5 Questions For Joel Montvelisky

Joel Montvelisky of PractiTest ( and recent father ) is next up to answer the questions.

1. Why did you start blogging and what were you hoping to get out of it ?
( and have you got what you hoped for ? )

I learned about blogs about 8 years ago when a colleague developer asked me jokingly if I was The Joel from "Joel on Software"...
Then a little over a year ago, after doing consulting for over a year one of my customers suggested I start my own blog and I thought to myself why not. I guess I felt I had stuff to share with other Testers & QA Engineers, specially about the simple things that make the big differences.

What did I hope to get...?
I don't think I hoped to get anything out of it, but I definitely got connected to many people who form the International QA Community.


2. What have you learned from doing your blog?

The trivial thing is that it is harder than it seems to be constant and post good stuff on a regular basis, there are times when you have 10 subjects on your mind and lack the time, and other times when you try to think about something worth posting.

I also learned that there is a strong QA community that is willing to share and learn from one-another.


3. Do you track your visitors - if so, any unusual searches to find your blog ?

I remember that after I posted a blog about the Pesticide Paradox I started getting all sorts of weird searches, the funnier one was one about "insecticide residue in kitchens and bathrooms". It certainly got me wondering if I was posting about the correct subjects.


4. Do you have a favorite post that you have written ?

I didn't until you asked...
If I had to choose only one post, it would be "Ask yourself what were you hired to do?" . I wrote it after reading a post by John McConda in TestingReflections, and I think that it reflects in the clearest way my definition of our Jobs as QA Engineers within the R&D Organization.


5. Any advice to new bloggers ?

If you are thinking about blogging, stop thinking and start writing.
Make sure your posts are good and have content that other people find interesting.
If at the beginning you don't get much traction don't get frustrated, continue being constant and in time you will start seeing readers coming back to your site.