How can we know that the products we're building are going to make a positive impact on the world? Could it be that it's only good for people like us, but does harm to others? What can we as individuals do to improve the products we're building? In this season finale episode of Quality Bits, Lina talks to Catherine Flick, a Professor of Ethics and …

Have you ever heard of W. Edwards Deming? What about... the Toyota way? Lean? DevOps? John Willis is one of the pioneers of the DevOps movement, and, has recently released a book "Deming's Journey to the Profound Knowledge". In this latest episode of Quality Bits you'll hear more about this book, and the ideas of Deming that we can still learn so m…

Imagine the world with no sight. No hearing. No mobility. It's hard to comprehend how to navigate the world then. It's a reality for more people than we imagine. It also may have been or might be yours - there as well may be situational or temporary times in your life when you need a more accessible world. In this episode of Quality Bits, Lina talk…

What does it mean to be a "team glue"? Why does it matter? Why QA should be positioned as a tech leadership role? Tune in the latest episode with the inspiring Vernon Richards to get the answers to these questions and so much more. Find Vernon on: His website: https://www.vernonrichards.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vernonrichards/ X: …

Learning is essential, but... It's easy to fall into a learning fatigue. It can feel like one more thing in our already overflowing to-do list. To make matters more challenging, the number of online resources to learn from is growing daily. Marie Cruz is a Senior Developer Advocate: her job is to learn and share what she has learned. In this episod…

Automated E2E (end-to-end) tests frequently are the first thing companies introduce trying to reduce the efforts of manual testing: "There's this big manual testing regression suite, so why don't we automate it? Right? ... Right?" Well, Bas Dijkstra thinks otherwise. In this episode, we'll talk about automating the right things instead, and, why E2…

More and more software delivery teams embrace the whole team quality approach. Where does testing fit into that? Modern testing principles are there to help to understand what the industry is moving towards. In this episode, Lina talks to Alan Page - one of the creators of modern testing principles. He's an avid blogger who has quite a few opinions…

Ever been in a situation where you're trying to make a point to someone and as much as you try to phrase it differently, it just does not go through? On the other side, have you ever had someone approach you and despite you first having the opposing point of view, they quickly convince you otherwise? Those are the persuasion skills in action. After…

As of February, 2024, English is the most popular language for web content. The world is not only people who speak English, though. If we do not make the content and products in other languages, how can people even know that it exists and benefit from it? In this episode of Quality Bits, Lina talks to Chen Hui Jing, a front-end developer passionate…

What is DevOps? Is it just continuous releases and speed? How do we test in teams embracing DevOps? Jani Haapala is a DevOps Architect with a Quality Consultant title. In this episode, Lina talks to Jani about that fluffy word of "DevOps", the misconceptions about it, and testing in DevOps. You'll learn more about the concept, get some stories on w…

Does a separate QA department help or hurdle the company's road towards quality? What about people having titles with "quality" in it: does it aid to drive change in the company or the opposite? Can there be a high-quality product without dedicated testers? In this episode of Quality Bits, Lina talks to the author of "Explore it!" Elisabeth Hendric…

In this episode of the Quality Bits podcast, Lina interviews Andrei Bechet, a Senior Software Engineer at Personio. You will learn about experiments, driving change, and the power of learning cultures with Andrei. You'll also hear why chasing titles isn't the key to career growth - and what to do instead. Tune in to learn the secrets of collaborati…

Antonela Mandic is a psychologist who has been working in tech as well as a team coach. In this episode of Quality Bits, Antonela not only shares the parallels between pscyhology and some tech concepts like agile, but also opens up about burnout she has gone through herself. Tune in to hear more about: What burnout is The road to recovery Steps you…

Performance testing for many people in tech is a daunting task: there's an overwhelming amount of tools, frameworks, or even different types of performance testing. Where can we start? Is it all about faster applications? Are there ever cases where speed takes a back seat? This episode's guest Nicole van der Hoeven is a Senior Developer Advocate at…

