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k6 Work
Since launching the k6 Champions program, we've been getting a lot of applications! We've accepted two new champions, Ziv Kalderon and Sahani Perera. Ziv and Sahani have spoken at various meetups and conferences to share their knowledge with the community about k6. I've also received great feedback from our CTO about the program's success. I honestly couldn't have done it without the contributions of these champions.
Speaking of k6 champions, Sarah Zipkin joined us for her first k6 Office Hours, where she talked about using k6 from a site reliability engineer perspective and even spoke about SLO math!
This month, I also learned about chaos engineering and how the xk6-disruptor can be used for fault injection testing, which I demonstrated in the episode below. k6 started as a load testing tool, but it's now evolving into a reliability testing tool, especially with the introduction of browser and fault injection tests.
Finally, the k6 team has now released the browser recorder for Grafana Cloud k6. We discussed how to get started with the browser recorder, how to run it on Grafana Cloud k6, its advantages, and its limitations.
Community Work/Side Projects
We've had a great month at Adobo and Avocados. I'm happy we started this podcast because it's also a great way to connect with different individuals. The live streams may look like a lot of work, but we don't usually prepare much during these live streams. The conversations are natural, and we go with the flow.
First, Nicole and I shared our top ten career tips in tech, which you can find below. We didn't know each other's career tips, so it was funny when we had some overlap. It was a fun episode to record, though!
We also spoke with another colleague, Imma Valls, to discuss whether appearances matter in tech and if tattoos, piercings, and brightly coloured hair impact someone's experiences working in tech.
Then, finally, we had Parveen Khan. Parveen shared her authentic self and spoke about inspirational stories about her experiences. We discussed her journey to tech, how she balances being a parent and having a career, her journey to public speaking, and the challenges she had to overcome.
Rudolf Groetz also invited me to speak at the TestBustersNight meetup. This was my first time, and Rudolf is an amazing host! The talk was generally well-received and people are interested if I can do another session, but this time it will be more focused on how to use k6 for performance testing.
Finally, some good progress with the book writing. I finished the second chapter this month (lots of late-night sleeping though 😞), and Manning'll review it. Next month shouldn't be as busy because it will just be addressing any comments received. 🤞🏼
Agile Testing Days Open Air 2023
This month, I had the opportunity to attend Agile Testing Days Open Air 2023 again, and it was great to catch up with people I already know from the testing community and meet new faces! I've attended a fair amount of conferences now, but I have to say that this remains my favourite because of its relaxed setting, great venue, and inclusive community.
It was also a great experience to watch talks from excellent speakers such as Richard Bradshaw, Tariq King, and Lena Nyström, to name a few. This year, I focused more on attending workshops, and I learned a lot about practical TDD (test-driven development) for testers, creating a product outline, AI, and machine learning.
I also spoke about A Medley of Backend and Frontend Performance Testing and received my session ratings which were fairly good overall. There was great constructive feedback that can help me improve my session for next time. 💜
What I value most is the networking and connections I made. Conferences like ATD Open Air bring professionals closer together and learn valuable lessons from each other. The lunchtime chats, group activities such as stand-up paddle boarding, and even live bands are great ways to get to know people. I, for one, am looking forward to attending next year's event!
Personal Development
While I've been talking about my activities, learnings, and progress, I feel it's good also to say that it's been a hard month! June has been busy with book writing, traveling, work, and other projects. There are days when I feel like I've taken more than I can manage. It's impacted my sleep, which is crucial (thank you, Matthew Walker!), and my moods. For the month of July, I will take it easy and not do a lot of multiple things at the same time.
🏋🏻♀️ My average steps this month are lower than the previous month, but I still managed to do a fair amount of steps! At the beginning of the month, I also participated in the F45 summer playoffs, and it was the most difficult 10 minutes of my life! I'm proud I did it and completed all the exercises without quitting.
🍎 Still doing the 80/20 healthy eating rule.
📚 This month, I finished reading Automation Awesomeness by Joe Colantonio, a book comprising 260 actionable affirmations to improve your QA and automation testing skills. This was a nice read, and it was amazing to be included in the book, together with my other colleagues, Nicole van der Hoeven and Leandro Melendez. I also finished reading Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker, and it has given me a lot of insights about the importance of sleep and the benefits from a cognitive perspective, creativity, and mental and physical health.
🎧 Continuously listened to various podcast episodes this month.
🗣 I'm continuing my Spanish lessons in Duolingo. I'm now on day 301 🎉
June Favourites
One of my favourites this month was I finally got my floral sleeve tattoo! I've always been self-conscious about my arms, and getting a floral tattoo is a way to increase my body confidence. I love how delicate it is; the tattoo artist did an amazing job. 💜
Other favourites include:
Paddleboarding session at ATD Open Air. That was so much fun, and thank you, Veerle, for being a kind and awesome human being!
An overdue visit and sleepover from one of my oldest friend
Mango cheesecake from Kasa and Kin 🤤
Korean bbq dinner with friends
