Recent content on Nicola Lindgren – A journey through testing, automation, development and agile
Previously, I’ve blogged about implementing change and introducing new ideas to teams. 
 However, there’s a specific element I’d like to dive deeper into in this blog post and that’s examining the relationship you have with someone before you approach them with an idea. 
 Earlier on in my career I believed my ideas would be able to hold on their own merit. That is, people would embrace any…
Note: I read this book about 11-12 months ago and took a lot of notes on what I thought about the book during this time (in preparation for a book review). Only recently have I gotten back into blogging and decided to turn these opinions and thoughts into a blog post. 
 Target Audience 
 Marie Cruz and Lewis Prescott were effective in targeting their audience when writing this book. The…
Maybe you are a tester who is currently trying to encourage the developers in your team to contribute more to the test automation framework? 
 Maybe you are a quality coach and you’d like to get test automation into your definition of done? 
 Maybe you are an engineering manager and you want to see the developers in your team make an active effort to write more tests? 
 If any of…
Recently, Vernon Richards published The Credibility Playbook for Testers. 
 It is split into three modules: 
 
 The eBook 
 Lessons/videos 
 Extras 
 
 The eBook focuses on the 5 mistakes he sees testers make that hurt their credibility. 
 The videos cover topics such as The GROW Framework for testers, Expertise Examples, and more. 
 The extras are lessons that…
This is the third blog post in a 3 post series of my experience at the 2025 Öredev Conference. 
 Check out my blog post on Day 1 at Öredev Conference here. 
 Check out my blog post on Day 2 at Öredev Conference here. 
 Live Exploratory Testing by Elizabeth Zagroba 
 Zagroba performed exploratory testing live on stage where she explained her thought-process as she did it. 
 I…
This is the second blog post in a 3 post series of my experience at the 2025 Öredev Conference. 
 Check out my blog post on Day 1 at Öredev Conference here. 
 Check out my blog post on Day 3 at Öredev Conference here. 
 Speaking Tech to Power: The CTO Guide to Board Presentations by Katrina Clokie 
 This was the 2nd talk I attended at this conference by Clokie - again, was very…
This is the first blog post in a 3 post series of my experience at the 2025 Öredev Conference. 
 Check out my blog post on Day 2 at Öredev Conference here. 
 Check out my blog post on Day 3 at Öredev Conference here. 
 Attending Öredev 2025 
 I was excited to attend my 3rd Öredev conference and my first as a member of the Program Committee. 
 In 2017, I spoke at Öredev on…
Target Audience 
 I couldn’t find any information online regarding who the book is targeted towards, nor could I find any information on the back of the book itself. 
 So I’ll just share who I would recomend ths book to. 
 I would recommend this book to everyone who works with software development. Period. 
 What I Thought About the Book 
 I started reading the Team…
Target Audience 
 The recommended audience, according to the Manning site : 
 
 About the reader: 
 For developers, testers and quality engineers. 
 
 While this is accurate, I’d expand on it a bit. The book seems particularly valuable for junior to intermediate-level practitioners who aren’t yet completely comfortable with LLMs and prompt engineering. Those…
How Can I Test This? Book 
 About the Book: 
 If you have ever wondered, what do you mean by that? This is the book for you. 
 This book puts examples at the forefront. 
 Instead of test theory being front and centre, with maybe an example or two if you’re lucky, this book makes examples the focus. 
 We share: 
 
 The scenarios/features/sites that need to be tested (the…
Introduction 
 Over the past 10 years I’ve interviewed some fantastic software testing experts in our industry. In this blog post, I will 10 tips that these experts have shared, along with a link to the original blog post so you can read more. 
 1. Changing Your Mind About Certain Things by Lena Nyström 
 I used to LOVE waterfall projects. I felt I could only do good testing if I…
Why Asking Questions in Job Interviews Matters 
 When you are interviewing for a role, it’s important to remember that you are in fact interviewing each other. 
 While I’m sure a company may want to ask you questions to see if you are suitable for the role, you should also be asking the company questions to see if you think it will be suitable for you. 
 In a previous blog…
Target audience 
 On their Leanpub page it states this book is for the following: 
 
 “If you care about quality – no matter what your specialty or role in your organization is – we think you’ll find it helpful. UI/UX designers, product owners, programmers, testers, database experts, business analysts, site reliability and platform engineers and more.” 
 
