Activity

Principal Quality Engineer
She/Her
I have a sixth sense for bugs, probably due to my experience as a dev (introducing them)! I love to learn and read. Playwright fan-girl.
<div>Great to hear about the kind of work you do as a Quality Engineer. SQEC leaners will enjoy learning from you. </div> image
Great to hear about the kind of work you do as a Quality Engineer. SQEC leaners will enjoy learning from you. 
<a href="" rel="noopener nofollow">8.3.0 of MoT Software Testing Essentials Certificate</a> image
8.3.0 of MoT Software Testing Essentials Certificate
Gbadebo Bello representing Postman at MoTaCon25. image
Gbadebo Bello representing Postman at MoTaCon25.
<div>Thank you, Emily, for recording not one but four audio bites for MoT SQEC ⭐️</div> image
Thank you, Emily, for recording not one but four audio bites for MoT SQEC ⭐️
<a href="https://www.ministryoftesting.com/software-testing-glossary/ci-cd-pipeline" rel="noopener nofollow">CI/CD Pipeline</a> image
CI/CD Pipeline
Emily O'Connor
Emily O'Connor
contributed:
<div>The BOSCARD mnemonic is a tool that can be used to help understand the context around the problem or project. It also serves as the minimum context needed for a one page test strategy.<br><br>BOSCARD stands for;</div><ul>
<li>
<strong>Background</strong> – reason for the project, key stakeholders etc.</li>
<li>
<strong>Objectives</strong> – What are you trying to achieve? Good objectives are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound).</li>
<li>
<strong>Scope</strong> – ensure you define the scope (including what is out of scope).</li>
<li>
<strong>Constraints</strong> – consider any constraints or restrictions that limit or place conditions on the project.</li>
<li>
<strong>Assumptions </strong>– consider all factors that, for planning purposes, are considered to be true before starting.</li>
<li>
<strong>Risks</strong> – outline any risks identified and a quick assessment of each.</li>
<li>
<strong>Deliverables </strong>– define what is going to be tangibly produced.</li>
</ul> image
Definitions of BOSCARD
<a href="https://www.ministryoftesting.com/software-testing-glossary/branching-strategy" rel="noopener nofollow">Branching Strategy</a> image
Branching Strategy
Emily O'Connor
Emily O'Connor
contributed:
<div>A “branching strategy” refers to the strategy that a software development team employs when writing, merging and shipping code in the context of a version control system like Git. Teams adopt a branching strategy because it enable parallel development and keeps the main codebase stable.<br><br>With branching, each code author works locally in a separate branch focused on a specific task. Branches are published and merged following peer code review. There are two main types of branches; persistent and ephemeral.</div><ul>
<li>
<strong>Persistent branches</strong> are long-lived, holding stable, shared code that reflect the state of the project at key stages. </li>
<li>
<strong>Ephemeral branche</strong>s are short-lived and focus on specific development tasks. Engineers create them from a persistent branch and delete them after merging. </li>
</ul><div>
<br><strong>Example<br></strong><br>
</div><div>An example branching strategy is GitFlow which supports structured, multi-stage software development using a pre-defined set of persistent and ephemeral branches. <strong><br></strong><br>
</div><div>There are three persistent branches.</div><ul>
<li>The <strong>main</strong> branch contains production-ready code. Teams tag it for releases (e.g., v2.0.1) and often configure CD pipelines to deploy it automatically.</li>
<li>The <strong>develop</strong> branch acts as an integration branch. Developers merge completed feature branches into <strong>develop</strong> for staging and testing.</li>
