My interview with Fabian Böck featured on Youtube -“Never Feel Stuck”

I was recently invited by Fabian Böck for a chat over on his Youtube channel where he frequently interviews people in tech on various topics of interest in the industry. My talk was focused on how to steer the direction of your tech career. We had a fantastic talk about how to pave learning avenues, set for yourself time to reflect, and how companies should be enabling their workforce. And most importantly, how to ‘Never Feel Stuck’ in where you are – even if you are happy or not and use continuous learning and self improvement to guide yourself to better places!

Here is a link to the video interview-

Fabian’s company Boeck and XOXO works on Tech Conventions x Matchmaking Marketplace x Tech Talks. Check them out for more interesting talks and content!

Check out the Linkedin posts here – https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6821385665146691584/

Cheers

Nishi

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Taking a MasterClass with the Ministry of Testing!

I was invited to take a MasterClass by the wonderful people at the Ministry of Testing last month. They had a ‘Communities’ theme going on for the month of June 2021 and they loved my talk idea about Leveraging Tech Communities. So we worked around that theme to create a talk on “Grow your Career with Tech Communities”

I had an awesome time taking the #DojoMasterclass with Ministry of Testing . What a wonderful experience!

My talk focused on discussing-

  • How to leverage the power of communities in your personal and professional growth
  • How to contribute, volunteer and participate in communities
  • How user communities help in taking your company’s brand forward
  • How can companies create powerful and engaged user communities

I am grateful for the opportunity I got, the great feedback I received from the participants, and an awesome host Vernon Richards.

Thanks, Áine McGovernHeather Reid, and Simon Tomes for arranging the session! 🙂

Check out the recording on the Pro Dojo https://lnkd.in/gy24FvW

How to Access the recording

  1. Click on this Link  
  2. If you have a PRO Account, click on the GREEN Button on top of the screen “Sign In to View this Content” and sign in with your PRO Acount
  3. If you do not have a PRO Account, click on ‘Go Pro to view this content’ Register for the Pro Account
  4. You can now Play the recording!

My Contribution to the eBook ’21st Century Skills for Software Testers’

I am proud to announce another one of my contributions made its way to the eBook titled ‘21st Century Skills for Software Testers‘. This initiative was started by Emna Ayadi and Ard Kramer asking for contributions from various testers on their thoughts about the essential pivotal skill sets that benefit software testers.

🚀 This bilingual book made by software testers is all about:
How we apply 21st-century skills:
🔸 Critical thinking
🔹 Communication
🔸 Collaboration
🔹 Creativity
and also how we are going to use these skills in the future.

#21stskills4testers

This was a great initiative to bring together thoughts of many great testers from around the globe. There are some great pieces featured and a number of things to learn. I am super excited to feature in not one but Two sections in there –

Check out what I wrote in the First section of ‘Critical Thinking’ – Section 1.1.15 ‘Stories of Testers from the Present’ and Section 1.2.8 ‘Imaginations and Thoughts of Testers’

Find the eBook here -> https://leanpub.com/_21stskills4testers And you can download the book for free (fill out 0 dollars)

Glad to be featured along with so many awesome people from around the globe!

I am grateful for the opportunity and always welcome more such chances to contribute my thoughts for the betterment of the testing community!

Cheers

Nishi

Speaking from Home

Conferences, events and meetups are all things I enjoy. I have been an organizer, speaker & presenter, host and volunteer at many events. When 2020 started, I had big hopes and plans of travelling to speak at multiple international events and also had a few local Bangalore events lined up. But the world had to face a pandemic and everything came to a screeching halt.

As many of you, I was disheartened too. But I still hoped for things to get better, thinking we might get to some of the events at least. Things are different now. We now know that this lifestyle is here to stay. We have been working, learning, recruiting, networking and meeting remotely and might have to continue to do so for a while.

But where does this put the life of a ‘speaker’ – someone who enjoys speaking, being invited to attend and talk at events?

Well, I would like to highlight how I have been pleasantly surprised by the state of our events and their emergence from all the cancellations, losses and hearbreaks!

In the past 6 months, I have spoken at more events I would have normally! I have had the chance to connect with multiple events in various ways and all of them have shown me the resilience of our community.

TestBash Home 2020

It started with TestBash Home. Since TestBash Detroit was cancelled where I was to speak in April this year, I was invited to speak at the Testbash Home. It was a unique and fun event handled superbly by the MoT team. I have written in detail about the event and my experience here – https://testwithnishi.com/2020/05/07/my-experience-speaking-at-testbash-home/

TribalQonf , STeP-In Summit, Test Leadership Congress 2020

I was invited by Mahesh Chikane to speak at the TribalQonf which was a great opportunity. I presented about Adopting a Risk Based Test Approach and my talk was appreciated for which I am always #grateful !

