STARCANADA 2017 - Managing Risk
Psst! Before You Go, Don't Forget:
Join the Mailing List
Special Offers and Updates Straight to Your Inbox
Sunday, October 15
Software Tester Certification—Foundation Level (3-Day)
Tuesday, October 17
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 puzzles that help you practice...
Test Estimation in the Face of Uncertainty
NewAnyone who has ever attempted to estimate software testing effort realizes just how difficult the task can be. The number of factors that can affect the estimate is virtually unlimited. Rob Sabourin says that the keys to good estimates are understanding the primary variables, comparing them to known standards, and normalizing the estimates based on the differences. This is easy to say but difficult to accomplish because estimates are frequently required even when we know very little about the project—and what we do know is constantly changing. Throw in a healthy dose of politics, add a bit...
System-Level Test Automation: Ensuring a Good Start
NewMany organizations invest a lot of effort in test automation at the system level but then have serious problems later on. As a manager, how can you ensure that your new automation efforts will get off to a good start? What can you do to ensure that your automation work provides continuing value? Dot Graham describes the most important management issues you must address for test automation success, particularly when you are new to automation. Dot helps you understand and choose the best approaches for your organization—no matter which automation tools you use. Focusing on system level...
Measurement and Metrics for Test 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—measures of product quality,...
Innovation: Evolving and Expanding Your Creative Capabilities
Innovation is a word frequently tossed around in organizations today. The standard cliché is “Do more with less.” People and teams want to be innovative but often struggle with how to define, prioritize, implement, and track their innovation efforts. Jennifer Bonine shares the Innovation Types model to give you new tools to evolve and expand your innovation capabilities. Find out if your innovation ideas and efforts match your team and company goals. Learn how to classify your innovation and improvement efforts as core (to the business) or context (essential but non-revenue generating)....
Security Testing for Test Professionals
NewToday’s software applications are often security critical, making security testing essential in a software quality program. Unfortunately, most testers have not been taught how to effectively test the security of the software applications they validate. Join Jeffery Payne as he shares what you need to know to integrate effective security testing into your everyday software testing activities. Learn how software vulnerabilities are introduced into code and exploited by hackers. Discover how to define and validate security requirements. Explore effective test techniques for assuring that...
Wednesday, October 18
Blunders in Test Automation
In chess, the word blunder means a very bad move by someone who should know better. Even though functional test automation has been around for a long time, people still make some very bad moves and serious blunders. The most common misconception in automation is thinking that manual testing is the same as automated testing. And this misguided thinking accounts for most of the blunders in system level test automation. Dorothy Graham takes you on a tour of these blunders, including the Stable-Application Myth (you can’t start automating until the application is stable), Inside-the-Box...
Test-Driven Everything—with Deliberate Collaboration
You've heard that quality belongs to everybody on an agile team. You've heard that testers and developers should collaborate in order to drive quality higher. You've heard that automated tests help a team continuously validate the quality. Well, it's time to stop just thinking and talking about these things! It's time to make them happen! Watch “Cheezy” Morgan do this in front of your eyes. Watch him build a web application, driven by acceptance and unit tests. Discover how a product owner, tester, and developer collaborate closely and deliberately to create executable user stories that...
The Three Pillars Approach to an Agile Testing Strategy
Preview
Applying Earned Value Management to Testing
Preview New
Machine Learning: Will It Take Over Testing?
Preview New
Automating Performance Testing at Every Step
Preview New
Story Time for Testers
Stories help us learn. They can be fun or scary, exciting or relaxing. People worldwide tell and listen to stories. We access them through books, film, TV, and computers. But direct, face-to-face storytelling is still a powerful experience. When Isabel Evans was young, there was a program on the radio called Listen with Mother. For fifteen minutes, mothers and children across the land would sit and listen to a story. Join Isabel and become your younger child, bring your testing parent, and listen to her stories. In fifteen-minute sections, Isabel recounts stories drawn from myths, legends...
Thursday, October 19
Leading, Following, or Managing? You Can Help Your Group Thrive
As testers or test managers, being effective mentors, coaches, and leaders is critical to our team’s success. Quite often we also play important roles in driving change, influencing others, and helping individuals, teams, and the business move from where they are to a higher level of excellence. We must interact with many people and work together in project teams made up of individuals with diverse perspectives. Join Isabel Evans as she reviews the range of interaction approaches of leadership and management, explores what styles we feel most comfortable with, discusses how we react to...
Accessibility Standards and Testing Techniques: Be Inclusive or Be Left Behind
Preview
Implementing a Test Dashboard to Boost Quality
Preview
A Journey from DevOps to DevTestOps: Infusing Continuous Quality
As companies realize the need for rapid application development, they are embracing DevOps methodologies. But implementing DevOps practices without establishing a culture of quality often results in lower quality software or a poor customer experience, which impacts the business bottom line. Join Gajan Pathmanathan as he shares proven approaches for ensuring quality and testing throughout the software development and delivery pipeline, while still maintaining agility and speed. Gajan presents a roadmap for building quality into the fabric of DevOps and fostering a quality-driven mindset,...