In this episode, Matthew and Federico talk about how easy it is for testers to spend time in activities other than actual testing. They share their experience of being aware of the time spent not testing and how important is to keep a balance.

News

• ASP.NET QA team is hiring
• MVC 2 Beta released

Managing your test time

• What is test time?
  • Time spent designing tests
  • Time spent executing tests
  • Time spent evaluating results
  • Time spent investigating bugs
• Other activities that take time away from testing
  • Meetings. Like sync-ups, status reporting, planning, training, triage, etc.
  • E-Mail.
  • Building relationships.
  • Hardware and software issues.
• A day in the life of a tester. Matt's and Federico's day.
• Some realizations
  • Building sofware is a social activity, mantaining relationships is very important.
  • There are many support activities that are crucial for the success of the project.
  • The importance is to make sure that you still have enough time to sit and test.
  • Try to balance test time and non-test time and make sure that you are happy with the ratio.
  • One easy way to increase your test results is to identify non-test time and to try to minimize it.
• How much percentage of time are you dedicating to actual testing?
• What do you think of managers that move away from actual testing?