Testing Peers

Testing Peers podcast has reached 100 episodes! Beth Marshall (10 episodes), chairs this special look back and forward episode, joined by Simon Prior (78 episodes), Russell Craxford (88), Chris Armstrong (93) and David Maynard (96). Beth skillfully guides the conversation to talk about the podcast and beyond, what are we most proud of? A few little peeks behind the curtain, including some insight...

One away from the big 100, what better way to celebrate than talking about our experience with failures? Simon, Chris, Russell and David share stories of failures from their careers and what they have learned from them. Before diving into the main topic, Chris leads the banter and asks the Peers about their failures when it comes to computer games, which ones did they really suck at? :) Sports gam...

Welcome to another episode of the Testing Peers podcast. On this episode, Chris, Russell and David are joined by a new guest, Jon Robinson. The topic they all discussed was the wonders (or lack of wonder) around Meetings. Jon leads the banter and asked everyone for their weirdest/craziest meetings, this covers everything from awkward situations, to lack of context, to managers taking over and send...

Happy New Year from the Testing Peers! In this episode, the FullSnackTester, Ben Dowen joins Russell, David and Chris as we talk collaboration. Before the main event, Ben asks the group about resolutions, where the group talk about reading, fitness, cooking, answering conference calls for papers and our own conference #PeersCon, coming March 14th 2024 in Nottingham, more information can be found a...

Merry Christmas, season's greetings and happy holidays from the Testing Peers! Welcome to our fourth annual festive episode. Steve Watson, Tara Walton, Lena Nyström & Dermot Canniffe join Chris, Russell, David and (eventually) Simon as we engage in Would Heu-risk it? at this time of the year. Before we dive into the main event, Russell asks the Peers our favourite thing at Christmastime:-...

Thank you for joining the Testing Peers for another episode. On this one, Chris, David, Simon and Russell discuss the role of the manager and whether we still need them. Before jumping in, David asks the peers what things they can't live without, we have answers from people, the internet, books and coffee machines. Simon starts the main conversation of whether we could live without managers....

Welcome to another episode of the Testing Peers podcast. This time, join Chris, David, Vernon and Russell as they discuss the topic of 'being not doing', the theme for the Testing Peers Conference #PeersCon, on March 14th 2024.  https://testingpeerscon.com/  After breaks the ice asking us 'where is your favourite place to be?' we jump into what we mean with being not doing. The...

Welcome to another episode of the Testing Peers. The Awesome foursome back together again with the topic of fighting fires and some of the additional effort that is needed when it is all hitting the fan. Chris starts off the banter with asking us about memes we may use in the workplace, we have everything from Homer Simpson, Bryan Danielson, Barney Stinson and Mr Bean. We then dive into the main t...

Welcome to the latest edition of the Testing Peers podcast. This time, David and Chris are joined by Dermot and also brand new host Sanne. The peers are talking about first impressions and how reputations can sometimes proceed you. Sanne starts the conversation off with a great question of "what do you friends know you best for?", for any of you that know the peers, what do you think of...

Welcome to another episode of the Testing Peers, this week David, Beth, Chris and Russell. This week we focus on flow work Russell is on banter duty this week and we start with what gets us singing along to songs, it seems it doesn't take much to get us singing. How do you get into a flow state? Beth introduces the topic and David starts us off with a mention of the Pomodoro Technique. Chris...

Welcome to another episode of the Testing Peers and in what is fast becoming a rare event, the band are back together, with Russell, Chris, David and Simon all present at the same time for a recording. We decided to talk about something which has been touched upon in previous episodes, the misconceptions of the testing world and what we can do to prove they are myths. Chris starts us off with the...

Welcome to another episode of the Testing Peers. Chris and Simon are absent again so David and Russell are joined by 2 new guest hosts in Dermot Canniffe and Beren van Daele. Dermot asks the peers about what they have recently committed to and enjoyed regarding TV and film. A variety of answers from the latest Mission Impossible to German TV shows. Beren starts the main conversation by talking abo...

