Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, South Africa and UK

Our services

We're consultants, not a staffing company. We're test experts, not commodities. If you need a tester to do more than simply fill up a chair at your company, then you've come to the right place.

The Rebels

House of Test is synonymous with challenging the status quo. Each member of our team tears down the traditional conventions in their own unique way. Together we are bringing hardcore testing into the mainstream.

Whats going on?

Catch a glimpse of what's going on inside the walls of House of Test and the minds of our consultants. Our blog is where we share our thoughts on the latest developments in the testing world.

Glory to the Brave

Testing is a challenging craft that requires sharp skills. To hone our skills, we reject the status quo and refuse mediocrity. The wild ones dare to be different and think outside conventions and norms. We not only embrace change, we also create it and grow with it. We value our integrity and follow our passion – heart and soul. Because of this, we call bullshit on dehumanizing factory testing, bogus certification schemes, and feeble testing standards. Testing done right delivers valuable information, and we will meet the challenge.

We choose to take the high road because we care about you, our customer.

What we do, we do for the love of testing!

We only settle for greatness, because you expect nothing less from us!

Some call us rebels.

We call ourselves House of Test.

Passion for testing

What separates House of Test consultants from the average, run-of-the-mill test consultants out there, is our unstoppable drive and thirst for knowledge about software testing. We pride ourselves on being the number one context-driven testing company in Sweden, with some of the world’s leading trainers, coaches, and test experts on our roster. Regardless of your testing problem, you can rest assured that House of Test can help you solve it.

Consulting

House of Test consulting is not your common staffing company or resource provider. Our consulting focuses on contributing as much on a strategic level as on the project deliverables. House of Test can offer a complete range of testing services, but we always make sure that our customers feel that working with House of Test means value both for the current project, and for future ones.

House of Test offers competence-based consulting services in terms of shorter assignments and part time assignments such as mentoring, coaching, assessments, and reorganization. We are also able to take on longer, full time contracts, either assigned to teams or with us as project leads.

Our Consultants

At House of Test, we cultivate excellence. We dare claim we have some of the best test consultants in the world. Our consultants are experts at analyzing and getting up to speed in new contexts which means we deliver value from day one. Collectively, we’ve done work in every industry imaginable and are able to excel in any context, from mobile and web, to regulated medical environments or with defense industry contractors.

What truly makes us unique though, is the way we approach skills development within House of Test. Many companies claim to have good knowledge sharing, but very few take it as far as we do. We meet as a group 4-5 times per year for two day long workshops on testing, and in between we do internal status reporting and give feedback to each other on our latest testing ideas or challenges we might be facing. This isn’t something we have to force. It’s simply what happens when you put kick-ass people with a common passion together.

Coaching

House of Test is home to some of the most experienced test coaches in Europe and South Africa. We tailor our coaching to the needs of the organization, teams and individuals, depending on the situation.

A coach’s job is to facilitate the exploration of needs, motivations, desires, skills and thought processes to assist the individual in making real, lasting change. When we coach, we use a socratic approach with questions and answers guiding the individual being coached towards new insights and learnings.

Our coaching is always goal-based and we continously evaluate and adapt to make sure that we’re steering towards the agreed goal after each coaching session. If we’re off course, we adjust the course, and if the goal is no longer relevant, we update the goal.

Mentoring

The difference between coaching and mentoring can appear subtle, and the focus between coaching and mentoring often changes several times during a client assignment. The goal of our mentoring sessions is to pass on knowledge and experience and open doors to otherwise out-of-reach opportunities of learning for individuals and team. Our coaches have decades of accumulated testing expertise between them and are also experienced trainers and educators, which guarantees a highly effective relationship between mentor and mentee.

Test Management

We believe testing is inherently unpredictable and our collective experience backs that up. As a counter-measure we like to spent as little time on planning as possible and instead put most of our efforts into navigating and enabling testing. We do make plans. We do make strategies. But we refrain from burying our heads in them and staying with our knowledge and beliefs as they were at the beginning of the test project. We know that we all get smarter, wiser and better. Not all checks stay valuable. Not all areas stay at the same risk level.

Our toolbox is highly valuable, low-tech and customizable and is generally non-intrusive and complimentary to what tools and methods you may already have in your organisation: we use mindmaps and white board dashboards for overviews. It helps visualising status and goals, while not restricting us in getting new ideas. Whenever possible we like to use either session-based or thread-based testing, as that utilizes the power and freedom of the testers to do amazingly good testing, while still keeping everything in control and to the point.

A large part of test management is logistics in getting people and their skills, software, data, environments and everything else ready at the required time. We tend to focus on the testers, their skills, their professional growth. We prefer to manage people rather than test cases. We use coaching and mentoring, because we do not just settle for average. We think that testers who are confident, skillful and generally shines with pride of their work also performs the best. Who wants to be a commodity, doing average work?

We encourage several ways of reporting test results to you, as different decisions and needs shouldn’t be met with the standard one-size-fits-all form that the local tool can generate. We aim at always being able to report results on time, to the point, on purpose and including the accuracy and insecurities of the testing done. How else can you use our results?

Ultimately it is all about getting trustworthy and understandable information to the right people at the right time.

Test Engineering

Our consultants are some of the world’s leading experts in context-driven testing.House of Test is able to send consultants to work directly in your test team or embed themselves in your agile teams to both perform great testing, and train the rest of the team to do the same.

We’re at our best when we’re able to enter into a project in its early stages and work directly with requirements gathering and analysis, which we then base our test strategy on. Of course, verifying requirements is just a tiny part of what value-based testing is and by working proactively and updating our test strategy and plan as we learn more about the explicit requirements of a project, we also gain insights in how to deal with the implicit requirements and find the “unknown unknowns” before you need to ship.

When there are testable deliverables available, our consultants will dig in and attack the software (or hardware) from all angles. We have extensive experience with testing products in a wide variety of contexts and business domains, ranging from mobile applications and web based services, to military simulators and medical devices. And everything in between. We recognize that your organization is unique, but we dare say that we’re able to bring a lot of our collective experience to the table as a value add that will let us quickly orient ourselves in your project and start delivering quality related information that you can depend on.

