Personal Improvement

Tutorials

MJ Applying Emotional Intelligence to Testing

Julie Gardiner, Hitachi Consulting

Mon, 05/04/2015 - 8:30am

As test managers and test professionals we can have an enormous emotional impact on others. We're constantly dealing with fragile egos, highly charged situations, and pressured people playing a high-stakes game under conditions of massive uncertainty. We're often the bearers of bad news and are sometimes perceived as critics, activating people's primal fear of being judged. Emotional intelligence (EI), the concept popularized by Harvard psychologist and science writer Daniel Goleman, has much to offer test managers and testers.

Jennifer Bonine, tap|QA, Inc.

Mon, 05/04/2015 - 1:00pm

Innovation is a word frequently tossed around in organizations today. The standard clichés are do more with less and be creative. Companies want to be innovative but often struggle with how to define, implement, prioritize, and track their innovation efforts. Using the Innovation to Types model, Jennifer Bonine will help you transform your thinking regarding innovation and understand if your team and company goals match their innovation efforts. Learn how to classify your activities as “core” (to the business) or "context" (essential, but non-revenue generating).

Julie Gardiner, Hitachi Consulting

Tue, 05/05/2015 - 8:30am

Communication is at the heart of our profession. No matter how advanced our testing capabilities are, if we can’t convey our concerns in ways that connect with key members of the project team, our contribution is likely to be ignored. Because we act solely in an advisory capacity, rather than being in command, our power to exert influence is almost entirely based on our communication skills. With people suffering information overload and deluged with emails, it is more important than ever that we craft succinct and effective messages, using a range of communication modalities.

Concurrent Sessions

W1 When Testers Feel Left Out in the Cold

Hans Buwalda, LogiGear

Wed, 05/06/2015 - 11:30am

When you're responsible for testing, it's almost a given that you will find yourself in a situation in which you feel alone and out in the cold. Management’s commitment for testing might be lacking, your colleagues in the project might be ignoring you, your team members might lack motivation, or the automated testing you had planned is more complicated and difficult than you anticipated. You feel you can't test enough, and you will be blamed for post-release quality problems.

W5 Unleashing the Creative Mind of the Test Engineer

Audrey Marak, AmerisourceBergen Corporation

Wed, 05/06/2015 - 11:30am

Do we each have a natural capacity for creativity? Can creativity be learned or enhanced? How do we ignite inventiveness? To be competitive in today’s world, it’s important to creatively respond to unanticipated challenges, make new connections, and adapt and continually improve. The good news is that our brains are built for creative problem solving, and it’s easy to discover and enhance our natural inventiveness.

Keynotes

K3 Lightning Strikes the Keynotes

Lee Copeland, Software Quality Engineering

Wed, 05/06/2015 - 4:15pm

Throughout the years, Lightning Talks have been a popular part of the STAR conferences. If you’re not familiar with the concept, Lightning Talks consists of a series of five-minute talks by different speakers within one presentation period. Lightning Talks are the opportunity for speakers to deliver their single biggest bang-for-the-buck idea in a rapid-fire presentation. And now, lightning has struck the STAR keynotes. Some of the best-known experts in testing will step up to the podium and give you their best shot of lightning.