 I agree…
1. Use Examples 
 When you’re asked for your experience in a certain area, such as working in agile or working with test automation, include examples of when you’ve done this in the past. Don’t just say, “Oh, yes, I’ve done this and that.” 
 Elaborate. 
 Even if you are not asked to provide an example, it can be beneficial to do so because it shows…
Disclaimer: I received a free physical copy of this book from Jesper Ottosen around May 2024. I’m only reviewing it now as I didn’t have the time and energy to do anything outside of just focussing on my family. He has not seen a copy of this review beforehand. 
 Before getting into this review , I think it’s helpful to share a bit around my background in leading testing…
If you haven’t already, be sure to check out my blog posts from my first day at the Öredev conference. and my second day at the Öredev conference 
 Learned a lot at my last day at the Öredev conference but this time the approach I took to this blog post is more of a brain dump. I was getting a bit tired so my notes from today were (unfortunately) not quite as good as yesterday’s.
Yet again I had another fantastic day at Öredev powered by way too much coffee and candy. 
 If you haven’t already, be sure to check out my blog post from my first day at the Öredev conference. After this one, be sure to read my write-up on the last day of the Öredev conference. 
 I did a much better job of taking notes this time around, so let’s get into it. 
 We’re…
I had a great time at the first day of Öredev today. 
 After I got my ticket, I was welcomed with this gorgeous entrance into the main conference area. 
 
 Anywho, let’s get into some of my highlights from Day 1. 
 Sustainable IT : Connect the Dots to a Greener Future 
 The first talk I attended was by Saravanan K Nagarajan. 
 Before this talk, I was very much in the…
It’s been almost 2 years since I became a line manager and I’ve learned a lot in this journey so far. 
 I have found this role both challenging and rewarding. There were some things that surprised me when it came to managing people and others that were fairly expected. 
 In this post, I want to reflect on starting at a new career ladder (so to speak) and hopefully help someone…
In software testing, perception can impact both the quality of work and the outcomes of testing, affecting how others interpret test results and your credibility in the workplace. 
 Today at work I had two interesting conversations with my colleagues regarding how important perception is with regards to software testing. 
 And of course it got me thinking. 
 I feel that there is a…
“Lessons Learned in Software Testing” by James Bach, Bret Pettichord, and Cem Kaner is a comprehensive guide to software testing, drawing on the authors’ extensive experience to offer valuable insights and practical advice. 
 I think it’s a must-read for both aspiring and experienced software testers, and for good reason. 
 The book is divided into seven sections,…
I read this book by Sarah Drasner a few months ago and long story short, I highly recommend it to people in an Engineering Manager role. While I believe the book seems to be targeted at people who are new to the role, there’s so much good stuff in here, that I’d be surprised if someone who has decent amount of experience (in Engineering Management) doesn’t learn something new…
Here are my key takeaways from Ady Stokes webinar on [Ministry of Testing, you can also check out his article Simple Tests For Accessibility Every Tester Should Know. 
 Skip to main links 
 These are used for sites with main menus on the top or side. 
 This helps people save time and not have to tab (unnecessarily) heaps, to get to what they want to get to. 
 A great example of…
Important Note: 
 I highly suggest you double check anything that ChatGPT recommends or tells you, including asking for links for any claims it makes regarding studies. For me, ChatGPT is rather useful for idea generation. 
 Note: The only original thoughts in this blog post are what’s in italics, are the subheadings where I give it prompts. 
 Note: I would be careful of putting…
Usually when someone thinks that something is “ready for test”, they are probably referring to something that is almost complete but you are just looking for a sign-off from a tester/QA. In these cases, you may find a separate column in a tool like Jira called “Ready for Test”. Only when something has made it into this column, is something deemed worthy of a tester’s…
Before I dive in, I want to point out that creating an environment of psychological safety is everyone’s responsibility. If one person is doing their best to make others feel welcome, but others are doing things that go against that - then people aren’t exactly going to feel safe to express themselves or feel safe to admit their mistakes. 
 However, in this blog post, I want to…
You might have heard of “shift left” when it comes to testing. 
 You might have heard of the numerous virtues of testing early because it’s much cheaper to find a bug early in the SDLC compared to just before you go live. 
 But exactly how do you do that? What may this process look like? 
 Here I share a few concrete, practical ideas on how to contribute as a tester,…
I’ve previously written about software testing job sites, but I wanted to take the opportunity to dive a bit deeper into how to find a role as a software tester. 
 While I have also written about starting your software testing career (and finding the first role), this post is focussed on testers in general, regardless of experience. 
 This blog post reflects what I have learned, what…
In one of my past YouTube videos, someone asked me to create a video on staying motivated as a tester. To be honest, I don’t really have the energy to create a video, but I do enjoy writing, so here are my thoughts on the topic! (Maybe I’ll create a video on this when I have a bit more energy!) 
 Past Struggles With Motivation 
 Since I started my testing career over 10 years…
These are my notes from Ard Kramer’s talk, How to Nudge Your Way Through Agile Testing at SANAE Beer Ex. 
 What is nudging? 
 
