All-remote for better communication

All-remote retrospective

In February I wrote about the experimental retrospective format for our team’s “cross-pod retro” (so-called, because our large team is divided into smaller pods). Since then, my manager Jo Webb and I have continued to tweak the retro format, based on feedback from surveys done following each retro. Building on feedback Our teammates said they […]

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Fern Cats

Telling stories together while practicing critical thinking with VTS

We use our story telling and critical thinking skills constantly as we test and develop software. How often do we practice those skills on something other than features we are going to release to production? Musicians practice their craft. Even coders can practice their craft with katas and code retreats. How can we practice telling […]

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Pairing station

Tips for tester-developer pairing

My article on pairing with developers is live on the Ministry of Testing. I love pairing with developers. It’s fun, and I learn so much. I feel we are really building quality in together, catching issues early, finding inconsistencies or questions to discuss with the product owner. Whether you’re a tester or a developer, I […]

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When the whole team owns testing: Building testing skills

The Twitterverse and other social media continue to host many discussions on topics such as “Do testers need to code?” As Pete Walen points out in his recent post, the “whole team” approach to delivering software, popularized with agile development, is often misunderstood as “everyone must write production code”. The “Whole Team Approach” in practice […]

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