So far I’ve written a few blog posts around conducting RCAs where I’ve focused on the people and questions. However what I’ve yet to touch upon is the documentation side. In a similar idea to the concept that the activity of coming up with a test plan is more important than the document itself, I […]
Category: Experience Reports
I’ve already talked about how we need to tap into unleashing our inner toddler by asking “why”. But what questions do we ask? Background Before getting into the guts of the RCA I like to go through the background. This is partly to act as a refresher for everyone as it may have been a […]
I love collaboration and making exercises something that people can engage with. It is usually the discussion that matters more than what gets written on paper. For this to be successful, you need to have the right people in the (virtual) room. As we’ve touched upon already, the RCA should touch upon all areas of […]
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Meaningful RCAs: Asking Why
I did my first RCA back in 2019. We looked at each stage of development and used a “5 whys” approach to tap into why it wasn’t caught at this stage. We maintained this approach over the next few years and when I switched to my more coaching/leadership role in 2023, I started running them […]
I’m currently writing about RCAs in a series of posts. If you aren’t familiar with them, check out my Meaningful RCAs page first. One of the key things that I would emphasise before every RCA is that there needs to be either zero blame or full org blame. As I’ve written before, it takes a […]
Software development is tricky. It can involve complicated tools, languages, domain spaces and a variety of teams & roles. The world in which we work is constantly changing and evolving and we need to adapt. On top of that, knowing best working practices isn’t instinctive like shark hunting or bird migration patterns. We need to […]
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Sketchnoting Adventures
I’ve been meaning to write this for a while but after a really interesting conversation at TestBash, I decided to finally get something written down! In June 2023 I attended Testing Atelier X and it included a workshop by Marianne Duijst on sketchnoting. I’ve seen some very attractive looking sketchnotes from many people, including the […]
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2023 – A Reflection
It has been some year. I started in a dark place with lots of change underway. However it is, professionally speaking, been a bit of an immense year. Speaking Building upon my first time speaking at a testing conference in 2022, I’ve been fairly active. From running a threat modelling workshop for a small set […]
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Running Workshops
A little while ago I was asked about my experience and learnings from running workshops and what advice I have. I thought I’d share my thoughts on here. As a quick note up front, I am under no illusion that I’m not an expert and am still learning. I did also look into teaching as […]
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Collaborative reflections
Earlier this year I wrote about my changing role and push to help improve working practices and support my teams in testing. In terms of my role, it is certainly coming together. Over the past few weeks I’ve been getting involved more and more with teams and helping teams reflect on quality. My big win […]