STAREAST Virtual 2021 - General Management
Customize your STAREAST 2021 experience with sessions covering general project management.
Monday, April 26
Test Automation: Start and Succeed
Many organizations invest a lot of effort in test automation at the system level but then have serious problems as their product matures and changes over time. As a leader, how can you ensure that your new automation efforts will get off to a good start? What can you do to ensure that your automation work provides continuing added value? Chris Loder explains the critical issues you need to know to get a good start, and he will share his extensive experience in building great automation. He covers the most important management issues you should address for test automation success,...
Tuesday, April 27
Automation Framework Essentials
Automation is critical in today’s software delivery lifecycle, and yet many organizations struggle to keep their automation running. How can we mitigate difficulties and get consistent automation runs and results we can trust? The secret is implementing a solid automation framework, but that isn’t as easy as it seems. Chris Loder has built several automation frameworks over his career and has learned what works—and, more importantly, what doesn’t. This tutorial will cover what an automation framework is, the benefits of having one, and the keys to a successful framework, including...
Quality and Testing Measures and Metrics
To be most effective, leaders—including development and testing managers, ScrumMasters, product owners, and IT managers—need metrics to help direct their efforts and make informed recommendations about the software’s release readiness and associated risks. Because one important evaluation activity is to “measure” the quality of the software, the progress and results of both development and testing must be measured. Collecting, analyzing, and using metrics are complicated because developers and testers often are concerned that the metrics will be used against them. Join Mike Sowers as he...
Testing Transformation: The Art and Science for Success
Technologies, testing processes, and the role of the tester have evolved significantly in the past few years with the advent of agile, DevOps, and other new technologies. It is critical that we testing professionals evaluate ourselves and 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 help you artfully blend people, process, and technology to create a synergistic relationship that adds value. Jennifer shares ideas on mastering politics, maneuvering core vs. context...
Holistic Performance Testing for Modern Applications
With the advent of frameworks like Angular, React, and Vue, the landscape of application performance has changed significantly in terms of testing and measurement. Gone are the days of measuring response time as a single value based on back-end performance. In modern web and mobile applications, additional layers need to be peeled apart at the front end to truly understand its performance characteristics. Traditional approaches to performance testing are no longer sufficient to provide a delightfully responsive user experience. Join Kaushal Dalvi as he details new developments in the...
Wednesday, April 28
10 Ways You Can Thrive in Your Testing Career
PreviewFor many testers, their careers are directed by others. Without proper thought and consideration about where we want to go, we could end up somewhere we don’t want to be. Rob Lambert will explore some of the ways you can instead learn to thrive in your testing, tech and management career—learning, improving, helping others, accepting help, and building a diverse set of in-demand skills. He will share ten ways he’s uncovered to enjoy your journey as you progress through your career: paint a picture for the future, build a simple knowledge management system, seek out diverse ideas,...
Can Mobile Accessibility Testing be Automated via AI?
Did you know that 20% of federal ADA & 508 lawsuits now mention violations in mobile apps? There’s legal precedence now on maintaining compliance across all digital properties. As an example, the DOJ ruled against H&R Block, citing non compliance of both their web and mobile apps. Same fate for Dominos Pizza. Does your organization have an ADA compliance strategy for your mobile applications? Attend this session if you want to learn about the ABCs of accessibility testing. We will cover the WCAG 2.0 and 2.1 standards. Discuss whether you should target Level A, Level AA, or Level...
Thursday, April 29
Shift from Manual to Automation
PreviewIn today's market, good QA employees are hard to find. What if you need to do more but still have manual testers on the payroll. There are two options: Lay them off or train them up. Laying them off then means you have to find someone to fill their position who can do the automation but at the same time, all of that valuable product knowledge walks out your door. We had the same problem. We decided to train them up. We didn't have a budget for bringing in training or sending our QA's out to coding classes. Instead we took the few of us who had software development degrees/experience...
Creating a QA Department Out of Nothing
We will discuss the following areas that need to be addressed as you take on the opportunity. You could write the test cases in word or excel but why when there are so many free tools or minimally expensive tools out there. We will discuss the different tools available and how to compare and write a proposal to deliver to management. After a certain amount of time you will need help. Should you hire contractors, full time employees, or a mix of both? We will discuss the pros and cons. As you are hiring and then have the people secured it’s important to put the right people on the right...