<li>A <strong>release</strong>/* branch stages code for production release. Teams fork a <strong>release/*</strong> branch from <strong>develop</strong> to stabilize a version before release. Only bug fixes, documentation updates, and final QA changes are allowed in a release branch.</li>
</ul><div>
<br>There are also ephemeral branches.<br><br>
</div><ul>
<li>A <strong>feature</strong>/* branch isolates work for a new feature, enhancement, or experiment. A developer branches a <strong>feature</strong>/* branch from <strong>develop</strong>, works on it independently, and merges changes back after review and testing. They then delete the branch.</li>
<li>A <strong>hotfix</strong>/* branch is an emergency fix to main to address critical issues in production. Developers create such a branch main, fix the issues, and merge the changes into both <strong>main</strong> (to deploy) and into <strong>develop</strong> (to sync), and deploy immediately. They delete the branch after merging.</li>
</ul><div>
<br><strong>Gitflow Workflow<br></strong><br>
</div><ul>
<li>Create a feature/* branch from develop.</li>
<li>Work on the feature.</li>
<li>Merge feature branch into develop.</li>
<li>When ready to release, create a release/* branch from develop.</li>
<li>Finalize the release in the release/* branch.</li>
<li>Merge the release into both main and develop.</li>
<li>Tag the release on main for versioning.</li>
</ul><div><br></div><div>Testers should seek to understand the branching strategy adopted in their teams, to understand changes in the test environment and how code is shipped to end users.</div> image
Definitions of Branching Strategy
<a href="" rel="noopener nofollow">8.2.0 of MoT Software Testing Essentials Certificate</a> image
8.2.0 of MoT Software Testing Essentials Certificate
<a href="" rel="noopener nofollow">8.1.0 of MoT Software Testing Essentials Certificate</a> image
8.1.0 of MoT Software Testing Essentials Certificate
<a href="" rel="noopener nofollow">8.0.0 of MoT Software Testing Essentials Certificate</a> image
8.0.0 of MoT Software Testing Essentials Certificate
Discover how Monzo built a fun and practical quality coaching model that helps every team own and improve quality image
Discover how Monzo built a fun and practical quality coaching model that helps every team own and improve quality
Emily O'Connor
Emily O'Connor
contributed:
<div>
<strong>I</strong>nfluencing the<br><strong>D</strong>esign<br><strong>E</strong>valuation, and<br><strong>A</strong>cquisition of<br><strong>T</strong>ools to support testing<br><br>The idea-t framework contains 12 heuristic questions and supporting information which are intended to provoke thought and ideas when designing or choosing a test tool.</div> image
Definitions of IDEA-T
<div>Thanks for going above and beyond in October 2025. Your community contributions are much appreciated.</div> image
Thanks for going above and beyond in October 2025. Your community contributions are much appreciated.
<a href="https://www.ministryoftesting.com/memories/the-centre-spread-of-the-testing-planet" rel="noopener nofollow">The centre spread of The Testing Planet</a> image
The centre spread of The Testing Planet
Emily O'Connor
Emily O'Connor
contributed:
Our printed version of The Testing Planet has a center spread of 'spot the difference' and this year it was inspired, supported and created with the wonderful Emily O'Connor

Here she is at MoTaC... image
Our printed version of The Testing Planet has a center spread of 'spot the difference' and this year it was inspired, supported and created with the wonderful Emily O'Connor Here she is at MoTaC...
