The Best Podcast We Are Going To Put Out This Week (By Some Definition Of Best)

Today marks a milestone. This morning, Episode 131 of This Week in Software Testing has been posted. In it, we conclude the series of Matt Heusser's keynote adress at the Pacific Northwest Software Quality Conference (Part 1 and Part 2 can be obtained here).

This also represents 125 episodes that I have personally produced (I came onto this project back in July of 2010, and my first show, Episode 6, was posted on Aug. 6, 2010).

It's been a lot of fun, I've learned a lot along the way... and you can probably tell with this buildup that there's a change in the air.

There is.

Matt and I have decided that, for now, we are going to put the TWiST podcast on hiatus. No, there's no bad blood between Matt and me (as a musician, I am very familiar with the first question asked whenever a project goes on hiatus; it's assumed that there must have been a fight of some kind). We decided to take stock of what we have covered, who we have talked to and areas that may yet to be covered, and decided that now was a good time to take a breather after two and a half years of weekly production work.

We both love producing this podcast, so for those thinking it's going to go away forever, rest assured, that is not our plan. We both, however, want to take the time to focus on some other opportunities for a bit, and give those projects a chance to get some atmosphere to breathe (there are, after all, only so many hours in a given week that we can devote to those opportunities).

To those who have helped make this a fantastic journey, my thanks. To Matt, first and foremost, for being willing to be in the hot seat week after week, in one way or another, either in interviewing, gathering talent for discussions, or recording "on location" events along with me.

Thanks to our recurring "panel guests" over the past year plus, who helped us make for some great conversations, with special thanks to Benjamin Yaroch and Wade Wachs for their frequent contributions and going above and beyond the call so many times.

Thanks to everyone we have interviewed over the past two and a half years. It's your stories and your experiences that make the show what it is.

Thanks to the people behind the scenes these past two and a half years who have helped with show production, editing, and distribution (Rick Baucom, Rich Hand, Thomas Ponnet, Justin Rohrman, Janette Rovansek, Mark Tomlinson and Farid Vaswani).

Most of all though, thanks go out to YOU, our listeners. You are the reason that we were able to put out "the best software podcast we were going to put out this week (by some definition of best)", week after week. We hope that you have enjoyed these presentations, and will continue to enjoy them well into the future. We look forward to coming back and following the pulse of the software testing world in the not too distant future.

Until then, thanks for listening, and keep discovering :).

Regards,
Michael and Matt

Our Quality History

It's been awhile since I've mentioned anything about the podcast, so I' going to remedy that right now.

For the next few weeks, we are going to be covering the keynote address that Matt gave at the Pacific Northwest Software Quality Conference (PNSQC). PNSQC was held in October of 2012, and in this keynote, Matt covered the history of the quality movement, and the steps that led us to where we are today. I gave a somewhat active run down of this talk in my live blog coverage of PNSQC in October, so please feel free to go there to see that if you would like.

Of course, if you would like to hear it in real time, all you have to do is go to softwaretestpro.com, click on Resources: Podcasts, and select Episode #129 for the first part of the talk. Episode #130 went up today, and the conclusion of the talk (Episode #131) will be posted next week.

Matt and I did some quick calculations, and next wek's episode will be the 125th show I've produced. What an interesting road it's been :).

TWiST turns 100!!!

It's been an interesting ride. Over true past two years, I've had the opportunity to produce, sequence, edit, and format Software Test Professional's 'This Week in Software Testing" podcast. We've changed up the format a few times, explored a number of different avenues, and seen our collective fortunes change considerably from when the idea was first proposed back in 2010, and when I signed on to actually produce the show.

Some things I've discovered along the way:

1. Perfection is asymptotic and impossible to achieve, but just a little bit of clean-up can reap tremendous benefits. The problem comes when we try to go beyond the basics. Stray "ums" and long spots of dead air are easy to achieve, and make a big difference when they are removed, but doing more advanced editing (re-sequencing, cutting phrases to make a more coherent flow, etc.) is really hard to get right. Voice inflection has a rhythm and a flow, and when that rhythm is broken, it's noticeable, possibly even more noticeable than the stray ums or stutters would be. Thus I've learned that, unless it's necessary (audio drop-outs or other actual "damage" or "distraction in the recording), "leave well enough alone" is a good rule of thumb.

