Quality Engineering not unavailable: MoT Weekly – Issue 503

What quality engineering requests can you handle? Read a roundup of news, events and ideas from the testing, QA and quality engineering community in this week's MoT Weekly.

This newsletter is kindly supported by Kualitee

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What's been happening in the testing, QA and quality engineering MoTaverse? Let's go! 🏄

— Simon Tomes, Community Lead at Ministry of Testing

 

Community

Last week was an event-full week! What a week for everyone who helped expand the MoTaverse. ✨

Shneha Paudyal shares reflections about MoT London's meetup about AI vs Testers. Kudos to Gary Shannon for organising and Robbie Falck for hosting a discussion.

Leeds MoT Meetup was a success. Check out these write-ups and photos from Nick Longley, Sam Finnegan and Bryan Elder

My First Testing Planet and another day, another fantastic Ministry of Testing event! 🎉 Great to see Matthew Whitaker contributing to the MoTaverse! 

Had an opportunity today to share my Quality Engineering practices with my favourite community at Ministry of Testing during The Testing Planet event. Dalbir expresses gratitude for The Testing Planet episode plus excitement for the MoT London Meetup. Plus, Jayden gives compliments.

Leeds Testing Atelier are looking for speakers.

Memories: The first MoT Manchester Meetup of 2025.  And Chloe Zeng shares a series of MoT Manchester meetup photos at AutoTrader.

The First MoT Bengaluru Meetup in 2025. It’s truly inspiring to see software testing and quality engineering professionals coming together to share knowledge, build connections, and foster a stronger community. 🙌

I've never seen myself as a writer, but I recently gave it a go, and this was the result. I want to say thanks to MOT for supporting me (and anyone else who helped along the way!) – Kelly Kenyon. 

10 interesting quality-related stories from across the web that might help spark your curiosity with building better software: Testing Trends Weekly — Issue 3

Sometimes wearing a lot of hats (mum, recruiter, manager, meetup organiser/speaker) gets tiring! Events like tonight make it all worth it. Such an engaged audience, excellent co-panellists and lots of great testing chat!

 

Career Growth 

Job moves

Now hiring

Open to work

 

Testing Trend: Open to Work: November and December 2024 — We continue polling the testing community to gain an understanding of the current job market.

What questions would you pose for a weekly reflection?

"In this video, I break down the powerful strategy we use at Vets Who Code to help junior developers stand out in the competitive tech job market. From creating detailed design documents to showcasing thoughtful testing and project artefacts, you’ll learn how to tell your story in a way that gets noticed by employers." Nice one, Jerome Hardaway.

Have we reached peak LinkedIn for QA/Tester/Quality Engineering job seekers?

Career Toolkit: A collection of talks and articles about the fine art of testing as a career. Curated by Kelly Kenyon.

"I’ve spoken at a range of events, from local meet ups and internal presentations to international conferences, and so I thought it might be helpful to share some of my tips and experiences." Thanks for sharing, Cassandra.

Jesse Berkeley's handy collection has been updated: Interviews, Resume, CVs now includes Kelly Kenyon's brilliant article.

 

Essentials

What are models?

A lack of standard (testing) terms hurts us all says Callum Akehurst-Ryan. Head over to the MoT Glossary for inspiration.

When working with developers, how do you keep those relationships healthy?

Building Effective Streams of Communication. A new collection from Jesse.

 

Quality Engineering

We're taking a deep dive into Quality Engineering. This is what it looks like behind the scenes at MoT. 😃

"This was such an interesting conversation with Niko Mangahas, and we only touched the surface of the content. That's why I'm writing the quality coach's handbook, which is due for purchase soon." Thank you for sharing your insight, Anne-Marie Charrett.

Stuart Thomas answers this question: What is Quality Engineering?

 

Tooling

🛠️ Tool of the Week: Sauce Labs

Another quick tip from Judy Mosley: .as() if! Accessing Aliases in beforeEach/afterEach Hooks.

 


 

Explore MoT Software Testing Essentials Certificate (STEC)

🤝 It’s time to approach learning about testing differently. STEC is the certification that gives junior testers confidence, community and connections.

 


 

Systems Thinking

Empathy helps to understand other participants in the system. What is their job, what is their goal? This can also go to a more personal level. What is their story? Patrick Prill explores: Empathy – Understanding Motivation in Systems.

A button is a complex system. “Come on, now you exaggerate!” Let me explain.

 

Strategy

Help Tom Game: What is the difference between a Test Strategy and Test Plan?

How widely are the ISO 29119 standards and the TMMi Framework used in your day-to-day activities?

Nic Furniss asks: What kind of ways of working do your teams adopt and what are the pros and cons you find as quality peeps? Share your thoughts in the MoT Slack chat channel. And while you're at it, have a listen to Emily O'Connor's helpful audio replies.

 

Leadership

What communication changes have you made that transformed your team dynamics?

Some of the most impactful conversations I’ve had with engineering leaders have revolved around shifting the narrative on testing and software quality. – Alessandra Moreira.

 

Automation

Karolina Borkowska Barman and Caitlyn McClain earned an MoT Foundation Certificate in Test Automation. Bug congrats!

New event by Parasoft: Shaping the Future of QA Test Automation in 2025: 4th of February at 6 PM GMT.

Why Mocks Fail: Real-Environment Testing for Microservices by Anirudh Ramanathan.

Beyond the Code: Crafting the Perfect Test Automation Strategy with Nishi Grover Garg.

 

Accessibility

James Edwards argues that tooltips are only presentational.

Understanding PDF Accessibility Standards.

 

Security

Why Automotive Cybersecurity Is Important by Ricardo Camacho.

 

AI

Has the AI bubble burst? We have DeepSeek-ing questions about the future of AI and software testing.

Want to learn about AI & Software Testing? We just updated The Community's Guide to Software Testing & AI. Perhaps it's the most comprehensive source for AI testing.

Is the world of web page automation finally gonna end up in the hands of the general public? What do you think of OpenAI’s Operator?

Sebas Viquez describes why and how to run LLMs in your local.

 

Performance Testing

Performance Testing at Scale with Kualitatem: Optimize for Cloud & Microservices by Malaika Saeed.

 

Just for fun

Where's Bug and Cosmo? – No. 13.

What happens when you try to create a physical version of a testing forum?

Everyone should know how they contribute to quality.

Do you have an evil twin too? 😈

 

A group of twelve people stood outside in the sun in front of a stone tower and trees. They are posing in various ways for the camera. It captures lightheartedness and fun. A duck, seagull and bug character are also present.

Ministry of Testing Athens in Thessaloniki

 

🗓️ Events

New events are always added, so keep checking the events page for up-to-date info.

 

💡 Continuous Call for Contributions

Expand the MoTaverse! Share your knowledge and support everyone's career growth. Start by sharing an idea today. 🚀

 

Poll of the Week

A poll asking "Are you open to work?" with three possible responses:  Yes - Unemployed and looking Yes - Employed and looking No The poll indicates that there have been "542 votes" cast.
Simon Tomes
he/him
Community Lead at Ministry of Testing
Hello, I'm Simon. I've had various roles in testing, tech leadership and coaching since 2003. I believe in the power of collaboration, creativity and community.
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