HUSTEF: Making Your Impact with Testing

We sell our limited time for salary, with hopes of making increasing amounts for the same time input year over year. This is possible when the output -- impact -- of our work grows in value. Can we tell the story of our value for both personal productivity and team generativity? At the same time, the tester to developer ratios have been on a decline, reflecting renegotiation of testing work to various contributors without tester titles. Meanwhile testers are working on quality assistance (coaching testing) over testing. Can we position our impact in the new frame of expectations?

Our careers are too important to be left at the whims of our managers. We need to assess our impact, tell stories of our impact, test if the stories we tell stick with our peers and managers and produce the results we work for. In this talk, we look at my lessons from the trenches. What stories have I collected that have mattered? We discuss the practical tips on positioning, storytelling, data collecting, conceptual framing, and balancing DOING and SHOWING over planning and selling you can apply as soon as you are back at your virtual desk.

Testing is the best work, let’s make the best of it. My tester stories may make me known for “destroying code they were proud of in like an hour and a half”, and teaching a product manager that “software can actually work when delivered to us.” and “shortening releases from months to hours”. What’s the story you want to leave behind and your cadence of replenishing the stories of your impact?

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