2. Remote podcasts are the biggest headache. On one hand, it's great to get recordings of live environs that would be lost to time otherwise, but in some ways, it's tricky because it's hard to get a room balance unless you can plug into a sound board to record. Sometimes that's easy, sometimes not. Usually, Matt or I bring a portable MP3 recorder and we place it in a spot where it can pick up the audio. Sometimes we can extend them from a tripod or a stalk to get a live room feed, but more times than not, the answer is to place the recorder on the podium or table. Positive, it gets the center of the room and when the speaker is lined up, it's crisp and clear. If they pace the room (common with live speakers), we lose them when they are off-axis. Most frustrating is when they "palm the table" or place their hands on the podium. Yep, the recorder picks all that stuff up. If I'm lucky, they are between breaths or at pauses, meaning I can filter them out. If they are during their speaking, and it's an important point, there's nothing I can do but leave it in there and let the bumps and noises be.

3. We do our group meeting calls on Skype, and most of the time, everyone comes in at a slightly different volume. That means that I have to do separation and mixing (really time consuming), or I do track segment amplification, trimming, leveling and normalization. While I haven't gotten to the point where I can do a totally automated "clean and level" with one take, it's gotten to the point where, after I do a course re-leveling of the audio and get most of the audio into a rough volume range, then I can run a number of scripted actions on the file and get the sound as level as possible. This used to take me 30 minutes on a given podcast. I've shortened this down to about ten minutes now.

4. I've experimented with five microphones since this process started, and I've concluded that the Blue Snowball and the Blue Yeti make for the best podcast microphones. They sound warm, they allow for different configurations, and the Snowball in the "Ringer" just plain looks cool. It reminds me of doing a radio show in the 1950s. Also, along with using the Blue Snowball mic, I have decided that 4:00 a.m. really is the best time to record my voice. It sounds way deeper and more sultry (like a real announcer) at that time of day, so it's become a habit to just record my vocal part then when possible. Later in the day, I'm a lot more high pitched and reedier.

So what do we have in store for the next 100 shows? I'm guessing a lot of topics that you all will find interesting, a mix of presentation styles, and hopefully an evolving and cleaner presentation, one that you will enjoy listening to for the next 100 episodes, or more :).

Follow the Crumbs

Just a quick but link heavy note today.


Albert Gareev and I have been collaborating on some articles related to test automation. Albert is really good at working with and designing frameworks. I'm really good at asking lots of possibly stupid questions. Put us together, and we've developed a cool way to determine if your test automation efforts are on track.


This is all an elaborate ruse to get you to go to Software Test Professional's site and read our latest article "Follow the Crumbs to Evaluate Automation". If that isn't enough for you, then download the entire March 2012 issue of ST&QA Magazine.

If that isn't enough for you, and if the CRUMBS story interests you, you might find the story that we did in the January 2012 issue of ST&QA interesting. Look for the article "Coming to TERMS With Test Automation". It's the prequel to our current article.

Finally, if you want to hear about some of my own challenges and foibles dealing with test automation, I got to spend a good chunk of TWiST #86 talking about it.

As always, you do need to register with the site to get to these links, but registration costs you nothing, and we certainly hope the content will make it worth your while to do so. As always, if you have any questions or comments, good or bad, I'd love to hear them :).

Moving Forward By Letting Go

Yesterday's post about how I spend my time actually came at an interesting juncture. As I'd said yesterday, to agree to do something, you have to be willing to not do something else. When Matt and I were sitting in the AST board meeting and the discussions about the Education SIG were happening, as I threw my hat in the ring to take on that responsibility, we both knew I'd have to free up bandwidth to do it.


Over the past fifteen months, I've edited 65 shows, plus several extra spots and other details that have helped to shape "This Week in Software Testing" into the format that it is today. By far the most time consuming aspect is the ongoing editing of the audio. Well, with next week's episode, I'm officially handing over a good chunk of the audio editing piece to Rick Baucom.


It's funny, this should be something that I should be totally happy to stop doing; it's not like I'm not going to be doing production for the show still (I'm going to be constructing the bumpers still and the final deliverable, at least for the foreseeable future, though it's possible I may pass that off too at some point). Still, part of me is resisting handing this off.


I think the reason is that, when we spend the time doing something, especially for a regular deliverable, we develop a lot of domain specific knowledge, and we just plain get good at doing it. When we feel we are good at doing something, we develop a bit of a pride in doing it. Anything that's truly onerous we should be happy to be rid of. In this case, while it was time consuming and meticulous stuff, I greatly enjoyed, and enjoy, doing it.


