Tapping into Testing Mobile Applications
Jonathan Kohl, Kohl Concepts, Inc.
Look around you at all those people gazing into smart phones and tablets, tapping away, seemingly oblivious to what’s going on around them. Like it or not, mobile devices and the applications they host are now enmeshed in our everyday lives. And these mobile devices present testers with unique challenges—rapidly changing technologies, multi-platform support, new human factor UI challenges, and how to best employ these devices for testing. Join Jonathan Kohl, who works in the nuts and bolts of mobile testing, to explore testing opportunities in this growing market. Learn about the new landscape of testing in areas of mobility (we need to move around when we test), social interactions (how social media can enhance or distract from our testing), and entertainment (how casual use is affecting commercial software). Finally, and most importantly, discover how testing on mobile devices can be really fun and enjoyable. Yes, testers, you do get to have fun at work!
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Jonathan Kohl
Becoming a Kick-*** Test Manager
Johanna Rothman, Rothman Consulting Group, Inc.
Want to be a great test manager for your team? A leader your company values highly? Too many test managers do what their organization asks—rather than what their organization needs—and hope for good things to happen. Great test managers are leaders who don’t accept the status quo. They continuously seek ways to improve testing processes and practices. Instead of whining about needing more resources, they set priorities and get things done. They know who or what they need, why and when they need it, and persevere to obtain that person, lab, or tool. They say, “No” when that’s the right answer. So, are these people mythical creatures, or do they really exist? They exist, all right! Johanna Rothman shares stories from her test manager past and tales from the great test managers she knows. Join this inspiring session to find new ways to control your workload, understand what your testers are really doing, and grow to become a top leader—no matter your role.
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Johanna Rothman
Lightning Strikes the Keynotes
Lee Copeland, Software Quality Engineering
Throughout the years, Lightning Talks have been a popular part of many STAR conferences. If you’re not familiar with the concept, a Lightning Talk session consists of a series of five-minute talks by different speakers within one presentation period. For the speakers, Lightning Talks are the opportunity to deliver their single biggest bang-for-the-buck idea in a rapid-fire presentation. And now, lightning has struck the STAR keynote presentations. Some of the best-known experts in testing—Michael Bolton, Jon Bach, Bob Galen, Dawn Haynes, Karen N. Johnson, Jonathan Kohl, Martin Pol, Ken Pugh, Randy Rice, and Rob Sabourin—will step up to the podium and give you their best shot of lightning. Get ten keynote presentations for the price of one—and have some fun at the same time.
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Lee Copeland
State-of-the-Art Cloud Testing: Experiences with Bing Search
Ken Johnston, Microsoft
The cloud is penetrating every technology organization and almost every software product or service. The cloud affects everything inside development, bringing profound changes to how engineers build, test, release, and maintain software and systems. Sharing his experiences at Microsoft working on the Bing search engine, Ken Johnston reveals how they devised and implemented a test-oriented architecture (TOA) at every layer within their product solution. He explores what stayed the same and what changed when their test organization moved to state-of-the-art cloud testing. Learn how the cloud is driving broader adoption of agile development and driving organizations toward accelerated release rates. Find out how the Bing team shifted to a “continuous testing in production” model for testing web services and eliminated the surprises that came from the old approach of big-at-the-end testing. Because the cloud is a platform for both building systems and for execution, you need to develop and implement your own TOA to fully leverage the power of the cloud.
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Ken Johnston
Leverage Your Test Automation ROI with Creative Solutions
Doug Hoffman, Software Quality Methods, LLC
Typical automated tests perform repetitive tasks quickly and accurately to lighten the burden of manual testing. These tests mimic typical interactions with the system, checking for pre-determined outcomes. However, with some creativity and a sound strategy, you can leverage automation to dramatically increase its return on investment and long-term value. Doug Hoffman demonstrates how you can employ test automation for many more interesting testing activities—ones that are impossible with manual testing. Doug shares examples of automated tests that he has used to magnify the power of exploratory test techniques. These exploratory tests discover new defects—ones that most test designers would never have considered. Doug describes the kind of automated tests that can expose unexpected defects—such as memory leaks—that traditional automated tests ignore. Instead of focusing your automation efforts solely on repetitive, regression tests that expose the majority of software defects when the tests are initially created, find out how you can invest in automation that pays off big time day in and day out.
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Doug Hoffman
