In modern times, social media platforms have become the main channels for us to stay tuned in to the latest updates on subjects we are interested in. In the active world of software testing, it is essential to stay updated and understand the recent trends and methods. Many follow colleagues online, network at conferences (on and offline), and take part in community forums absorbing as much as they can.
To help this search for sources of knowledge, we have compiled a list of top software testing thought leaders that you should follow on X. We believe that real thought leaders are those who live by what they write, and inspire from true experience and a burning passion to share and spread their knowledge to others. This list was created with this in mind as our main criteria.
And while we were at it, we asked them:
- What has influenced them along the way?
- What reading/viewing on software testing would they recommend?
- What [non related to testing] activity do you enjoy doing that is surprising/out-of-the-ordinary?
Who's on our list:
- Angie Jones
- Michael Bolton
- Mike Lyles
- Lisa Crispin
- James Marcus Bach
- Richard Bradshaw
- Joe Colantonio
- Janet Gregory
- Alan Richardson
- Maaret Pyhäjärvi
- Alan Page
- Noah Sussman
- Paul Grizzaffi
- Anton Angelov
- Eran Kinsbruner
- Rob Meaney
- Ash Coleman
- Raj Subrameyer
- Daniel Knott
- Joel Montvelisky
Angie is certainly a software testing leader that every tester and testing fan should follow. She is an inventor with 26 patents in different fields and an international keynote speaker in the most famous testing conferences around the world. In her very active X page and website, Angie shares insights, and tips about automation testing, testing methodologies, tutorial videos, and more.
Michael Bolton is an absolute expert in the software testing world. For more than 20 years he has been providing consultancy service and training for companies and testing teams in order to help them solve testing problems and improve their testing process. Bolton is also the co-founder of the Rapid Software Testing methodology (with James Bach) and conducts courses and lectures about it.
Mike is one of the most experienced tech leaders on our list. With more than two decades in the tech industry in different companies and a large variety of roles he fulfilled, he gained great and valuable experience in the software testing field. Follow his X page to learn more about functional testing, test management, performance testing, etc.
There is no doubt that agile testing is an important part of every agile software development, and there is no doubt that Lisa is a highly respected leading practitioner in the agile testing field. Lisa is the co-founder of Agile Testing Fellowship which offers a 3-day course for agile teams and testers. In addition, she has also been voted as the most influential agile testing professional by her peers. For those who have a strong interest in all aspects of agile testing, Lisa is the address to gain inspiration and discover more information about agile testing.
James Bach is a well-known leader and consultant in the software testing industry. Since he started to work as a test manager at a very young age, he gained meaningful experience and great knowledge in the testing field. With over 30 years of career, James is the co-author of the Rapid Software Testing methodology and wrote articles and books including “Lessons Learned in Software Testing” book (co-author).
Those of you who are active in the different communities of software testing probably heard about Richard. The friendly tester is the CEO of the Ministry of Testing which is a global software testing community. He is also the creator of the YouTube channel Whiteboard Testing where he uploads short videos of him and other testing experts explaining and teaching about various aspects of software testing.
What or who has influenced you professionally? "My greatest influence has to be the Ministry of Testing, discovering the Ministry of Testing back in 2013 was like receiving the key to testing. The number of incredibly talented testers I was able to connect with and learn from. Events I could attend. But most of all it was the continued support to be a better tester, having the backing of such a great community makes the difficult seem possible.""
Any recommended reading/viewing on software testing? "If I'm going to plug my own work, I'd say my Test Automation Redefined keynote form Selenium Conference. Then a piece I co-write on Heuristics"
What [non related to testing] activity do you enjoy? "I'm also an #AvGeek, I love all things aviation. Outside of that lots of cooking and DIY".
Joe Colantonio is a widely known professional in the automation testing field. Working for many years as a software test automation engineer, He became an expert in the industry working in many big companies. Joe is also the founder of Test Guild, a platform he creates on professional articles, podcasts with top-notch industry masters, and online conferences to help you with your testing.
You can’t name agile testing without mentioning Janet Gregory. The top-quality agile testing coach and consultant have a rich past in the industry. She is the co-founder with Lisa Crispin of Agile Testing Fellowship and together the two also wrote a few books such as “Agile Testing: A Practical Guide for Testers and Agile Teams”, “More Agile Testing: Learning Journeys for the Whole Team”, and “Agile Testing Condensed: A Brief Introduction”. Janet specializes in agile methodologies, agile testing, agile teams guidance, and so on.
What or who has influenced you professionally? "Of course, Lisa Crispin my co-author has had a huge influence, but if I think back to my very first job, I can name at least two people from that time. A couple of others that have influenced me are Mary Poppendieck, Brian Marick and Sherry Heinze, but of course that is not a complete list."
What [non related to testing] activity do you enjoy? "I’m not sure if this is out of the ordinary, but I love to paint. Years ago, I painted with oils, but now I paint with watercolours. I also have a Christmas village that I have hand painted every single house – about 30".
There are many fields Alan specializes in like programming, marketing, writing, and of course testing. He has over 25 years of experience in software development, over 1,000,000 views on his YouTube channel, and several books he authored like “Java For Testers” and “Dear Evil Tester”. Agile development process, exploratory testing, and API testing are examples of topics that Alan is consulting on.