Performance Testing

One of the most challenging testing tasks for many organizations is that of performance testing. House of Test has extensive experience in setting up and executing performange test strategies with tailored reports that will let your organization pin point exactly where your performance improvement efforts should be placed.

Test Automation

Our continuous integration experts can help your organization move towards an always releasable state and tackle the testing challenges to make your product release worthy. We’ll help you find the right build environment and select a feasible and effective unit test strategy, based on your specific product and team.

We can also help automating your business level tests which will help you gain information about the business worth of releasing at a certain point in time.

Automation can enable your testers to focus on exploration rather than checking and supply you with the right information at the right time. Your business decisions will then rest on a solid platform of up-to-date, quality related information.

Finding that special someone

If there’s one thing we’re good at, it’s the ability to spot a good tester in a crowd. We’re offering to come on board and help your organization weed through the CVs and application and pick our the ones with true potential.

When you’ve selected a handful of candidates for the position you’re looking to fill, our consultant will pre-screen them all and put them through a series of exercises and questions to qualify a subset of them for another round of interviews with your team.

We prepare the screening by talking directly to your teams and employees to find out what the most pressing needs of your organizations are, which will also let us develop an understanding for the company culture and group dynamics that the candidates might find themselves in if hired.

We’ll help you find that special someone

“To me, punk rock is the freedom to create, freedom to be successful, freedom to not be successful, freedom to be who you are. It’s freedom.”

Patti Smith
“Punk rock is very rebellious, of course, but it also means thinking for yourself.”

Dexter Holland
“Questioning anything and everything, to me, is punk rock.”

Henry Rollins

Training

House of Test provide tailored training, mentoring and coaching packages for individuals and organizations who want to further and evolve their testing knowledge and skill within today’s cutting edge testing techniques and methodologies.

House of Test also cooperates with well known experts in context driven and rapid software testing approaches to further strengthen our training offer. Look out for upcoming training sessions with world leading test experts, such as James Bach and Michael Bolton.

Abstract

No matter which side of the table you’re on, interviewing for a new job can be a daunting task. There is never a shortage of applicants, but if you’re hiring, how do you attract the truly talented? It can be tough enough to make sure they see your ad, let alone make it attractive enough for them to apply. If you’re a candidate, how do you make sure you stand out from the crowd?

This workshop provides you with practical skills for each section of the job pipeline from ad to offer.

Course Objectives

We’ll work through and discuss practical examples of

Writing a job description that stands out
Where to find skilled testers
The anatomy of a top-notch CV – how to screen for them
Interviewing techniques
- Phone
- Face to face
Keeping the hiring pipeline warm
The anatomy of a top-notch CV – how to write them

Who Will Benefit

Testers, Test managers, Talent Acquisition Personnel, Recruiters

Details

Duration: 1 day
Language: English or German
Teacher/Coach: Ben Kelly, Ilari Henrik Aegerter – Both have been long time line managers and in that role they have screened a ton of CVs and conducted an outrageous number of interviews

Roll up for Ben & Ilari’s spectacular testing circus! Our gates are open for both testers and developers alike. The lion tamers and the clowns welcome a healthy mix of both for the show. Take your seats. We’ll dim the lights. The stage will soon be set for spectacles and wonders. Enjoy the show!

This one-day interactive workshop sheds light on some of the most important fundamentals in software testing. Each section has a short introduction followed by a practical exercise or a game. Participation is not compulsory, but strongly encouraged. We will work our way through:

testing missions,
checking & testing,
safety language,
modeling,
observation,
focusing/defocusing and
the generation of test ideas

There will be puzzles and laughter and a distinct absence of powerpoint slides, so come along. Be entertained (you may even learn something useful).

We have five senses we can use to make observations of the outside world. Touch, smell, taste, hearing and sight. These senses act as entry points into our brain. As the amount of information we perceive is far too large, there are powerful filter mechanisms in place. Sometimes the obvious remains unnoticed. Now, how do you improve your observation capabilities? What does brilliant observation mean? Can you deliberately exercise it?

Once you have made a relevant observation you might want to describe it. This usually happens either orally or in writing. Since natural languages are prone to errors and to ambiguity, great care needs to be exercised in a description. Now, how can you become more proficient in describing things? What is a good description? Can you deliberately exercise it?

Since both observation and description are integral parts of almost any testing activity, you will have the opportunity to emerge into two important aspects of the software testing craft. For software testers there is a wide variety of skills needed in order to be able to do your job well. Both the study of theoretical models and practice can help you to become better.

This half-day workshop will be a mix of theoretical and practical contemplations in various domains, such as the psychology of attention, linguistic explorations and exercises. I plan to include peer reviews into the exercises and there shall be a lively discussion among the participants.

Imagine your team is not happily sitting together in the same room or building but scattered across different countries. How do you keep communications up and running? How do you handle such a situation as a manager? How do you cope with potentially not everyone getting crucial information?

Ilari Henrik Aegerter used to be the manager of Quality Engineering Europe for the world’s biggest marketplace eBay and he has a team, which is distributed between Zurich, Berlin, Paris and London. This session is both an experience report on perceived difficulties as well as an experiential session in communication under constraints.

Participants will get a (very short) overview of Ilari’s experiences and then be put into a simulation, wherein they have to collaborate on a mini-project and come to a successful end. Of course, there will be disturbances, which will make the endeavor more difficult.

Body and Mind are inseparable entities and the Greek already knew that. This session starts with a brief introduction into the peripatetic school of thought. Participants will get an insight into why physical activities and thinking are mutually supportive activities.

Then we will go for a walk.

We will actually be walking in meanders toward where our walking leads us to. The whole session will take place while walking at a pleasurable pace outside in the nature. It will be both a problem solving and a deeply experiential session and little is known beforehand where the session will lead us. We might even have greek philosophy meet 21st century geekery and live record parts of the interactions.
Bring along your problems, thoughts and conundrums and all the participants will cheerfully participate in communal problem solving. You will be a happier and wiser person after this unforgettable session.

