Mar 28

Nonprofits and Causes: Our Donation List for 2023

Person holding a box of donations for another person in a face mask
Nonprofits and Causes: Our Donation List for 2023

Mindful QA gives 10% of profits to charity, and every year we choose some of our favorite recipients to highlight. Check out the list for 2023 below! You can click the names of each to learn more or make a donation.

Person holding a box of donations for another person in a face mask

  1. Carbon Offsets To Alleviate Poverty (COTAP) empowers individuals and organizations in developed countries to address both climate change and global poverty. COTAP counteracts carbon emissions through certified forestry projects in least-developed regions, which create transparent earnings for rural farming communities where income levels are less than $2 per day.
  2. VoteRiders works nationwide to provide voter ID education and assistance to all eligible voters who are in need.
  3. Water.org is a global nonprofit organization working to bring water and sanitation to the world.
    Continue reading →
Feb 15

Nonprofits and Causes: Our Donation List for 2022

People holding coins showing a donation jar and a globe
Nonprofits and Causes: Our Donation List for 2022

Mindful QA gives 10% of profits to charity, and every year we choose 25 of our favorite recipients to highlight. Check out the list for 2022 below! You can click the names of each to learn more or make a donation.

  1. Carbon Offsets To Alleviate Poverty (COTAP) empowers individuals and organizations in developed countries to address both climate change and global poverty. COTAP counteracts carbon emissions through certified forestry projects in least-developed regions, which create transparent earnings for rural farming communities where income levels are less than $2 per day. People holding coins showing a donation jar and a globe
  2. VoteRiders works nationwide to provide voter ID education and assistance to all eligible voters who are in need.
  3. Action Against Hunger provides communities with access to safe water and sustainable solutions to hunger. Continue reading →
Mar 2

Nonprofits and Causes: Our Donation List for 2021

People dropping coins into a donation jar
Nonprofits and Causes: Our Donation List for 2021

Mindful QA gives 10% of profits to charity, and we’ve chosen 25 of our favorites recipients from 2021 to highlight below.

If you’re looking for a great nonprofit or cause to donate to, we recommend checking them out! You can click the names of each organization to learn more or make a donation.

  1. Carbon Offsets To Alleviate Poverty (COTAP) empowers individuals and organizations in developed countries to address both climate change and global poverty. COTAP counteracts carbon emissions through certified forestry projects in least-developed regions, which create transparent earnings for rural farming communities where income levels are less than $2 per day. People dropping coins into a donation jar
  2. VoteRiders works nationwide to provide voter ID education and assistance to all eligible voters who are in need.
  3. Stop AAPI Hate tracks and responds to discrimination against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States. Continue reading →

What is User Acceptance Testing?

Person in wheelchair using laptop to test software
What is User Acceptance Testing?

“User acceptance testing” can have several meanings. There’s the technical definition – and then there’s the way that the phrase is commonly used. But when teams use the same term to refer to different processes, things can get confusing.

Fortunately, both types of user acceptance testing are pretty simple to understand. They also have aspects in common, including many of the same goals.

User Acceptance Testing with a user and a mobile appWhat is User Acceptance Testing?

User acceptance testing verifies that the software’s user experience is acceptable for launch. Also known as UAT, it’s part of every website or app QA process in some way, shape, or form. However, there are a few different ways of doing it. The biggest difference? Whether the UAT is done by professional QA testers or real customers. Continue reading →

Sep 13

Mindful QA Earns 5 Star Reviews on Clutch

Mindful QA Testing Company (website with QA testers holding tablet and smartphone)
Mindful QA Earns 5 Star Reviews on Clutch

With more and more websites and apps launching every day, demand for QA testing has been growing exponentially.  Software development, design, and deployment processes are always changing. As a result, it’s become vital for businesses to look for professional QA testing experts to get higher returns. That’s where Mindful QA comes in!Mindful QA Testing Company (website with QA testers holding tablet and smartphone)

Mindful QA is a California-based software testing company that is dedicated to making the QA process easy and flexible for companies of all sizes. We help clients by finding bugs and improving user experience for apps and websites.

Our USA-based team provides award-winning software testing services for non-profits, start-ups, digital agencies, large corporations, and everyone in between. We’re also passionate about doing good, are carbon neutral, and donate 10% of profits to charity. Continue reading →

How to use Terminal on Mac

Nested folders
How to use Terminal on Mac

You might immediately become anxious seeing a reference to the “command line” – or as it’s known on Mac, “terminal.” It’s true that it can feel daunting to use at first. But the good news is that it follows straightforward rules.

Once you get the hang of the commands, using the terminal can become second nature. And if you aren’t sure where to start, you can use the cheat sheet below! It contains commands as well as common vocabulary.