Another must-follow expert is definitely Maaret. She is a programmer, a keynote speaker, and an exploratory testing leader. Pyhäjärvi is the author of the “Exploratory Testing” book where she explains all the important aspects of this method of testing. Maaret spoke in conferences all over the globe and won a few awards such as the EuroSTAR testing excellence award in 2020.
Alan has been improving software quality since 1993 and is currently the Vice President of Engineering Services at Unity Technologies. Previous to joining Unity in 2017, Alan spent 22 years at Microsoft working on projects spanning the company - including a two-year position as Microsoft's Director of Test Excellence. Alan is an accomplished author, and his most recent ebook (a collection of essays) on test automation called "The A Word: Under the Covers of Test Automation" For the latest information on Alan, listen to the AB Testing podcast which he co-hosts with Brent Jensen.
What or who has influenced you professionally?"Like a lot of folks, Jerry Weinberg's writings and talks have helped me in a lot of ways. Becoming a Technical Leader, as well as the Secrets of Consulting books taught me a lot about helping other people be successful. I've also learned a lot about leadership and trust from reading the business fables from Patrick Lencioni. I really like the Quality Coach articles that Anne-Marie Charrett is writing and I'm also quite a fan of Maaret Pyhäjärvi's writing
What [non related to testing] activity do you enjoy?"Maybe not out of the ordinary, but maybe at least unexpected, but except for an 18-month break during the pandemic, I've been regularly power-lifting (focus on Bench Press, Squat and Deadlift) for about 4 years now".
Noah is a Web Resilience Engineer at Unity. He is an expert in DevOps and agile testing. Sussman is also quite active in software testing communities online and his X page is always updated with tweets. He also has a blog where he posts about testing and DevOps practice.
Paul Grizzaffi is a master when it comes to automation testing. Due to his expertise in automation testing, Paul is an advisor and helps organizations to improve their automation testing and strategy. Furthermore, Grizzaffi is a keynote speaker in highly respected conferences and also maintains his blog where he writes about automation and testing.
What or who has influenced you professionally?"So many people have influenced me over the course of my career; too many to name. What has influenced me the most, however, is watching how testers work and seeing where I can help provide some tech solutions to help them do their jobs".
Any recommended reading/viewing on software testing?"I always like to point people to Test Automation University and to Ministry of Testing for training. There are also some great low-cost/no-cost conferences such as the OnlineTestConf"
What [non related to testing] activity do you enjoy?This will only be unexpected to people that only know one facet of me, but I'm equally at home at a food and wine pairing as I am at Slayer concert.”
The founder and the CTO of Automate The Planet is another prominent name on our list. Anton is also an author and wrote the book “Design Patterns for High-Quality Automated Tests: High-Quality Test Attributes and Best Practices”. Moreover, Angelov provides automated testing training and holds lectures in software testing conferences.
Eran is the Chief DevOps Evangelist at Perfecto and a successful author of three books including “The Digital Quality Handbook: Guide for Achieving Continuous Quality in a DevOps Reality”. He gained experience in over 20 years of career in the software testing business within organizations such as Sun Microsystems and General Electric. In addition, Eran is regularly speaking in the most popular QA conferences and events.
Rob Meaney or Sponge Bob Test Pants, as he calls himself on X, is an extremely skilled tester with wide experience in a large variety of companies and industries. Rob is mainly working with teams to help them overcome testing bugs and issues and improve their quality. He is mostly involved in test coaching, quality engineering, and testability. Meaney is the co-author with Ash Winter of “Team Guide to Software Testability”.
Ash is a talented QA engineer, consultant, and international keynote speaker. Today, she is the Head of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Credit Karma and very active in promoting the awareness of diversity in the whole software testing world. Coleman also helped teams in their agile software processes and testing.
Raj is a famous keynote speaker who lectures in the most prestigious and important conferences in the software testing world. He started his career in the industry as a test engineer moving forward to different important roles made him acquire superb experience. These days, Raj is focusing on helping people reach a successful tech career and tech leaders. Follow Raj on X and visit his website for more info about his speaking and other updates.
Daniel is a leading agile environment software tester and in his current role, he is the Head of Software Testing at MaibornWolff in Germany. Knott has more than 13 years of experience working as a test engineer and product manager in various big companies. In recent years he is primarily focused on mobile testing, operating his blog, and publishing books like “Hands-On Mobile App Testing”.
What or who has influenced you professionally?"We have so many great people in the community who do great things. It‘s a nice and welcoming community who like to share content with each other to help people to grow. That is really an inspiration for me professionally".
Any recommended reading/viewing on software testing?"I really like the books Agile Testing and More Agile testing from Lisa Crispin and Janet Gregory. Another book that I love to read is Explore It! by Elizabeth Hendrickson. But there are so many more. I usually suggest people to be on X to follow the testing experts to find new nuggets on testing on a daily basis".
What [non related to testing] activity do you enjoy?"On the flip side, I like to do sports such as running and cycling. I also like to try out crazy stuff like parachute jumping.”
Joel is Co-Founder and Chief Solution Architect at PractiTest. He has been in QA since 1997, working as a tester, QA manager, director, and consultant for companies in Israel, the US, and the EU. Joel is a Forbes Technology council member, a public speaker, a blogger, Chair of the OnlineTestConf, and he is the co-founder of the State of Testing report.
To sum things up
The software testing world is rapidly evolving and thus every tester, testing team manager and other testing workers staff should be always updated in the latest methodologies, features, and changes. Whether you are new to the QA testing world or a veteran tester, you should be following and or all of these experts' X accounts!
