2021 in Review
2021 was an improvement over the previous year in a number of ways: more mental energy, more growth at work and a safe return to in-person conferences at the AST.
Growth and the challenges at work have become inspiration for sharing in short form on LinkedIn and Twitter. They’ve also given me more desire to write long form (the second half of 2021 was better than the first). Ultimately in 2021 I published 14 articles, recorded 2 small podcasts (rackets) and recorded a single interview all of which became articles on this site.
Today, as per tradition, I summarize the most popular and important articles I’ve written over the past year. You can find previous years in review here: 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015
On to 2021 in Review:
The Five Most-Viewed Article
The five most viewed articles according to page views:
- How to Export Environments from Postman – A simple problem I had with not being able to remember how to do something. It is far and away the most popular article I wrote last year but also the least important.
- Hiring a software tester, an analysis – By far my most time consuming post given I had to collect and analyze data and then write a report on it. I am pretty happy it got a lot of traction.
- Better Tester Training Material – Reflecting on the effort Simon Peter and I put together to create better testing materials. In the end we didn’t use them but those materials are free for anyone to use.
- Not Good Enough – I get the desire to criticize others when the work they produce doesn’t measure up. I do it too often. But I also recognize those who are trying shouldn’t be shamed or discouraged from getting better. It’s a delicate balance.
- Came for the Training, Stayed for the Community – A love letter of sorts to the AST and the context driven community I came up through.
Challenges at Work
A common theme towards the second half of the year and one I found a lot of enjoyment in we’re challenges at work:
- Learning to Balance a Maker’s and Manager’s schedule – was by far my hardest learned lesson.
- Good vs Bad Tests – This matters a lot and can tell me so much about how someone thinks (or doesn’t) about testing.
- Testing Community of Practice #1 – I’ve run a few CoP events and this was a reflection at the first.
Community and Creativity
I write occasionally about community and this year I was able to combine it with some other creative endeavors.
- CAST 2021 Recap – A summary of our in conference return including a fun little travel video I made, edited and posted.
Thank you for making the time to finish reading this article. See you soon.