Quality Bits

How can we know that the products we're building are going to make a positive impact on the world? Could it be that it's only good for people like us, but does harm to others? What can we as individuals do to improve the products we're building? In this season finale episode of Quality Bits, Lina talks to Catherine Flick, a Professor of Ethics and Games Technology at Staffordshire U...

Have you ever heard of W. Edwards Deming? What about... the Toyota way? Lean? DevOps? John Willis is one of the pioneers of the DevOps movement, and, has recently released a book "Deming's Journey to the Profound Knowledge". In this latest episode of Quality Bits you'll hear more about this book, and the ideas of Deming that we can still learn so much from when wanting to build...

Imagine the world with no sight. No hearing. No mobility. It's hard to comprehend how to navigate the world then. It's a reality for more people than we imagine. It also may have been or might be yours - there as well may be situational or temporary times in your life when you need a more accessible world.  In this episode of Quality Bits, Lina talks to an accessibility consultant Azra T...

What does it mean to be a "team glue"? Why does it matter? Why QA should be positioned as a tech leadership role? Tune in the latest episode with the inspiring Vernon Richards to get the answers to these questions and so much more. Find Vernon on : His website: https://www.vernonrichards.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vernonrichards/ X:  https://twitter.com/TesterFromLeic Men...

Learning is essential, but... It's easy to fall into a learning fatigue. It can feel like one more thing in our already overflowing to-do list. To make matters more challenging, the number of online resources to learn from is growing daily. Marie Cruz is a Senior Developer Advocate: her job is to learn and share what she has learned. In this episode, Lina talks to Marie about creating the hab...

Automated E2E (end-to-end) tests frequently are the first thing companies introduce trying to reduce the efforts of manual testing: "There's this big manual testing regression suite, so why don't we automate it? Right? ... Right?" Well, Bas Dijkstra thinks otherwise. In this episode, we'll talk about automating the right things instead, and, why E2E tests are not always th...

More and more software delivery teams embrace the whole team quality approach. Where does testing fit into that? Modern testing principles are there to help to understand what the industry is moving towards. In this episode, Lina talks to Alan Page - one of the creators of modern testing principles. He's an avid blogger who has quite a few opinions on better software delivery. Tune into this...

Ever been in a situation where you're trying to make a point to someone and as much as you try to phrase it differently, it just does not go through? On the other side, have you ever had someone approach you and despite you first having the opposing point of view, they quickly convince you otherwise? Those are the persuasion skills in action.  After hearing Thomas Shipley's talk on persu...

As of February, 2024, English is the most popular language for web content. The world is not only people who speak English, though. If we do not make the content and products in other languages, how can people even know that it exists and benefit from it? In this episode of Quality Bits, Lina talks to Chen Hui Jing, a front-end developer passionate about internationalization. Tune in to learn how...

What is DevOps? Is it just continuous releases and speed? How do we test in teams embracing DevOps? Jani Haapala is a DevOps Architect with a Quality Consultant title. In this episode, Lina talks to Jani about that fluffy word of "DevOps", the misconceptions about it, and testing in DevOps. You'll learn more about the concept, get some stories on what good quality there looks like,...

Does a separate QA department help or hurdle the company's road towards quality? What about people having titles with "quality" in it: does it aid to drive change in the company or the opposite? Can there be a high-quality product without dedicated testers? In this episode of Quality Bits, Lina talks to the author of "Explore it!" Elisabeth Hendrickson. They debunk many my...

In this episode of the Quality Bits podcast, Lina  interviews Andrei Bechet, a Senior Software Engineer at Personio. You will learn about  experiments, driving change, and the power of learning cultures with Andrei. You'll also hear why chasing titles isn't the key to career growth - and what to do instead. Tune in to learn the secrets of collaboration, self-reflection, and finding the r...

