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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
- Bug congrats to Connor Westley for starting a new position as a Test Engineer at Victorian Plumbing.
- I’m excited to share that I’ve been promoted to Principal SDET at Morningstar: bug congrats, Maneesh.
- Dhiraj Wadkar starts a new position as Test Engineer at Marquistech.
- Philip Curran is now Global Head Of QA at My Compliance Office.
Now hiring
- Want to come work with me at Cycle Labs? We are hiring a QA Manager to lead our test team! Andrew Knight is hiring.
- Hanisha Arora is hiring a Software Engineer in Test, based on-site in Chandigarh, India.
- NHS Education Scotland is hiring a Technical Test Specialist.
- Hiring? Advertise for free on the MoT job board. 📌
Open to work
- As a Senior Test Manager specialising in Accessibility and Testing Framework definition, I’m looking for my next role in either Senior Test Management, Head of Testing or Test Manager roles. Jane D'Cruze is open to work.
- Anna McGrath is looking for QA Manager, QA Specialist, Quality Assurance Manager, QA Lead, and Artificial Intelligence Specialist roles in the London Area, Claygate, and Surrey.
- Chris Cook is looking for QA Engineer, QA Lead, Quality Assurance Team Lead, and Software Tester roles in London, Essex and Greater London
- Jenny Bramble is open to QA leadership work.
- With expertise in hands-on testing, automation, leadership, and product strategy, Julia Pottinger is looking for a role where I can lead teams, enhance testing strategies, and drive business impact.
- Shneha Paudyal is open to work. Check out a sneak peek of her Masters thesis project: A Data Quality Assessment Tool!
- Professional members can now set their MoT Profile to open to work. See who is 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? 😈
Ministry of Testing Athens in Thessaloniki
🗓️ Events
New events are always added, so keep checking the events page for up-to-date info.
- Shaping the Future of QA Test Automation in 2025 Tue 4 Feb
- Sheffield Meetup Thu 6 Feb 🇬🇧
- This Week in Testing Fri 7 Feb 🎙️
- Coventry Meetup Thu 13 Feb 🇬🇧
- Athens Meetup Thu 25 Feb 🇬🇷
- Episode Nine: Exploring Systems Thinking Thu 27 Feb 🪐
- Episode Ten: Exploring Quality Coaching Thu 27 Mar 🪐
- TestBash Brighton 2025 Wed 1–Thu 2 Oct 🤩
💡 Continuous Call for Contributions
Expand the MoTaverse! Share your knowledge and support everyone's career growth. Start by sharing an idea today. 🚀