Jess Ingrassellino, EdD, is the Director of Quality Assurance for Salesforce’s Non-Profit and Education Clouds

What do learning theories have to do with developing software for the best non-profit and educational CRM management tools in the world? Absolutely everything. Or at least, that’s what I’ve learned since becoming a software tester.

I started my career as a music teacher, working in underserved school districts. My doctoral studies focused on how teachers made meaningful assessments of children’s learning. Becoming a software tester felt natural because I spent years observing, experimenting, learning, and engaging with people in the classroom. …

There is no feeling on Earth like playing with an orchestra and being in the middle of a chord in your favorite pieces of music. The emotional experience of being surrounded by brass, percussion, woodwinds, and other stringed instruments is overwhelming, because you are sitting right there in the middle of every sound, every chord change.

So many aspects of my time as an orchestral musician were discussed with reference to the sound we created — “quieter there!” — “more staccato there” — “the whole bow here, fortissimo!” …

Here we are, just a few days from the end of 2016, and I am tweeting like a madwoman to make sure that everyone knows about the January 3, 2017 CFP deadline for the PyCon Education Summit. This year, I am pleased to be chairing the summit, after serving for several years as co-chair. Chalmer Lowe, the previous chair, is co-chairing this year, as is Meenal Pant, a python educator and speaker at the summit for the past two years. It is a pleasure to work with them to put together the summit.

Anybody who knows me knows that the…

We all have a backstory. Every one of us. My story shapes me, my decisions, my life.

Other peoples’ stories fascinate me. Hearing about the experiences of someone who is different from me helps me empathize with them as they experience pain, celebrate with them as they experience joy. Experience is a powerful teacher, and one can only experience a fraction of what it means to “be” human. Stories connect us to one another, inform us, make slightly more real the experiences of others. …

It’s been a long time since I have failed in a way that I consider epic. The kind of failure where I feel anxious, where I feel like ducking out of the world for a little while and hiding in my corner, waiting until it all clears. Despite failure, the world marches on: some people are angry with me, but most are worried about their own lives and don’t attend to my failures (I like those people). …