Next up in our ‘Meet the Speaker’ Series for UKSTAR 2018 is Andrew Brown.
Dr Andrew Brown is a principal consultant at SQS. Recently, he has developed an independent line of research into understanding why we humans make the mistakes that lead to software defects. This research has produced a new view of defect reduction, several papers and a revamp of training and induction at SQS.
He has 25 years’ experience in the software industry. Previous roles include Head of QA at HMV, Head of QA at a financial software house and a test manager in Japan.
He holds a degree in Physics and Maths, an MBA from Warwick Business School and a doctorate from Imperial College.
Andrew will present his session ‘How Estimation Will Cause Your Project to Become Riskier’ at UKSTAR 2018 in London
1. What is your favourite testing book/blog? Why is this your favourite?
My favourite software testing book is ‘Lessons Learned in Software Testing: A Context Driven Approach‘
This is, in my opinion, easily the best and most readable book on software testing.
Not a testing book, but ‘Facts and Fallacies of Software Engineering‘ is a pretty good read.
2. How do you keep up to date with the software testing industry?
Keeping up with developments in the software testing industry is difficult.
I find that blogs can give you high level information, but tend to lack depth. However, more recently I have stopped trying to keep up with the software testing industry. Instead, I am following my own beliefs of where the industry should be going, rather than following others.
This has helped me focus, allowing me to get some genuine insights, something that would not have been possible if I had tried to keep up with all the latest developments around me.
3. What is the biggest misconception about testing that you’ve heard?
I believe that the biggest misconception about testing is that it is about external things, such as technology or process, whereas I believe that removing defects should be about understanding why we make the errors in the thought processes that we do, and then trying to do something about it.