In the light of Movember (a movement that aims to raise awareness about men's health, including mental health and suicide prevention) and international men's day (did you know about that?), this is a special, vulnerable, and essential episode about men's mental health. In this episode, Lina talks to Shey Crompton - a Senior Quality Manager at easyJ…

DHIS2 is an open-source health system used in many countries. It's known for it's generic architecture and high customisability. How do you have a generic design for diverse environments and build a product that helps save lives? This episode's guest Joe Cooper is a designer working there for more than 7 years. We discuss the challenges of designin…

Do you think of money when you talk about quality? Is money vs. quality the same as speed vs. quality? How can we leverage the knowledge about money matters when talking about product quality? This episode's guest Valentin Ranshakov, a QA expert at SAP Signavio, shares many interesting ideas about money and quality trade-offs, including when it doe…

Laid off? Or know someone who was? How do you navigate it or help someone navigate it? In this episode of Quality Bits, Lina talks to April Johnson, a change manager who recently experienced a layoff. April shares her experience and offers advice for others going through a similar situation. You'll learn about the importance of reaching out to your…

APIs - what are they? What should we keep in mind when testing an API? What are the benefits of API testing over UI testing? This episode's guest is Callum Akehurtst-Ryan, a principal test engineer at Chetwood Finance, who is on a mission to educate more testers (and not only) about APIs and their testing. Not only you're going to learn what APIs a…

Do you remember your childhood dreams? What did you want to be when you grew up? How did you imagine your life? Dr. Rochelle Carr is a coach and speaker on a mission to shift people's lives and encourage them to rediscover their why: the guiding light purpose which sparks joy in whatever we do. In this episode, Lina talks to Dr. Rochelle about find…

What makes an effective 1-on-1? What are the key aspects of valuable 1-on-1s? Is there a difference between a leader and a manager? Why does the language we use matter? Tune in to this episode to learn more from Farai Madzima. Farai is a people leader who challenges our misconceptions about 1-on-1s and shares valuable tips on making these meetings …

User experience (UX) research is a field that can help us prevent issues before they take place. Greta Ruskiene knows this first-hand: she used to work as a QA and made a career shift to UX with time. In this episode, we discuss UX research, the art of question-asking, and how frequently, even when we truly believe we know our users, we may not. Fi…

What's the difference between observability and monitoring? What's a telemetry? Why do they matter, and how could we use them more beneficially? Abby Bangser shares her journey from a QA to a platform engineer in this episode. We discuss the similarities between testing and infrastructure-related areas like site reliability engineering. In addition…

With over a decade in data-related roles, working with Data Science, Data Engineering, Machine Learning, and MLOps Engineering, Aurimas Griciūnas is a great role model for many people wanting to learn more about data. The author of the SwirlAI newsletter with over 7000 subscribers, Aurimas' posts with visuals explaining data have reached many more …

We've all worked with "heroes," great professionals who frequently "save the day" in the company. What if we'd instead prevent the day from needing the saving altogether? Dan Abel believes in 10x teams rather than 10x engineers. Listen to this episode to learn more about it and what aspects to concentrate on when setting up the teams for success. F…

It's no surprise that this episode's guest Lewis Prescott has a website called "pactman". Pact is a popular contract testing tool, and Lewis is indeed a man who can tell quite a bit about Pact and contract testing. In this conversation, you'll learn more about contract testing, its benefits, misconceptions, and where to start. Find Lewis on: - Link…

Amy Sandler is a lead coach and podcast host at Radical Candor. Most of the people in tech (and not only) know the Radical Candor framework and its bestselling book. In this story-fuelled podcast episode, you'll learn what the Radical Candor framework is, why dreams matter, what communication mistakes we make and how to avoid them, and how to give …

Aleksandra Kornecka turned from a QA into a Security Engineer. In this episode, Lina talks to Aleksandra to learn more about this switch, the importance of security, and its parallels with quality. You'll learn about threat modeling, where to start when learning more about security, and so much more, including some anecdotes referencing the most fa…

