MOT Bloggers Club June 2022

Bloggers Club June 2022 - 3 Things That Have Helped Me in My Testing Career

Slightly unusual topic source this month. Team effort between Simon, Nicola and I.

Rather than be repetitive and talk about community or writing (yet) again. I’ll focus on three other areas today. Feel free to search my posts if that other content interests you.

Version Control (VC)

I mean VC primarily in terms of code, but good version control of non-code assets just makes sense. Thankfully if you’re keeping things in cloud tools you’ll generally have some built in version control. Google Drive, Confluence and OneDrive all have ways to revert to previous versions, or tag versions of docs. Certainly beats emailing documents around with slightly edited filenames. No more Aarons-verson-of-the-docs_CoroporateDocument_withcomment(1)_FINAL.doc.pdf.doc.ppt.

I usually work in version controlled code bases, so I’m no stranger to Git. This blog is fully version controlled markdown. Don’t believe me? Have a look at the commits Git is one of those things that seems really complicated when you’re getting started. Don’t get me wrong there’s lots of things you can do with it, which can get you into a tricky spot. But generally speaking, if you understand a few basics, you’ll probably be fine. There’s really only a few key concepts for basic Git

To talk a bit abstractly:

  • Repository: a set of files in a folder, that you care about
  • Branch: a working copy of the repository, that doesn’t impact the original
  • Commit: a discrete set of changes that you want to save
  • Merge: a way to add changes from one branch to another

For me those are the main parts. Sure there’s lots more to learn about approaches and good practice. But, I feel with that information, you wouldn’t get lost in a conversation.

I like making small changes and committing them. It works well for me, even if it’s not for code.

Remote working & events

Like a lot of people, the increase in online events, and remote working has been largely beneficial for me and my family. I don’t want to downplay the horrible impact of Covid, because it is just horrible.

With more “things online” I wasn’t locked to the employers in my area, nor to the events that are here. Being able to attend and even speak at webinars, conferences, meetups has been wonderful. Even if that’s only been made possible due to Covid. There’s a strange feeling of guilt around this. A strange duality, of horrible global pandemic, and personal benefits in some form. Something I imagine many others deal with.

People

and also community, and lied earlier

Community has been the single biggest catalyst in my career. Collaborating and sharing ideas with different people, just leads to great things. The opportunities genuinely feel endless.

What makes a community? The people of course! Without decent folk, this just doesn’t pan out.