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Testing Peers podcast. This time, join Chris, David, Tara and Callum as we discuss the topic of feedback. Before diving into the main topic, Callum asks what type of adventurer we would be. Both Callum and Tara have a background producing content around Dungeons & Dragons from a quality perspective. Links to these will be at the bottom of these show...

Welcome to another episode of the Testing Peers podcast. This week join Russell, David, Chris and first-time host, Beth Clarke, as the Peers discuss careers in software testing. After a cuddly toy-themed opening, the group talk about paths into software testing, with the group's academic paths coming from biology, astrophysics, architecture, humanities & politics. We have talked before ab...

Welcome to another episode of the Testing Peers podcast. Tara Walton and Vernon Richards join Chris on this week's episode as we talk about content creation. Before diving into the main topic, Vernon introduces the banter topic of travelling pet peeves - familiar topics covered included comfort, fear, other people, hidden costs and more. Then we dive into the main topic of content creation. W...

Welcome to another episode of the Testing Peers podcast. This time, join David, Chris, Simon and guest-host, Steve Watson, as we talk about red flags. Before diving into the main subject, the Peers discuss if they've ever been told that they're a lookalike for anyone famous. Diving into the topic of red flags, the Peers cover all manner of red flags that they look for, have experienced a...

Welcome to episode 84 of the Testing Peers podcast. This week, Sam Nitsche joins regular hosts David, Russell and Chris as we discuss deadlines. After initially covering our relationships with deadlines while in school, we jump into the main topic, deadlines that impact, or are impacted by testing. The conversation touches deadlines as a tool, agility, cadence, quality and risk. Are deadlines fixe...

Welcome to another episode of the Testing Peers. A fully stacked panel for this episode with Simon, Russell and David being joined by Shey and Beth (shows the hole that Chris leaves when he's not around that we need to replace him with 2!). The topic for this episode was to focus on the leadership activity of delegation, looking at it from both the leader who is delegating and the team being...

Welcome, this week, join Russell, David, Chris and special guest host, Vernon Richards as we discuss healthy workplace expectations and if we're normal! Before diving in, the Peers discuss annoying software from ITV player to MsTeams and banks software, a lot of software seems to annoy us.  Russell introduces the topic, how we balance the pressures we put on on ourselves and other put on us f...

Welcome back for another episode of the Testing Peers. We are releasing this on the back of Mental Health Awareness Week 2023, which has the theme of Anxiety, so the Peers will dive into their experiences with Anxiety and how they have combatted it in the past. Before going into the main topic, Simon brings up the topic of "Peers Con" which the Peers have aspirations to run this year, bu...

Welcome to another episode of the Testing Peers podcast, and this release falls almost three years after episode one. Thank you for joining us on this journey. This week, regulars David and Chris are joined by Steve Watson and our first American, Tara Walton. In Peers tradition, we kick off with some banter, and Tara gets the ball rolling by asking the group about our most recent board gaming expe...

Welcome to another episode of the Testing Peers. Regular hosts Chris, David and Russell are joined by the Semi-Regular host Shey to discuss all about Quality Shift moments, where our understanding or perspective around aspects of testing/quality may have changed forever. Before diving into this, Chris starts the banter with looking at "aha moments" and without doing it intentionally, anc...

Welcome to another episode of the Testing Peers podcast. This week, join Russell, David, Simon and special guest host, Dan Ashby as we discuss growth as testers. Before diving in, the Peers discuss things that they have grown and taken pride in, from careers, to children, to plants. The topic is introduced by Dan, speaking to the current climate in our industry, discussing personal growth, motivat...

Welcome to another episode of the Testing Peers! This week, join Simon, David, Russell and (semi-regular) Shey as they talk about leadership in testing. The episode kicks off with a discussion about leadership icons outside of testing, before diving into leadership in testing. Shey shares his journey into leadership, and how he discovered unhelpful leadership traits from his first lead. The Peers...

Welcome to the new episode of the Testing Peers. On this episode, the peers talk about experience with moving onto new opportunities. For this we had a special extended panel, joining Chris, David and Simon were Beth Marshall and Samuel Nitsche.  For the banter, Chris asks us about any new equipment we've received when joining a new role which didn't work for us, we discuss everything fr...