Antonela Mandic is a psychologist who has been working in tech as well as a team coach. In this episode of Quality Bits, Antonela not only shares the parallels between pscyhology and some tech concepts like agile, but also opens up about burnout she has gone through herself. Tune in to hear more about: What burnout is The road to recovery Steps you can take to prevent it ... and so much more :) Fi...

Performance testing for many people in tech is a daunting task: there's an overwhelming amount of tools, frameworks, or even different types of performance testing. Where can we start? Is it all about faster applications? Are there ever cases where speed takes a back seat? This episode's guest Nicole van der Hoeven is a Senior Developer Advocate at Grafana Labs. With over 10 years of exp...

In the light of Movember (a movement that aims to raise awareness about men's health, including mental health and suicide prevention) and international men's day (did you know about that?), this is a special, vulnerable, and essential episode about men's mental health. In this episode, Lina talks to Shey Crompton - a Senior Quality Manager at easyJet and the managing director of the...

DHIS2 is an open-source health system used in many countries. It's known for it's generic architecture and high customisability. How do you have a generic design for diverse environments and build a product that  helps save lives? This episode's guest Joe Cooper is a designer working there for more than 7 years. We discuss the challenges of designing what actually matters, user sati...

Do you think of money when you talk about quality? Is money vs. quality the same as speed vs. quality? How can we leverage the knowledge about money matters when talking about product quality? This episode's guest Valentin Ranshakov, a QA expert at SAP Signavio, shares many interesting ideas about money and quality trade-offs, including when it does not make sense to concentrate on money. Fin...

Laid off? Or know someone who was? How do you navigate it or help someone navigate it? In this episode of Quality Bits, Lina talks to April Johnson, a change manager who recently experienced a layoff. April shares her experience and offers advice for others going through a similar situation. You'll learn about the importance of reaching out to your network, the power of community, taking care...

APIs - what are they? What should we keep in mind when testing an API? What are the benefits of API testing over UI testing? This episode's guest is Callum Akehurtst-Ryan, a principal test engineer at Chetwood Finance, who is on a mission to educate more testers (and not only) about APIs and their testing. Not only you're going to learn what APIs are, how to test them, or where to start,...

Do you remember your childhood dreams? What did you want to be when you grew up? How did you imagine your life? Dr. Rochelle Carr is a coach and speaker on a mission to shift people's lives and encourage them to rediscover their why: the guiding light purpose which sparks joy in whatever we do. In this episode, Lina talks to Dr. Rochelle about finding your why, escaping society's "m...

What makes an effective 1-on-1? What are the key aspects of valuable 1-on-1s? Is there a difference between a leader and a manager? Why does the language we use matter? Tune in to this episode to learn more from Farai Madzima. Farai is a people leader who challenges our misconceptions about 1-on-1s and shares valuable tips on making these meetings much more helpful. In addition, during the convers...

User experience (UX) research is a field that can help us prevent issues before they take place. Greta Ruskiene knows this first-hand: she used to work as a QA and made a career shift to UX with time. In this episode, we discuss UX research, the art of question-asking, and how frequently, even when we truly believe we know our users, we may not. Find Greta on : - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com...

What's the difference between observability and monitoring? What's a telemetry? Why do they matter, and how could we use them more beneficially? Abby Bangser shares her journey from a QA to a platform engineer in this episode. We discuss the similarities between testing and infrastructure-related areas like site reliability engineering. In addition, Abby explains observability and shares...

With over a decade in data-related roles, working with Data Science, Data Engineering, Machine Learning, and MLOps Engineering, Aurimas Griciūnas is a great role model for many people wanting to learn more about data. The author of the SwirlAI newsletter with over 7000 subscribers, Aurimas' posts with visuals explaining data have reached many more people on LinkedIn. In this episode, Aurimas...

We've all worked with "heroes," great professionals who frequently "save the day" in the company. What if we'd instead prevent the day from needing the saving altogether? Dan Abel believes in 10x teams rather than 10x engineers. Listen to this episode to learn more about it and what aspects to concentrate on when setting up the teams for success. Find Dan on : - Linke...