Abstract

This 3-day couse is aimed at providing the students with basic knowledge and experience with planning and performing ET (Exploratory Testing), organizing the work and fitting the test results to the surrounding context. It starts from the context and points to different tools such as heuristics, note taking and SBTM/MTBS (Session-Based Test Management / Managing Testing Based on Sessions), to create effective and valuable testing, based on skill, thought and risks.

The course is highly interactive and packed with exercises that are always debriefed and analyzed to help students internalize their newly learned skills and tools.

The course can be extended with coaching activities to help the students incorporate ET in their work.

Course Objectives

The course covers the principles of CDT (Context-Driven Testing), the discipline of ET (Exploratory Testing), SBTM (Session-based Test Management) for managing the testing as well as Test Strategizing, Planning and Reporting based on Heuristics, Opportunities and Risks. The course relates everything we do to how it works within an Agile context, points to different Tools and Methods that may be of use along the way, and includes a perspective on how testing is fused with different needs (like ‘Cover all the requirements’, ‘What to do with the bugs’ and the impossibility of testing everything and getting effective testing done in the short time that is available).

Participants will gain basic knowledge and experience with planning and performing ET (Exploratory Testing), organizing the work and fitting the test results to the surrounding context

Who will benefit?

This course is most appropriate for Testers, Test Engineers, Test Leads, Test Consultants and Test Managers.

Details

Delegates are required to bring their own Laptop PC’s (not MAC or iPad’s), since a lot of the training is based on real hands-on exercises run on PC).

Duration: 3 days
Language: Danish or English
Teacher/Coach: Carsten Feilberg

Abstract

In this 2-day course, you get to do a deep-dive into the what the principles of agile development means for testers and how you can transform your work into becoming both more efficient and effective.

Most parts of the course will contain practical exercises that will allow participants to not only gain theoretical knowledge, but also put it into practice right away, and thus gain a deeper understanding of the different topics.

Course Objectives

We’ll be discussing the tester’s role in agile teams and how to best create an agile test strategy. Participants will gain a better understanding of what exploratory testing can offer as well as knowledge of different sorts of heuristic tools and checklists that are absolutely essential for an agile tester.

Furthermore, we will go through the test management frameworks Session-based Test Management and Thread-based Test Management and discuss how they can be applied to gain traceability and help build a strong foundation for test reporting in an agile setting.

The course also contains sections dedicated to the role of test reporting, test automation, and different test tools that can help simplify your work as an agile tester.

Who will benefit?

Anybody working with testing in an agile setting, as well as Scrum Master and managers who need a deeper understanding for the role testing plays in an agile team or organization.

Details

Duration: 2 Days
Language: Swedish or English
Teacher/Coach: Johan Jonasson

Abstract

Software projects today are often large and complex. This requires a test organization which is able to work with requirements and risks in a structured way. Structured testing includes clear goals, strategies and coverage. One important tool in structured testing is to use test design techniques. Test design techniques make it possible to create test cases with better precision, a more specific coverage and better prioritization.

Many testers know about test design theories, but for some reason, an aware usage of test design techniques is not very common in many test organizations.

During two days, the most common black box test design techniques will be explained in theory and with examples. Several exercises will help the students to understand how and when to apply the different techniques, like Equivalence Partitioning, Boundary Value Analysis, State-Transition testing, Decision-tables, Use-case testing and Pairwise testing.

This workshop can be extended with coaching if needed.

After the workshops, the real challenge is to actually apply the new skills in the everyday work. A period of coaching within the “real” work could be very beneficial, especially for less experienced testers. The coaching could be done with one tester at a time, or with smaller groups of testers. The coach can help with requirement analysis, test case reviews and creation, etc. All with a focus on black box test design techniques.

Course Objectives

To get the tester acquainted with test design techniques usable in daily work.

Who will benefit?

Testers, Test developers

Details

Duration: 2 Days. Can be extended with personal coaching.
Language: Swedish, Danish or English
Teacher/Coach: Carsten Feilberg

Abstract

Exploratory Testing (ET) is an approach to software testing that is concisely described as simultaneous learning, test design and test execution. Cem Kaner, who coined the term in 1983, now defines exploratory testing as “a style of software testing that emphasizes the personal freedom and responsibility of the individual tester to continually optimize the quality of his/her work by treating test-related learning, test design, test execution, and test result interpretation as mutually supportive activities that run in parallel throughout the project.” That definition also says something about why Exploratory Testing is such a powerful approach, once mastered. Some prominent experts in the field have even gone so far as to equate the word “testing” with Exploratory Testing, while referring to test case-driven, scripted testing as “checking”.

Course objectives

Introducing Exploratory Testing and showing its powers as a structured way of challenging a product in order to learn about it, and introducing SBTM as a systematic approach to keeping the direction and provide accountability of the testing done.

Who will benefit?

Testers, test managers, project managers, developers, architects

Details

Duration: 2-day workshop
Language: English, Danish or Swedish
Teacher/Coach: Carsten Feilberg or Henrik Andersson

Abstract

Session-Based Test Management is a way to make the intangibles of Exploratory Testing more tangible. It was specifically developed as a framework to organize testing so as to optimize and stay focused on the more important parts, while keeping up with the flexibility and powerful adaptation to change that Exploratory Testing provides. It means we have a set of expectations for what kind of work will be done and how it will be reported. As in a recording studio, this work is done in “sessions.” Sessions range typically from 45 minutes to several hours, depending on the charter – or “mission statement”, which the tester will focus on – for that time. Learning to describe, select and prioritize charters, debriefing the vital information and constantly meet the needs of the stakeholders is fun, giving and also challenging, especially in fast-moving projects with tight schedules.

Course objectives

To introduce and help the students set up SBTM as their primary tool for directing test activities. The course involves real problem solving related to introducing SBTM in an organisation and gives the students various tools and insights that helps them solving these problems.

Who will benefit?

