** Support Planet B612 on Patreon: https://patreon.com/juliesworld** In this episode, I speak with Arch DevOps CTO, Michael Fritzius. We talk about software testing automation, the purpose of documentation, why tech companies use DevOps, and we also talk about the quirky work environments we’ve worked in in the tech industry! (0:00:45) Who is Fritz? Arch DevOps  (0:01:30) Starting the business - The entrepreneurial path (0:03:10) Software Quality Assurance  (0:04:10) Why automate? (0:06:20) Is automation replacing the creative component of testing? Are companies missing the point? (0:08:10) The dark art of testing (0:08:50) A good tester is a communicative tester (0:09:35) QA Advocacy - Does it reach the right people? And how can you make it? (0:11:07) Going over their heads - Building rapport to stop the fear  (0:12:15) What should never be automated? Making the right decisions (0:13:30) 100% coverage - The warm fuzzy problem (0:15:40) Exploratory testing (0:18:04) The "I told you so" moment - How to manage it positively (0:19:45) The different flavours of fear - We are not the enemy (0:22:00) Playful environments - Building rapport through casual competence and comradery (0:25:00) Tech culture (0:26:00) Silicon Valley - perks, games and nerf guns (0:28:25) The weirdness of building rapport in tech (0:29:20) The different subcultures in tech  (0:32:30) Tech creatives  (0:33:30) Are the developers trying to take over? (0:34:50) DevOps - The mindset and the challenges  (0:38:25) Evaluations - Dev vs QA  (0:39:05) Developers- Where the bugs come from  (0:40:00) Logging bugs - Details, details, details (0:41:30) Documentation - Do they see the value? (0:43:30) The two roles of documentation - The where and the who (0:45:35) Cutting down on time with documentation (0:46:30) US vs Canada - The differences in technology and culture (0:47:30) "At least in Texas they stab you in the front" The three tech cultures (0:49:00) Working in a non-tech focused city - Finding the tech in non-tech  (0:50:48) The Canadian tech culture (0:51:10) Action driven culture - moving too quick (0:52:25) Directness, dreaming and finding the balance (0:53:50) Isn't tech just tech? (0:54:15) Automation - The fear of a new Depression (0:55:40) Changes - How we all move forward during automation Visit Arch DevOps: https://archdevops.com/ Follow Fritz on Twitter: https://twitter.com/archdevops Visit Planet B612 on the web: http://planetb612.fm/ Follow Planet B612 on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PlanetB612fm