The Lazy tester in me

The topic might not be new, I already heard, read and found a lot of information on google. But yesterday when I went to one of the team members running tests that were failing for our BA I realized that finding test data and information and using it while doing the tests is one of the key reasons why bugs are missed out in test cycles. Keeping all the boundary test data always handy is not something...

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Hold the snafu

Communication can never be easy, especially when you are working over phones, Skype and other such media tools and I don’t say its only verbal communication. A week ago my wife asked me over whatsapp “On your way home, can you bring some tablets?” my reply “Yes” and we ended up in a late night fight when I asked her “what medicine? O that one?” No it was not a problem of commitment vs delivery...

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Mahabharat - The Epic Tale

I first read Mahabharata a few years ago (Not to mention I have seen the TV show that used to run on Doordarshan). The Epic story never stopped fascinating me. Each time I read, it intrigued me to look at a different perspective of life... My reading of Mahabharata was a Pandav driven perspective, until I was introduced to "Mrityunjaya" by Shivaji Sawant a point of view of Karna. The book enlightened...

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Brainstorming is not Q&A, Don't make it one

Crowd sourcing ideas is an effective way to innovate, but do brainstorming really create the required effect? This has always been a question to me, the brainstorming sessions I am required to attend for the product feature work we do, at times just sound like Q&A sessions, they lack the luster, effectiveness and are always around the first idea that gets discussed on how a feature need to work. Typically...

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Know your tools

A colleague a few days ago passionately spoke to me on how we don't have access to new tools that are storming market and provide some amazing features. I could not disagree for the world of internet always fascinates me with its offerings. Our discussion had started around "what do we do to make our tests better"specially to have a stimulation to our customers usage patterns or infrastructure, New...

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Scrum : Who is for what?

Scrum very clearly defines a simple rule for the attendees and the participants. No unwanted noise. When the scrum guide states "The Scrum Master enforces the rule that only Development Team members participate in the Daily Scrum. The Daily Scrum is not a status meeting, and is for the people transforming the Product Backlog items into an Increment." It really has a reason. Most scrums I just...

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