Test managers, testers (Knowledge of exploratory testing (ET) is recommended)

Details

Duration: 2-day workshop
Language: Danish or English
Teacher/Coach: Carsten Feilberg

Abstract

This workshop mixes practical exercises and theory briefings with the participants’ own learning goals. The students will experience what participating in an actual Scrum project can be like. We will have experiental designed exercises covering all roles, artifacts and ceremonies in Scrum but more important we focus on bringing understanding to the social science aspects of Agile. This to emphasize the importance of good communication and teamwork.

The last day focuses entirely on applying the knowledge participants have gained into the context of a project. This day is about making Scrum work for you, in your circumstances. It is an advantage (but not necessary) if there is a certain amount of time (e.g. 1 week) between the first two workshop days and the third. This to allow the participants the possibility of receiving knowledge, translating it into practice and being able to bring fresh problems and examples to the last day of the workshop.

Course objectives

The goal of this workshop is that you as a participant will get a basic understanding of how and why Scrum works, and gain an insight into how to apply this in practice.

Who will benefit?

Managers, developers, testers

Details

Duration: 3 Days
Language: Swedish, Danish or English
Teacher/Coach: Johan Jonasson or Henrik Andersson

The Rebels

Carsten Feilberg

I might well be the test manager you are looking for.

I am seeking to help organisations to find better ways to do and use testing of the software they deal with, based on my deep technical knowledge combined with years of continuous study of testing as a craft. I practice testing myself still from time to time, and is quite enjoying it – but not when I am working as a manager. Well, you don’t ask your project manager to type in code either, do you? And I don’t have time for it then, because it takes a lot to spark peoples interest and motivation using coaching, teaching and encouragement – and keeping everyone on the track.

Ultimately I find testing to be about the ability to inform you about the product we are working on. In order to do so, all testers need to grow their knowledge about the product – and only learning can do that. In order to learn, we ask questions, explore, study and investigate. That is testing.

It’s not our job to manage test cases based on their status. That is checking, confirming, but not learning. It is our job to see what no one else have seen, to find what others missed and tell about it clearly and openly. And that is hard, but also fun and rewarding. When I see your smile because we have helped you get a confident and clear insight into the product we build, I know we are on the right track.

Ilari Henrik Aegerter

My formal studies have brought me from General Linguistics and Sociology to Software Engineering and Software Testing. I so much liked the profession that I continued to intensively work on my skills. Being a context-driven tester is the natural outcome and I believe that software testing is not a clerical job but a profession, which needs a high level of proficiency.

I have 10+ years of experience in the field, coming from the medical software domain at Phonak AG and progressing to e-commerce at eBay. I am now the Managing Director of House of Test GmbH and I believe there is still a lot of work to be done for excellent software testing.

In 2013 I co-founded the International Society for Software Testing (ISST), which advocates for bringing back common sense to testing. I am currently president of the organization. In 2015 I was elected into the board of the Association for Software Testing (AST), where I act as VP of Marketing.

Since I like talking, I often present at international Software Testing conferences and I am also frequently invited to speak at company events. From time to time I do workshops on Software Testing, which I enjoy tremendously.

Being in the field of Software Testing does not feel like work and it is a pleasure to do what I like every single day.

In my private time I like to read a lot of books and comics, spend time with my family, test the possibilities of our world with my kids and test good food in restaurants with my wife. I believe that people are generally good and that there is plenty for everybody in this world. All that results in me smiling a lot.

Henrik Andersson

House of Test is my fuel, it is the platform to make ideas happen and it is our contribution to develop testing further. I co-founded this company to enable testers to live out their passion for testing in order to become the best skilled testers ever.

I believe that we grow and become better by sharing knowledge and learn from others. I do this through the context driven testing community where I am a well know and respected face and voice.

I’m co-founder of the world renowned Let´s Test conference with the purpose to provide a home and learning ground for our community.

Locally I’m founder and host of ConTest at FooCafe in Malmö where we share experiences and learn from each other to raise awareness of and to advance Context Driven Testing.

Internationally I co-founded ISST (International Society for Software Testing). Our mission is to put common sense back into testing.

As you can see this not only my job, this is my life and I love it.

Johan Jonasson

Testing is a highly cerebral activity that breaks down if it’s limited by rigid processes, trapped in dense and senseless documentation or controlled by spreadsheet toting metric jockeys. Excellent testing requires skilled, passionate professionals who lets their work be guided by the information revealed by testing, rather than forced by a plan that became obsolete at first contact with the software. When I co-founded House of Test back in 2008, that was the kind of testing I wanted to learn more about, and today I can confidently call myself a leading expert in the field.

I’m a long-time member of the context-driven community of testers, where my work with the Let’s Test conferences, as one if the originators, is one of the contributions I’m most proud of today. I’m also one of the founding members and president of the International Society for Software Testing, which is a world-wide association of testers who work together to develop and promote approaches to software testing that emphasizes value and the role that skilled testers play in its delivery, as well as openly oppose and criticize practices that are wasteful or that seek to dehumanize testing

On the local level, I have helped create the EAST association for software testers, which is a local peer group centered around the Linköping region in Sweden, that meet up once a month to share experiences and help develop each other’s testing skills.

And I’m just getting started.

Georg Lysen

In co-founding House of Test, I saw an opportunity for freedom; a freedom from dictated models and conformative thinking, a freedom to broaden my horizons and grow as a tester. Most of all, it’s a freedom to do a damn good job and it’s a freedom I take very seriously.

In my more than 15 years of working with IT, I have come across the good, the bad and the ugly within software development, all of which helped me build a broad base to stand on and approach any new situation with confidence and skill. It has also given me a great testing toolbox to choose and select from based on the unique context of any new project. Quality, as much as I love it, is not a one-man show and I aim to get everyone to feel engaged in the quality of the product by spreading my enthusiasm, sharing valuable information and having my bug reports be something even the developers look forward to receiving.

Louise Perold

Testing is not just a career to me, it is a massive part of who I am. I have been blessed to come across people who have inspired me and taught me and I believe I have been that person to others over the years. The learning never stops though, and I continue to practice the craft and apply learnings from other disciplines back into software testing.