My talk at TribalQonf

The event was organised well and I am glad to be a part of this superb round up video along with some awesome speakers!

Read More »

My contribution to the eBook “Software People- Work From Home” -now on Leanpub

I am super excited to share that I have my first ever contribution to an eBook now published on Leanpub. This eBook called “Software People- Work From Home” is initiated and compiled by Stephan Kamper and Maik Nogens which has many software professionals from all around the globe contributing their stories, experiences and ideas on their work-from-home experiences.

In my chapter , I wrote about Speaking and Engaging from home in this pandemic-induced lock-down situation. I shared my take on engaging with your colleagues, engaging with the community and also with oneself while working from home. Check out Chapter-9 in the eBook to read my contribution. Please give it a read and support this wonderful initiative –> https://leanpub.com/softwarepeopleworkfromhome

Catch updates and opinions about the book, and tweet about it using the hashtag #SoftwarePeopleWfhBook

My Work-from-Home Desk

Another fun aspect of this eBook is getting to see all the fun ‘work-from-home’ setups and desk images shared by the authors along with their write-ups. It brings a sense of belonging, understanding and normalcy to this unique situation and helps you relate to the writer’s life and experiences. I , too shared by home desk image! 🙂

Find out how software people experienced the corona-virus-caused time working from home!

Software people from all over the planet share their insights & experiences, opinions, and tips.

The coronian times during the year of 2020 have – in fact are still at the time of the writing – proven to provide a good number of challenges for everyone.

– eBook “Software People- Work From Home”

This eBook is available for free at LeanPub. Please give it a read and support this wonderful initiative! https://leanpub.com/softwarepeopleworkfromhome

Cheers

Nishi

Mentions and Recognition

Featured in the top QA list by TestSigma on Linkedin & Twitter

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6654394104824328192/

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My articles featured by the Testing Curator in Weekly Testing Bits

Four Exit Criteria to Determine When User Stories Are Done-Done
And
Read Along Series- ‘AgileTesting’ Chapter-8
http://blog.testingcurator.com/2020/07/12/testing-bits-testing-bits-july-5th-july-11th-2020/
Fighting Defect Clusters in Software Testing http://blog.testingcurator.com/2020/06/07/testing-bits-testing-bits-may-31st-june-6th-2020/
My experience speaking at TestBash Homehttp://blog.testingcurator.com/2020/05/10/testing-bits-testing-bits-mary-3rd-may-9th-2020/
Read Along- ‘Agile Testing’ Chapter-4http://blog.testingcurator.com/2020/04/19/testing-bits-april-12th-april-18th-2020/
Understanding Burnout Symptoms in Tech Workershttp://blog.testingcurator.com/2020/02/16/testing-bits-february-9th-february-15th-2020/

_____

Articles featured by Five_blogs

My Article Featured in Top reads at-
Four Tips to Write Better Bug Reportshttps://5blogs.wordpress.com/2020/07/29/five-blogs-29-july-2020/
Four Exit Criteria to Determine When User Stories Are Done-Donehttps://5blogs.wordpress.com/2020/07/16/five-blogs-16-july-2020/
Raise Your Exploratory Testing Gamehttps://5blogs.wordpress.com/2020/07/06/five-blogs-6-july-2020/
Things to Do Before the Sprint Planning Meetinghttps://5blogs.wordpress.com/2020/06/30/five-blogs-30-june-2020/
Fighting Defect Clusters in Software Testinghttps://5blogs.wordpress.com/2020/06/16/five-blogs-16-june-2020/
Four Goals of Testing Beyond Finding Defectshttps://5blogs.wordpress.com/2020/05/18/five-blogs-18-may-2020/
Four Ideas for Self-Care When Working from Homehttps://5blogs.wordpress.com/2020/04/24/five-blogs-24-april-2020/
Four Things That Can Sabotage a Sprinthttps://5blogs.wordpress.com/2020/04/14/five-blogs-14-april-2020/
Do You Have Blind Spots in Your Software Testing?https://5blogs.wordpress.com/2020/03/20/five-blogs-20-march-2020/
Become a Self-Taught Software Tester in 2020https://5blogs.wordpress.com/2020/02/24/five-blogs-24-february-2020/
Four Natural Personality Traits That Make a Great Testerhttps://5blogs.wordpress.com/2020/02/07/five-blogs-7-february-2020/
The Partnership of Testing and Checkinghttps://5blogs.wordpress.com/2020/01/23/five-blogs-23-january-2020/
Three New Year’s Resolutions Every Tester Should Makehttps://5blogs.wordpress.com/2020/01/03/five-blogs-3-january-2020/
Three Uncommon Metrics Your Agile Team Should Be Tracking
and
Three Metrics Your Agile Team Should Stop Using
https://5blogs.wordpress.com/2019/12/09/five-blogs-9-december-2019/
Defining Exit Criteria for All Stages of Your Agile Projecthttps://5blogs.wordpress.com/2019/11/12/five-blogs-12-november-2019/
Overcoming Barriers to Effective Communications in Agile Teamshttps://5blogs.wordpress.com/2019/10/22/five-blogs-22-october-2019/
Three Ways Agile Testers Can Use Walkthroughshttps://5blogs.wordpress.com/2019/10/16/five-blogs-16-october-2019/
Three Things to Learn from the Bugs You Foundhttps://5blogs.wordpress.com/2019/09/11/five-blogs-11-september-2019/
Scrum, Kanban, and ScrumBan: What’s the Difference?https://5blogs.wordpress.com/2019/08/13/five-blogs-13-augustus-2019/
Four Ways Task Boards Help an Agile Teamhttps://5blogs.wordpress.com/2019/07/26/five-blogs-26-july-2019/