Having said that, I also know that I will have to, in due time, make commitments to focus on other areas, areas that will give me less time to do the day to day audio editing. I have help, and I'm grateful for it, but now I have to ask myself "am I willing to turn over the authority for doing something I've done for what seems like so long?" In all honestly, part of me isn't. What if the results are not the same as if I'd done them? Well, that's a risk... but so what? Do I have any belief that the podcast will suffer because of it. Well, it may. Or it may not. Fact is, I won't know until I let someone else try. They won't do things my way. They won't have my system down. They won't know the tricks I use to make things work the way that I do. And that's OK. They'll figure out their own ways of doing things. It may even (gasp!) change the flavor of the show, or they may discover some techniques or have access to gear that I don't, and that may even make the overall sound of the show even better, and frankly, that's cool, too.

The simple fact is, it's not my show. I don't own it. STP owns it, and from there, Matt owns it if any single person can say they do. I enjoy working on it, and I will stay connected to it as producer, but the daily engineering will go to someone else, and they'll make their own magic work. And it will be cool, it will be relevant, and it will be "the best software testing podcast... by some definition of best" :).

Here's to future days.

More Tech of TWiST

So we have now done three shows in the new "forum" format, and this has brought to light some interesting challenges.

As we keep working with the format, we discover new details and methods that can be used to help keep the sound as clean as possible. Since this is still an all volunteer deal, we are not currently investing in dedicated voice lines. Skype is still the tool we use, but the more people we have on the call, the greater the odds of breakup in the call.

When in doubt, it's a good idea to see what the "pros" are doing. My pro in this instance is Dan Benjamin, who runs the exceptional podcasting empire over at 5by5.tv. One of the things I like about Dan is the fact that he openly discusses the challenges he faces in producing the shows, and he runs them free and loose a lot of the time, leaving the big edits for bleeps or long delays that need to be tightened up. In any event, during "The Talk Show" with Jon Gruber a couple of weeks ago, he talked about how to get the best consistent vocal quality, even if you are using Skype. The secret? There's two of them. The first is to have everyone actively using their mute buttons on the call when they are not talking. This keeps the cross-talk way down, and also frees up the pipe. Giving each speaker about five to ten seconds to transition also helps keep the cross talk and additional traffic way down. Even more than that, though, is to encourage everyone to not use their wireless connections, and instead to plug their Ethernet cable in. This helps eliminate a lot of problems with connectivity and really helps keep the voice drop outs to a minimum. We realize not everyone can do this, but if possible, please plug in :).

So this week, we continue our discussion with Scott Barber, Dave Limbaugh, and Adam Yuret, with me making some comments as well. While last week was more about discussing the Open Jam sessions being held during STP-CON, this week's episode is more about how to leverage what you learn at a conference and how to come back and be productive immediately. Another challenge is that, even when we get back from a conference with a bunch of fresh ideas, we may find resistance from those who are back home, and a less than enthusiastic response to your renewed vigor and desire for change, so in many ways we have to find things that we can do immediately, and better yet, do things we don't have to necessarily ask permission to put into place. All of the contributors this week offer suggestions in that regard (me, too :) ).

So if I've piqued your interest, please have a listen to Episode #65 of TWiST right here :).

TWiST Change-Up: STP-Con Open Jam

It's been a while since I've talked up the TWiST podcast, and there's been some interesting changes underway.

First, after a year of doing interview specific (for the most part) podcasts, where Matt contacts someone directly and has a dialog specific to their experiences, we decided to do a little bit of a change and do more panel shows, where several participants are interviewed and a general theme is agreed to and discussed in the program. Another plus about this new format is that there's a chance that we'll be doing a rotating panel, which means I may get more opportunities to be on the show in a pundit's role :).


For the podcast we posted last week, Matt invited Scott Barber, Dave Limbaugh and Adam Yuret to talk about their exercises they will be presenting at "Open Jam", which is group of simulations and exercises that will be at STPCon. This is a two part discussion, and as such, I just say hello. You'll hear more from me in part 2, which will go up on Friday.

If you are interested in learning more about Open Jam, check out the STPCon Program. Anyway, enough of my rambling,you should check out the show :).

Podcast Friday: Three Quick Hits

Hello everyone! It's Friday and that means it's time for another batch of my personal weekly "Podcast Favorites" :).

First, of course, is the podcast I actually produce. This time around, This Week in Software Testing interviews Timothy Western (aka @Veretax on Twitter). Matt and Timothy talk a bit about video game beta testing, ho to leverage automated testing, and dealing with finicky customers and project managers. It's a good interview, I think you'll enjoy it :).

Second, Bruce and Trish are back with another installment of TestCast. This features the 2nd installment of their interview with James Bach and this time around James discusses all things pairwise.

