The Testing Show

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning have often taken on a near-mythical status in the software development pantheon as of late. Of course, ask ten people what AI and Machine Learning mean and you're likely to get at least twenty different answers. Understanding how and what to test surrounding it thus becomes daunting. To help demystify this topic, Jen Crichlow joins Matthew Heusser and Michael Larsen to discuss developments in the AI and ML space and how to make sense of the myriad options and, more important, considerations around how to test these technologies.

Back in 2012, Matthew Heusser, Michael Larsen, and a number of other testers and test professionals came together to write a book devoted to the topic of "How to Reduce the Cost of Software Testing". To celebrate the ten year anniversary of that experience, Matt and Michael welcome fellow author Petteri Lyytinen to share their experiences writing the book and to see if, ten years later, we have made progress on our goal or if there is more that we can do in regard to the goals we set out a decade ago.

For many years, Computer Science was the only way, educationally speaking, to learn about methodologies related to programming software and building large scale applications. Software Engineering grew out of the need to have a more streamlined methodology, and our guest Robert Sabourin of McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada has been at the forefront of helping developing those Software Engineering courses as well as teaching them to up and coming software engineers.

Applications are moving rapidly from company datacenters to the Cloud. With these changes come new challenges with building applications and testing them effectively. Sriram Sitaraman and Lamech Carnelian join Matthew Heusser and Michael Larsen to talk about "Infrastructure Assurance" and ways to get the most out of the methodologies around putting applications into the cloud and making sure they work optimally once they are there.

This episode goes in some unusual but interesting directions. Lena Wiberg joins Matthew Heusser and Michael Larsen to talk about Lana's book and card deck, "Would Heu-Risk It?" which is all about heuristics and ways of looking at problems in a different light. Also, Lena talks about her keynote at Agile Testing Day 2022 titled "Living Fearlessly - While Living With Fear"

In our ever-changing world of applications, processes, and systems, we spend a lot of time talking specifically about improving those applications and how they are built. However, how many of us have taken a step back and asked about the actual data that we deal with? The quality of our data has everything to do with the ability of applications to be successful and work in ways that actually matter. To that end, Naresh Nunna and Sendhil Selvanathan join Matthew Heusser and Michael Larsen to discuss ways in which we can better assure overall data quality and perhaps introduce a DevOps for Data in conjunction with CI/CD pipeline modernization and analytics.

Once upon a time, and in many ways still, there was the sense that Cyber Security was the realm of elite professionals who were trained and experts in all things security related. They were special unicorns who far outstripped mere mortals. Of course, this is not true but it is a perception that persists. Today, Uri Bar-El joins Matthew Heusser and Michael Larsen to talk about how and where Cyber Security is changing and how it is becoming less about the external nebulous threats (which still exist, of course) and more on the way that everyday testers and software developers need to hone their own cyber security skills and bring the issue of security into the development and testing process much earlier and with an eye towards total quality.

In celebration of June being Pride month, The Testing Show is doing a special program focusing on "Qualipride", which is the Employee Resource Group (ERG) for LGBTQ+ identifying employees and their allies. To discuss this, guest host Fiona Dawson joins James Barret, Audry, Maulana, Brandon McGuire, Chandra Nair, and Lacy Norris to discuss how Qualipride champions diversity and that diversity benefits Qualitest in its entirety.

In many cases Accessibility and Accessibility Testing are done as late in the game processes and done to make sure that a level of compliance is met for those who most need that accommodation. This misses out on the fact that many more people could benefit from having Accessibility features integrated into their products and that the benefits of accessibility go well beyond those who need last-mile technology the most. Subhash Chhetri and Karan Ahuja join Matthew Heusser and Michael Larsen to discuss their philosophy of Accessibility For Everything, and how making every element and process accessible makes products and services better for everyone that uses them.

We spend a lot of time talking about the quality engineering of systems and processes. We spend considerably less time talking about the quality engineering related to ourselves and our everyday actions and reactions. To that end, Manoj Gupta, Qualitest MD of UK and Western Europe, joins Matthew Heusser and Michael Larsen, to talk about his book "New York to New You" and how we can apply the same rigor we do to our coding and testing efforts to build and improve the quality in ourselves.