time. Parenting becomes a topic of discussion and how generally, kids will not do things in the way expected and will try things differently, this can link back to how users may do things in ways we don't expect. It then moves to talking about what happens if you give the user everything they request, does it actually meet the needs when they get the final product?

The peers cover several other topics such as scientific experiments, houses/architecture, Chinese whispers, apps we use regularly and more. What other topics do you find impact your testing? We'd love to hear from you!

Thank you for listening. Please do get in touch if you would like to know more or would like to give us feedback to help us improve and grow.

• [email protected]
• Twitter (https://twitter.com/testingpeers)
• LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/testing-peers)
• Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/testingpeers/)
• Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/TestingPeers)
• We’re also now on GoodPods, check it out via the mobile app stores
• If you like what we do and are able to, please visit our Patreon to explore how you could support us going forwards: https://www.patreon.com/testingpeers

Saffron QA is a provider of recruitment and consultancy services, exclusively for the software testing industry.

You can find out more at https://saffronqa.co.uk/ or on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/saffron-qa/

We’ve found Ben from Saffron QA to be a great partner who has signed up to the vision and values that we have set out in our Testing Peers charter and we hope that you will take the time to visit and connect with him.

This time around the Peers talk about out positive and negative experiences on 1 to 1s and what has shaped the way we do them as leaders. As you’ll hear from the discussion, we all have different experiences.
We also discuss Simon's shirt choice. Is it Pink or Brown? Check the image out on our twitter!

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Testing Peers. Our gloves are off this week and we don’t have a specific topic to discuss. Instead we allowed the conversation to flow wherever it took us, with the only point being that this was a chance for us to vent about any frustrations we may have within the testing world.

Before diving into the therapy session, we discussed non-testing frustrations during the pandemic (without getting political). We discussed things such as masks on public transport, gatherings in open spaces and scaremongering in the media. Can you feel the anger amongst us??

In the main discussions, we covered everything and anything that came to mind including:

• Hearing other peoples frustrations in the office
• Social Media Trolling
• Business perception of testing
• Job Titles
• Tools
• Cold emails from Tool Vendors and Recruiters

I think we all needed a lie down after this but we enjoyed getting it all off our chests

We’d love to know what you thought of this as an episode. Do you agree with any of our thoughts? Any other rants you wish to share?

Thank you for listening. Please do get in touch if you would like to know more or would like to give us feedback to help us improve and grow.

• [email protected]
• Twitter (https://twitter.com/testingpeers)
• LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/testing-peers)
• Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/testingpeers/)
• Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/TestingPeers)
• If you like what we do and are able to, please visit our Patreon to explore how you could support us going forwards: https://www.patreon.com/testingpeers

Saffron QA is a provider of recruitment and consultancy services, exclusively for the software testing industry.

You can find out more at https://saffronqa.co.uk/ or on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/saffron-qa/

We’ve found Ben from Saffron QA to be a great partner who has signed up to the vision and values that we have set out in our Testing Peers charter and we hope that you will take the time to visit and connect with him.

Thank you for joining us again. On this episode, we discuss our experience with onboarding new members to our teams. We spend time talking about the good and bad things that have happened and suggest ideas to make the onboarding processes as smooth as possible.

Before diving into the main topic, David asks us to think back to times we have onboarded to travel somewhere. The peers all mention different holidays they have been on.

With onboarding, the peers start by discussing the importance of giving the new starter a buddy or the manager clearing their calendar to ensure they are available for the first few days. We also mention the importance of not setting too much of an expectation for work to be completed in the first few weeks.

Everyone has different needs for their onboarding and it's crucial we adapt as best as possible to give the new starter what they need.

The Peers share some of their own stories of onboarding experiences, both good and bad, showing the importance of getting off on the right foot when starting a new role.

I'm sure you all have your own stories of onboarding experiences, please feel free to share with us!

Thank you for listening. Please do get in touch if you would like to know more or would like to give us feedback to help us improve and grow.

• [email protected]
• Twitter (https://twitter.com/testingpeers)
• LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/testing-peers)
• Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/testingpeers/)
• Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/TestingPeers)
• We're also now on GoodPods, check it out via the mobile app stores
• If you like what we do and are able to, please visit our Patreon to explore how you could support us going forwards: https://www.patreon.com/testingpeers

Saffron QA is a provider of recruitment and consultancy services, exclusively for the software testing industry.

You can find out more at https://saffronqa.co.uk/ or on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/saffron-qa/

We’ve found Ben from Saffron QA to be a great partner who has signed up to the vision and values that we have set out in our Testing Peers charter and we hope that you will take the time to visit and connect with him.

Thank you for joining as this time we share our views and ideas on performance and goal setting.

Chris starts us off by taking us into the archive of his brain and on to PE - so we share stories of sporting prowess or lack of.

We move on to talk about why we do performance and goal setting along with some approaches including SMART and CLEAR for goal setting. We share our views about linking goals to bonuses and pay and talk about the complexities of things to consider.

The Peers then talk about judging performance and we touch on how to deal with giving bad reviews and feedback.

I'm sure you all have your own stories and ideas around performance and goals and we'd love to hear them so, please feel free to share with us!

Thank you for listening. Please do get in touch if you would like to know more or would like to give us feedback to help us improve and grow.

• [email protected]
• Twitter (https://twitter.com/testingpeers)
• LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/company/testing-peers)
• Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/testingpeers/)
• Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/TestingPeers)
• We're also now on GoodPods, check it out via the mobile app stores
• If you like what we do and are able to, please visit our Patreon to explore how you could support us going forwards: https://www.patreon.com/testingpeers

Saffron QA is a provider of recruitment and consultancy services, exclusively for the software testing industry.

You can find out more at https://saffronqa.co.uk/ or on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/company/saffron-qa/

We’ve found Ben from Saffron QA to be a great partner who has signed up to the vision and values that we have set out in our Testing Peers charter and we hope that you will take the time to visit and connect with him.