The lone tester survival guide

25-minute New Voice Talk

From the world of the lone contract tester. I will show you how to exceed expectations in your projects and find needed work balance (with little bit of video game magic)

Timetable

2:45 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. Wednesday 17th

Room

Room F1 - Track 1: Talks

Audience

Tester, QA engineers, Contract testers

Key-Learnings

  • Tips on how to thrive in your role and not to burn out
  • Skills and heuristics to find yourself in any project at any time
  • Showcase how Rapid Software Testing and Modern Testing methodologies could work together in your favour

How to adapt to any project and be successful

Starting in a new project can be an overwhelming task on its own. A multitude of different technology stacks, product functionalities, project structure and domain knowledge to absorb. On top of that it is crucial to think about development team dynamics and processes to fit in.

From the start of my career, I have been working on over 15+ development projects as a contract tester. In the majority of projects I was the only dedicated tester in the development team. Difficulties stated above, overwork and burnout, forced me to restructure my work. Using heuristics, cheat sheets and different methodologies like Rapid Software Testing and Modern Testing principles, I came up with ways to thrive in my role and bring value to the team not only with a tester hat on.

In this talk you will find support materials to excel in being the lone tester (or even improve your existing testing role). I will arm you with tips, tricks, lessons learned that will help you survive in your work from the professional to mental health side. Upon that I will present my METROIDVANIA heuristic that will help you no matter what kind of product you are testing or if you are starting work in a new project or are a veteran in an existing one. Speaking of metroidvania (game genre), I will tell my story in the style of Hollow Knight. It’s an awesome video game and its mechanics, themes and plot will support topics brought in the talk.

Related Sessions

Mon, Nov 15 • 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Full-Day Tutorial (6 hours)

Tue, Nov 16 • 5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m.
Room F1+F2+F3 - Plenary

45-minute Keynote

Tue, Nov 16 • 10:45 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Room D5+D6 - Track 6: Accessibility Deep Dive

105-minute Workshop