I am at my happiest when I see a team able to do their best testing work and add valuable information into the system. One way I like to do this is to be part of the team. Mentoring and coaching the team from an external viewpoint is also something I am comfortable with. I realise that much of the work we do is heavily influenced by the greater system we are in. I have many years experience of making these things visible and coming up with practical ideas to maximize the value derived from the testing efforts.

Building the craft and community of testing in South Africa is also a passion of mine. To this end, I am the co-organiser of Let’s Test South Africa and the founder and co-organiser of the Joburg Software Testers Meetup. I am also one of the founding members of ISST – the International Society for Software Testing.

I enjoy speaking at conferences and have spoken at Let’s Test in Sweden, Copenhagen Context and CAST in North America and I was the co-program chair for CAST 2013.

As Director and Consultant at House of Test South Africa, I am hoping to continue working with awesome people, partnering with friends whom I respect and working my butt off to promote $hit HoT testing.

Oz Chihwayi

I see software testing as a very critical facet of solving problems and developing great software solutions; yet I continue to see that it is often misunderstood and ineffectively implemented in many contexts. I am driven by a desire to gain a deep understanding of software testing and collaboratively find ways of improving the state of testing and its impact.

Since 1997, I have worked in various forms and roles that enabled business through technology. This included experience in areas of Data Centre Operations, technical support of various applications, databases and infrastructure. Upon this vast base my foundation into software testing was established.

Throughout my software testing journey I have led and been on large corporate international financial institutions testing teams as well as teams in smaller organizations.

I’m very interested in people and the systems that they work in. I want to help teams understand the problems within their contexts, and enable valuable conversations that help to address them. Testing is a key component of making sense of issues and enabling agility in a fast moving world. I encourage and exercise meaningful collaboration of testers and developers and other disciplines; as an amplifier to shared learning and quicker feedback cycles.

I care deeply about the software testing craft and am excited to belong to a community that learns together to build a breed of great testers that is highly skilled, analytical and relevant. The need for a solid understanding of testing and communicating what it means is a significant responsibility of good testers.

Besides being a co-organiser of the Joburg Software Testers Meetup and involved in the Agile Africa conferences; I have been privileged to speak and facilitate workshops at various Testing, Development and Agile conferences and gatherings internationally. This has been key in broadening my knowledge and fueling my hunger for learning and sharing.

My interests are evolving, wide and varied; some of which include AI, the blockchain, and recently psychology. I also enjoy traveling, photography and long distance running that has seen me complete the Comrades marathon.

Lars Sjödahl

I’m a technically curious tester with a burning interest in anything connecting software with the physical world, from small sensors to large moving constructions. With a background in engineering physics where I cleaned house with all courses at the department of electrical measurements, I’ve spent 13 years in research and development, mainly testing embedded software. With the unusual combination of both being at home in the borderland between software and hardware, and being an experienced context-driven tester, I’m the perfect choice for testing anything that interacts with the physical world. Being an evangelist for quick-to-develop, easy-to-change equipment such as Arduino, I’m used to helping testers take their tool-making to the next level, crafting the right tools for their own context, while tirelessly coming up with more questions to find ways to test, analyse and understand a product’s capabilities and limitations.

In my spare time I’m often improving my self-built 3D-printer, building and programming robots and hydroponic systems or building high powered rockets, which I’ve attained international certification to launch. I also cultivate an interest in genre films.

Jody-Lee Loubser

If I had to describe myself in one word it would be “mischievous”. Inevitably I end up testing all sorts of things I interact with, whether I realise it or not. I wonder how it works, what would happen if it stopped working, and how I could make that happen. Over the years, this has turned into my passion, career and craft.

I’ve worked in various industries, the most notable being e-commerce, insurance and logistics. They have all added different experiences and lessons to my life that I am most grateful for. (I am addicted to online shopping. I’m the worse kind of insurance client and I refuse to get a tracker in my car.)

I love sharing my insights and passion for testing. I do this in various ways like presenting at the Let’s Test conference 2016, in South Africa, and a few times at the Joburg Software Tester’s meetup. I write blog posts and have knowledge sharing sessions, as I enjoy influencing others to improve the way in which they test, whether they are testers, developers or product owners. I am happiest when working with like-minded people who appreciate and understand the value of testing, but also enjoy the challenge of converting those who do not value testing. My mission is to improve the testing in each of the organisations that I work with, and myself in turn.

Göran Bakken

I’m an experienced and highly devoted tester who is very appreciated by customers. They value my consistent delivery of high quality results and my contribution of enthusiasm and commitment which spreads to the whole team. During my many different assignment I’ve become an expert in quickly identifying and getting deep knowledge of the critical parts of new systems . I’m known for having a relentless drive to improve everything I see and touch. I’m also constantly trying to improve myself as a tester by sharpening my technical skills but also to further develop my mental abilities. To improve I read books, blogs, attends conferences and seminars. I also take self studying courses and spend time on own projects. I have excellent communication skills and have on several occasions held seminars for customers on tools and test methodology. I take great pride in being an excellent tester, but even more in helping myself and others improve as testers every day.

Nicola Owen

I’m passionate about software testing. I believe, to be an effective tester you need to be a strong communicator – and if the person you’re talking to isn’t on the same page: Try again. Use diagrams; body language; change of wording.

As a tester I’m constantly looking for ways to grow and learn; whether that be through taking courses, reading blogs or bouncing ideas off people I look up to in the field. I also grow and learn by keeping a testing blog. It helps me document my learning journey and see how my thought processes have changed over time.

I’m a strong advocate for Context Driven Testing as it doesn’t believe in a “one size fits all approach” to testing. There’s no such thing as best practices because the context between different projects can differ greatly.

When I’m not at work, you’ll probably find me cooking, baking or watching stand-up comedy. I also love learning foreign languages – it’s a great way to experience a new culture.

