Conference Presentations

The Secrets of Faking a Test Project

It's never been easier to fool your manager into thinking that you're doing a great job testing! In his presentation, Jonathan Kohl covers today's most respected test fakery. These techniques include misleading test case metrics, vapid but impressive looking test documentation, repeatedly running old tests "just in case they find something", carefully maintaining obsolete tests, methodology doublespeak, endless tinkering with expensive test automation tools, and taking credit for a great product that would have been great even if no one had tested it. Jonathan also covers best practices for blame deflection. By the time you're through, your executive management won't know whether to fire the programmers or the customers. But, it won't be you. (Disclaimer: It could be you if an offshore company fakes it more cheaply than you do.)

  • Cautionary true stories of test fakery, both purposeful and accidental
Jonathan Kohl, Kohl Concepts Inc.
Result Driven Testing: Adding Value to Your Organization

Software testers often have great difficulty in quantifying and explaining the value of their work. One consequence is that many testing projects receive insufficient resources and, therefore, are unable to deliver the best value. Derk-Jan de Grood believes we can improve this situation although it requires changing our mindset to "result-driven testing." Result driven testing is based on specific principles: (1) understand, focus on, and support the goals of the organization; (2) do only those things that contribute to business goals; and (3) measure and report on testing's contribution to the organization. Keeping these principles at the forefront binds and guides the team. Join this session to find out how the test team at Collis has adopted these principles. They have developed a testing organization that generates trust and provides valuable insight into the quality of their organization's products.

Derk-Jan Grood, Collis
Bringing Shrek to Life: Software Testing at DreamWorks

Want to take a behind the scenes look at DreamWorks Animation testing? Learn what happens when you have a tiny QA team, release deadlines that cannot slip even a day, and a crew of crazy animators using software in ways most developers never imagined. You just make it work! Anna Newman discusses how to leverage your development team to create and even execute tests on your behalf and ways to best prioritize testing areas. Find out how a small team operates successfully when a software release cycle is only few weeks long, rather than months as in many other industries. Anna explains her communications strategies for better partnerships with customers, developers, and senior management in the absence of formal development specs and test plans. Break out of your testing box and get that "happily ever after" (or is it "happily ogre after?") feeling in your test group.

  • Small team testing issues and solutions
Anna Newman, DreamWorks Animation
The Tester's Critical C's: Criticism, Communication, Confidence

Testers are professional critics. Our job is to evaluate and criticize other people's work. Although criticism can have a positive meaning, it is more often taken as negative. When we communicate our criticism to other people, we are sometimes misunderstood, and this can lead to serious problems, including losing confidence in ourselves. Dorothy Graham examines how our delivery of criticism and the ways we communicate can make us more effective-and not damage our interpersonal relationships. Dorothy presents a communications model that helps explain how and why personal interactions can go wrong. Both the "push" and "pull" styles of influencing can help us communicate better with our managers. Dorothy explains how your confidence level affects your ability to constructively criticize others' work and communicate test results. She concludes with valuable tips for increasing your confidence.

Dorothy Graham, Grove Consultants
Building the Test Management Office

It's the life challenge of a test manager-leading testing while keeping the work under control. If it's not poor code, it's configuration glitches. If it's not

Geoff Horne, iSQA
The Case of a Failed Project: A Mystery Solved

John Scarborough recounts the aftermath of a test project failure that stunned engineers and managers alike. The project was highly strategic yet very challenging. Team members were proud to be assigned to it. Early warning signs did not go unheeded. However, after the customer rejected a release of code, confidence plummeted, and the controls that the team had put in place were no longer sufficient to keep deliveries on track. The harder they worked, the more their deficiencies became apparent. Fortunately, all was not lost. Through a defined retrospective process with open and sometimes painful self-assessment, the team was able to deliver a positive study that led to overhauling and improving the company's processes for quality management. Take back an approach that can lead you from failure and disappointment to progress and success.

  • How to establish an atmosphere of openness and candor
John Scarborough, AZTECSOFT - itest
Recruiting, Hiring, and Retaining Great Testers

Hiring great testers is the single biggest challenge that test managers face. Unfortunately the number of experienced testers is dwindling while the number of testers with weak skill sets is proliferating. Drawing on his experience of building an independent testing company, Krishna Iyer shares unconventional-yet quite effective-methods to find, hire, and retain great testers. He looks for testers outside the software world and has had success, for example, with auditors-they have the same inquisitiveness that makes testers great. Krishna describes good interviewing techniques such as "vague questioning" that probe the candidates' thinking skills rather than their ability to recall facts. Krishna concludes with suggestions on how to retain great testers, including supporting social responsibility projects and balancing testers' personal needs with the demands of work.

  • New pools of talent for recruiting testers
Krishna Iyer, ZenTEST Labs
From Start Up to World Class Testing

So you have been asked to start or improve a testing group within your organization. Where do you start? What services should you provide? Who are the right people for the job? Iris Trout presents a framework of best practices needed to implement or rapidly improve your testing organization. Hear how Bloomberg LP, a large financial reporting institution, tackled the issue of implementing a new testing organization. Iris describes how she built a strong testing process in minimal time and achieved exceptional results. She shares her interviewing techniques, automation how to's, and many other ways to implement quick successes. Learn to create Service Level Agreements. Discuss the value of peer reviews and how to evaluate their results. Iris shares handouts full of user-friendly ideas to help you get started.

  • The essential components of a strong testing organization
Iris Trout, Bloomberg, lp
Crucial Test Conversations

Many test managers feel that Development or Management or The Business does not understand or support the contributions of their test teams. You know what? They're probably right! However, once we accept that fact, we should ask: Why? Bob Galen believes that it is our inability and ineffectiveness at 360º communications, in other words, "selling" ourselves, our abilities and our contribution. We believe that our work should speak for itself or that everyone should inherently understand our worth. Wrong! We need to work hard to create crucial conversations in which we communicate our impact on the product and the organization. Bob shares with you specific techniques for improving the communication skills of test managers and testers so that others in your organization will better understand your role and contributions.

Robert Galen, RGCG, LLC
Employ Tomorrow's Customers to Staff Your Testing Team Today

Regression testing of the Vital Images' medical imaging software was a continual challenge. Poor product testability, challenging automation implementation, tester shortages, and low process discipline contributed to an environment in which regression testing was often

Alex Dietz, Vital Images Inc

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