Finally, Back to Work is a special treat for me this week. Dan Benjamin is away on vacation, and Merlin decided to take the show in an interesting direction by interviewing Jonathan Coulton (the independent musician who is deservedly referred to as "the geeks Muse"). It's a fun interview and it is surprisingly "on pointe" for Merlin, but then I've heard that Jonathan has that effect on people.

Looking forward to seeing what next week has in store for us all. Happy listening :).

What are YOU Watching?! A Weekend Testing Follow-Up

So this time, I will have to confess, I was a little more nervous than usual. After having run a dozen Weekend Testing sessions, you would think this would be no big deal. Normally it wouldn't be, but this was not an ordinary session. For starters, it was a session based on User Experience, which can be a challenging topic in and of itself. The second reason? I was putting my own company's product and site up for testing. Yikes!!!

I think in a small way every tester gets a little anxious when they invite other testers in to test their product. Yes, I said it, I am the Lone Tester at SideReel and by virtue of that, it makes it in part mine. What it absolutely makes it is a referendum on my own testing awareness and acumen. To be frank, I am well aware that I will not catch everything. I'm also well aware that I can't catch everything all by myself, and that's one of the great benefits of having a team come in, even if just for an hour. Still, it's an uneasy feeling to see comments come in and say "ooh, yeah, I didn't think of that!" or "hey, good catch, I don't know why I didn't see that!"

Considering the caliber of testers, both in range and level of experience that we get at these Weekend Testing sessions (and from all over the world, no less :) ), I'd actually have been surprised if they would only have found issues that I had already discovered, and also I welcome the additional insights as to areas I may have become somewhat jaded around, even after only a few months. Inattentional blindness is a real danger when you test alone. Adding eyes and insights help to mitigate the potential for inattentional blindness considerably.

The other aspect to also consider is the way that multiple users will approach the way they use the site. One of the interesting comments came from Perze Ababa when he asked me why there was a Track Show option for canceled shows. He then explained that, to him, you track shows that are current, because there's some new trail to "track". Shows that are older, completed or had been canceled had no fresh trail to leave, so is "tracking" the right metaphor? Truly, I don't know the answer to that, but it raised an interesting discussion point and pointed out again that, in many cases, User Experience is very much in the eye of the beholder.

Anyway, for those who would like to explore the experience report and the chat transcript more in depth, please feel free to go here to see it.

PODCAST FRIDAY: TWiST #49 w/ Adam Yuret (Part 1)

One of the fun things about getting more involved in the testing community is that you get to know those people making a point of being players in the game. It's much like any scene, really. At first you are the neophyte looking to others as your inspiration and sources of information, but you don't have any direct connection to them. Over time, those names may become people you correspond with or otherwise interact with. As time progresses and you get involved, you work more collegially, and a relationship develops that's more one-to-one, and at some point, you then become one of those players yourself that others look to for inspiration. It's a neat feeling.

Why do I bring this up? Mainly because that's been the way that this podcast has gone for me. Most of the people interviewed at first were people I had no knowledge of other than their names. Later, there were a few people that I'd interacted with briefly and had a chance to do some testing related correspondence with. Through Weekend Testing, I've had the opportunity to learn more about and work directly with a lot of the testers that I've come in contact with, and now we are featuring an interview with someone I've met, come to know and collaborate with directly, and yeah, that's a really cool thing to experience.

So this week Matt sat down with Adam Yuret from VolunteerMatch.org. Adam's another of the "life experiences" school of testers, and he's also another tester who's spent a fair amount of his career in the lone tester camp. He also adds to that in the fact that he's a remote tester working with a team 1,000 miles away. Oh, and he took a three year sabbatical to sail the Sea of Cortez with his wife. Adam was one of the participants in the eBay mini-conf I wrote about a few weeks ago, and he's genuinely a great guy, but seriously enough from me, why note go to the site and listen to and listen to Episode #49 and Adam for yourself :).

Standard disclaimer:


Each TWiST podcast is free for 30 days, but you have to be a basic member to access it. After 30 days, you have to have a Pro Membership to access it, so either head on over quickly (depending on when you see this) or consider upgrading to a Pro membership so that you can get to the podcasts and the entire library whenever you want to :). In addition, Pro membership allows you to access and download to the entire archive of Software Test and Quality Assurance Magazine, and its issues under its former name, Software Test and Performance.


TWiST-Plus is all extra material, and as such is not hosted behind STP’s site model. There is no limitation to accessing TWiST-Plus material, just click the link to download and listen.


