Software testing talks: testers intuition, immortal AI and testing your vaccination QR code

In the ‘Software testing talks’ blog posts we regularly highlight the quality assurance matters and testers’ discussions around the world about hot topics related to software development and testing.

Check it out — all important events in one place instead of following dozens of groups and channels.

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This week folks were chatting about the following topics:

• Does testers’ intuition exist? 
• Are you fine with the name of your job position? 
• Where is QA Eldorado for learning how to test? 
• Do you really need to test QR codes? 
• How to get 10+ experience in testing when you are only 22yo? 
• Do product designers need to be testers too? 
• Has your mom ever told you not to sit too close to a screen? 
• Where the long verification can bring you to? 
• Is there a way to kill AI?

Sometimes it is very challenging not to agree with the most and insist on your position. There might be some factors that can help you to identify when pursuing is needed but what about intuition? Does it even exist especially in the QA industry?

I feel good that I stuck to my guns and found a defect

“I had one test case left to execute to complete the sprint on Friday. Everyone told me that it’s a waste of time to test that last thing because it’s guaranteed to work. We hadn’t changed that logic, so our new feature would work fine. I had the Devs, Dev manager, product owner and directors complaining that I’m holding things up. I even said, “I’m sure it’ll work, but I’ll look stupid if it doesn’t, so I have to test it”.

So I tested it this morning and it didn’t work. I was on a call with 2 Devs for almost an hour, all scratching our heads, wondering why it wouldn’t work. It turned out that a bit of text had a trailing space. So, we’ve fixed it by making our code trim strings in future.

I was right to insist that I complete my test plan. If anyone tries to hurry me again, I’ll remind them of this. I’ve received virtual pats on the back from everyone. Our feature wouldn’t have worked at all with this bug. It’s a good feeling.”

>> check this thread out in the r/softwaretesting Reddit community.

I decided to share three answers at once because they work perfectly together.

In the “Software testing talks #8,” I had already highlighted a similar topic about who is QA coordinator. And it is kind of triggering for IT employees because sometimes the same type of job with the same responsibilities can be assigned to people with different backgrounds. But salaries are insanely different just based on the title position.

Does the position title matter so much?

“Hi, as the title suggests if the position title matters so much as I am currently dealing with multiple offers as Senior Experienced test analyst (11 YOE). I have been offered by multiple companies of which I have shortlisted two as my potential organisations.

The dilemma I am facing is that I am more inclined towards Company A because I liked the product they are building and want to work on it, the only problem is that the position name is Senior Automation QE, not sure but I think the position name will affect my future career growth as my current position title is Staff QA and it feeling I coming one step down. It is very much possible that I am stressing for nothing and this position will have everything that a Staff QA does. Whereas Company B is offering me a similar package with a position of Lead QA, initially I will be the sole QA but the product they are building is the same as what I am working on currently.

Following is the info of both the offers

Company A Title — Senior Automation QE Base salary — £100K Equity — $95K (Vested 4 years) Benefits — Remote and other usual benefits Org — Scale Up with funding of more than 1 billion. Been there for almost 10 years. Initially bootstrapped but started doing investment rounds a couple of years before. The company has around 700 Employees. I asked the recruiter and he said that the position above Senior QA is QA manager.

Company B Title — Lead QA Base salary — £100K Equity — $95K (Vested 4 years) Benefits — Remote and other usual benefits Org — Startup with 15 employees. Doing initial seeding round and has been in the industry for 3 years. I will be the first QA and I need to set up QA process and own the quality approach

Can anyone put my mind at ease and explain if I am stressing for nothing?”

>> check this thread out in the r/softwaretesting Reddit community.

I would really recommend you to see the whole discussion but one the response I will remember for a long time — bold and fair:

I don’t know about the best places to learn how to write test cases but definitely, some tools and software can make it easy as pie. 

Best places to learn how to write test cases and a Test plan?

“Where can I learn and practice this?”

>> check this thread out in the r/softwaretesting Reddit community.

I find this answer the most relevant to my personal experience. And it is very comprehensive in the way that sooner or later any tester will come up with the idea of automation of testing. I would also recommend learning how aqua ALM works with test writing because it might be a good solution for people who are looking for testing software. You can do it during your 30 days free trial. 

Son, are you winning? Hopefully, you got this reference to this viral video. I still wonder if we are winning COVID-19 but knowing how to test QR codes is essential for any tester. So, in the answers to this thread, you can find a couple of useful links which can help you to find out how to test QRs.

Testing QR Code

“Hi, guys! How would you suggest testing a QR code? Is there a Maven library that you use?”

>> the full thread with the links to specified sources is available in the r/softwaretesting Reddit community.

Twitter influencers don’t treat us with super exciting discussions last week but I still found some interesting posts that probably will make you smile.

I definitely feel that frustration in this tweet. First of all, is this practical to find mistakes in a job description before getting this job interview? And the second one, have you ever seen the job description when an employer wants to have young testes or developer under 30 yo with 10—15 years work experience?

>> You can share your job interview stories under this tweet here.

Working as a product designer has a lot of underwater rocks. So for a short period of time, you have to learn how to debug your own design and how not to kill and keep patience if a layover designer screwed your design in a final product. 

>> Check this tweet here.

Did your mom tell you not to sit too close to a screen?

>> Check this tweet here.

 The verification process can be very exhausting especially if the UX designer didn’t think it through. One more field in the contact form and you can say “Bye-bye” to a potential lead… or maybe even worse based on this meme.

>> Check this tweet here.

There is still not too much information about how to efficiently test AI and how you can implement this into your testing. But let’s start from the bottom. How to test if your AI is immortal.

>> Check this tweet here.

I hope this little dive into events of the week was interesting and now you know more details on what the software testing community likes to discuss. 

Don’t forget to follow the Software Testers Ideas Flow group on FB and r/softwaretestingtalks on Reddit to get testers’ ideas flow every week directly to your feed.

I would also be happy to get your feedback, suggestions, or ideas about ‘Software Testing Talks’ blogs. Don’t hesitate to contact me on Linkedin. Let’s make the testers’ community bigger! 🙂