Virtual Conference
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
8:30 AM ET • KEYNOTE—Innovation: From the Tester's Viewpoint |
||
Jason Arbon, Applause |
||
|
Innovation is not usually associated with testing or quality assurance. For our field to tackle the quality issues of modern applications and remain relevant, we must innovate. The good news is that there are lots of opportunity to innovate today. Sharing hard-earned tips and tricks, Jason Arbon describes how to identify low-hanging fruit for innovation, how to innovate with or without programming skills, how to fail gracefully, how to tell if what you are doing is actually innovative, and how to present innovation to your company and maximize adoption while getting credit for your work. Discover how to find time to innovate when your manager isn’t supportive or when you think you are too busy with your real job. Innovation isn’t just cool—it’s necessary for job security and career aspirations in today’s fast-moving world. Jason draws on real world experiences at Google, Microsoft, Applause.com/uTest.com, and his work with many top testers. You need to innovate—now more than ever. Find out how. Director of product strategy at Applause.com/uTest.com, Jason Arbon worked previously on Google Chrome, ChromeOS, personalized web search, and Microsoft teams including Bing, Biztalk, WindowsCE/Internet Explorer, and WinFS. A frequent conference speaker on software quality, Jason has also delivered mobile app quality and testing workshops and keynotes at software company internal engineering conferences. He founded herecandy.com, a mobile app company that made web browsing and sharing smarter on mobile devices. |
 |
|
10:00 AM ET • KEYNOTE—Deliberate Testing in an Agile World |
||
Dan North, Dan North & Associates |
||
|
In the decade since agile has gone mainstream, testing has received more emphasis—and in many organizations an automated test suite is now a prerequisite for delivery. For the first time, testing is a core activity within an integrated dev team rather than a downstream activity to be commoditized or outsourced. However, when you scratch the surface of agile testing, it seems we have lulled ourselves into a false sense of security. In an era of “automate all tests,” testing on agile projects broadly falls into two categories: automated deterministic testing provided by TDD, BDD, ATDD, and friends; and manual exploratory testing, carried out by expert testers. However rigorously we apply these methods, entire classes of tests aren't being considered, and entire groups of stakeholders are falling through the testing net. Not all automated testing should be deterministic; not all testing should be automated. Dan North helps identify the gaps in your testing approach. By considering testing as a risk management exercise viewed through the eyes of multiple stakeholders, Dan hopes you will share his mild panic about how much testing we aren't doing. With more than twenty years of IT experience, Dan North uses his deep technical and organizational knowledge to help CIOs, businesses, and software teams deliver quickly and successfully. Putting people first, Dan finds simple, pragmatic solutions to business and technical problems, often using lean and agile techniques. |
 |
|
12:30 PM ET • Industry Technical Presentation • Oracle and Hitachi |
|
Testing in the Digital Transformation Age |
|
Julie Gardiner, Hitachi and Mikael Fries, Oracle |
 |
|
Digital transformation is one of the latest buzzwords and on the lips of most management consultants and consulting companies today. What is digital transformation? And what does it mean for your business and more important, what does it mean to you as a tester? This session will cover what digital transformation is, what it means and what challenges you might have with digital transformation as well as how different tools and approaches can help you in not only surviving, but coming out with flying colors. Join Oracle and Hitachi Consulting to learn more. |
 |
3:00 PM ET • Industry Technical Presentation • Soasta |
||
Let’s Put the “E” Back in Testing! |
||
Dan Boutin, Soasta |
||
|
Today’s testing is not your father’s Oldsmobile. There is an “e” in testing. But it’s not the one that you are thinking of-nope. Today’s “e” is found in multiple areas that today’s testing encompasses. Today’s “e” is Performance Engineering. Today’s “e” is User Experience. Today’s “e” is Data Science. |
 |
|
4:30 PM ET • KEYNOTE–Lightning Strikes the Keynotes |
||
Lee Copeland, Software Quality Engineering |
||
|
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. Get multiple keynote presentations for the price of one—and have some fun at the same time. With more than thirty years of experience as an information systems professional at commercial and nonprofit organizations, Lee Copeland has held technical and managerial positions in applications development, software testing, and software process improvement. At Software Quality Engineering, Lee has developed and taught numerous training courses on software development and testing issues, and is a sought-after speaker at software conferences in the United States and abroad. |
|
|
8:30 AM ET • KEYNOTE–Blunders in Test Automation |
||
Dorothy Graham, Software Test Consultant |
||
|
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 thinking accounts for most of the blunders in system level test automation. Dorothy Graham takes us on a tour of these blunders, including: the Stable-Application Myth (you can’t start automating until the application is stable), Inside-the-Box Thinking (automating only the obvious test execution), the Project/Non-Project Dilemma (failing to treat automation like a project by not funding or resourcing it, and treating automation as only a project). Other blunders include Testing-Tools-Test, Silver Bullet, Automating the Wrong Thing, Who Needs GPS, How Hard Can It Be, and Isolationism. Different skills, approaches, and objectives are needed or you’ll end up with inefficient automation, high maintenance costs, and wasted effort. Join Dot to discover how you can avoid these common blunders and achieve valuable test automation. In software testing for over forty years, Dorothy Graham is coauthor of four books—Software Inspection, Software Test Automation, Foundations of Software Testing and Experiences of Test Automation—and is currently working with Seretta Gamba on a new book on a test automation patterns wiki. A popular and entertaining speaker at conferences and seminars worldwide, Dot has attended STAR conferences since the first one in 1992 |
 |
|
4:15 PM ET • KEYNOTE–The Future of the Software Testing Profession |
||
Michael Sowers, Software Quality Engineering |
||
|
The world of testers and test managers—like most professions—continues to evolve. Some say the more things change, the more things stay the same; others say that testing as a profession is dying. These divergent views raise compelling questions. Are we approaching the era of minimal defects in which testing is diminished? Or is testing on the brink of becoming the most important aspect of software development as the risk of failure grows exponentially? What role will testers play on development teams? What critical skills will testers need in the future? After taking a hard look at where testing has been, Mike Sowers presents his and others’ views of the key drivers that are shaping the future role of software testers and test leaders. Mike explores how testing is impacted by technology (cloud, mobile, wearables), process (development and testing methodologies), and innovation. He then shares observations on and recommendations for staying competent, competitive, and relevant as a results-driven dev/test team member in your organization. Michael Sowers has over 25 years of practical experience as a Global Quality & Test Leader across multiple industries. He has lead internationally distributed quality & test teams and held accountability for configuration management and release engineering functions. Michael is a Sr. Consultant skilled in working with organizations, both large and small, to improve their software development, testing and delivery approaches. |
 |
|