Mac Terminal

Mac Terminal Commands & Cheat Sheet

Tip before you dive in: although you might see commands with quotation marks below, you don’t need to use the quotation marks in the terminal.

How to Open Terminal on Mac:

Accessing the terminal app on your Mac is easy. To open Terminal on your Mac, you can click the magnifying glass search icon in the top bar, and type “Terminal.”

Then, simply double-click the Terminal app result.

Continue reading →

What is Acceptance Criteria?

Team Writing Acceptance Criteria for a Website
What is Acceptance Criteria?

When working in Agile software development, you’ll often see references to acceptance criteria. While the phrase may sound unnecessarily confusing, it’s actually pretty simple. And while not every team uses it, it can be crucial to a successful launch. So what is acceptance criteria?

Acceptance Criteria Definition

The technical definition of acceptance criteria is, the conditions that a software product must satisfy to be accepted by a user, customer, or in the case of system level functionality, the consuming system.Acceptance Criteria List with developers and testers looking at signs

Put more simply, acceptance criteria is a list of details (also known as requirements) about how a new software feature should work/look. This ensures that:

  • The feature is designed well. Otherwise, an important or helpful aspect might be left out – without anyone noticing until the very end.
  • It works the way it was intended. If the description is vague, developers might have to make assumptions about how each area should work. With acceptance criteria, developers know exactly what design and functionality is expected.
  • QA knows what to expect during testing. Even if a feature doesn’t feel broken, it might not work the way the product managers wanted it to. If there’s no acceptance criteria, testers can’t report these kinds of issues.

Continue reading →

Why Cross Browser Testing is Important

Testing across browsers showing different screen sizes
Why Cross Browser Testing is Important

As an everyday user, when you encounter a bug, you don’t usually stop and think, “Maybe this issue is only happening on Chrome version 89 on Windows 10!” And why should you? Most people expect websites and apps to work properly on their system – especially if they’re not using an esoteric old version of Internet Explorer.Testing across browsers showing different screen sizes

If you work in software development, it’s a good idea to remember that to a user encountering it, that “edge case” bug is everything. But how do you make sure you discover these environment-specific bugs?

And even after finding them, how do you prioritize them? After all, your app or website is never going to look completely perfect for 100% of possible device/browser/screen size combinations. As with most things, finding a balance is key.

Read on to find out more about why cross browser testing is important – and how to do it right. Continue reading →

The Role of QA in Sprint Planning

Three people in a meeting with laptops open
The Role of QA in Sprint Planning

Sprint planning is something that most Agile teams do. But when every team has different needs, there isn’t always a “one size fits all” approach. As a result, it’s not always clear what the role of QA should be. Should QA be an integral part of the Sprint Planning process? Or should testers simply be told to look at the Jira board and follow the deadlines? Read on to find out how the role of QA can – and should – fit into the Sprint Planning process.Three people in a meeting with laptops open

First things first. Does QA even have a role in Sprint Planning? After all, the everyday answer at many companies may be “no.” But to have the best software development and Agile process possible, it should be “yes!”

QA only has a finite amount of testing time per sprint. So it’s a good idea to make sure testers can provide full test coverage for all tickets in the timeline.

Some tickets in the sprint will also require advanced planning from QA. For example, they may need to write test cases, review design files, or ask followup questions. QA will be more prepared if they know which tickets are in a sprint from the beginning – instead of near the end.

Top 5 Reasons to Involve QA in Sprint Planning

Continue reading →

Dec 20

Nonprofits and Causes: Our Donation List for 2020

People dropping coins into a donation jar
Nonprofits and Causes: Our Donation List for 2020

Mindful QA gives 10% of profits to charities, nonprofits, and causes. As we wrap up 2020, we wanted to highlight 25 of our favorites recipients from this year. If you’re looking for a great nonprofit or cause to donate to, we recommend any of the below! You can click the title to learn more and/or make a donation.

  1. Carbon Offsets To Alleviate Poverty (COTAP). The mission of Carbon Offsets To Alleviate Poverty (COTAP) is “to empower individuals and organizations in developed countries to address both climate change and global poverty. COTAP counteracts carbon emissions through certified forestry projects in least-developed regions which create transparent earnings for rural farming communities where income levels are less than $2 per day.” Learn more about their mission here.People dropping coins into a donation jar
  2. VoteRiders. VoteRiders works nationwide to provide voter ID education and assistance to all eligible voters who are in need. Learn more about their mission here.
  3. Service Workers Covid Fund. Their mission is to provide cash assistance to service workers who need assistance to survive during the pandemic. Continue reading →