Are you curious about the behind-the-scenes workings of product development? Want to know who's really responsible for the products we build and how to ensure they're valuable? Tune in to this episode of our podcast, where we sit down with guest Andrea Sipos, a seasoned product manager who shares her insights and expertise on the role of a product …

Testing in production: scary abnormality or familiar regularity? In this episode, Lina talks to Rouan about the role of a QA that is more than testing and testing in production. You'll hear about the misconceptions of testing in production, the requirements for reliable testing in production, and even how to clean up your messy alerting systems. Fi…

It's the 10th episode of Quality Bits! 🎉 That calls for a celebration, so here are four quality bits of... Quality Bits! Lina shares her favorite parts of conversations with four inspiring previous guests. Starting off, you'll hear Finn Lorbeer sharing about his experimentation of removing a QA column (all while working as a QA himself). Then Maare…

Infrastructure as code - is it possible to test it? What opportunities are there in cloud? How can code standards support us in building high-quality products? About all this and more listen to this episode of Quality Bits with Daniel Mohacsi, DevOps Lead at Lufthansa Systems Hungary. Find Daniel on: - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dani-moh…

What it's like to work in game industry? Is testing games just fun and games? In this episode of Quality Bits, you'll get a chance to learn the answers to these questions and so much more. Lina talks to Stuart Crocker who is currently working as a Head of Quality Engineering with no... quality engineer roles, has plenty of stories to share about ga…

In this episode, Lina talks to the feedback fairy, a well-known voice in the testing (and not only) community - Maaret Pyhäjärvi about the different readiness for changes in team and supporting the growth journeys. Find Maaret on: - LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maaret/ - Her website: https://maaretp.com - Mastodon: https://mas.to/@maaretp …

"Companies have to have zero tolerance for racism. Zero tolerance for sexism. Zero tolerance for homophobia." - Amy Weidner Amy is a DE&I Program Manager at Twitter with an extensive experience in recruitment. In this episode, Lina and Amy discuss privilege sharing, culture fit vs. culture add, and how we can improve our workspaces. Find Amy on: - …

Ever joined a new company? I bet. The start is always challenging, and as Angela Riggs says "you have to learn to learn". In this episode of Quality Bits, Lina and Angela discuss the feelings you may face in a new workplace, the job of a QA manager, setting boundaries, and management practices which support the high-quality product building teams. …

In this episode of Quality Bits, Lina talks to a QA-turned-Director-of-Engineering Finn Lorbeer about his past days of ripping off the QA column as a QA, the differences in driving change when you're a team member versus in a leadership position, and why having fun in the team matters. Find Finn on: - Twitter: https://twitter.com/finnlorbeer - Link…

In this episode of Quality Bits, Lina talks to Alaa Sarhan, the CTO at wundertax. Alaa is not only a great engineer, but also someone who is passionate and caring when it comes to product. You'll hear about the idea of perceived quality, as well as how to balance off product and engineering when creating high-quality products. Find Alaa on: - Twitt…

In this episode of Quality Bits, you'll hear about so many aspects of building the right product. Lina's guest is Nadine Oldorf who shares her experience on stakeholder management, continuous discovery, working on writing user stories, or why there may be resistance from delivery teams when it comes to product feature building. You'll learn not onl…

In this initial episode of Quality Bits, Lina talks to Steve Upton about the definition of quality, Cynefin, deleting the bugs (?!!!), and so much more. Find Steve on: - Twitter: https://twitter.com/steve_upton?lang=en - LinkedIn: https://de.linkedin.com/in/stevejupton Book recommendations: "Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions" by Gary Klei…

What's Quality Bits? Who is it for? And... why is it called Quality Bits? In the short trailer, host Lina Zubyte shares a story of the name and provides a glimpse of what to expect in the following episodes. Follow Quality Bits host Lina Zubyte on: - Twitter: https://twitter.com/buggylina - LinkedIn: https://de.linkedin.com/in/linazubyte - Website:…