Thursday 28 January 2010

Taking the pulse of the Carnival of Testers

A short overview of the last 6 carnivals.

For all those fans of metrics out there, sorry, there are none - just a smattering of stats with little assessment!

There have been 6 carnivals so far. The first took a look at some forums and Q&A sites. Tester's blogs made their first appearance in edition #2.

Originally, I had intended to alternate between blogs and forums - to try and get a rounder picture - or do a bit more sampling when I was "taking the pulse". However, the blogs have been popular and they are slightly easier to group for upcoming posts, so I stuck to them.

So, back to blog posts. Yes, my dip is a fairly random sample - there is no DoE (design of experiment) or actual goal set out beforehand. I just set out, almost aimlessly, and see where I end up - I'm allowed to use that phrase when not testing!

A look back/reflection is in order to try and get a feel on some of the ground/variety of posts and testers that have been represented.

A total of 90 different authors have been mentioned in the last five carnivals, covering 99 blog posts. The range of authors has been prolific, occasional and new bloggers (I enjoy finding interesting posts from new bloggers.)

The topics have ranged from technical to flippant, the odd mini-rant, advice, experiences, thoughtful and thought-provoking to slightly off-the-wall and humourous pieces.

The most common topic area has been learning and team skills - very appropriate for any tester. The next two most represented topics have been exploratory testing and conferences.

Taken as a whole it's intended to be a smörgåsbord (a broad selection buffet verging on pick'n'mix) - sometimes accurately taking the pulse of the test blogs, sometimes missing the pulse - "only-human" disclaimer!

Carnivals so far:


Something for nearly everyone with more to come...

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