Pokemon Team Rocket meme, reads: When you love making memes, and collecting badges prepare for trouble, and make it double

Human driven testing activities, that are not using or focused on building automated checks. Manual testing may still make use of tools and code, but is driven by a human and not a computer.A potentially broad term, manual testing could be applied to any part of software testing. However there is a good chance, people use the term manual testing to mean, human driven test execution.The term can be controversial, because it is sometimes used to down play the skill needed for testing, outside of the value of automation.It used to be said, that there is no such thing as manual testing, because all testing is manual in the same way that all development is manual. This line of thinking is currently being challenged by the introduction of generative Ai tools that are, with varying degrees of success, attempting to automate development, as well as testing.

In my experience working as a Quality Engineer, it has given me the opportunity to get involved in many of the same quality building activities I did as a Tester, but now people don't look at me weird, like I'm doing something strange and beyond my role.Quality Engineering is technical leadership, and you can break that down fundamentally equal parts challenging, and supporting teams to deliver better products. Sometimes it's as simple as making space, and giving permissions for teams to challenge their existing processes, practices, tools, frameworks and design decisions. Sometimes it is about supporting them to make decisions, explore possible solutions or simply getting stuck in and completing work as part of the team.Hang on, doesn't that sounds an awful lot like the job of an Engineering Manager, CTO, or Head of Engineering? Well, you'd be right, and all of those roles, and more, can support teams on their Quality Engineering journey, you need not always have a named "Quality Engineer". If you are lucky enough to have budget and capacity to bring in an expert in Testing and Quality, a QE can support one or more teams, and work hand-in-hand with other technical leaders.

Debrief the week in testing as the community explores debugging wins, building and scaling communities of practice, leadership in testing, and much mote

When you tell testers to ignore your post, so you go viral

First day of 99 Second Talks at TestBash Brighton 2024

Plate of food, bettered fish, peas, with a coke in the background

Ben Dowen taking selfie with other TestBash attendees in the background socialising and a sunset at OhSocial

Selfie of Ben Dowen looking back at tables of attendees at the workshop

Selfie of ben looking back on the audience for 99 second talks

Antonella, Maite and Ben

Simon Tomes, Ashutosh Mishra and Ben Dowen

Simon Tomes, Simon Rigler and Ben Dowen

Ady Stokes, Kirsten Reher and Teresa Reynolds

Stuart Day and Ben Dowen at the pre testbash social

Richard Adams and Ben Dowen ad the pre-bash social

Ben Dowen and Ady Stokes

James Wadley, Gwen Diagram and Ben Dowen at pre-bash social

Ben Dowen, Jenna Charlton and Karen Todd

Veerle Verhagen, Beren Van Daele and Ben Dowen in the Brighton train station

Ben Dowen, a white man with long ginger hair, wearing a red software testing clinic t-shirt. Holding a tray of chips, outside "the famous fish & chips" chip shop in Brighton

🎙️ Catch up on episode 57 of This Week in Testing. Ben Dowen and community members shared strategies for upskilling, and touched on the importance of collaboration with developers

50 minutes full of great insights, knowledge and tips to improve your automated tests

At TestBash Autumn 2023

Learn from three huge leaders in the influencing space.

Test multiple system layers with confidence

It's not a TestBash without 99 Second Talks!

It wouldn't be a TestBash without our famous 99-Second Talks!

Discover the value of community support and how it can enhance your testing career

Grab a brew and hear what folks had to say during the 99 Second Talks at Test.bash();