Talking Testing with Steven Burton

As part of my testing blog series I recently caught up with Steven Burton, experienced Tester and Senior Consultant at Infinity Works to find a bit more about his thoughts on the subject.

1. Looking at your LinkedIn you can see that you have a huge amount of experience in Testing – what first attracted you to this area of technology?

This is probably a cliche but I just ended up in testing which in my experience is pretty common! I wanted to be a developer and this is what I trained for at University. But I ended up in a Tester role and haven't looked back since. I loved the freedom of the role - you have so much more input in to the whole of a product and loads of chances to influence. I also love the learning aspect both with products and with tools - so many choices of languages and frameworks to use and it's fun learning about each one.

2. You can see how you have progressed from your first Testing role in 2009 to your current position as a Senior Consultant at Infinity Works, what advice would you give to a budding Tester looking to progress in their career?

Don't be afraid to ask questions and look to input at any chance you get. I think communication is vital and it's important to learn to communicate in the right way at the right time. If you can do this it will help a lot. I would also say to get yourself out in to the community and learn everything you can that way. It's a fantastic resource with some great people and it's a really good way of learning things you may not have encountered before.

3. You recently helped organise the first Leeds Software Test Clinic – how important do you feel these events are for the Testing community to share knowledge and ideas?

I think the community is vital. It's great that we have a lot of people in the industry who want to share their thoughts and ideas. I love organising and taking part in these events and it's something I want to do more of. I've met some great people and learnt a lot. I'd strongly encourage anyone to come along to community events, no matter what your current role or experience is.

4. You’re also no stranger to presenting at these events as I can see you recently spoke at Automation Tech Talk – how did you find the transition from hands on Testing to presenting at events like this?

It's never something I have been entirely comfortable with but mainly I've done it because I want to improve so the more you can do it the more you learn. The community is a nice safe place to learn this skill. In my previous role I had to do presentation as part of the job so to further my career I simply had to learn those skills. Also this is a personal thing but I feel that the more events I attend the more I should present and organise as well because it's only a fair thing to do.

5. Speaking in front of lots of people isn’t everyone’s favourite thing to do, do you have any advice for getting a good level of engagement when speaking at technical events?

I think I've learnt a number of things over the years in terms of presenting and I have always tried to improve my skills in this area. I guess the biggest thing is body language and confidence. If you don't have it then try to fake it! Use confident body language and project your voice when speaking. If you force it then you will feel more confident. I also try to tell a story in my presentations and use lots of images rather than text. People seem to become more engaged then - if you can use audience participation then even better.

6. You recently launched testersfindaway.com– can you tell us a bit more about the project?

I have always wanted to write a blog before and this is finally me getting round to doing it. It's a good way of getting your name out in to the community and getting yourself known. I love testing and I have a lot of passion and thoughts on the subject and I like having somewhere to write these thoughts down. I'm not sure if the thoughts are interesting to anyone but if they are then even better!

7. Are there any other sites / Twitter accounts you would recommend for keeping up to date with the latest Testing news?

I have always following Michael Bolton and James Bach personally and been lucky enough to attend their course before. They are probably the ones I have learnt from the most. The ministry of testing always have interesting links, blogs and stories and Google have a testing blog that's always good to read. Their testing on the toilet series is fun. Of course I also follow the people within the community as well and love reading their blogs. Ash Winter, Ady Stokes and others have blogs that are great to read.

8. If you were looking to hire a Software Tester for your team – what characteristics would you look for / what advice would you give to those looking for a new role?

I look for the mindset and the way they think first. That's the most important thing. Automation is a useful skill but it isn't everything. I've recently done a lot of work on this for my current role and the mindset is the bedrock; big picture thinking, innovative and creative, questioning. Then there are skills including Automation, testing strategy, techniques and so on which are also important. A lot of people think just getting in to automation is enough but I think a good tester should always ask themselves: "If I am on a team of excellent software engineers who have a good grasp of automation then how can I add value and improve quality?"

9. Finally if you hadn’t ever got into Testing what job do you think you’d be doing now?

That's a tough question! I always loved criminology before University so I would like to think I'd be doing something in that field. But who knows what happens in life so it could be anything really!

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