Paschalis Bimpisidis

I am a passionate and enthusiastic individual who has started his journey in the software testing world some years ago. In this journey I have gained experience from testing big e-commerce platforms, cloud systems and many more services. During those assignments I had the chance to prove my skills and at the same time become better at it.

I am detail-oriented, with great communication skills and I can be a valuable asset to every company who takes testing seriously. In order to keep this journey going, I always strive to learn from the best and constantly improve and that’s one of the many reasons I joined the team at House of Test.

Andreas Cederholm

Testing is not just my livelihood, it is part of my identity. In order to constantly learn and improve to become a superhero tester I read and write test related blogs and books, presentations, discuss testing at test conferences or local test meet-ups and am an active part of the test community. I love to share my knowledge and passion for testing, and it shows in my work.

I have worked with world class test automation, creating automated checks and creating test framework, heavily based on requirements but have also worked with Session Based testing where information for test ideas were taken from multiple sources.

My experiences have taught me many important lessons and that above all, Context matters.

Simon Berner

I started my career in IT as a system engineer/administrator and then later as a developer. I finally stumbled over testing and it stuck with me. I love the burnt smell of deep thinking while testing and to forget the rest of the world while I’m absorbed with awesome testing. I’m very enthusiastic about software testing – especially for those things I don’t know yet. I’m experienced in story testing, performance testing and mobile testing. Besides that, I have also deep knowledge in requirements engineering and agile project- and application management, I’m good at talking to customers and I’m a very good listener and tacit observer. The restlessness drives me, I’m always open to learn something new and like a chameleon I’m able to fit me into every new challenge and situation.

For me House of Test is like being among rock stars. It is the ultimate place to grow, learn, congress, communicate and debate. It’s full of responsibility, freedom, passion and satisfaction, to evolve as human beings and testers. I give all the power I’ve got for moving us forward and getting a bit wiser each day.

Johanna Forsberg

I am an awesome tester that is burning for what I do and not even a firefighter can put that fire out!

I started my career at The Incubator program by House of Test. In addition to working full time as a consultant I was additionally studying Test over ten hours each week for two years. I loved that challenge because I love to learn and grow increasingly better in my trade. During the two years in the Incubator program I have gone from a junior tester to a Test Lead with teams in multiple countries.

After the incredible time as an Incubator I joined the wonderful team at House of Test. Here I get inspired to become even better, to think more and to learn even more.

Katrine Kavli

I am full of passion. Not only for testing, but for a myriad of interests and hobbies. I want to know everything in the world, and if something catches my interest, I use every waking hour on gathering information on it. That’s why I not only know my way around testing, I also excel at scripting, developing websites, making graphic design and implementing usability in everything I do. What does users and customers think of when they use your product? I can tell you. For years I’ve been studying how humans and the digital realm interact in so many different areas. And if I’m not familiar with a subject or a program, you can damn well rely on that I’ll learn all about it in no time. In short, I’m a digital octopus.

I believe in smiles, respect and a positive attitude to people around me and my tasks. I’m loyal and very helpful, but not the least afraid to question authority or call bullshit on established routines and processes. I’m not in this job make the most money in the shortest amount of time, to sell expensive and/or needless solutions, to show off my fancy blue shirts, or to compete with my testing colleagues on assignments. I don’t do drama and politics. I’m in this job to help you find weaknesses in software that you never even knew existed, and to learn as much as humanly possible.

Martin Nilsson

I’m a kick ass tester with an incredibly wide spectrum of skills; from programming microprocessors to developing Continuous Integrations strategies for development organizations. My unusual combination of technical expertise and understanding of systems and organizations has made me a favourite to throw into highly complex situations on short notice.
Quote from my last customer for whom I in six months went from a System Tester to the Test Coordinator of a project with a hundred testers: “We didn’t believe your CV. We were wrong”. Not only do I perform my work excellently, I also spread my passion of Test to my colleagues, enabling their growth as well in their trade.

My drive comes from a curiosity of technology and people and I leverage this heavily in my passion for test. I’m able to outpace my competition by having my work as a hobby and therefore I’m constantly evolving my abilities in my craft.

Diana Flores

My motto is do it better. As testers we have the opportunity to find improvements. We have both the overview, by being involved in different phases, and also the behind the scenes look, by being involved in finding root causes.

My motivation in choosing a career in IT was to solve problems, learn about new ideas and share the better practices.

I started university in Budapest for Informatics-Mathematics, and did English-language IT-teacher training as well, which matched my desire to combine a human side to the rational subjects. I continued with a thesis and case study on socio-technical congruence, when I moved to Amsterdam for a Computer Science MSc.

My first work experience, software configuration manager, thought me how important communication is, being the connection point of developers, testers and project managers, which I kept in mind when I became a tester.

I enjoyed especially the agile projects, as it gives you the most room to change towards efficiency.

I joined HoT to be among the motivated people who feel that testing is not just a job, it is our profession, so I feel at home here.

Zeljko Markovic

I started as a software developer and evolved soon into a test engineer. Quality and testing means a lot to me. In 2009 I moved from Germany to Switzerland. I am quite familiar with functional test automation and also have experience with session based exploratory testing, test design, test management and agile practices.

My experience in international teams gives me varied skills and the ability to work with many different types of people. I am a conscientious person, intuitive and a strategic analytical thinker who pays attention to details and user’s desires. Furthermore I am flexible, quick to pick up new skills and eager to learn from others. Also I have lots of ideas and enthusiasm, and I am able to identify problems before they affect production deadlines.

In my view testing works very well if it is tailored to the specific needs in a context. I identify high potential areas in the beginning of my work. A context can change over time, so I also inspect and adapt: If you don’t correct your mistake, you really make a mistake (Confucius).

Constantly I keep myself up to date with modern trends in testing, programming, technologies, software development methods and discuss and share my knowledge. I’m passionate, a man of action, ethical, friendly but assertive, a good listener, self-critical and honest. I love and value meaningful relationships, challenges, to explore new ways of doing things, improving obsolete and inflexible processes, to innovate with the future in my mind and to have a sense of achievement.

