The Software Testing podcast turned one with 67 episodes and more than 22,000 downloads. It began as a blog plan and became a podcast when a guest suggested a video call instead of written answers. Over its first year, one theme kept coming back: quality as an attitude, a mindset that runs through the entire development process instead of sitting in an isolated test department. That takes interdisciplinary collaboration, communication with many stakeholders and a deliberate use of new technologies such as AI where they solve real problems.
Key Takeaways
- The podcast started as a planned blog of written interviews and turned into an audio format after a guest proposed a video call instead of answering questions in writing.
- After one year, the podcast has 67 to 68 episodes, more than 22,000 downloads and over 1,200 subscribers, and it is available on more than 20 platforms.
- 15 partners, including the three national testing boards, several specialist publishers and conferences, help the podcast reach listeners and find guests.
- Quality as an attitude runs through the entire software development process and is no longer confined to an isolated test department.
- AI in testing calls for two things: actively trying out the tools that exist and honestly asking which specific problem they are supposed to solve.
How a Blog Plan Turned into the Software Testing Podcast
The Software Testing podcast was never supposed to be a podcast. The original plan was a blog with written interviews on Future Testing, built around one question: how will we test in the future?
A guest changed that. Thilo Linz, founder of Imbus, had no time to answer written questions and suggested a video call instead. What was meant to be a transcription job became a real conversation, and that interview was the push to switch the whole format.
The practical lesson: a format has to fit the guests, not the other way around. If you want interesting people to talk to you, keep the effort on your side and pick the medium they are happy to talk in anyway.
The First Year in Numbers
The first episode went live on April 18, 2023. By the first birthday there were 67 or 68 episodes, depending on how you count, more than 22,000 downloads and over 1,200 subscribers.
The podcast is available on more than 20 platforms, among them Apple, Spotify and Amazon. Since the turn of the year, a YouTube channel has shown every episode as a video as well.
People listen while cooking, on the way to work or out running. Small bites of knowledge that fit into everyday life: that is what the format is made for.
Why Partners Carry a Podcast Project
Reach and contacts go a long way in deciding whether a specialist podcast takes off. That is why the Software Testing podcast started out with partners from the community rather than as a solo “let’s just try it” project.
The three national testing boards are on board: the Austrian Testing Board, the German Testing Board and the Swiss Testing Board, which together represent the ISTQB in the German-speaking countries. Then there are publishers such as dpunkt and Hanser, which have published books on testing, and the dpunkt team behind the German Testing Magazine.
Partners bring two things a new format can hardly build on its own: access to good guests and distribution through networks that already exist. One visible result is the book giveaways run together with the publishers.
Conferences and community organizations are part of it too, among them QS-Tag, Software Quality Days, German Testing Day and OOP, plus groups such as the ASQF and the TAV special interest group of the German Informatics Society. Two partners joined recently: the ASTQB’s international podcast network and heise developer.
Why On-Site Recordings Beat the Studio
Live episodes at conferences have a character no studio recording can match. In the exhibitor area, speakers are interviewed right where things happen, with everything that comes with it: a plate drops, someone walks by, something clatters.
That friction is where the energy comes from. It feels like a sports reporter talking in the middle of the action while everything around keeps moving.
Since the pandemic, the value of live events has become clear again. People who work in testing and quality take networking and inspiration home from conferences, and both are hard to replace online.
What AI Means for Testing, and What It Doesn’t
AI touches testing from two directions, and it helps to keep them apart. The first question is how we test AI itself. Here the idea of quality shifts, because AI systems do not behave deterministically and need a different perspective. The book “Basiswissen KI-Testen” by Runze and Röttger covers the basics.
The second question is how we use AI in testing. Many tools now put the AI label front and center, yet often had similar features before, just without the name. A lot is possible today, from large language models such as Mistral, ChatGPT and Gemini to recognition algorithms and pattern recognition.
Two moves help here. Try the tools and experiment with them. Then step back and ask: which problem do I actually want to solve?
The weak spots in testing point the way. One is the gap where business requirements get translated into technical implementation. Another is test data spread across heterogeneous systems. That is where AI can deliver real value instead of staying a nice toy.
Quality Starts at the Beginning and Runs All the Way Through
Quality is no longer the job of a test department walled off from everyone else. Code used to be thrown over the fence, tested on the other side and sent back through a ticket system. Those days are over.
Projects are interdisciplinary, and everyone brings their own strengths. That creates friction, and someone has to absorb it. At the same time, quality has gained a different standing: it starts at the very beginning and runs through the entire software process.
That puts a demand on attitude. A quality mindset does not come from a department mechanically churning out test cases. It comes from exchange, discussion and integration across the whole process.
“Quality has simply taken on a different standing, because it starts right at the beginning and runs all the way through the entire development process.”
(Richard Seidl)
Why Social Skills Matter More and More in Testing
Testing and quality sit between stakeholders who pull in different directions. Some want quality, some want things done fast, and others want to see evidence. To make a difference here, you have to communicate and engage.
After some 20 years of agile projects, it is clear that this topic is still growing. Soft skills and social skills are not an extra. They are what interdisciplinary teams need to reach shared quality at all.
That makes the audience broader than the word testing suggests. Business analysts, requirements engineers, project managers, developers, test automation engineers, test analysts and test managers all care about quality across the entire software process.
How the Listener Community Is Part of the Format
A specialist podcast grows stronger when its listeners become a community. For that there is a membership program on Steady, a platform similar to Patreon, with three tiers: Bug Hunter Brigade, Testcase Titans and Quality Wizards.
Behind the membership fee is an honest point: a podcast like this takes a lot of time and money, and a format that lasts needs a balance between what one person can manage and support from outside.
In return, the community offers insight and exchange. Members see the editorial plan for the coming weeks, give feedback, get backstage news from conferences and meet at listener meetups, in person and online.
Topic ideas are very welcome. If you know a good speaker or miss a topic, write directly to podcast@software-testing.fm. Planned episodes cover AI, accessibility, security, documentation, test automation and test data, among others.
