My journey to the MiagiDo School



This was something that I always had at the back of my mind but some how just could not do it. This year one of the objectives I set myself was to get into the MiagiDo School.

Markus Gaertner had asked me to ping him in the beginning of Jan this year when I enquired about him being my mentor end of last year. Ping I did which was followed by an introduction to the MiagiDo School and the FAQ's. 

What I like the most about this school is every tester in it has to go thru a testing challenge, prove his worth and then he/she is granted a belt and access to the MiagiDo School forum. How simple and yet great is that. Isn't it one of the best peer review or recommendations one could make? This one thought of to be among such fantastic testers inspired me more.

It was now time to test myself. I expected me testing an application/program as the test challenge but the challenge surprised me. It was nothing that I expected it to be. In fact not even close to what I had in mind.

I was to watch a tech talk from a leading tech company and then develop my own approach to testing. I also had to consider the advice of the authors. And then defend my answer in terms of overall quality, test effort, total cost of ownership over time.

Markus answered all my questions/clarifications and it was now my time to deliver.

I had never watched a tech talk with an objective before. Should I watch the video in full or should I watch it in bits? What should I concentrate on? everything the presenter says? The audience questions? The application they test? The claims they make? Their test strategy?

I then decided to timebox my exploration to 15 min. I watched the video in sessions and note down anything that seems to be interesting, align with my objective. I ran 6 such sessions and now had enough notes about the application, authors test strategy, audience question pattern. I also now could do my exploration around the claims they make and how it stands.

All of this then helped me design my own test strategy and justify it for overall quality,
test effort, total cost of ownership over time - which went into my final report

This was followed by more questions by Markus and finally a Brown Belt. Markus then said "I was the first one to work through his original black-belt test on the google guys" and that put a huge smile on my face :) Thanks Markus for taking your time off to engage with me on the testing challenge.

Not a bad start to the new year? Is it. Now it's time to interact, learn and contribute  with these amazing folks in the MiagiDo school. So looking forward to it.

Comments

Anonymous said…
A very warm welcome to you!
March 7, 2013 at 7:02 AM
Phil said…
Congrats - and welcome !
March 7, 2013 at 9:13 AM
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