I like companies with interesting products, a modern craftsmanship culture and relationships at eye level where I can do all of the above and more, an organization that will challenge me, and where I can make a difference.

Alexandre Bauduin

Quality is not a mandate: It is my lifestyle. I have been testing in various fields like electronic boards, smart cards, airborne equipment, TV broadcasting systems, warehousing and other industries , software or equipment that have to work once or 24-7 for millions of end users.

Don’t be surprised if during a test campaign you see me looking at an oscilloscope and an electronic schematic, a vernier caliper and a mechanical drawing, stepping into assembly code, recompiling a Nux kernel, debating about requirement or test-stalling a Boeing 777!

So many missions in many places, countries with only one goal in mind: Provide the best test services to my customers.

Testing for me could be a piece of jazz music: A mix of cultures, techniques, non conventional beats and I love to compare testing activity to jamming sessions. But it could also be a piece of classical music with strict rules.

I feel home at House of Test because in any case what is the most important thing is THE Context.

Michal Zima

Testing is not only work for me, it is a profession and a passion. Testing for me is bringing clarity into uncertainty, bringing value for the project with the information I provide.

I jumped into testing right after my masters degree in management of computer systems. Working on various projects I started to develop passion and enthusiasm for this profession. I am constantly refining and adding to my skills through work itself, through self-study, from courses/seminars and on community events. While on projects I seek new ways to solve problems, minimize chaos, promote collaboration and build a knowledge base among people. I strive to achieve mutual trust in the form of:

“Michal tested this, there will be no surprises”

My strength lies in banking, followed by reinsurance and embedded devices.

My methods include scripts to support my testing and I am willing to use trial /error to an extent when most people give up. This helps me creating a model of the system which I then refine incrementally. At the end of the day, only the testing itself shows the best approach. You need to always be ready to change the way how you approach the problem.

When you don’t see me testing, I am probably traveling, doing sports (fitness, running, martial arts) or reading a good book.

Natalia Wall

I believe that critical thinking is one of the most important characteristics a person needs to possess in order to become a skilled tester. These skills enable me to identify weaknesses and make me ask questions like “what if” and “why”. Those questions often lead to insights in early iterations that help eliminate issues which otherwise might have been introduced to the end user.

In my previous positions, I have been appreciated for having an enquiring mind as well as for being organised and highly dedicated to the projects. I set high standards for quality and it is important to me that the things we do add value. After all, my goal is to help you reach your goal!

I am known for having great communication skills and for being a social tester. Fortunately, I am also a coffee nerd which often comes in very handy when I need to discuss issues with developers. A fresh cup of coffee will usually make them listen, talk or help me.

I am not afraid of taking initiatives that can improve the overall performance nor am I afraid of taking on new challenges. I have extensive experience of software testing, both from working in many different roles (test lead, test laboratory manager and test engineer) and in different domains (embedded software for telecom, web apps and mobile apps). This enables me to quickly adjust to the context.

Apart from being an awesome tester and coffee nerd I also enjoy growing plants in my garden, photography, fine dining or training karate. Last but not least I love spending as much time as possible with my kids.

Elvir Arslanovic

In software development world, as testers, we often hear that we have a certain mindset when it comes to testing. I have often thought about what that means to me.

Testing is a challenge and a skill that anybody with the right will and an open mind can learn to master. For me any new testing challenge is a chance to learn something new and to apply my past knowledge and skills, given the right context, to provide useful information and find that critical bug that might slip through, in other words provide right kind of value to the stakeholders. My urge to learn about new technologies, test techniques and master new tools is what helps me to become a better tester.

I have been a part agile teams where I had the opportunity to work with world class test automation, creating automated checks, developing and maintaining test frameworks. This experience has taught that that to get the greatest value out of testing, there has to be a right balance between real testing that is done by people and automated checks, where these two complement each other to build a solid testing foundation.

Linda Hedin Liljegren

Since I was a little kid I have loved mathematics and people. The things I do at work is what I always liked to do and that is to meet people, do the financials and much more.

My strong qualities are being used at House of Test when I meet all our great consultants or doing the economic. The favorite part for me is to see the person behind the awesome tester. That really makes my day.

Before I started at House of Test, I worked as an accountant consultant at a company in Malmoe. I was only there for a year but I learnt a lot. Before that, I worked in Denmark for eight years at a big worldwide company, my responsibilities at the company was economics. That experience is something I will use at House of Test to make it even greater than it is.

When I´m not at work, I love to spend time with my family (I have five kids and a wonderful husband), take a long run, sew clothes or read an enjoyable book. I´m just like an old lady =)

Mélanie Jouberteix

I started as a software tester right after my master’s degree in Computer Science. I believe that a good tester will not only deliver thoroughly tested software but that he actually can help improve the product by thinking up-front at the requirements. I love solving problems and puzzles: my curiosity, my patience and my perseverence will be valuable assets to your company. What I love in testing is to continuously improve things: I first want to break the software I’m given to help rebuilding it even better.

I’m used to work in Agile environment, I disfavor repetitive tasks and hate regressions so I will get the right approach for your automated tests. I’m passionate at software testing and will share this passion for quality to every stakeholders.

Ben Kelly

For me, the various software development disciplines are complimentary and they are more effective when each discipline understands the fundamentals of the others. Testers especially need to have many strings to their bow as they are also an information conduit, seeking information and getting it to people who can benefit from it.

My view of testing and software development is heavily influenced by my martial arts background. I hold a 5th Dan in kendo and represented Australia several times at the world kendo championships. Just as with kendo, or anything worth mastering, software testing requires consistent and deliberate practice with the intent to improve.

Software testing has been a huge part of my life for more than fifteen years now. I’ve built and led teams in Australia, Japan and the United Kingdom at companies ranging from small start-ups to enterprise level multinational corporations, including heading up software testing for the European Product Development department at eBay. I’m now the managing director of House of Test UK.

In addition to my company duties, I like to run workshops and speak at conferences around the world. There are some really interesting developments in the software testing industry. There’s a critical mass of skilled practitioners connecting with one another to share their experience and skills and I’m excited to be a part of it.

