How To Win An Industry Award

I recently had the opportunity to be a judge for the European Software Testing Awards.

I know what you’re thinking. It’s probably the same as Mahatma Gandhi: “Imperfect men have no right to judge other imperfect men”, and you’d be right (I’m also sure he meant “people”). But in this instance, I reckon we can make some allowances…

After all, being a judge does imply some degree of judginess by necessity. Not super-judgy mind you, the role didn’t require one of those fancy curly wigs that “real” judges stereotypically wear, although I do have one in the kids’ fancy dress box ready for emergencies should that (quite unlikely) situation arise.

Putting Gandhi’s wisdom to one side and ignoring my wig stash for the moment, I happily agreed to the assignment and prepared myself mentally for the task ahead…Judgey McJudgeface (my assumed persona) was ready for action!

The awards are now in their 9th year and are an independent affair, recognizing the accomplishments of the software testing community. They’re open to businesses, teams and individuals from across Europe and culminates with a lavish awards ceremony in London where the finalists find out who has won each of the 14 categories. The categories cover a diverse range including teams, projects and innovation. Each judge is assigned a category and criteria to whittle down to the finalists and then all judges score the finalists to determine the winners.

When the time came to judge my category, my first surprise was the number of submissions and the length of many of them. I was determined to make sure I scored fairly and consistently across the board using the provided criteria. My Sunday evening Netflix slot went out the window whilst I sat in a darkened office with a spreadsheet, a notepad and a stack of entries at the ready. A hot cup of tea and an optimistic cat were my only companions…

The entries covered a diverse range of modern approaches, technologies and thinking, which were both interesting and insightful. The most important aspect of course, was the idea itself : “What is the award winning thing that’s been done”. But, if you’ve done something worthy, there’s a few extra tips that may nudge your entry from good to great and in a close race, it could make all the difference.