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Essay

A collection of 19 issues

What makes a good software QA person?

We have a few quirks, a hint of obsessive compulsive disorder, and we’re brutally honest. We never lie to our developers. We don’t sugar-coat, soft-shoe, back-peddle, exaggerate, or outright lie. We can’t. Our job requires us to be utterly truthful. We’ll tell it to you straight,

Résumé do's and don'ts

(Written for a friend who was teaching a class of young people.) Do be selective. You don't have to list every job you've ever had. Highlight the relevant ones, and highlight specific things you learned or did at those jobs. The purpose of a résumé is

How to have a meeting that doesn't suck

Have a defined end-point for the meeting, and get there as soon as you can. Take your own notes, by hand, on paper. You'll notice what's relevant to you and the act of writing helps you recall it. Allow audience participation, it's not a

The Red Team Rules for Software QA

I found the Original 12 Red Team Rules recently (there's profanity in the list), and a lot of them are relevant to life as a software quality advocate/analyst/engineer/assurance person with a bit of modification. Rule 1: Know when the test will be over.(Was: Always

Candidates, things your interviewers want you to know

(This is close to my heart because I’ve done a bunch of interviews lately, some good, some not so good.) If a skill or qualification is on your resume, I will ask you about it, especially if it's one I also have. Claim to know C# and

Words to a new software QA

We're not after the developers. We're after their code. It's not personal. If they didn't want us to find the bug, they shouldn't have written it in the first place. QA starts with the requirements, if those are vague, the

From QA to Dev

Dear programmers, a few notes from your QA team lead: We don't actually hate you. Not by default, and not at first. It takes time and effort on your part to earn the ire of the QA team. But if you tangle with one of us, you tangle

Writing tips

In preparation for the start of National Novel Writing Month on November 1st, here are my writing tips: * Keep a notebook and pen with you at all times. * Write longhand. Not all the time, but if you don't, your hands will drop off, and your handwriting will deteriorate.

Maintenance lessons

My first car was a silver Rover Metro 1.3S made in 1981 with a four speed manual transmission and Pirelli P4 low profile racing tires, the license plate was something like SPV 918 W. Dad bought it in 1992 and we cleaned it up, repaired it, and I drove

Skydiving

No-one ever told me before today it is possible to lose a shoe while skydiving. I was with two other first timers, and all three of us immediately tightened our shoes. "If you lose one, just kick the other one off so you don't look like an

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