Nicky Tests Software

Yesterday morning I took part in Mentor Sverige's Job Mentoring Programme  at Ribbyskolan . First off, it was a lot scarier than I was anticipating. I initially thought we would stay together as a group and then go around together in each classroom telling the students about what we do (looking back, I don't know why I thought this as there definitely wouldn't have been enough time for that). But we were all split up to go into different classrooms for 20min at a time to give our presentations. I gave four 10-12min presentations to students in Grade 9, with about 5min of Q&A and then a few min to get between classrooms. The Cultural Aspect Up until yesterday, I had never spoken to anyone in Sweden under 25 (aside from my colleague's daughter). I also really enjoyed going to a Swedish Grundskola (like a junior high school for 12-15 year olds) as I wouldn't have been able to get that experience otherwise. Lastly, I had an early lunch at the student cafeter

I'm proud to be part of the Context Driven Testing Community. Because of it I have met people who are truly passionate about testing, developed an eagerness to continually improve and been made to feel that it's "a small world" (thanks to Twitter) The thing is, I struggle to understand  why it's not the status quo. When I read through the principles , it honestly seems like common sense to me. These are: The Seven Basic Principles of the Context-Driven School The value of any practice depends on its context. There are good practices in context, but there are no best practices. People, working together, are the most important part of any project’s context. Projects unfold over time in ways that are often not predictable. The product is a solution. If the problem isn’t solved, the product doesn’t work. Good software testing is a challenging intellectual process. Only through judgment and skill, exercised cooperatively throughout the entire project,

Lately, I've been getting back into Toastmasters . I recently joined a club in Stockholm  and am really enjoying it so far. It's largely an expat club with over 10 nationalities (I can think of from the top of my head, there are surely more). It's also a very popular club - it seems to me that speaking slots are highly in demand and you need to be pretty fast to sign up so you can give a speech. I was really hoping to join a club much earlier after moving to Sweden but ended up giving myself some time to settle in and focus on cultivating new friendships and getting into a gym routine. In addition to this, I was doing a fair bit of travel for work which made going to meetings regularly, a tough task. Now that I've joined a club - I'm eager to get back into this routine and further improve my leadership and public speaking skills. If you've heard about Toastmasters and have considered going or heard one of your friends rave about it - I seriously urge you t

I've been mainly working remotely for the past month and did a bit of remote working before Christmas. I sure can't complain about the lack of commute, but it definitely takes some getting used to. Here are 4 things I have learned that help make working remotely a bit easier. 1. Add some sort of structure to your day I do this by going to the gym at lunch (it's a very short walk). This means I have a "morning slot" and an "afternoon slot" in which to do things. 2. Find a tool to help you be productive For me, this has been something as simple as a to-do list each morning/week. I write it by hand and draw little boxes beside each one, then tick it off as it's done. I've tried online Note tools etc. But they don't work for me nowhere near as well as handwritten to-do lists. 3. Communicate with your team We do the standard "good mornings" but I also do my best to let them know when I won't be available (e.g. going to the