Development

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. Some of the best-known experts in testing will step up to the podium and give you their best shot of lightning.

Test management doesn't exist in the world of agile, or rather test managers don't—or do they? Agile methods such as Scrum have many traditional test management activities built in. With practices like self-organizing teams, role blurring, and skill diversification, the face of test management is changing. But is that a bad thing? Tom Roden and Ben Williams explore the key tenets of test management in an agile context, the likely dispersal of traditional responsibilities, and the profound effect on teams and managers.

When we talk about product quality, test team efficiency, and productivity, we always talk numbers. However, very few companies implement metrics programs in a way that supports solid decision making. Many have tried and failed, leaving a negative impression of metrics. Kris Kosyk explains what metrics like Defect Removal Efficiency tell us and how it is impacted by Test Coverage and Defect Backlog Change Rate. Moving up a level, Kris explains how to use operational testing metrics to understand the development lifecycle process.