1. Testing Resources to Boost Your
Skills and Energize Your Career
Boulder QA Meetup
August 14, 2013
Teri Charles
tericharles@juno.com
@booksrg8
http://bouldertester.blogspot.com/

2. Background
• This presentation is some of the resources that I have
discovered on my journey as a Tester that I hope will
add to your skills as a Tester.
• I hope you’re able to take some nugget of information
from this that will help you along on your journey.
• And I hope that you add your own nuggets and pass it
on to the rest of us!
Teri Charles
August 2013

3. Part of My Journey
• Committed to journey of self-learning
• Read James Bach’s “Secrets of a Buccaneer-Scholar” (and other books)
• Worked with a Testing coach
• Began learning/studying about Testing (blogs, articles, books, etc.)
• Started my own blog on Testing
• Joined Testing Twitter community
• Took BBST Foundations course with Association for Software Testing
• Took other online Testing trainings
• Joined several Test groups (AST, STC, etc.)
• Dove more into the technical (HTML/CSS, Python, etc.)
• Weekend Testing sessions
• Became co-organizer of Boulder QA Meetup
• Rapid Software Testing with James Bach
• The journey continues! I try to learn something everyday (or every week)

4. Several Testers to Check Out (websites)
• James Bach: http://www.satisfice.com
• Michael Bolton: http://www.developsense.com
• Pradeep Soundararajan: http://testertested.blogspot.com
• Anne-Marie Charrett: http://mavericktester.com
• Keith Klain: http://qualityremarks.com/
• Paul Holland: http://testingthoughts.com/
• Elizabeth Hendrickson: http://www.testobsessed.com
• Michael Larsen: http://mkltesthead.com
• James Whittakerblogs.msdn.com/b/jw_on_tech
• Lisa Crispin: http://lisacrispin.com
• Colin Cherry: http://itesting.com.au/
• Jerry Weinberg: http://www.geraldmweinberg.com
• Teri Charles: http://bouldertester.blogspot.com
• And many more!

5. Several Testers to Follow (Twitter)
This is a small list just to get you started. There are so many great Testers to follow. Feel free to take a
look at who I or some of these folks follow to get more ideas.
• James Bach: @jamesmarcusbach
• Jerry Weinberg: @JerryWeinberg
• Michael Bolton: @michaelbolton
• Pradeep Soundararajan: @testertested
• Anne-Marie Charrett: @charrett
• Keith Klain: @KeithKlain
• Paul Holland: @PaulHolland_TWN
• Elizabeth Hendrickson: @testobsessed
• Michael Larsen: @mkltesthead
• Colin Cherry: @cherryAKAtism
• Jerry Weinberg: @JerryWeinberg
• Ajay Balamurugadas: @ajay184f
• Lorinda Brandon: @lindybrandon
• James Whittaker: @docjamesw
• Teri Charles: @booksrg8

6. International Testing Groups
• Association for Software Testing (AST):
www.associationforsoftwaretesting.org
• Software Testing Club:
www.softwaretestingclub.com
• Ministry of Testing: www.ministryoftesting.com
• Software Test Professionals:
www.softwaretestpro.com
• Satisfice: www.satisfice.com
• Software Testing Spot: www.testingspot.net
• Testing References:
www.testingreferences.com/index.php

7. International Testing Groups to Follow
on Twitter
• Association for Software Testing: @AST_News
• Software Testing Club: @testingclub
• Weekend Testers: @weekendtesting
• Europe Weekend Testers: @europetesters
• Australian Weekend Testers: @WTANZ_
• Satisfice: @satisfice_inc
• Moolya Testing: @moolyatesting
• TeaTime with Testers: @TtimewidTesters
• StickyMinds: @StickyMinds

8. Online Publications (most are free)
• Tea-time with Testers:
www.teatimewithtesters.com
• Testing Circus: www.testingcircus.com
• Better Software:
www.stickyminds.com/BetterSoftware/magazine.
asp
• Professional Tester: www.professionaltester.com
• Test Magazine: http://www.testmagazine.co.uk/
• C0re Magazine: www.coremag.eu

9. Trainings & Skills Improvements
• BBST (w/Association for Software Testing):
www.associationforsoftwaretesting.org/training
• Rapid Software Testing:
www.satisfice.com/info_rst.shtml
• Weekend Testers Americas: weekendtesting.com
• Codeacademy, uTest, Udemy, etc.
• Practice (on your own or with others)
• Videos
• Test Conferences
• Tools

10. Books to Start Out With
• Secrets of a Buccaneer-Scholar by James Bach
• Lessons Learned in Software Testing
• Explore It! by Elisabeth Hendrickson
• Perfect Software and Other Illusions About Testing, by Jerry
Weinberg
• Managing the Testing Process: Practical Tools and Techniques for
Managing Hardware and Software Testing by Ron Black
• Testing Computer Software by Cem Kaner
• How to Reduce the Cost of Software Testing by Matthew Heusser
• How to Break Software by James Whittaker
• Beautiful Testing by Adam Goucher
• The Art of Software Testing by Glenford J. Myers

11. Training & Skill Improvements to
Consider (and keep adding!)
• Context Driven Testing
• Exploratory Testing
• Heuristics/Oracles
• Automation (done smartly)
• Mobile
• Tools
• Agile
• Modeling
• Coding/Scripting
• General Systems
• Epistemology (studying how do you know what you know)
• Tacit (experience, insights) vs. Explicit (formal, documented) knowledge
• Sapient processes (relies on skilled humans)

12. Have an online presence
• Twitter: following, tweeting, favoriting,
retweeting
• Blog: write, comment on others, follow
• LinkedIn (A means to an end. The reality is the
recruiters do almost 100% searches on
LinkedIn): detailed, up-to-date, buzzwords (of
things you actually do!), skills, attach resume
• Facebook: follow, likes, comments

13. Last Tidbit
• Start YOUR journey sooner rather than later.
• Don’t wait until you lose a job or decide to look for another job to
start networking, learning new skills
• Don’t be afraid to ask for help (or to admit you don’t know
something)
• Commitment to learning
• Mentor, find a mentor, mentor each other
• Share/teach others (you don’t have to be an expert!)
• Network
• There’s more to testing than automation. Discover the fine art of
testing!
• Get involved with local Meetups (and not just Testing!)
• Volunteer to present at local Test Meetups (again, you don’t have to
be an expert)