Again, my thanks to STP for hosting the podcasts and storing the archive. We hope you enjoy listening to them as much as we enjoy making them :).

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PODCAST FRIDAY: TWiST #48 w/ Eric Jacobson

So for those who are interested, I've set up a little tracker in RescueTime because I wanted to see just how much time I spent on a typical interview each week.

Part of this comes down to my own personal tick; I have tried and I just can't get past the idea of releasing a talk or an interview with "um's" or "uh's" or stammers in it. If I could, I could cut the time way down, but since I won't, well, it takes me on average four hours of editing to produce a 30 minute show each week. Yeah, that's super nerdy, I know, but I think it adds to what I hope is a "polished" podcast. I don't know about the rest of you, but I treat many of my favorite podcasts as reference material; I go back and listen to many of them over and over again. It's my hope that these podcasts are not seen as "throwaway" weekly blurbs, but as real meat and potatoes stuff that people will want to hold onto and listen to over and over again as well.

Serious question, does the flow of the conversation feel normal and natural to you, the listener? I hear every click and pop, as wells every overly inflected point when I edit. Some of that is just not fixable without sounding really artificial, though I have joked with SideReel's resident audio editor that I have become the master of the "poor man's cross-fade", which is where you drop the volume on the last word and fade in on the first word where the edit takes place. Do you hear it? Is it enough to notice or comment on? If so, I'm genuinely curious.

So this week Matt sat down with Eric Jacobson. Eric works with Turner Broadcasting, and manages a team of testers. I liked this interview because he talked about what can be a challenging topic, and that's dealing with motivating testers. I know full well how it feels to be a tester who is just going through the motions, without any real purpose or focus, and I like what he has to say about helping testers get engaged and involved (it inspired an article I'm hoping will be published soon; I'll let you all know if it gets picked up). Eric also explains what it was like to be "invaded" by the Rebel Alliance at a conference last year, where he found out he didn't get the room he had hoped for, but they gave him a suite with a fold down bed, but a big space. This led to a meeting and talk session of the Rebel Alliance and a number of lightning talks by the participants (and video footage, too :) ). So anyway, if you're tired of my blathering, by all means go to and listen to Episode #48 for yourself :).

Standard disclaimer:


Each TWiST podcast is free for 30 days, but you have to be a basic member to access it. After 30 days, you have to have a Pro Membership to access it, so either head on over quickly (depending on when you see this) or consider upgrading to a Pro membership so that you can get to the podcasts and the entire library whenever you want to :). In addition, Pro membership allows you to access and download to the entire archive of Software Test and Quality Assurance Magazine, and its issues under its former name, Software Test and Performance.


TWiST-Plus is all extra material, and as such is not hosted behind STP’s site model. There is no limitation to accessing TWiST-Plus material, just click the link to download and listen.


Again, my thanks to STP for hosting the podcasts and storing the archive. We hope you enjoy listening to them as much as we enjoy making them :).

PODCAST FRIDAY: TWiST #47 w/ Randy Rice

So I'm excited about this week's interviewee.

I can't say for sure, but I think Randy Rice may be the first tester to produce a regular podcast. Over at TestingPodcast.com, the oldest entries are Randy's, so if there are older regularly created podcasts, then I don't know about them. Randy did several podcasts early on in an interview format with Mickey O'Neill that were influential in the way that TWiST is formatted today, so it felt really good to be doing an interview with one of my "testing heroes" and a true podcasting pioneer :).

Randy has been in the game awhile and has seen many changes in the industry over the years. I've also read his "Surviving the Top Ten Challenges of Software Testing" book (my review of which is here), have regularly visited his site over the years and read his various articles, and was really excited to hear about his new book, Testing Dirty Systems.

One of the really valuable pieces of this particular interview is Randy's experience and evaluation of literally hundreds of testing tools over the years. One of his presentations that he gives is on "Cheap and Free Test Tools", which he shares more than a few really good examples of here. Bur really, don't take my word for it, go and have a listen to Episode #47.

Standard disclaimer:


Each TWiST podcast is free for 30 days, but you have to be a basic member to access it. After 30 days, you have to have a Pro Membership to access it, so either head on over quickly (depending on when you see this) or consider upgrading to a Pro membership so that you can get to the podcasts and the entire library whenever you want to :). In addition, Pro membership allows you to access and download to the entire archive of Software Test and Quality Assurance Magazine, and its issues under its former name, Software Test and Performance.


TWiST-Plus is all extra material, and as such is not hosted behind STP’s site model. There is no limitation to accessing TWiST-Plus material, just click the link to download and listen.


