Product Manager

Concurrent Sessions

W11 Succeeding as an Ethnic or Minority Tester

Yousef Harfi, Medavie Blue Cross

Wed, 05/07/2014 - 1:45pm

No one wishes to see himself as different or treat other people differently because of his uniqueness. Unfortunately, we are frequently judged and our skills presumed based on our ethnicity, beliefs, politics, appearance, lifestyle, gender, or sexual orientation. Our professional success and our projects’ success can be derailed because of lack of understanding, stereotyping, or fear. Our professional environment includes us all―brown, black, white, tall, short, male, female, straight, gay, extroverts, and introverts.

W12 Improving the Mobile Application User Experience (UX)

Philip Lew, XBOSoft

Wed, 05/07/2014 - 1:45pm

If users can’t figure out how to use your mobile applications and what’s in it for them, they’re gone. Usability and UX are key factors in keeping users satisfied so understanding, measuring, testing and improving these factors are critical to the success of today’s mobile applications. However, sometimes these concepts can be confusing—not only differentiating them but also defining and understanding them. Philip Lew explores the meanings of usability and UX, discusses how they are related, and then examines their importance for today’s mobile applications.

T18 Automated Analytics Testing with Open Source Tools

Marcus Merrell, RetailMeNot, Inc.

Thu, 05/08/2014 - 1:30pm

Analytics are an increasingly important capability of any large web site or application. When a user selects an option or clicks a button, dozens—if not hundreds—of behavior-defining “beacons” fire off into a black box of “big data” to be correlated with the usage patterns of thousands of other users. In the end, all these little data points form a constellation of information your organization will use to determine its course. But what if it doesn’t work?

T19 Ambiguity Reviews: Building Quality Requirements

Susan Schanta, Cognizant Technology Solutions

Thu, 05/08/2014 - 3:00pm

Are you frustrated by the false expectation that we can test quality into a product? By the time an application is delivered to testing, our ability to introduce quality principles is generally limited to defect detection. So how do you begin to shift your team’s perceptions into a true quality assurance organization? Susan Schanta shares her approach to Shift Quality Left by performing ambiguity reviews against requirements documents to reduce requirement defects at the beginning of the project.

Keynotes

K3 Lightning Strikes the Keynotes

Lee Copeland, Software Quality Engineering

Wed, 05/07/2014 - 4:15pm

Throughout the years, Lightning Talks have been a popular part of the STAR conferences. If you’re not familiar with the concept, Lightning Talks consists of a series of five-minute talks by different speakers within one presentation period. Lightning Talks are the opportunity for speakers to deliver their single biggest bang-for-the-buck idea in a rapid-fire presentation. And now, lightning has struck the STAR keynotes.