Reading all the entries for how to improve the testing craft made me think about putting together a list of what I try and do to improve/maintain my skills
- As mentioned in my last post, moderating and being involved with the Software Testing Club teaches me a lot
- Blogs – I haven’t posted to this as much as I would have liked to and have only been skimming other testers blogs but they are a good source of learning
- Miagi-Do school of s/w testing – honorary member of this but still not got around to earning a belt. A Must Do for 2011 especially as it is now getting more well known
- Books – currently reading Design Patterns in Ruby and have Beautiful Teams after that. On my Amazon wish list is Agile Samurai and Management 3.0.
Though given my current progress through the Ruby book of a couple of pages a day ( not because it’s a bad book but because of time ) then I might be finished reading this little collection by 2020... - Ruby – as I’m reading the book I want to try putting some into practice
- One way to put Ruby into practice was to learn more about The Secret Ninja Cucumber Scrolls and other ATDD tools
- I try to attend evening sessions at SkillsMatter and the monthly London Tester Gatherings
- Taken part in several Weekend Testing Sessions
- Member of the Writing about Testing mailgroup. Mostly lurking though being part of it helped me get a front cover on Test magazine
Having put this list together, it reminded me a recent blog post from John Stevenson Sorting the Chaff from the wheat where he said
"My other concern is that we are becoming a society of 24x7 learners, we never switch off"
It can be a tough balancing act but I suppose the question to ask yourself is:
"Am I enjoying this ?"
Having read two recent excellent blog posts about learning - Software Testing Apprentices by Markus Gartner and the blog post of the year from Michael Larsen, aka the TESTHEAD, where he details his learning through the year, I am enthused again and all set for 2011
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