Again, my thanks to STP for hosting the podcasts and storing the archive. We hope you enjoy listening to them as much as we enjoy making them :

Twist #46 - with Steve Alexander

It's been a bounty of interviews the past couple of months, so much so that I'm starting to lose count how many are in the pipeline. I've set up a little section in Google Docs so that those of us who actively work with these files can keep track of the schedule and what's coming up, where and when. Seriously, it's a nice problem to have :).

This week’s interview comes to us courtesy of New Zealand and my fellow producer Farid Vaswani. Farid goes to great length to line up and talk to people "down under" that would be good potential candidates for interviews, and this week is no exception. Steve Alexander with Purple Shirt is our guest, and he discusses his specialty area, with is Usability and User Experience. More to the point, it's the intersection between what the user wants and what the organization needs, and trying to strike a balance between providing a product in a timely manner that's effective and providing a quality product that users want to use. If you’d like to hear the interview, then please listen to Episode #46.

Standard disclaimer:


Each TWiST podcast is free for 30 days, but you have to be a basic member to access it. After 30 days, you have to have a Pro Membership to access it, so either head on over quickly (depending on when you see this) or consider upgrading to a Pro membership so that you can get to the podcasts and the entire library whenever you want to :). In addition, Pro membership allows you to access and download to the entire archive of Software Test and Quality Assurance Magazine, and its issues under its former name, Software Test and Performance.


TWiST-Plus is all extra material, and as such is not hosted behind STP’s site model. There is no limitation to accessing TWiST-Plus material, just click the link to download and listen.


Again, my thanks to STP for hosting the podcasts and storing the archive. We hope you enjoy listening to them as much as we enjoy making them :).

Podcast Friday: TWiST #45 w/ Grand Rapids Testers and Selenium Conference

I've been a little quieter this week than usual. the reason is because I've spent some quality time with Audacity, and you will be getting not just one, but *FIVE* podcasts from me this week.


The first, of course, is the TWiST podcast. This week we have Episode #45, and as a change of pace, we decided to record the Grand Rapids Testers Group as they discussed the ideas related to "Is Complete Testing Possible?" This is more than just a regular TWiST podcast. This is an experiment we are undertaking with the Association for Software Testing in which we use some podcasts that specifically relate to their material in their Black Box Software Testing courses. This is the first one that we have dedicated to a specific topic for that purpose.  We are looking to do more in the upcoming months.


In addition to TWiST, I also recorded about 30 hours of audio from the Selenium Conference that was held in SanFrancisco April 4-6, 2011. I have a number of pieces that I'll be presenting, but I will start out with the Keynote presentations first (Jason Huggins, Patrick Lightbody, Bret Pettichord and Simon Stewart).


All of the podcasts that I have presented (or at least an index for them) are listed on this site's Podcasts page. The Selenium Conference podcasts are currently being hosted on a temporary site, and will be moved to a permanent location as soon as we determine where that will be and when we can move them over. Like all material on TESTHEAD, these podcasts have been produced under Creative Commons copyright. If you want to embed them, comment on them, review them, spread them around, etc. go ahead, but please preserve the CC license details at the end (I'm not asking for money, I just want credit for the things I produce :) ).

TWiST #44 with Stephen Copp

After my time in the game industry, I always wondered how other game companies handled their testing needs. Much of the requirements for testing the games at Konami were live action and person intensive processes. Much off our testing was done with consoles attached to VCR's that captured all of our play times and we had a library of what was recorded to review later. NOw that nearly a decade has come and gone since those days, I'm curious to see what the process is like today.

Thus it was definitely cool to work on this week's interview with Stephen Copp. Stephen is a QA Architect with Electronic Arts, and he shared some details about what he does and how he approaches testing within a multi-located organization (not to mention multi-national). Stephen also has the benefit that he's able to work remotely from Colorado (And for those wondering how he landed a gig like this, he talks a bit about that, too :) ). But really, enough of me talking about it go to SoftwareTestPro and listen to Episode #44 for yourself.

Standard disclaimer:


Each TWiST podcast is free for 30 days, but you have to be a basic member to access it. After 30 days, you have to have a Pro Membership to access it, so either head on over quickly (depending on when you see this) or consider upgrading to a Pro membership so that you can get to the podcasts and the entire library whenever you want to :). In addition, Pro membership allows you to access and download to the entire archive of Software Test and Quality Assurance Magazine, and its issues under its former name, Software Test and Performance.


