|
|
You're the New Test Manager - Now What? You've wanted this promotion to QA/Test manager for so long and now, finally, it's yours. But, you have a terrible sinking feeling ... "What have I gotten myself into?" "How will I do this?" You have read about Six Sigma and developer to tester ratio-but what does this mean to you? Should you use black-box or white-box testing? Is there a gray box testing? Your manager is mumbling about offshore outsourcing. Join Brett Masek as he explains what you need to know to become the best possible test manager. Brett discusses the seven key areas-test process definition, test planning, defect management, choosing test case approaches, detailed test case design, efficient test automation, and effective reporting-you need to understand to lead your test team. Learn the basics for creating a test department and how to achieve continuous improvement.
|
Brett Masek, American HealthTech
|
|
|
Keeping it Between the Ditches: A Dashboard to Guide Your Testing As a test manager, you need to know how testing is proceeding at any point during the test. You are concerned with important factors such as test time remaining, resources expended, product quality, and test quality. When
unexpected things happen, you may need additional information. Like the dashboard in your car, a test manager's dashboard is a collection of metrics that
can help keep your testing effort on track (and out of the ditch). In this session, Randall Rice will explore what should be on your dashboard, how to obtain the data, how to track the results and use them to make informed decisions, and how to convey the results to management. Randall will present examples of various dashboard styles.
- Build your own test management dashboard
- Select useful metrics for your dashboard
- Use the dashboard to successfully control the test
|
Randy Rice, Rice Consulting Services Inc
|
|
|
Building a Testing Factory At Royal Bank Financial Group we are building a testing factory. Our vision is that code enters as raw material and exits as our finished product--thoroughly tested. As a roadmap for our work, we have used the IT Information Library (ITIL) standard. ITIL is well known throughout Europe and Canada but has yet to make inroads in the United States. It defines four disciplines: service support,
service delivery, the business perspective, and application management. These
disciplines define processes such as incident management, problem management, availability management, change management, and many others. Join Patricia Medhurst as she discusses their success and their next steps in completing their testing factory.
- Learn how Royal Bank built their test factory
- Understand how to integrate individual process into a cohesive whole
- Determine if ITIL would be useful for your test organization
|
Patricia Medhurst, RBC Financial Group
|
|
|
Skill Diversity: The Key to Building the Ideal Test Team The dictionary defines "diversity" as "variety"-and that's just what an effective test team needs. It's much easier to hire people just like you-after all, they are easy to understand and manage. But Barry Power has found that teams
consisting of all thinkers, all planners, all doers, all coordinators, or all finishers are not as effective as teams with a diverse composition. Barry has built powerful
teams when combining leading-edge thinkers with nose-to-the-grindstone doers, the steadiness of experience with the enthusiasm of rookies, and the benefits of knowledge with the vision that only new eyes possess. Join Barry as he describes successful teams in fields as diverse as aerospace rockets and medical devices. Learn how you can create more effective teams through diversity.
- Discover the powerful meaning of diversity
- Learn what characteristics to value in teams
|
Barry Power, Bayer Corporation
|
|
|
Management Networking Sometimes, it feels as if you're the only test/development/projectmanager/director/VP you know with your particular problems. But I can guarantee you this-you're not alone. If you have problems you'd like to
discuss and start to solve, this session is for you. Each participant will have a chance to both air their concerns and help others. You'll have a chance to meet other managers across industries and countries; hear how your peers have solved problems; listen to the current issues your peers are addressing; solve some problems; hear from experts; and build your personal contact network. Bring your notebook, a pen, and plenty of business cards.
- Learn multiple problem-solving techniques
- Practice some peer coaching
- Ask for and receive expert advice
|
Johanna Rothman, Rothman Consulting Group, Inc.
|
|
|
Step Away from the Tests: Take a Quality Break Designing, implementing, and executing tests is critically important, but testers sometimes need to take a break. John Lambert describes four un-testing techniques that can quickly improve quality: watching bugs, helping
developers, talking to other testers, and increasing positive interactions. Watching bugs enables us to see defect patterns that might otherwise go unnoticed. Helping developers allows you to understand their process and help
them understand yours. Talking to other testers helps you learn new techniques and share your experience. Increasing positive interactions builds a cohesive team that works together to solve problems. Join John as he presents ways to easily incorporate these un-testing activities into your schedule to help improve the quality of your products.
- Learn why testers need to step away from their daily testing activities
- Make a positive impact on your systems' quality
|
John Lambert, Microsoft Corporation
|
|
|
Quantifying the Value of Your Testing to Management Congratulations, you're a true testing expert. You know all there is to know about test planning, design, execution and reporting, performance tests, usability tests, regression tests, agile, SCRUM, and all the rest. But it’s still
possible that your IT executives and business stakeholders do not fully understand the value of your work. It's time to communicate with them in a language they understand: Return on Investment (ROI). Arya Barirani will show you how to calculate the ROI of common test activities including test
automation, defect reduction, and downtime prevention; how to create reports for maximum effect; and how to evangelize the value of your testing efforts. You will learn how to make better decisions about investments like strategic
sourcing, lab infrastructure, and staffing through better quantification of their business value.
- Learn how to use ROI as a metric to demonstrate the value of testing
|
Arya Barirani, Mercury
|
|
|
The Nine "Forgettings" People forget things. Simple things like keys, passwords, and the names of friends long ago. People forget more important things like passports, anniversaries, and backing up data. But Lee Copeland is concerned with things
that the testing community is forgetting--forgetting our beginnings. We forget the grandfathers of formal testing and the contributions they made. We forget organizational context, the reason we exist and where we fit in our company. We forget to grow, to learn, and to practice the latest testing techniques. And we forget process context, the reason that a process was first created but which
may no longer exist. Join Lee for an explanation of these nine "forgettings", the negative effects of each, and how we can use them to improve our testing, our organization, and ourselves.
- Learn how we must constantly rediscover
|
Lee Copeland, Software Quality Engineering
|
|
|
The Last Presentation on Test Estimation You Will Ever Need to Attend Estimating the test effort for a project has always been a thorn in the test manager's side. How do you get close to something reasonable when there are so many variables to consider? Sometimes, estimating test effort seems to be no more accurate than a finger in the wind. As Geoff Horne likes to call it, the "testimation" process can work for you if you do it right. Learn where to start, the steps involved, how to refine estimates, ways to sell the process and the result to management, and how to use the process to develop a test plan that resembles reality. Geoff demonstrates a spreadsheet-based tool that he uses to formulate his "testimations" and shows you how to use it at each step of the process.
- The different variables that need to be considered
- How to convert the "testimation" into a workable test schedule
- A spreadsheet template to help you estimate test effort
|
Geoff Horne, Geoff Horne Testing
|
|
|
Acceptance Testing: What It is and How To Do It Better - in Context When test engineers use the term "acceptance testing," they might be saying and thinking profoundly different things. Acceptance testing can mean one of at least a dozen approaches to the testing of a product and serve one or more of at least thirty different customer roles in a project. Tests and testing approaches that are appropriate in one context can be unacceptable-even disastrous-in another. When someone asks you to do user acceptance testing, what should you do? When should you do it? How do you determine success? Michael Bolton outlines the ways in which testers and test managers use context-driven thinking to better serve the mission of acceptance testing and develop skills to handle dramatically different testing situations. Apply your context in this interactive session to discover ways to improve your acceptance testing, and learn to use context-driven thinking in other areas, too.
|
Michael Bolton, DevelopSense
|
