Welcome to Ma Kelly’s Greasy Spoon, the “thought child” of Paul and Lee (you can find out more about them later on this page).
Paul and Lee have accumulated many years and many experiences in testing and, for quite some time now, have enjoyed discussing their views on testing and helping each other solve problems.
Lee and Paul set up the EPIC TestAbility Academy (ETA) that focused on teaching unemployed, autistic young adults the basics of good testing with the goal of them finding employment. Lee and Paul provided all their time at no cost (this was a “giving back” program we both deeply believed in). Unfortunately, a reorganisation of our sponsor EPIC (a not-for-profit organisation that supports people with disability) meant they removed their presence from our area (the state of Victoria in Australia) and the Academy closed. Lee and Paul are looking for another sponsor to get the program back up and running, so if you can help, drop us a line.
Apart from the ETA, Paul and Lee have co-organised several test conferences in Melbourne, presented to organisations on the ETA program as well as delivering an ETA experience report at the inaugural Test Bash Australia conference in Sydney. They have also co-written published articles and blogs.
Once again, welcome to Ma Kelly’s Greasy Spoon where our joint blogging will continue. We hope you drop by and enjoy the content.
(Oh, if you’re wondering where the name for this blog came from, it’s the title of one of Status Quo’s earliest albums and happens to be one of Lee’s favourites!)
Hi folks, I’m Paul. I currently work as a Test Specialist at Halaxy (we make excellent medical practice software). Like a lot of testers, I “fell” into testing and stayed because it continues to fascinate me. As I approach 20 years of testing I find that my love of testing just continues to deepen. I’ve had the pleasure of working in government, finance, human resources, travel and now the medical practice sector. Each has been interesting and has helped me form my testing approach (along with the mountain of information provided by a bunch of sharing testers whom I deeply respect).
When I’m not at work I watch some television, pick up my guitars, listen to music and recently I’ve started diving into javascript and Cypress. During the Australian summer you’ll find me on a cricket oval each Saturday umpiring senior cricket in the Victorian Sub District Cricket Association. I also blog at https://beaglesays.blog and tweet using the handle @beaglesays.
G’day, I’m Lee Hawkins and I’m the Director of Software Craft for Quest Software in Melbourne. I’ve been with Quest since 1999 when I landed both my first job in Australia and also my first role as a tester. I’ve been specializing in testing ever since. I’ve also been fortunate enough to study the subject deeply to share knowledge across Quest, as well as publicly airing my views and experience via articles, blogs and international conference presentations.
Outside of work, I’m a passionate (read: obsessive) Status Quo fan and run a large Quo website featuring the most complete online gig listing from the band’s fifty-plus year history, check it out at http://www.leehawkins.com I also love to travel and my time at Quest has allowed me to visit lots of great places for office visits, conferences and other events. I’m vegan for the animals.
I blog at https://therockertester.wordpress.com and tweet using the handle @therockertester.
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