Process Improvement

Tutorials

MB The Challenges of BIG Testing: Automation, Virtualization, Outsourcing, and More SOLD OUT

Hans Buwalda, LogiGear

Mon, 05/05/2014 - 8:30am

Large-scale and complex testing projects can stress the testing and automation practices we have learned through the years, resulting in less than optimal outcomes. However, a number of innovative ideas and concepts are emerging to better support industrial-strength testing for big projects. Hans Buwalda shares his experiences and strategies he's developed for organizing and managing testing on large projects. Learn how to design tests specifically for automation, including how to incorporate keyword testing and other techniques.

MC Getting Started with Risk-based Testing

Dale Perry, Software Quality Engineering

Mon, 05/05/2014 - 8:30am

Whether you are new to testing or looking for a better way to organize your test practices and processes, the Systematic Test and Evaluation Process (STEP™) offers a flexible approach to help you and your team succeed. Dale Perry describes this risk-based framework—applicable to any development lifecycle model—to help you make critical testing decisions earlier and with more confidence. The STEP™ approach helps you decide how to focus your testing effort, what elements and areas to test, and how to organize test designs and documentation.

MI Measurement and Metrics for Test Managers

Rick Craig, Software Quality Engineering

Mon, 05/05/2014 - 8:30am

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 is complicated because many developers and testers are concerned that the metrics will be used against them.

MM Apply Emotional Intelligence to Your Testing SOLD OUT NEW

Thomas McCoy, Australian Department of Social Services

Mon, 05/05/2014 - 1:00pm

As test managers and test professionals we can have an enormous emotional impact on others. We're constantly dealing with fragile egos, highly charged situations, and pressured people playing a high-stakes game under conditions of massive uncertainty. We're often the bearers of bad news and are sometimes perceived as critics, activating people's primal fear of being judged. Emotional intelligence (EI), the concept popularized by Harvard psychologist and science writer Daniel Goleman, has much to offer test managers and testers.

MN Testing with Limited, Vague, and Missing Requirements SOLD OUT NEW

Lloyd Roden, Lloyd Roden Consultancy

Mon, 05/05/2014 - 1:00pm

Requirements are essential for the success of projects―or are they? As testers, we often demand concrete requirements, specified and documented in minute detail. However, does the business really know what they want early in the project? Can they actually produce such a document? Is it acceptable to test with limited or vague requirements? Lloyd Roden challenges your most basic beliefs, explaining how detailed requirements can damage and hinder the progress of testing.

TB Key Test Design Techniques SOLD OUT

Lee Copeland, Software Quality Engineering

Tue, 05/06/2014 - 8:30am

All testers know that we can identify many more test cases than we will ever have time to design and execute. The key problem in testing is choosing a small, “smart” subset from the almost infinite number of possibilities available. Join Lee Copeland to discover how to design test cases using formal black-box techniques, including equivalence class and boundary value testing, decision tables, state-transition diagrams, and all-pairs testing. Explore white-box techniques with their associated coverage metrics.

TE Innovation Thinking: Evolve and Expand Your Capabilities NEW

Jennifer Bonine, tap|QA, Inc.

Tue, 05/06/2014 - 8:30am

Innovation is a word tossed around frequently in organizations today. The standard clichés are Do more with less and Be creative. Companies want to be innovative but often struggle with how to define, implement, prioritize, and track their innovation efforts. Using the Innovation to Types model, Jennifer Bonine will help you transform your thinking regarding innovation and understand if your team and company goals match their innovation efforts. Learn how to classify your activities as "core" (to the business) or "context" (essential, but non-revenue generating).

TN What's the Problem? A Workshop in Identifying, Clarifying, and Solving NEW

Michael Bolton, DevelopSense

Tue, 05/06/2014 - 1:00pm

Most of the time, as testers, our primary responsibility is to find problems. But, have we paused to consider what a “problem” is? In this interactive, hands-on workshop, Michael Bolton leads delegates in examining and mapping out ideas about problems. What constitutes a problem? How do we recognize one? What are the factors or dimensions of a problem?

TO The Dirty Little Secret of Business NEW

Andy Kaufman, Institute for Leadership Excellence and Development, Inc.

Tue, 05/06/2014 - 1:00pm

Regardless of your role in the software lifecycle, challenges and roadblocks will stand in your way. How can you deal with difficult people who are obstacles to your ability to deliver? How can you influence someone to act on your priorities even when you don’t have organizational authority? How can you find time to network when you’re overwhelmed with day-to-day work? Andy Kaufman shares “The Dirty Little Secret of Business.” You won’t learn this secret in school, yet it is critical to your success. The secret is simple—it’s all about relationships.