TWiST-Plus is all extra material, and as such is not hosted behind STP’s site model. There is no limitation to accessing TWiST-Plus material, just click the link to download and listen.


Again, my thanks to STP for hosting the podcasts and storing the archive. We hope you enjoy listening to them as much as we enjoy making them :).

TWiST #43 - Heather and Andy Tinkham, Part II

So here's our follow-up to last week's interview with Heather and Andy Tinkham. While Heather was the focus for much of the interview last week, Andy gets his say this time :).

It was col to hear a lot of Andy's comments because it put his talk at Selenium Conference in better context. additionally, it was a lot of fun getting to listen to this interview again and compare it to Andy, Marlena, Dawn and I walking around San Francisco and taking in dinner at The Stinking Rose (*the* destination if you are a fan of garlic and happen to be inSan Francisco :) ). 

Much of Part 2 deals with the ideas of test automation and the manual approach and how essential both are, and that trying to automate everything is a mistake, as much of the work required for good testing cannot be handed over to a computer. But enough of me prattling on about it, please, check out Episode 43 for yourself.

Standard disclaimer:

Each TWiST podcast is free for 30 days, but you have to be a basic member to access it. After 30 days, you have to have a Pro Membership to access it, so either head on over quickly (depending on when you see this) or consider upgrading to a Pro membership so that you can get to the podcasts and the entire library whenever you want to :). In addition, Pro membership allows you to access and download to the entire archive of Software Test and Quality Assurance Magazine, and its issues under its former name, Software Test and Performance.

TWiST-Plus is all extra material, and as such is not hosted behind STP’s site model. There is no limitation to accessing TWiST-Plus material, just click the link to download and listen.

Again, my thanks to STP for hosting the podcasts and storing the archive. We hope you enjoy listening to them as much as we enjoy making them :).

TWiST #42 -- with Heather and Andy Tinkham (Part 1)

So this is a first. As an April 1st gag, uTest launched a spoof site called QAdate.com. In honor of the site, Matt reached out to Heather and Andy Tinkham to be interviewed together. Why? Well, other than being a married couple, they are both testers!

This is also our first two part interview, in that there was too much to cover in just one session (which makes sense when you interview two people :) ). This first part of the interview covers a fair amount of ground, starting with heather's move from academia to business (she was working towards a PhD when she decided she'd had enough) and Andy also described some of his challenges in the academic space and his experiences at Florida Tech studying with Cem Kaner. Andy also talks about what he feels are the benefits and challenges with automated testing and his primary focus on test automation over the years, as well as Microsoft and other companies visibility on that issue. Rounding out the discussion is Matt and Heather talking about companies that deal with the "long ball" aspects of testing and business development, and what it takes to get beyong the quick fix or core competencies to remain relevant for years down the road. Anyway, don't take my word for it, have a listen to Episode 42 for yourself.

Standard disclaimer:


Each TWiST podcast is free for 30 days, but you have to be a basic member to access it. After 30 days, you have to have a Pro Membership to access it, so either head on over quickly (depending on when you see this) or consider upgrading to a Pro membership so that you can get to the podcasts and the entire library whenever you want to :). In addition, Pro membership allows you to access and download to the entire archive of Software Test and Quality Assurance Magazine, and its issues under its former name, Software Test and Performance.


TWiST-Plus is all extra material, and as such is not hosted behind STP’s site model. There is no limitation to accessing TWiST-Plus material, just click the link to download and listen.


Again, my thanks to STP for hosting the podcasts and storing the archive. We hope you enjoy listening to them as much as we enjoy making them :).

TWiST #41 - with Michael Larsen

Sorry for the delay in getting this up, had a busy Friday and weekend. Besides, I always feel a little funny talking about myself when I do an interview.


One thing I will share, though, is that when you listen to yourself off script, you notice some interesting ticks. Whereas I said in the past I don’t typically say “um or ah”, that’s not to say that I don’t have my own verbal idiosyncrasies. The one that I noticed most tellingly this time through for me is that, when I feel anxious or unprepared, I tend to “double speak”. No I don’t mean I’m evasive with answers, I mean that I tend to say things twice. It’s the old “I’m going to tell you something, tell you, and then tell you what I told you. That may be effective in a classroom or in a talk, but it’s annoying in an interview. Needless to say, I was brutal with the editing because of this, so if you hear what feels like stutters in the interview, I figured you’d be more willing to deal with that then me repeating myself ad nauseum (LOL!).


