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CIO / Director

Keynotes

K1 Testing in a Test-driven World
Jeff Payne, Coveros, Inc.
Wed, 05/01/2013 - 8:30am

Agile software development has fundamentally changed the way software testing is performed. No longer is testing relegated to the end of the lifecycle where its budgets are cut and its conclusions ignored. Now we live in a world where testing drives development and, for better or worse, this world is here to stay. Jeff Payne discusses what impact a test-driven world has on the types of testing we perform and the impact this has on our careers.

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K2 Surviving or Thriving: Top Ten Lessons for the Professional Tester
Lloyd Roden, Lloyd Roden Consultancy
Wed, 05/01/2013 - 10:00am

As testers and test managers we often find ourselves struggling just to survive within our organization—sometimes with the possibility of job loss due to outsourcing looming. Often, we are told to become more “effective,” “efficient,” and do “more with less.” However, most testers and test managers are unsure of what those mandates actually mean. Today, it is not sufficient to just survive; we must take initiatives to thrive. Lloyd Roden shares ten valuable lessons on how you can become better at testing and thrive in your career.

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K4 Asking the Right Questions? What Journalism Can Teach Testers
Thomas McCoy, Australian Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs
Thu, 05/02/2013 - 8:30am

As the testing discipline continues to evolve—and the demands on testers increase—we need to look for new paradigms to guide our work. Thomas McCoy believes the profession of journalism has much to offer in helping us ask the right kinds of questions, be heard, and deliver bad news effectively. In many ways, our profession has ideals similar to those of journalism: our first obligation should be to the truth, we must maintain independence (even when embedded in agile teams), and our mission includes the protection of society.

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K5 The Mismeasure of Software: The Last Talk on Measurement You’ll Ever Need to Hear
Lee Copeland, Software Quality Engineering
Thu, 05/02/2013 - 4:15pm

Lee Copeland maintains that most organizations have some kind of metrics program—and almost all are ineffective. After explaining the concept of measurement, Lee describes two key reasons for these almost universal metrics program failures. The first major mistake people make is forgetting that the model we are using for measurement is not necessarily reality. The second major blunder is treating ideas as if they were real things and then counting them.

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Tutorials

Large-scale testing projects severely stress “normal” testing practices. This can result in a number of less than optimal results. A number of innovative ideas and concepts have emerged to support industrial-strength testing of large and complex projects—some successful and others not so successful. Hans Buwalda shares his experiences and the strategies he's developed over the years for large testing on large projects. He describes the possibilities and pitfalls of outsourcing test automation.

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ME Leading Change—Even If You’re Not in Charge
Jennifer Bonine, tap|QA, Inc.
Mon, 04/29/2013 - 8:30am

Has this happened to you? You try to implement a change in your organization and it doesn’t get the support that you thought it would. And, to make matters worse, you can't figure out why. Or, you have a great idea but can’t get the resources required for successful implementation. Jennifer Bonine shares a toolkit of techniques to help you determine which ideas will—and will not—work within your organization.

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MH Implementing Crowdsourced Testing
Rajini Padmanaban, QA InfoTech
Mon, 04/29/2013 - 8:30am

In today’s market, global outreach, quick time to release, and a feature rich design are the major factors that determine a product’s success. Organizations are constantly on the lookout for innovative testing techniques to match these driving forces. Crowdsourced testing is a paradigm increasing in popularity because it addresses these factors through its scale, flexibility, cost effectiveness, and fast turnaround.

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MJ Quantifying the Value of Testing
Lloyd Roden, Lloyd Roden Consultancy
Mon, 04/29/2013 - 8:30am

“Testing costs too much.” “We don’t get the value we should from the investment we make.” “Testing just delays the project.” Familiar sayings in your organization? Although testing is accepted by most as an integral part of any software development lifecycle, some see it as a hole in which to throw money rather than as an investment in quality. In order to gain credibility and reduce the negative views of our work, we testers and test managers must show senior management a clear return on their investment.

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TM High-flying Cloud Testing Techniques
Ruud Teunissen, Polteq Test Services BV
Tue, 04/30/2013 - 1:00pm

The cloud can deliver services over the Internet in three ways—software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and infrastructure as a service (IaaS). Each of these approaches requires testers to focus on more than classical functional testing. Ruud Teunissen explores the new techniques and skills testers need to master for testing cloud services. Examples include testing for elasticity; testing fall back scenarios to guarantee continuity of business processes; testing for adherence to laws and regulations; and testing apps, web services, and the numerous platforms that need to be supported. Join Ruud and learn how to test these additional cloud requirements to get a grip on technical test issues, explore cloud services operations, and jump-start the broader scope of testing in the cloud. Take back practical approaches for tuning and tweaking your present test techniques to fly high in the cloud.

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TP Distributed Agile Testing: Yes, You Can
Janet Gregory, DragonFire, Inc.
Tue, 04/30/2013 - 1:00pm

When agile development first gained popularity, agile meant collocated teams, including testers, programmers, analysts, and customers who were expected to perform many functions. As agile methods have spread and expanded, many organizations with globally-distributed teams are facing challenges with their agile deployment. Having worked with many such teams, Janet Gregory has observed ways that testers in agile teams can be very productive while delivering a high-quality software product and working well with the rest of the team.

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Concurrent Sessions

W7 Taming the Beast: Test/QA on Large-scale Projects
Shaun Bradshaw, Zenergy Technologies, Inc.
Wed, 05/01/2013 - 1:45pm

Large, complex projects—those with more than 100 people and lasting more that a year—require special considerations for developing, communicating, and managing the overall QA strategy and test plans. Shaun Bradshaw provides insights he gained from a $70 million financial software implementation project comprised of multiple components including a general ledger, business intelligence platform, data warehouse, and data integration hub.

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