Sometimes You Win Later
Failure is not a state, it is a decision. What an improv lesson teaches about quitting, sticking with it, and three small questions that help.
Career, Learning & Community
Professional development, education, and exchange across the testing and quality community.
Articles
Are we preventing learning?
Are we preventing learning?
Low-No-Code - Does anyone need a tester?
Explore software quality assurance's role in low-code testing. Ensure your projects meet high standards without sacrificing speed.
Core Competence Empathy
Discover how empathy, self-awareness, and human connection shape our lives in 2025. Embrace being human in a digital era!
Bringing together what belongs together
Enhance Software Testing Skills with our insights on Agile Coaching Techniques and building testing expertise for high-quality collaboration.
Interview for the 'featured' Series
Discover Richard Seidl's insights on agile mindset in software testing. Learn how shared knowledge drives success and innovation in the digital age.
Hanser Verlag 5 questions - 5 answers
Discover the importance of creativity in testing within agile projects and the future challenges for software testers. Learn more now!
Learning from Apps as a Tester
Discover how user experience in software testing drives innovative solutions and meets evolving user demands in 2025.
Podcast Episodes
Factor In People and Org to Build Software That Lasts
Software architecture rarely fails on the tech. Career frameworks, delivery pressure, and untouched monoliths shape your codebase more than any design pattern.
Autism in Software Testing: When Talent Hits the Race Track
People with autism often really find their stride in manual regression testing—while others have long since grown impatient. Here’s how that works in practice.
Children's Book About Testing That Inspired a Future Tester
A children's book explains software testing through dragons and knights, and a 12-year-old at a book fair said she wants it as her profession.
ChatGPT Use Cut Student Cognitive Capacity, Study Finds
Students who used ChatGPT lost 47% of their cognitive capacity. What that means for how we work, hire, and build software teams in the AI age.
TACON - A practical conference about test automation
130 participants, a clear focus on test automation and real practical reports: Why TACON in Leipzig attracts more and more people every year.
Stop the blame, keep the learning
Failures rarely teach their best lessons while the sting is fresh. Here's how cold analysis and self-awareness turn career mistakes into lasting growth.
10 years QS Barcamp Hamburg
60 to 80 participants, no fixed schedule and still the most intensive technical talks. What a barcamp does differently from a conference.
How Motherhood Made Her A Better QA Manager
Parenting three kids sharpens skills you never expected at work: ownership, prioritization, patience, and knowing when to ask for help.
How to create the perfect conference program
527 submissions, just under 50 slots: How a conference program is really created and what makes one submission stand out from the rest.
Public Speaking - Testers on Stage
Getting on stage as a tech speaker feels daunting, but preparation, breath control, and slide discipline make the difference between stress and confidence.
Facing Impostor Syndrome as a Software Tester
Impostor syndrome doesn't just hit newcomers. A seasoned test manager shares how naming her inner critic helped her build a career without a degree.
Become a Thought Leader
Testers who act as thought leaders don't just find bugs, they shape culture, challenge outdated processes, and give stakeholders data that actually matters.
Software testing Christmas chat 2025
AI doesn't make bad processes better, it catches up with them faster. What testers really need in 2026: Gut feeling, basic knowledge and community.
Autism in Software Testing: Where the Advantage Is Real
Deviations from a learned pattern set off an instant alarm: a tester on the spectrum explains why he finds bugs without searching, and what that costs him.
Old Testing vs. New Testing
Software testing has changed over 25 years, but critical thinking, communication, and the ability to keep learning still matter more than any single tool.
HUSTEF Recap
From 150 attendees to 705 tickets sold, HUSTEF grew by caring about speakers and community over profit. Here's what makes it work.
About the Visibility of Testers
Testers rarely lack skill, they lack visibility, and that gap quietly limits careers and team quality. Show, share and shine are the moves.
Practical software testing with Java
From unit tests to exploratory testing, only some Java tools really count in practice. How Maven controls the whole test procedure reliably.
Code quality, metrics and mindset for students
Teaching testing in university before real projects put pressure on you: Why architecture trumps testability and ChatGPT disguises it.