___
Other mentions and features of my articles

http://blog.practicingitpm.com/2020/02/16/new-pm-articles-for-the-week-of-february-10-16/

A Mention by The Pirate Tester!

https://thepiratetester.wordpress.com/2019/06/18/2019-06-18-should-istqb-exist/

Being Featured in the top 75 Software Testing Blogs

https://testwithnishi.com/2018/05/11/this-website-is-now-featured-in-the-75-best-software-testing-blogs/

My interview with Thomas Cagley featured on SPaMCAST

I recently had a chance to chat with Mr. Thomas Cagley in an interview for his wonderful Podcast channel SPaMCAST. We talked all about Agile Testing, its differences from the traditional approach of testing, Agile Pods and the upcoming trends in the testing world!

It was a wonderful experience and I am grateful for having the chance to talk to one of the people I so look up to in the industry. Here is the link to the podcast show notes and info

http://spamcast.libsyn.com/spamcast-516-agile-testing-and-more-an-interview-with-nishi-grover-garg

Here is the link for Direct Playback: bit.ly/2QKvPvm

 

Hear it out and do share your thoughts!

Cheers

Nishi

 

This website is now featured in the 75 Best Software Testing blogs!

It’s a big day for me as my personal blog has been featured in the ’75 Best Software Testing Blogs’ by 🙂

Check out the complete list at ->

https://abstracta.us/blog/software-testing/75-best-software-testing-blogs/

Elated and Excited! Please give a thumbs up and follow me for testing and agile related articles.

To follow this blog –> Add your email ID on the right side panel, and receive periodic updates with new articles and posts!

Listed in top 75 blogs

Thanks a lot!

Nishi

I am speaking at the ‘Selenium Summit 2018’ @Pune

Hello!

Check it out!

I am speaking at the Selenium Automation Summit 2018 being organised on 22nd March 2018 by ATA @ Pune.

Find more details about the event at : http://seleniumsummit18.agiletestingalliance.org/

I will be presenting a 90 minute- hands-on workshop on:

“Selenium with Cucumber for an extended BDD Framework”

Are you interested in looking into the trend of Behavior Driven Development? Would you like to see it in action using Cucumber? Would you like to integrate your functional tests in such a framework using integration of Selenium within Cucumber? Then this is the workshop for you!

This workshop will cover

  • Practical issues faced by most testing teams
  • Behavior Driven Development – the definition and need
  • Extending the Agile User stories and acceptance criteria in BDD scenarios
  • Cucumber as a BDD tool
  • Integration of Cucumber with Selenium in order to perform functional tests
  • Demo using Cucumber with Selenium with a real use case
  • Usage and Benefits of BDD In agile teams

Let’s meet there!

-Nishi

Better Software Design Ideas for the Hawaii Emergency Alert System

Continuing the discussion on the Hawaii Missile Alert which made headlines in January 2018 and turned out to be a false alarm and ended up raising panic amongst almost a million people of the state all for nothing, (read here for detailed report) I would like to bring back the focus on implications of poor software design leading to such human errors.

Better software design is aimed at making the software easier to use, fit for its purpose and improving the overall experience of the user. While software design focuses on making all features easily accessible, understandable and usable, it also can be directed at making the user aware of all possibilities and implications before performing their actions. Certain actions, if critical, can and should be made more discrete than the others, may have added security or authorisations and visual hints indicating their critical nature.

Some of the best designers at freelancer.com came together to brainstorm ideas for better software design and to revamp the Hawaii government’s inept designs. They ran a contest amongst themselves to come up with the best designs that could avoid such a fiasco in future.

Sarah Danseglio, from East Meadow, New York, took home the $150 grand prize, while Renan M. of Brazil and Lyza V. of the Philippines scored $100 and $75 for coming in 2nd and 3rd, respectively.

Here is a sneak peek into how they designed the improved system :Read More »