Some people insist that machines will replace humans in many different ways; others disagree, but without explaining why. You could say a smartphone app replaces an admin assistant by managing your schedule. However, to make the app work, you must modify your usual behavior by providing input in a formal, explicit way, and then interpreting and correcting its output to make up for the app's inflexibility. But storing, transforming, and displaying data are only part of the picture. Truly managing your schedule means making decisions about values, politics, and social concerns, and that requires tacit knowledge internal to you and not easily transmitted to machines. Michael Bolton describes how great testing depends not only on requirements but also on people's ideas, experience, and social interplay. Machines may accelerate or extend some human actions, but machines do not have access to people's tacit knowledge. And without that, important things get lost. Michael describes the implications for testing—and for the products that drive us crazy.
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Below find information on the featured keynotes at STARCANADA 2014.
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—Lee Copeland, Jeff Payne, Dorothy Graham, Bob Galen, Scott Barber, Hans Buwalda, Doc List, and Greg Pope—will step up to the podium and give you their best shot of lightning. Get eight keynote presentations for the price of one—and have some fun at the same time.
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It’s one week after your product’s launch, and everyone is happy. After all, for the first time in years, your product development exceeded expectations. Coding was completed on time with very few defects. Suddenly, the report of a major usability and security flaw destroys the euphoria and sends everything into chaos. Unfortunately, this is not uncommon in our industry. So, how can we mitigate such things from happening? As he shares stories about the complex domain of product delivery, Ray Arell introduces a framework with associated emergent practices that enable you to better guide your product to success. He presents an overview of the Cynefin model, a description of complicated and complex systems, and discusses how to use it to establish an effective testing strategy. Ray describes how to identify key patterns of product usage to establish a robust defect-prevention system that reduces product development costs. Lastly, Ray describes how to interview customers to identify key quality expectations, ensuring that your testing focuses on producing the highest value for your customers.
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