<a href="https://www.ministryoftesting.com/software-testing-glossary/cognitive-dissonance" rel="noopener nofollow">Cognitive Dissonance</a> image
Cognitive Dissonance
Emily O'Connor
Emily O'Connor
contributed:
Cognitive dissonance is the mental discomfort that results in holding two conflicting beliefs, values or attitudes. People tend to relieve this tension in different ways such as rejecting, explaining away or avoiding new information, which is easier than changing your beliefs like “it works on my machine”! image
Definitions of Cognitive Dissonance
<a href="https://www.ministryoftesting.com/software-testing-glossary/confirmation-bias" rel="noopener nofollow">Confirmation Bias</a> image
Confirmation Bias
Emily O'Connor
Emily O'Connor
contributed:
Confirmation bias is an error in judgement that results in a person being more inclined to believe information that confirms their existing beliefs. This can impact software testing in multiple ways such as; not investigating particular system areas due to the belief that they are high-quality, being unable to identify edge cases due to your own use of the system under test or bug reports being dismissed if they do not fit the teams mental model of system functionality. image
Definitions of Confirmation Bias
<a href="https://www.ministryoftesting.com/software-testing-glossary/cognitive-bias" rel="noopener nofollow">Cognitive Bias</a> image
Cognitive Bias
Emily O'Connor
Emily O'Connor
contributed:
<div>A cognitive bias is a systematic error in thinking that affects the decisions and judgements that people make. This could be described as “a deviation from reality in judgement” due to our limited memory, mental capacity, attention span or inability to separate from our emotions.<br><br>Examples in software testing include:</div><ul>
<li>Looking for bugs you already suspect, rather than exploring unexpected behaviours</li>
<li>Underestimating the number of test cases or the amount of time needed to test complex interactions</li>
</ul> image
Definitions of Cognitive Bias
Emily O'Connor
Emily O'Connor
contributed:
<div>The dictionary definition of an error is a human mistake (thought, action or decision), especially in the case that a mistake can be proven i.e. a spelling mistake or calculated value with a formula which can be repeated. An error is different to a bug. <br><br>An error may be due to an implementation mistake, miscommunication or misunderstanding, whereas a bug is a flaw in the software its design that results from an error so incorrect logic in the system under test is the result of an error in the understanding of a business requirement.</div> image
Definitions of Error
<a href="https://www.ministryoftesting.com/software-testing-glossary/torch-technique" rel="noopener nofollow">TORCH Technique</a> image
TORCH Technique
Emily O'Connor
Emily O'Connor
contributed:
<div>The TORCH technique is a way to structure exploratory testing, building on top of a testing charter. The acronym TORCH stands for timer, oracles, risks, considered questions, heuristics - which are all connected and support each other to “light up” parts of your exploration which wouldn’t seem possible with scripted testing.<br><br>Using this technique, testers should;</div><ul>
<li>T - set a <strong>timer</strong> (between 30 and 90 mins)</li>
<li>O - define supporting <strong>oracles</strong> to support or inspire testing</li>
<li>R - define a list of <strong>risks,</strong>
</li>
<li>C - *consider* questions to ensure the exploratory testing is flexible and</li>
<li>H - *heuristics* also to spark testing ideas</li>
</ul> image
Definitions of TORCH Technique
<a href="https://www.ministryoftesting.com/software-testing-glossary/page-object-model-pom" rel="noopener nofollow">Page Object Model (POM)</a> image
Page Object Model (POM)
Emily O'Connor
Emily O'Connor
contributed:
<div>The Page Object Model is a design pattern used by frameworks such as Selenium and Playwright when testing user interfaces (UI).<br><br>The “page object” only models the areas of the UI that tests will interact with. These page models are files made up of locators and functions relating to a single UI-view, meaning any changes to the UI impacting an automated test needs to be maintained in a single location and code is less likely to be duplicated across the test automation framework. The tests then use the locators and functions of the page object whenever they need to interact with the UI of that page. The same principles used for page objects can be used to create “Page Component Objects”, that represent discrete chunks of the page that can be included in page objects.</div> image
Definitions of Page Object Model (POM)
<a href="https://www.ministryoftesting.com/certificates/9d3ff0c4-041a-4a18-8784-c2a98c2e420c" rel="noopener nofollow">MoT Software Testing Essentials Certificate</a> image
MoT Software Testing Essentials Certificate
This badge is awarded to a member who has given a 99 second talk. image
This badge is awarded to a member who has given a 99 second talk.