This week’s interview was originally recorded on April 1st, and because of that, we decided it would be fun to mess with the format a bit, including the theme song. Some of you may know this, but for those who don’t we change the theme song every 20 shows. Since this was show 41, we were going to change the song anyway, but Matt thought it would be funny for this show to inject Rebecca Black’s viral YouTube track “Friday” into the mix. We figured if anyone could roll with it and not feel like they were being made fun of, it would be me (and they would be right ;) ). Next week wee will have a different theme, and that will run us out for the next 19 episodes.


This week I talked a bit about my transition from a traditional development environment to an Agile one, and some of the interesting challenges that entails. I also talked a biot about some of the interesting quality environments and expectations with certain products (such as video games, especially before the auto-update abilities of more recent systems), and I also talked a bit about Weekend Testing in the Americas. If you’d like to hear the interview, listen to Episode #41.

Standard disclaimer:


Each TWiST podcast is free for 30 days, but you have to be a basic member to access it. After 30 days, you have to have a Pro Membership to access it, so either head on over quickly (depending on when you see this) or consider upgrading to a Pro membership so that you can get to the podcasts and the entire library whenever you want to :). In addition, Pro membership allows you to access and download to the entire archive of Software Test and Quality Assurance Magazine, and its issues under its former name, Software Test and Performance.


TWiST-Plus is all extra material, and as such is not hosted behind STP’s site model. There is no limitation to accessing TWiST-Plus material, just click the link to download and listen.


Again, my thanks to STP for hosting the podcasts and storing the archive. We hope you enjoy listening to them as much as we enjoy making them :).

TWiST #40 -- with Fiona Charles

So this was a challenging week to edit a podcast, all things considered. The Selenium conference was in town, and I was an attendee (see my past three entries for my live notes from the various sessions that I attended).


Normally, I use the spare time that I get in the various times of the day to edit these details, but the conference left me few times where I would be able to do that, so that left me with early morning or late at night (and those who follow the blog know that I'm next to useless late at night, so early morning it was). I was actually able to get the podcast done early this week, and therefore it's been up for a day already (that doesn't usually happen, but I hope the early treat was enjoyed by you all out there :) ).


This week's interview is with Fiona Charles. Fiona is a consultant who's specialty is test management for large scale companies and organizations, both private as well as public/government projects.  Fiona is the principal consultant with QualityIntelligence. Her  blog and twitter details are in the links.


Fiona takes on a number of topics related to large projects, dealing with the challenges and issues that those projects face, including project and corporate politics and the roles of testers in that big mix. But why listen to me prattle on about it, go check out Episode #40 for yourself :).


Standard disclaimer:


Each TWiST podcast is free for 30 days, but you have to be a basic member to access it. After 30 days, you have to have a Pro Membership to access it, so either head on over quickly (depending on when you see this) or consider upgrading to a Pro membership so that you can get to the podcasts and the entire library whenever you want to :). In addition, Pro membership allows you to access and download to the entire archive of Software Test and Quality Assurance Magazine, and its issues under its former name, Software Test and Performance.


TWiST-Plus is all extra material, and as such is not hosted behind STP’s site model. There is no limitation to accessing TWiST-Plus material, just click the link to download and listen.


Again, my thanks to STP for hosting the podcasts and storing the archive. We hope you enjoy listening to them as much as we enjoy making them :).

TWiST #39 - with Kristin Dukic & Peter Walen

So this week's show was interesting to say the least. The content was interesting, but more to the point, I havd to figure out how to chunk a talk that was an hour long down to 25 minutes. Matt went to the Grand Rapids Testers Users group and brought his audio recorder. The presentation was ffrom Kristin Dukic and Peter Walen, then of ISD Corporation (which has recently been purchased by ACI Worldwide.

If you would like to know more about the full talk they gave at STPCon Spring in Nashville, check out - "No Box Mixes: Building a QA Team From Scratch."  If you were there, you may already have heard it. If not, you can now her the cliff notes version that is Episode #39.


Standard disclaimer:


Each TWiST podcast is free for 30 days, but you have to be a basic member to access it. After 30 days, you have to have a Pro Membership to access it, so either head on over quickly (depending on when you see this) or consider upgrading to a Pro membership so that you can get to the podcasts and the entire library whenever you want to :). In addition, Pro membership allows you to access and download to the entire archive of Software Test and Quality Assurance Magazine, and its issues under its former name, Software Test and Performance.



TWiST-Plus is all extra material, and as such is not hosted behind STP’s site model. There is no limitation to accessing TWiST-Plus material, just click the link to download and listen.



Again, my thanks to STP for hosting the podcasts and storing the archive. We hope you enjoy listening to them as much as we enjoy making them :).