As I sat back in the black, plastic wrapped chair, I felt the needle pierce my arm. There’s something exciting and soothing about the sensation of a needle penetrating my skin, over and over. Its gentle buzz comforts me. “So, why Wonder Woman?” asked my artist, with equal parts curiosity and sweetness. […]
Category: Social Issues
How to Manage Your Fucks (and Other Coping Mechanisms)
This post is a follow-up to my TestBash Manchester 2018 Open Space session on mental health and how people try to manage theirs. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck Like many others, I have ups and downs in my mental health. I had a particularly low “down” period a few […]
Neurodiversity and My Problem with WIP Limits for Creative Work
On a recent project with a client, I helped the development team to implement a work in progress (WIP) limit. As the team got used to working towards finishing things before starting to work on new user stories, there was a noticeable improvement in the flow and pace of stories that were ready to […]
SeConf and Our Transition to Paying Speakers’ Expenses
Guest post by Ashley Hunsberger and Marcus Merrell, co-chairs of the Selenium Conference Organizing Committee There’s a touchy subject in the Twittersphere these days around conferences that require speakers to pay to speak (or, #paytospeak). Cassandra Leung discusses in depth why she doesn’t pay to speak in her blog, raising some really […]
Preventing Interruptions with Sticky Notes
In software production, there are all kinds of techniques that utilise sticky notes. Whether it’s in a physical Kanban board, example mapping, risk storming, or just general reminders, we seem to like them a lot. At the Open Space day of TestBash Germany last year, I decided to use sticky notes in a […]