Fail more to learn faster
"It depends" is not a dodge. It is the only honest answer when context shapes every testing decision, and here is why that matters.
Career as a software tester
If you only mention bugs in an interview as a tester, you're giving away your strongest card. How to use emotions, negotiate salary and build trust.
The ASQF quality network
Almost 30 years, over 1000 members, free conference tickets: What the ASQF still offers the German-speaking software quality community today.
What moves the software testing community?
AI is cutting tester jobs while a wave of questionable AI-generated software arrives. What that really means for testing skills and roles.
Career changer in software testing
From the embassy to software testing: what really helps when making a career change and why certificates alone won't get you a job.
Teaching Software Testing
Teaching software testing to 120 students means skipping dry test plans and starting with automation, APIs, and performance testing instead.
Swiss Testing Board
How did the ISTQB come about and what still applies today? From Bloom taxonomy to AI testing: what really counts when testing needs to be faster.
The age of autonomics
Autonomous systems are not only changing technology, but entire job profiles. Why computer science alone is no longer enough.
The Illusion of the Typical Tester
Only 6% of testers fit the classic IT stereotype. Arts graduates, boat builders, urban planners: the data on who actually does testing reframes how we recruit.
The Evolving Role of Software Testers
Software quality is no longer just a tester's job. Here's why the role, the tools, and the mindset behind it are all shifting fast.
HUSTEF 2025
260 submissions for 36 slots: Why HUSTEF is one of Europe's top-rated software testing conferences and what the anniversary year 2025 has to offer.
Learning with simulations
If you really want to understand agile working, you don't need a slide - you need a board, cards and a round of simulation.
Podcasts in the software testing area
Why do most podcasts die after seven episodes? Continuity beats perfection - and how conferences become a topic turbo.
Typical tester? More diverse than you think
Only 6% of surveyed testers fit the IT stereotype, the rest come from other fields. Why HR departments should sit up and take notice of this.
Impostor syndrome
Anyone familiar with impostor syndrome knows that rational thinking often doesn't help. Which strategies really lead out of the impostor cycle.
Job profile of a tester
Testing is a team affair, not a lone wolf discipline. Which skills are really in demand today and how to plan your career path in testing.
Software testing survey 2024
The Software Testing Survey has been running every few years since 2011, now for the fourth time. What has really changed in testing since then.
AI, test automation and skills
AI testing, test data, accessibility: which trends testers should really have on their radar and why the right tool often doesn't solve the actual problem.
Practical tester training with AI
Software testing often shows a gap between theory and daily practice in projects. AI-supported certification aims to close exactly that.
ISTQB in practice at Bucher and Suter
Without a test structure, without a budget, without ready-made tools: How one team built real quality assurance step by step.
German Testing Day
Since 2011, the German Testing Day has combined practical experience, an independent board and unusual keynotes - what sets this conference apart from the rest.
Happy Birthday Podcast
One year, 67 episodes, over 22,000 downloads: What became of a spontaneous video idea and where the journey will take us next.
Test organization of the next decade
From the I-Shape to the V-Shape: Why testers will need in-depth knowledge in several areas in the future and how cell teams could replace hierarchies.
Software Quality Days
15 years, a scientific track with Springer publication and speed dating: what sets Software Quality Days apart from other testing conferences.
Quality assurance in higher education
Teaching quality as a compulsory subject is not enough. How measurement, resource thinking and sustainability are becoming part of everyday life at university.
My mentor in conversation
outsourced in 1978, paid according to test cases and errors found: Why this approach failed back then and which principles still apply today.
The new ISTQB CTFL 4.0
Two years of work, an international team, a completely revised basis: what has really changed in ISTQB Foundation Level 4.0.
A testing pioneer in conversation
70.000 copies sold, but testing is still considered destructive. Why this image is wrong and what it really means to test software.
Will AI replace the test engineer?
From carpenter to agile engineering coach: How a career change and a book about system testing sparked an entire career in testing.
New ISTQB President
68 countries, over 800,000 certificates, almost all voluntary: what's really behind the ISTQB and where the new CTFL 4.0 is heading.
AI revolution in test automation
200 failed tests, but only seven real causes: How machine learning radically simplifies testing operations without rationalizing away roles.