 Choice architecture 
 Alters people’s behaviour 
 Without removing options or significantly changing incentives 
 
 Video of världen’s djupaste sopptunna (the world’s deepest rubbish bin) 
 Fun can change behaviour for the better.…
I’ve had the honour of speaking at a fair number of conferences and I like to think I’ve learned a thing or two in the process. 
 In this blog post, I’ll share a few things to keep in mind if you are going to speak at a conference in person. 
 If you are looking for public speaking tips, check out my blog post on 11 Public Speaking Tips You Might Not Know.
This is the accompanying blog post to my YouTube video here. 
 
 There are places aside from LinkedIn and Indeed that you can look for software testing roles. 
 Here are some places you can find software testing jobs that you might not have heard of. 
 1. Ministry of Testing Jobs page 
 Check it out here. 
 Mainly focussed on roles in the UK, but there are a few in other…
I started my testing career over 10 years ago and have spent a fair of that time networking with people in real life at meet-ups and conferences. 
 During this time I have learned a few things when it comes to networking with people, which I would like to share. 
 I’m the first to admit I don’t always do these things, but I do try and be self-aware about this. 
 1. Remember the Pac-man…
Here is a collection of free software testing programmes that I am aware of. (I am not neccessarily recommending these programmes, just sharing information). 
 Please note that by “free” I mean there is no upfront cost to enroll, but for some of them, you may have need to work at their company for a specified period of time or pay a fee if you leave too early. 
 A software…
By day Vernon Richards is a Senior Expert Quality Engineer at Ada Health, by night he is a quality coach. 
 
 I see you did the Ship 30 for 30 course. Is there anything you learned from that, that you were able to take with you to your day job? 
 Ohmydays yes Yes YES! So much that I’m not even sure where to start! 
 For context, Ship 30 For 30 is a writing course mixed with a 30…
In my previous blog post, I wrote about investing in yourself and how it can help your career. 
 Often, investing in yourself involves learning something new. 
 We may need to learn something because: 
 