TP Root Cause Analysis for Software Testers NEW

Alon Linetzki, Best-Testing

Tue, 05/06/2014 - 1:00pm

In many cases, we choose solutions to problems without sufficient analysis of the underlying causes. This results in implementing a cover-up of the symptoms rather than a solution to the real underlying problem. When we do this, the problem is likely to resurface in one disguise or another, and we may mishandle it again—just as we did initially. Getting to the root of the problem is the better way to solve the current problem, and save time and money in the future.

TQ Getting Your Message Across: Communications Skills for Testers NEW

Thomas McCoy, Australian Department of Social Services

Tue, 05/06/2014 - 1:00pm

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 deluged with emails and suffering information overload, it is more important than ever that we craft succinct and effective messages, using a range of communication modalities.

Concurrent Sessions

W6 Test Process Improvement in Agile

Jeroen Mengerink, Polteq

Wed, 05/07/2014 - 11:30am

Current Test Process Improvement (TPI) models have proven to be a mismatch when used to assess testing in an agile context, since it is significantly more difficult to describe how to become more flexible than it is to describe how to become more structured. So what’s missing in the current models and how can we help organizations improve their testing in an agile environment? Jeroen Mengerink introduces a systematic model to improve the testing in agile software development.

W13 An Ounce of Prevention...

Kirk Lee, Infusionsoft

Wed, 05/07/2014 - 3:00pm

We QA professionals know that the ideal is to build quality into a product rather than to test defects out of it. We know about the overhead associated with defects and how costs grow over time the later in the development process we find defects. If prevention is better than cure, shouldn’t we invest more time and effort in preventing defects? Kirk Lee shares the things we testers can do before coding begins to keep defects from being created in the first place. Kirk explains how to involve QA at the very beginning of the development process where prevention is most valuable.

W14 Testing in the Wild: Practices for Testing Beyond the Lab

Matt Johnston, Applause

Wed, 05/07/2014 - 3:00pm

The stakes in the mobile app marketplace are very high, with thousands of apps vying for the limited space on users’ mobile devices. Organizations must ensure that their apps work as intended from day one and to do that must implement a successful mobile testing strategy leveraging in-the-wild testing. Matt Johnston describes how to create and implement a tailored in-the-wild testing strategy to boost app success and improve user experience.

W17 The Impact of Cognitive Biases on Test and Project Teams

Thomas Cagley, The David Consulting Group

Wed, 05/07/2014 - 3:00pm

Teams are a fundamental part of the way we all work. Understanding the ins and outs of team decision making makes us better employees, better co-workers, and even better people. As developers and testers, we continuously make decisions. Most decisions are based on how the decision maker perceives the information at hand. That perception is driven by many factors including cognitive biases—the mental shortcuts we use that lead us to simplify, make quick decisions, and ultimately mess up when we’re trying to attack new problems.

T7 Bugfest!

Shaun Bradshaw, Zenergy Technologies, Inc.

Thu, 05/08/2014 - 11:15am

Know any testers who have bugs opened more than a year ago and still sitting in their defect queue? More than two years ago? Three? The fact is that many software development efforts are focused on delivering new features and functionality, leaving workarounds in place for bugs released in prior versions of applications. Often these defects seem relatively minor—we all have some workarounds for customers—but these are still bugs and ultimately should be dealt with.

T8 Designing for Testability: Differentiator in a Competitive Market

David Campbell, MITRE Corporation

Thu, 05/08/2014 - 11:15am

In today’s cost conscious marketplace, solution providers gain advantage over competitors when they deliver measurable benefits to customers and partners. Systems of even small scope often involve distributed hardware/software elements with varying execution parameters. Testing organizations often deal with a complex set of testing scenarios, increased risk for regression defects, and competing demands on limited system resources for a continuous comprehensive test program. Learn how designing a testable system architecture addresses these challenges.

Keynotes

K5 The Art of Testing Transformation: Blending Technology with Cutting-Edge Processes

Jennifer Bonine, tap|QA, Inc.

Thu, 05/08/2014 - 4:15pm

Technologies, testing processes, and the role of the tester have evolved significantly over the past several years. As testing professionals, it is critical that we evaluate and evolve ourselves to continue to add tangible value to our organizations. In your work, are you focused on the trivial or on real "game changers"? Jennifer Bonine describes critical elements that, like a skilled painter, help you artfully blend people, process, and technology into a masterpiece, woven together to create a synergistic relationship that adds value to your organization.