Do you know what the testers on your team do, exactly, and how they do it? Have you been asked to pick up some "testing tasks", but aren't quite sure what that entails? Have you ever wondered how you can better find issues in your own code before you hand it over?

In this practical talk we'll have a look behind the scenes of testing to help you in this. I'll outline the testing mindset and the value it brings to a team, the difference between testing and checking, and how exploratory testing and test automation complement each other.

I will share useful testing techniques that are flexible enough to take your specific context into account: using oracles and heuristics for test ideas, prioritising test areas by assessing risk, organizing and executing tests using exploratory charters. Combined with a habit of stepping back and looking at the bigger picture these methods can enable you to provide fast, valuable feedback to yourself and your team.