"What psychology taught me about QA"

Filip wants to show you how his view of the technical world has been influenced by his study and practice of psychology. In this session, he will share his story about becoming more technical; starting with basic exploratory testing and moving on to working on test automation and leading a QA team.

Filip says that one you study psychology, you can never look at the world the same way – it builds up thought patterns that influence how you think. In this session, he’ll share a few of these patterns and how they became a positive influence on him in his role as a QA.

Understand motivation: It is valuable, and hard, to put yourself in someone else's shoes and see the world from their perspective. Filip shares how he imagines users’ problems as his own to understand potential solutions.

Put people first: People experience emotions while using your software. Considering those emotions when testing can help evaluate how big an issue can be and whether you strike positive emotions, or cause frustration.

Acknowledge your assumptions: Our assumptions can lead to biased decisions. Understanding that your assumptions are yours can help understand how you make decisions and can actually help you make better decisions.

Feedback between users, QAs and developers: We can shift the emphasis from antagonism to co-operation by clarifying our values when dealing with bug reports, misunderstood features, customer feedback etc.

More communication != better communication

While a new feature is being developed, testers spend most of their day giving feedback on those features. The way you give that feedback can make a big difference. With your communication, you can either build or destroy your relationships with the rest of your team.