Managers play a critical role in the success or failure of test automation. Although most testers and some test managers have a realistic view of what automation can and cannot do, many senior managers have firm ideas about automation that are misguided—or downright wrong.

Payson Hall looks closely at the unique idea of not just providing better service to clients, but changing the client's perception of what defines good or bad service. We've gotten so used to "normal" that we've lost the ability to appreciate it. But this can be changed.

Most of us grew up wanting to be firemen or astronauts or teachers-not testers. Eric Jacobson, an average guy and not incredibly technical, loves software testing and his career in testing as much as his dog loves him. Using videos and candid photos of his test team at work, Eric shares the top ten skills and practices he’s developed and honed over the years to make himself a test leader. He explains how he helps his team establish reasonable goals and then meet them. Find out why testing broadly first and deeper later keeps the programmer busy and takes some of the guesswork out of test estimation. Watch Eric as he shows you how to use white boarding to explore technical systems and help programmers find their own mistakes. Take back to work ten ideas you can employ immediately to help you be the tester your dog thinks you are.

Today, many organizations are using crowdsourcing to develop and test their products. Anu Kak presents an overview of how eBay has applied this concept both internally and externally to improve their development and testing. Anu shares PayPal’s implementation of the crowdsourcing approach that helps employees gain insights into applications problems and solutions. With this knowledge in hand, they can quickly improve product quality and customer satisfaction. Anu and his colleague Venkatesh share examples of how eBay utilized their customers for crowdsourcing to improve overall buyer and seller experience. Learn how the crowdsourcing process played a big role in the pilot phase for the Shopping Cart product and how customer feedback, smart troubleshooting tactics, and proactive repair of defects helped tremendously as the pilot ran throughout the US and UK.