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ABOUT ME

tl;dr We help software delivery teams understand how quality & testing are related so they can improve their product and release with less problems

Greetings! I’m Vernon and I run Abode of Quality! 

I like working with people & technology to solve quality problems. In order to get to do that every day, I created Abode of Quality!

What do we do? Well, let me set the scene.

You have a great team of developers, you’ve adopted agile practices and features are being shipped out of the door. 

Sounds great on the surface! But…

There is no effective strategy for quality and testing in place, releases are starting to cause problems in production and there are bottlenecks in the process.

And that’s where we come in!

We help agile teams understand how they deliver software so they can start to improve their processes and increase the quality of their releases. 

We do this is several different ways:

  • Quality Audit - We spend time with you learning how you work and how you deliver. That information is then compiled into a report that identifies holes, spots opportunities and makes recommendations on what to keep doing

  • Quality Retainer - An advisory retainer used to provide dedicated support and guidance

  • Quality Coaching - Coach the team to better understand quality & testing for their context and adopt a whole team testing mindset

  • Agile Coaching - We work together to help the team adopt agile practices more effectively

WHO IS VERNON?

I am a Quality Coach & Tester that loves helping orgs, teams and individuals understand the relationship between quality & testing to help them build better products and deliver more effective services.

I've been testing software since 2002 starting with video games on PS2, Xbox and PC. It may not sound like a real job but it’s the truth!

After cutting my teeth in that domain, I worked in several different industries. For example Digital advertising/agency, Bioscience/pharma, eCommerce, Music, Finance, Airline industry, and the Public sector amongst many others.

Since 2010 most of my work has been focused on helping testers in orgs that are adopting collaborative & adaptive (i.e. agile) ways of working. I have helped testers & devs use concepts such as “test cases”, “pass/fail” & “giving confidence” more effectively while helping them incorporate new ideas such as “test sessions”, “quality” and “value” into their everyday work.

Currently, I run Abode of Quality. One of my core values is captured in the following quote:

“The problem is not the problem. The problem is your attitude (and how you’re thinking) about the problem.”
- Captain Jack Sparrow (the part in brackets was my addition though!)   

I believe that quality & testing problems are actually people problems in disguise! Often the cause of these problems is misaligned goals, different perspectives, low empathy for colleagues, and the list goes on.

Using my experience of nearly 20 years in the quality & testing space, in addition to my coaching skills, I firmly believe that the most effective way to serve the business is to help teams and the individuals within them, to gain new perspectives about themselves and their teammates.

Outside of “the day job”, I am an active part of the testing and wider software development communities. Initially, this amounted to lurking in the background on Twitter but later evolved into speaking at meetups, conferences and delivering workshops. I’ve also been privileged enough to work with the Ministry of Testing for several years now. Some of the things I work on include emceeing TestBash conferences, hosting Ask Me Anything webinars sessions and running their Software Testing Clinic in the East Midlands. I’m also lucky enough to host Testathon events, hackathons for testers, all over the world.

CREDENTIALS

  • Organisation and Relationship Systems Coaching (ORSC) - Foundations

  • ICAgile Certified Professional in Agile Coaching

  • PG Cert in Business & Personal Coaching

  • Black Box Software Testing (BBST)

SOMe places I’ve been hired

  • Sky

  • Vodafone

  • ITV

  • easyJet

  • The Financial Times

  • Barclaycard

  • Beats by Dre

  • Renault F1 Team

  • Dunelm