STARCANADA 2017 Consultant Sessions | TechWell

Conference archive

STARCANADA 2017 - Consultant

Tuesday, October 17

Michael_Bolton
DevelopSense
TB

Critical Thinking for Software Testers

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Tuesday, October 17, 2017 - 8:30am to 4:30pm

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...

Isabel Evans
Independent Consultant
TH

Human Factors for Test Automation: How People Affect Project Success

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Tuesday, October 17, 2017 - 1:00pm to 4:30pm

Successful test automation is not just about selecting and implementing tools and a technical infrastructure. People in teams make the changes that are required. People ensure the success or failure of the automation project. Understanding and managing expectations, attitudes toward change, teamwork, motivation, and communication are all vital if automation projects are to succeed. Isabel Evans identifies and discusses human factors around automation, teamwork, and human behavior to enable you to understand resistance to change, overcome mistrust of automation, and moderate inflated...
TI

Innovation: Evolving and Expanding Your Creative Capabilities

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Tuesday, October 17, 2017 - 1:00pm to 4:30pm

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)....

Janet Gregory
DragonFire, Inc.
TK

Test Automation in Agile: The Path to Faster, Better Releases

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Tuesday, October 17, 2017 - 1:00pm to 4:30pm

Agile teams deliver “potentially” shippable software at the end of every iteration (one to four weeks) or possibly every day. Janet Gregory says that this goal can't be achieved without automated tests, and many teams struggle with test automation. The challenge of automating functional regression tests frightens many testers, who feel their skills aren’t up to the job. So, how can you deliver good quality when you have to release so often? By combining a collaborative team approach with appropriate tools and design approaches, you can not only automate your regression tests but also use...

Bob Galen
Zenergy Technologies
TL

Agile Testing: Team Tactics that Deliver the Goods

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Tuesday, October 17, 2017 - 1:00pm to 4:30pm

Let’s face it—agile testing is different. Challenges exist in successfully integrating within the teams themselves. Scrummerfall continues to run rampant. The dichotomy of testing v. quality and balancing both the team’s and your focus still exists. Delivering value is both an imperative and a challenge. In this dynamic workshop, join agile coach Bob Galen to explore the tools, techniques, and mindset you need to bring to the table to successfully test in agile contexts. Bob examines risk-based testing, iterative test planning, exploratory testing, agile automation strategies, test...

Wednesday, October 18

Dorothy Graham
Software Test Consultant
K1

Blunders in Test Automation

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Wednesday, October 18, 2017 - 8:30am to 9:30am

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...

Michael_Bolton
DevelopSense
W1

The Secret Life of Testers: Where Your Time Really Goes

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Wednesday, October 18, 2017 - 10:15am to 11:15am

Testing is on the schedule. Your title is Tester. It is time to test. The team is waiting for you. Everybody thinks you spend your time testing. So, why does it seem that you spend so little time actually testing? Michael Bolton will show you a training and research tool to visually animate the progress of testing has been developed. Through the use of testopsies and session-based test management data, patterns have been collected on how context-driven testers use their time—from the micro to the macro level. Among the findings are that a good tester can spend a whole week in earnest work...

Paul_Merrill
Beaufort Fairmont
W7

Machine Learning: Will It Take Over Testing?

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Wednesday, October 18, 2017 - 11:30am to 12:30pm

Machine learning (ML), a branch of artificial intelligence, is gaining widespread adoption and interest on software development projects. Paul Merrill says that ML isn't typical programming. Algorithms can be changed and checked for accuracy at runtime to “learn” from data. Some companies are already generating and executing test cases using machine learning algorithms. It is projected that significant areas of the labor force—16 percent in transportation and 9 percent of healthcare—could see job cuts in the next few years. So it's time to start thinking: Might testing be on that list...
Sophie Benjamin
Videotron
W9

Transforming Your QA and Test Team

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Wednesday, October 18, 2017 - 1:30pm to 2:30pm

QA and test departments often are composed of employees with business backgrounds who have little training when it comes to software testing. Though they are engaged, these team members can get overwhelmed by the thousands of test cases they have to execute over and over, and they don’t see a future career path in testing. What can be done to address these challenges? Join Sophie Benjamin as she presents her personal step-by-step recipe to transform QA and test teams and position them for success within IT. She talks about the essential roles in QA and test teams, their skills and...

Thursday, October 19

David_Best
Inclusive Media Design
Sandy_Feldman
Inclusive Media Design
Rob_Harvie
Inclusive Media Design
T3

Accessibility Standards and Testing Techniques: Be Inclusive or Be Left Behind

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Thursday, October 19, 2017 - 10:15am to 11:15am

While Information and Communication Technology (ICT) accessibility for a wider spectrum of users—including the blind—and their interfaces is being required by law across more jurisdictions, testing for it remains limited, naïve, and too late. The consequences of staying ignorant include increased exposure to litigation, penalties, and loss of contracts and revenue. Join David Best, Sandy Feldman, and Rob Harvie to learn why accessibility is now becoming a valued, integral part of the design process and much different from usability of twenty years ago. Ensure compliance for your...