 We have directly been told we need to learn this thing. 
 We see an upcoming need for it, and we’re trying to take intiative. 
 It will help us solve a problem we…
My Upcoming Conference Talk 
 In September I’ll be giving a new talk, Invest in Yourself, at two conferences. 
 When I was invited to give a talk at these conferences, I decided to talk about this topic because it’s been on my mind for quite a while - but I needed the space from the event that kicked it off to tell it. 
 For what it’s worth, I hadn’t read of any recent redundancies at…
When a software tester asks me “Should I learn test automation?”, my default answer is it depends. 
 There are some factors that need to be considered. 
 But generally I lean towards a yes. 
 Yes, I generally think software testers should learn test automation. 
 In this blog post, I’ll explain what “should I learn test automation?” actually means (to…
I’ve often been asked if I know of any open source projects people can contribute to. Here are a few below that you can look into. 
 I will update this list as more come to my attention. 
 Go to the bottom for resources on how to contribute to open source. 
 Testsigma 
 This is an open source test automation platform for Web Apps, Mobile Apps, and APIs. 
 Languages: Java,…
Like a lot of people, I stumbled across software testing as a career path. 
 I studied Economics and German at university and then did a software testing graduate programme at a test consultancy. 
 The first few years were spent mainly testing the UI, but a few opportunities to use SOAPUi to test the integration between two systems. 
 I also then learned how to test an API using…
In this post, I’ll share three things that have helped me in my testing career as part of Ministry of Testing’s Bloggers Club. 
 This is my contribution for June. 
 1. Managing My Energy 
 Set the scene 
 I’m not sure exactly how to name this one, so I’ll do my best to explain what it means by telling a story. 
 In 2017, I got a deportation letter from…
Having graduated in sinology, Lisi fell into agile and testing in 2009 and has been infected with the agile bug ever since. She’s especially passionate about the whole-team approach to testing and quality as well as the continuous learning mindset behind it. Building great products which deliver value together with great people is what motivates her and keeps her going. She received a lot from the…
In this blog post, I will share a step by step guide on how to get started with blogging as a software tester. 
 Topics covered include: 
 
 Why should I write a blog? 
 Finding time to blog 
 Overcoming Imposter Syndrome 
 Which blogging platform to use 
 How to come up with blog post ideas 
 How to write your blog posts 
 Distribution 
 
 While this…
I remember when I first came across a really good public speaker. 
 Not just really good. 
 But really good. 
 It was at my first year of high school and someone from Toastmasters came to talk about something. 
 To be honest, I don’t remember what they talked about but I do remember thinking she had a gift and I could never become as good as her. 
 I’m still not.…
A bit over a month ago, I took part in The Test Chat’s #21days21tips challenge. While I did enjoy sharing my tips, I most enjoyed learning from others taking part in the challenge. 
 Here are my favourite tips, in no particular order: 
 Note that I have copied the tips from the authors, but I may make edits for grammar, clarity etc. 
 1. SLIDE for Accessibility Checking 
…
Ajay Balamurugadas, goes by the handle ‘ajay184f’ in the testing community and is continuously re-inventing his testing methodology. He co-founded Weekend Testing – a worldwide movement for skilled testing, authored multiple books available at bit.ly/booksaj and bit.ly/ajleanpub . 
 His friends associate the terms – ‘Change Agent, Idea Man, Motivational’ to him. He loves to have long…
Laveena Ramchandani is an experienced Testing Consultant with a comprehensive understanding of tools available for software testing and analysis. She aims to provide valuable insights that have high technical aptitude and hopes to inspire others in the world through her work. 
 Laveena holds a degree in Business Computing from Queen Mary University of London and regularly speaks at events on…
Throughout my career, I’ve heard others say that quality should be a team effort. 
 But exactly how do you make that happen? Especially when you are a tester and people tend to assume that you are responsible for quality. 
 In this post, I will share a few ideas to help make quality a team effort. 
 But first, let’s reframe the question to make it easier to tackle. 
…
Maaret is a feedback fairy with 25-years of experience on testing and everything around it. She has collected a few awards here and there, takes pride in someone having added her in Wikipedia , and considers speaking in tech conferences a hobby. 
 Her work is about transforming to better testing from within the teams. She writes public notes about things work brings her way on Twitter, and…
If you are reading this, I am going to assume you are also working in IT. 
 This blog post is primarily directed at people working in IT - especially testers. 
 In this blog post, I would like to share my experience in blogging, how others have benefited from blogging and the perspectives of people who make hiring decisions. 
 Lastly, I will share a few ideas for people who are…