Cindy Carless

Software testing has allowed me to bring all my diverse talents, experiences and passion for life-long learning together.

One of my talents is connecting with people, building trust quickly and creating a space where people feel safe to be vulnerable, experiment with new ideas and approaches and share their experiences openly. Another talent is that I can share my knowledge because I have invested in understanding things deeply and want to use my knowledge from over 30 years of professional learning to contribute to people and the things I give my attention to.

My passion has emerged as CDT coaching based on a belief in people’s inner resourcefulness and my enthusiasm to use learnings and reflection in everything I do.

I believe that people have the ability to make choices that will allow them to make the most of their lives. Sometimes circumstances and experiences create blocks and need a fresh perspective to create the energy to breakthrough them and move forward/shift.

Success for me in coaching is a person who has a new way of thinking and has an appetite for change and a revitalised energy for life. Someone who can use that to identify their many options and make choices that serve them. A person posing questions and investing time in and following through on what works for them.

I am told that my unique approach, acute intuition for areas of improvement and spotting potential problems and whole hearted commitment to living with integrity and congruence are valuable skills. Colleagues can rely on me for consistent hard work, attention to detail and excellent communication skills. Customers and employers recognize my contribution to teams, getting the job done and fitting in with a positive attitude and engaging smile.

Joining House of Test Denmark is a dream come true for me. It gives me the opportunity to be a software tester and coach with passion and purpose in everything I do. Being part of House of Test is an opportunity to be part of a team who thinks differently, is willing to push the limits and to punk my coaching.

Sebastian Thuné

I tend to use the word successful, and I want to start out by clarifying my definition of this word.

For me it’s not the meaning of having achieved fame, wealth, or social status. Successful for me will always be to accomplish a desired aim or result. It’s up to you to define success, and I will do anything I can to help you out.

Communication and problem solving is my life. We are all in the people business, and that’s the very foundation of my philosophy. With a plan and the 80/20 rule I make every minute and every challenge as an excuse to advance. Through a history of sales, leadership, marketing and partner management and a successful track record of solving problems within the areas of retail, software development, IT, SaaS and telecommunications I will continue to push myself, coworkers, customers and partners forward in the successful ongoing journey of House of Test & friends.

With a strong entrepreneurship and an open mind, I’m ready to help every one of you out there who is curious on how we as the number one context-driven testers can help you accomplish every desired test result you might wish for.

Ida Waller

I was once asked how such a positive and outgoing person as you always expect the worst.

My answer simply was that I´m a tester and there are always problems but my mission is to make sure that we know what kind of problems exists so that we can take care of them.

Communication is my biggest strength, I often lead various dialogues with many stakeholders, customers and end-users. I always try to see the full picture to understand how the system works and who will use it, so it´s not always about the tech skills.

I try to stay sharp because software and testing is constantly evolving, getting more complex and advanced. Even after 10 years I still feel excited when finding issues in software or explaining why for example a feature might not be easy to understand for an end-user.

Besides being a tester, I also have thorough experience in big data and business intelligence tools.
I can help you identify new business opportunities by analyzing and visualizing your data.

If there is software there will always be bugs to track down and I’m like good wine getting better with years of experience.

Elis Johannsson

I am a highly skilled, experienced and devoted context driven tester.

I love to dig into the details to figure out how things work, but most of all, figure out why they don’t work and how to fix it. With 15 years of test experience within huge and complex telecom development and delivery projects you can say I have tried it all.

Considering my experience, I can take on any project and test management role with ease, and as I also have a craftsman degree in Audio/Video and electronics repair, I love to “get my hands dirty”. This makes me vigilant, and good at getting an overview of new situations and see the context, and end to end dynamics, in various challenges.

I am a service minded and multilingual team player with multicultural experience. My focus is always for the team to perform together, and I am a person who engages to increase the overall speed of the mission rather than focusing solely on my own tasks. My colleagues use me frequently to quality assure their own solutions, and/or to have a sparring partner in a complex task.

Most of all, I am an engineer, and a tester, who can help your project to focus on the right things to be able to take the right decisions.

Victor Förare

I am a tester that is always looking for new challenges, that never gets bored with a task because I always find things to improve or things to test in ways they never have been tested before.
I like being around brilliant people since I am like a sponge that quickly absorbs knowledge from those around me and have the ability to quickly fill in anyone’s shoes if need be. That was what enticed me to join the HoT family.
My goal in every company is to become one of the people with the best overview of the system as a whole.
Since I started out in health care and later re-schooled into a software test engineer I have refined social and technical skills.
They came in handy when I developed test routines, trained new employees and handled customer support for several years with one of my previous employers.
I know that the developer has a profound knowledge about their own code, but I have the ability to take a step back and view the system as a whole. I am like the glue that fuses your systems together.
I will analyze your system integrations and if anything is amiss I will find it, I got the Bug repellent spray for you.

Emma Lilliestam

A hammer is a nice tool for some things, but if you use it to fix a window you might not get the intended result. I keep a scientific approach to most things and my interdisciplinary background helps me find the right tool for the right task.

My road to software testing was far from straight, but throughout studies of IT security, system administration, environment, anthropology and journalism one thing has always been at the core: studying vulnerabilities, and fixing them.

I think both inside and outside of the box. Standards and checklists help with organization and systematization of product development. But a standard must always be set in a context, and is only efficient when continuously tweaked.

Some people regard the word “nerd” as negative. I don’t. Nerdism is a real superpower, it gives a person the stamina to skeptically interrogate a subject again and again. I’m a nerd about the GDPR, user security, business continuity and process. On my spare time I nerd about space, cyborgs, cognition, music, and long distance training.

Events

When we say that we encourage knowledge-sharing, we don’t just talk the talk, we walk the walk. We’re passionate about sharing our experiences and listening to others do the same. Testing is still a young profession and the way to maturity is through innovation, discussion and debates, not standards and proprietary methods. Ideas that we develop, we share. When we share them, they become stronger. If you want to meet us for a chat, this is where you’ll find us.

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