Next up in our ‘Meet the Speaker’ Series for UKSTAR 2018 is Joep Lobée.

 

Joep Lobée is an experienced tester who has been working as a test consultant since 1997. He has worked on numerous projects, both in the Netherlands and abroad, in a variety of testing roles in industries ranging from Media and Entertain-ment to banking, Service providers and off-shore industry.

He is an accomplished speaker who has spoken on several large conferences, for example: he has spoken on the EuroSTAR conference on several occasions , The Dutch Testing Conference and the ESRI GIS conference. He thoroughly enjoys giving presentations and loves the opportunity to interact with other testers and exchange ideas.

 

Joep will present as part of the storytelling sessions with his story ‘The Unintended Veteran Tester or How Software Testing Changed My Life’ at UKSTAR 2018 in London

 

1. What is your favourite testing book/blog? Why is this your favourite?

My favourite blog is https://5blogs.wordpress.com/. It is a pretty lazy (or as I would call it: efficient 😀) way to keep up to date because this blog posts 5 blogs every day from other blogs. Not just on testing but on other, more or less related fields. So, as the name of the blog states, 5 blogs every day. An due to the cascade effect you read more every time: you see a real interesting blog, you read more on that blog and so on… A very useful blog I would say.

 

2. How do you keep up to date with the software testing industry?

First of all by reading blogs (see the previous question) and other testing related magazines and sites.  And of course by visiting conferences etc. not just to listen to the speakers, but also to speak to the visitors. And most of all: by working as a test consultant, there you see what works for you in various situations, clients and industries. Reading and talking about is one thing, but actually applying it can be a whole other matter.

3. What is the biggest misconception about testing that you’ve heard?

I have heard several, but the one I still hear and still get pretty miffed about is the assumption that when a system has been tested no more defects will occur.  It has become a bit of a pet peeve for me.

If a week after a go live a defect surfaces the blame-game starts, the focus first is on testing. Why haven’t you found this, why didn’t you test this, what have you been doing all this time etc etc. This blame can be justifiable of course, real obvious things can be missed etc.

But what rubs me the wrong way in situations like that is when the blame comes from the same persons who have been cutting testing time, have been pushing for more & more overtime to make up for delays and foul-ups further up stream in the process. And suddenly it is all down to testing.