Occasionally, you might find yourself with a whale client, or at least a profitable one, that treats you poorly and shows no trust in you. How should you handle this? Join us to learn more. View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: Enov8 has a helpful guide to test data management. The DataOpsZone community site has a handy explainer about the concept of referential integrity. This guide to ephemeral environments from Test Environment Management.  

Sometimes a client is looking for labor, and expect you to bundle in the strategic piece. For instance, they expect architecture to come along with a software development project. How to handle this? Join us to learn more. View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: Enov8 recently published a take on application portfolio management best practices, for you enterprise fans. Spin has a round-up of the top SSPM vendors, if you're in the market. I just recently learned that Industry 4 is a thing, and what it is, thanks to Influx's glossary. If you're looking for help with Ansible tags, Netbox Labs has an introductory guide to the subject.  

Depending on fate to bring you business can lead to gaps between projects. How do you setup some kind of sales funnel and get leads into it to avoid these gaps? Join us to learn more. View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: Enov8's guide to data masking.  This comparison of Logstash and Fluentd from Sawmills. Tricentis's (Testim's) AI-powered Salesforce Testing (also in German, French, and Japanese). A definition of SSPM from Spin.AI.  

You're collaborating with your client on a time-sensitive deadline and you get sick.  How should you handle that?  Whose problem is it, ultimately? Join us to learn more. View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: Enov8's list of enterprise architecture tools to be aware of in 2025.  This introduction to the subject of log parsing from Sawmills. Tricentis's legacy tool replacement solutions (also in German and French). A guide from Testim on unit testing in React Native.  

You've got a full-time job but want to go indie, and you line up your first contract. How do you think about how much runway you need to create between current savings and that first contract, for when it expires? Join us to learn more. View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: A post from Sawmills, which introduces log parsing, explains its importance for transforming unstructured logs into actionable data and outlines best practices for efficient and scalable implementation. Learn how Tricentis Data Integrity helps ensure end-to-end data accuracy and reliability across complex enterprise systems through automated testing and validation. (The Data Integrity page is also available to read in German, French, and Japanese).

If you've built an audience on a platform other than your own website, how do you go about turning that following into a marketing funnel for something you're offering? Join us to learn more. View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: This post from BlinkOps explains Identity and Access Management (IAM) automation. A Testim blog post that provides an overview of six JavaScript editors. A Sawmills post that gives an overview of Logstash filters, explaining their role in parsing. An Enov8 blog post that explains how a Release Train Engineer (RTE) facilitates Agile Release Trains (ARTs) within the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe). An overview of Tricentis Testim, an AI-powered test automation platform designed to streamline the testing of custom web, mobile, and Salesforce applications (sites also available to read in German, French, and Japanese).

It will sometimes come up that a prospect or client asks you to implement something that's either too vague to work or a flat-out bad idea. What should you do in this situation? Join us to learn more. View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: This round-up of application portfolio management tools from our friends at Enov8. Regression testing for Workday, from our friends at Tricentis (also in German and Japanese).

If you're a programmer (or, generally, a labor-based freelancer), is it a good idea to sell strategic advice as a kind of "up-sell" to your normal offering? Join us to learn more. View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: An Introductory Guide to Application Portfolio Management A beginner's guide to volume testing

I do a lot of theory in this series, but here's something practical. How would I recommend someone price an hour-long training session to teach social media tactics to a salesforce? Join us to learn more. View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: Sprint Scheduling: A Guide to Your Agile Calendar Not only do our friends at Tricentis offer Tosca, a powerful end-to-end testing tool, they also have sites available in these languages: French Japanese and German!

Sometimes, a client may ask you to sign a non-compete agreement as a prerequisite for engaging with them. Should you do it? How should you handle this situation in general? Join us to learn more. View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: How regression testing is performed An Introductory Guide to Application Portfolio Management What is Security Automation? Benefits, Types & Best Practices What Is Software Testing? All the Basics You Need to Know

The default with freelancing is to charge by the hour and do generalist work. You might have, however, heard of value pricing and heard the idea that you should establish a niche. How should you go about doing that? View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: Test Suites and Their Test Cases: The Hierarchy Explained Challenges in mobile testing and how to solve them What is A/B Deployment (aka A/B Testing) What is Data Lineage? An Explanation and Example  

As you grow your business successfully, you'll have more demand for your work and, thus, more leads. Does that naturally mean you can raise your rates? The answer is more complex than you might think. View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Links of the week: UI test automation: What it is and how to get started Testim, a fast and flexible authoring of AI-powered end-to-end tests—built for scale Enterprise Intelligence – Migrating & Managing the Cloud Database Virtualization Tools  

If you establish a practice and start to earn a good bit of business, sooner or later you'll have to contend with the decision of whether or not to bring on subcontractors to help you. Should you do it?   View this podcast as a video on YouTube.   Link of the week: Get Started With Salesforce QA and Testing: A Tutorial

I resisted talking about ChatGPT as long as humanly possible, but I did wind up getting a question in the backlog about it. So, will ChatGPT replace freelance programming?   View this podcast as a video on YouTube.   Links of the week: How to Do Test Data Management in Agile: 8 Best Practices Android testing: An easy introduction with examples

If you go into business for yourself, what should you call yourself? Freelancer? Self-employed? Something else?   View this podcast as a video on YouTube.   Link of the week: Enov8: The IT & Test Environments Management Company

If you're thinking of hanging out your shingle or have just done so, you might wonder whether to use bookkeeping software and, if so, what to use. I have a surprisingly specific and opinionated answer for this one.   View this podcast as a video on YouTube. Link of the month: TEM Metrics - Test Environment Management (DOT) Com  

When you go off on your own, at least in the US, you might be in for a rude tax awakening. In this video, I talk about what self-employment tax is, and what you can do about it.   View this podcast as a video on YouTube.   Links of the Month: An in-depth look at spike testing with examples Follow our podcast at Iheart! Automate web and mobile testing with AI Metrics vs. Logs: When to Use Each in Your Telemetry Stack DORA Metrics Dashboard: How to Build One, With Examples  

You're a freelancer and doing regular work with your clients. If you bill by the hour or, more generally, for time and materials, which meetings should you bill the clients for?   View this podcast as a video on YouTube.   Links of the Month: What are the different types of release management? Follow our podcast at Buzzsprout Follow our podcast at Listennotes

Freelancers, especially newbie freelancers, can find themselves caught in situations where their only, large, 40-hour-per week client starts to treat them more like an employee than a freelancer. What should you do?   View this podcast as a video on YouTube.   Links of the month: End-to-end testing for enterprise business processes Check out our new State of the Business newsletter

I've been asked this more than once, but eventually got around to doing a video about it. Rumor has it that California is "business-unfriendly," and, if you live there, you should start a business in another state. What's my take on that?   View this podcast as a video on YouTube.   Links of the week: Salesforce Test Automation: What Every Engineer Should Know Key Components of a CI/CD Pipeline