STARCANADA 2016 - Quality Assurance
Tuesday, October 25
Critical Thinking for Software Testers
Critical thinking is the kind of thinking that specifically looks for problems and mistakes. Regular people don't do a lot of it. However, if you want to be a great tester, you need to be a great critical thinker. Critically thinking testers save projects from dangerous assumptions and ultimately from disasters. The good news is that critical thinking is not just innate intelligence or a talent—it's a learnable and improvable skill you can master. Michael Bolton shares the specific techniques and heuristics of critical thinking and presents realistic testing...
Just in Time Testing
Turbulent development projects experience almost daily requirements changes, user interface modifications, and the continual integration of new functions, features, and technologies. Keeping your testing efforts on track is a challenge while reacting to changing priorities, technologies, and user needs. In this interactive workshop Rob Sabourin offers a unique set of tools such as dynamic test planning, test idea development, and test triage to help you cope with—and perhaps even flourish in—what may seem to be a totally chaotic environment. Be ready for just...
Measurement and Metrics for Managers
To be most effective, test managers must develop and use metrics to help direct the testing effort and make informed recommendations about the software’s release readiness and associated risks. Because one important testing activity is to “measure” the quality of the software, test managers must measure the results of both the development and testing processes. Collecting, analyzing, and using metrics are complicated because many developers and testers are concerned that the metrics will be used against them. Join Mike Sowers as he addresses common metrics—...
Getting Your Message Across: Communication Skills for Testers
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...
Wednesday, October 26
Testing Leaders in the Digital Age: Are You Adapting?
We are working in a world where we are asked to be agile and flexible on a daily basis, but are you struggling to see the benefits of being agile with all the changes you are being asked to make? Jennifer Bonine recognizes that the role of the testing leader has changed significantly and the requirements for success are dramatically different. Are you stuck in old patterns? Are you not seeing results although other teams or leaders are? Join Jennifer to learn what things have changed in the way we think about teams, the new dynamic of teams, why people leave...
Become an Influential Tester: Learn How to Be Heard
As a tester, are you frustrated that no one listens to you? Are you finding bugs and having them ignored? Are you worried that the development process and product quality aren’t as good as they should be? Jane Fraser shares ways to help you be heard―ways to position yourself as a leader within your organization, ways to increase your influence, and ways to report bugs to get them fixed. In this interactive session, Jane leads you to a better understanding of how to be heard in your organization. Learn how to tailor your defect reports depending on who makes the...
Dell’s Journey to Achieve TMMi Level 3 Certification
The Testing Maturity Model Integration (TMMi) is a model of testing best practices that can help organizations determine whether their testing processes are complete and effective. As a complementary model to the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI), TMMi addresses those issues important to test managers, test engineers, and software quality professionals. Dell’s commercial sales and enterprise solutions (CSES) organization employs both waterfall and agile in the testing of its server, solutions, embedded, and systems management products. Join Mark Keating...
Test Metrics in Agile: A Powerful Tool to Demonstrate Value
Most understand that an agile development and testing approach improves quality and reduces risks in our projects. In some companies and culture however, there are skeptics. Is the move to agile—and therefore agile testing—really beneficial? Join Iuliia Zavertailo for a closer look at a Scandinavian insurance company that started with one manual tester and within three years moved toward opening a large test center in the Baltic. Behind this story were many small steps of demonstrating testing's value to the client through a well-defined set of agile metrics which...
Testers in Agile Teams—Isolation or Collaboration?
What exactly are testers doing as organizations evolve from waterfall lifecycles to iterative, incremental agile approaches? Agile transitions, rather than fostering collaboration, often lead to isolation, role confusion, and fear. Many testers are left out in the cold. Agile testers face existential challenges: Is it enough that programmers test their own code? Must testers become programming experts? Do we still need business analysts or subject matter experts? Test evangelist Rob Sabourin explores an exciting vision for testers and demonstrates how they can...
Thursday, October 27
Evolution—Not Revolution: Transforming Your Testing
“The only constant on any project is change” is a phrase used in the early 1990s. Yet even now, the prospect of change is rarely welcomed—either personally or professionally. How is it that we still believe that these changes apply to others but not to us? An MIT-published article describes how they are trying to prevent software bugs by leveraging the new trends of DevOps and IoT to radically change how we do testing. Julie Gardiner says that now is the time to re-evaluate and transform how we do testing to deliver more value to organizations—from a people,...
The Future of Applications and Application Testing
“Software is eating the world,” and as a result, companies are building novel applications to support their business and products. This is the main drive behind the microservices trend where a product's architecture is comprised of many independent applications, both new and legacy. Testing and deploying any microservices architecture require high levels of coordination between components. A significant part of this approach is keeping interfaces compatible with other parts of the infrastructure, which means that collaboration and automation are critical. Dwayne...