<a href="https://www.ministryoftesting.com/testbash-sessions/99-second-talks-day-2-testbash-brighton-motacon-2025" rel="noopener nofollow">99 Second Talks – Day 2 – TestBash Brighton/MoTaCon 2025</a> image
99 Second Talks – Day 2 – TestBash Brighton/MoTaCon 2025
Emily O'Connor
Emily O'Connor
contributed:
Celebrate the creativity and courage of testers and quality engineers as they share stories, lessons, and ideas in just 99 seconds. image
Celebrate the creativity and courage of testers and quality engineers as they share stories, lessons, and ideas in just 99 seconds.
Emily O'Connor
Emily O'Connor
contributed:
<div>Locators are expressions that identify elements on a web page within automated tests. <br><br>When implementing Playwright, documentation states that locators should reflect the user's perspective, which is also referred to as having user-centric locators. Other frameworks such as Cypress use locators based on IDs or an XPath.</div> image
Definitions of Locators
<a href="https://www.ministryoftesting.com/memories/the-fabulous-emily-on-stage" rel="noopener nofollow">The fabulous Emily on stage</a> image
The fabulous Emily on stage
Emily O'Connor
Emily O'Connor
contributed:
The fabulous Emily on stage - 99 seconds talk image
The fabulous Emily on stage - 99 seconds talk
This badge is awarded to members who complete the Cognitive biases in software testing course. image
This badge is awarded to members who complete the Cognitive biases in software testing course.
<a href="https://www.ministryoftesting.com/memories/they-just-kept-turning-up" rel="noopener nofollow">They just kept turning up! </a> image
They just kept turning up!
Emily O'Connor
Emily O'Connor
contributed:
02/10/25. 

It's Thursday. The time is 16:03. It's Day 2 of MoTaCon. And I've never seen the 99-Second Talks queue grow so quickly. And even after this photo more people turned up.

Such is the... image
02/10/25. It's Thursday. The time is 16:03. It's Day 2 of MoTaCon. And I've never seen the 99-Second Talks queue grow so quickly. And even after this photo more people turned up. Such is the...
<div>Thanks for going above and beyond in September 2025. Your community contributions create sparks and support many good things. 🤩</div> image
Thanks for going above and beyond in September 2025. Your community contributions create sparks and support many good things. 🤩
Emily O'Connor
Emily O'Connor
contributed:
Big thanks to everyone who supported us through this wild year of building Epic Test Quest from early interviews to testing our prototypes and giving us honest feedback.
It was amazing to meet so ... image
Big thanks to everyone who supported us through this wild year of building Epic Test Quest from early interviews to testing our prototypes and giving us honest feedback. It was amazing to meet so ...
It’s a good job Rutherford P Dog can’t read. 
He is not normally a massive fan of post(persons) 

 image
It’s a good job Rutherford P Dog can’t read. He is not normally a massive fan of post(persons)
<a href="https://www.ministryoftesting.com/memories/contract-testing-workshop-is-packed" rel="noopener nofollow">Contract Testing workshop is packed!</a> image
Contract Testing workshop is packed!
During this talk at Test Bash 2025, Joep mention a zero bug policy. Simply put, if we can live with it forever, forget about it, if you can't, fix it right away. image
During this talk at Test Bash 2025, Joep mention a zero bug policy. Simply put, if we can live with it forever, forget about it, if you can't, fix it right away.
Thank you Stuart!! Have learned a lot from our chat and I feel more confident in taking the next steps in introducing quality engineering at work!! ✨  image
Thank you Stuart!! Have learned a lot from our chat and I feel more confident in taking the next steps in introducing quality engineering at work!! ✨
Emily O'Connor
Emily O'Connor
commented on:
👏 Great talk, much more useful than “yeah… we already have a bug for that …in the backlog” image
"👏 Great talk, much more useful than “yeah… we already have a bug for that …in the backlog”"
Yesterday I gave my first 99-second talk at my first MoTaCon on disaster management! When things have gone completely wrong, remember:

- We know: Share the facts, without speculation but also wi... image
Yesterday I gave my first 99-second talk at my first MoTaCon on disaster management! When things have gone completely wrong, remember: - We know: Share the facts, without speculation but also wi...
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