DevOps East 2017 - Systems Analyst
Monday, November 6
Git and GitHub for Developers and Testers
Skill with Git and GitHub is now a common requirement for jobs because Git is entrenched in the majority of development and operations organizations. Git gives testers unprecedented visibility into the inner workings of software and configuration code. But Git's intricate commands can be confusing. GitHub collaboration and code review capabilities are revolutionary. New rules are needed to avoid frustration. In this hands-on tutorial, Wilson Mar presents material available nowhere else to clarify the structure of tools, repositories, and GUI programs used by the pros. The culmination of...
Requirements Engineering for Developers and Testers—and Everyone
Developers, testers, and other stakeholders often participate in requirement reviews, scanning documents for ambiguity and testability, and then using these requirements as the basis of their activities. In an agile environment, many contribute to the development of user stories and acceptance criteria. Erik van Veenendaal believes that unfortunately many of these participants have little knowledge or skill in real requirements engineering. What level of quality and detail is realistic to expect for requirements and user stories? What does testability really mean? How can developers and...
Tuesday, November 7
Thinking Inside the Box: Root Cause Analysis with the Six Boxes
Improving business and user value delivery, quality, efficiency, and productivity of your software engineering team is a noble undertaking. However, poor productivity, quality issues, failing to meet commitments, and general team inefficiencies are still commonplace. And at the root of most of these problems? James Waletzky says it is those highly imperfect creatures—humans. To go about fixing the problems, we must discover the root causes, not just the symptoms, and those are not always obvious. In this hands-on tutorial, James focuses on the methodology of Human Performance Improvement (...
Wednesday, November 8
Lightning Strikes the Keynotes
Throughout the years, Lightning Talks have been a popular part of the STAR testing conferences. Now, they’ve come to the combined Agile Dev, Better Software, and DevOps conferences too. If you’re not familiar with the concept, Lightning Talks consist 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. Some of the best-known experts will step up to the podium and give you their best shot of lightning. Get multiple keynote...
Thursday, November 9
Change Your Focus: From Speed and Efficiency to High Customer Value
For decades, product development has been focused largely on the speed and efficiency of delivery. So now we are stuck in the quagmire of talking about the methods and activities of delivery rather than focusing on the true goal—delivering high value to the customer. Ray Arell shares an evolutionary process to refocus both traditional and agile lifecycles. He describes a more dynamic way of defining value and addressing the needs of the customer, the business, and the developers. Ray provides practical examples of how to identify opportunities, expand concepts, and deliver high-value...
Discover Your Team’s Values with LEGO® Serious Play®
Creating a cohesive team doesn’t require knowledge of dark arts or forbidden rituals. In fact, under the right circumstances, it can even be fun! Using exercises built around the LEGO® Serious Play® (LSP) methodologies, Paul Wynia explores techniques that ensure full team engagement and collaboration resulting in more meaningful discussions. Working as teams, discover Team Values using a series of individual and collaborative LSP builds. Once the Team Values are defined, use them to guide your team’s behaviors. These are finally turned into the Team Working Agreement, a powerful tool for...
Use Mind Maps to Increase Team Velocity and Communication
Ever sit in a strategy review session and get little or no participation from others? Or feel like you left a planning session with a different understanding of what was agreed to? If you feel there must be a more effective way to communicate important information around your strategy and plans and you want a better way to document it so your stakeholders will both understand and engage in providing useful feedback, Jennifer Bonine has a solution for you. Join Jennifer as she describes mind mapping tools and techniques and explore how mind maps can help increase team velocity and...
Putting the “Story” Back into the User Story
If you're using user stories for your agile requirements, you're not alone. They seem to have become the ubiquitous vehicle for communicating customer requirements to agile teams. And they work incredibly well in this regard. However, many teams are experiencing problems with them. Bob Galen does not believe it’s the story’s fault. Bob says we often forget the “conversation” part of the story—and more importantly, the storytelling part. When Kent Beck first described the idea of the user story, his original intent was to initiate or inspire a story-level conversation between a stakeholder...
Individuals, Interactions, and Improvisation
As agile practitioners, we constantly strive to better ourselves, our team, and our delivery. A great way to achieve this is simply being open to learning new ideas from other disciplines—including improvisation. Jessie Shternshus shares her story of realizing the uncanny similarities between agile team principles and the pillars of improvisation. Effective improvisers give their teammates unconditional support, practice active listening and accept (and build on) each other’s ideas, see and use mistakes as opportunities, learn to embrace the unknown, and always consider who their audience...