Using Testing to Learn Design Techniques
There are many similarities in a design and testing workflow. Designers and testers work towards a user goal and towards delivering quality apps. Find out some techniques used by designers to gather a complete research, turn it into actionable items, and measure its success. Some of these approaches are similar in concept to a tester’s approach. At the end of this talk you can use some of these methods to make your product features more user-centric with research to back it up.
Friday, April 30
Tool Builders for Life
Opening Remarks
Welcoming remarks from Leadership Summit Moderator, Jeffery Payne to kick the Summit off and discuss the days agenda.
Do Not Assure Quality, Advocate for it!
As software testing professionals, we know there is never enough time for testing. There are always going to be those issues and bugs that slip through the cracks and out into production. Many times, this is because there was something that we could just not control in order to assure quality. Even if we could control everything, could we still really assure quality? Exhaustive testing is never possible for large-scale applications meaning we will always have to assume some amount of risk. As testing leaders, it's time to stop trying to assure quality and start advocating for it. Only...
Planting the Seeds of a Healthy Organization
Nurturing a strong, vibrant engineering culture takes work. There's no magic bean you can plant and then expect caring and collaboration to spring, fully-embodied, from the ground. What are the seeds that grow into a healthy organization? How do you plant them, care for them, and let them bloom into a self-sustaining culture that people love to work in - and that excels at getting things done? Melissa has been an engineering leader (and a gardener) for quite some time, and is excited to share her experiences in planting and tending to blossoming teams of software professionals that,...
Perceptive Leadership
When I was a new leader, I spent a considerable amount of time figuring out what I needed to learn to become the type of leader who created the best experiences possible for my team. Many books, articles, and speakers emphasized having empathy and high emotional intelligence. These were often described as fundamental traits you either had or didn’t have. It took years of practice and experience to fully understand not only why these skills matter for great leaders, but also how to develop them, apply them, and get better using them every day. I learned these skills (and more) were at the...
Think Tank Discussion Part I—Problem Definitions
Join with your peers in an engaging and highly interactive session to discuss the issues that affect you most. Using answers to the question “As a Leader, What is Keeping You Up at Night?”, participants will form small groups to work on finding solutions to pressing test management issues. Discussions will review identified issues, barriers to change, and focus on innovative strategies and practical next steps. At the end of the think tank, all feedback will be collected and posted online to encourage further collaboration.
The Year of Change!
We interrupt your regularly scheduled life to bring you 2020 AND 2021! Over a year of unprecedented unknowns and uncertainty. Many of us have faced countless challenges in our personal lives and in our careers and frankly, it is hard to not feel STUCK! In order to get unstuck, we must learn what to do to bring about personal change. How can we identify the changes we want to make and then find new ways to make those changes? Let’s talk about the steps we need to take to intentionally shift our mindset and habitual patterns that may be holding us back. Join Alison for this interactive...
Think Tank Discussion Part II—Leadership Solutions
Based upon the problem definitions developed during Part I of the Think Tank, small groups will brainstorm on how to best solve these challenges, leveraging the collective wisdom of peers and Summit speakers. Each group will designate a representative to present its results and practice delivery.
Creative Trespassing: How to Quiet Imposter Syndrome and Start Believing in Yourself!
Many of us have an inner voice telling us we lucked out and that’s the only reason we’re leading the team or running the meeting and, if people got a closer look, surely they would see: WE ARE A FRAUD. That’s normal; the problem is when we believe it. Tania Katan, bestselling author, creative disruptor, and champion of women will show you how to transform imposter syndrome into impossibly awesome! Sharing her personal experiences and offering a blend of inspiration and practical advice, Katan will offer a guide to help you move beyond self-doubt and use creativity as fuel for a freer and...
Think Tank Discussion Part III—Presentation of Results
Small group representatives will each be given five minutes to present their leadership solutions. Summit participants will vote on which group produced the best solutions.
Panel—Career Superpowers
Let’s discuss and define the most important career superpowers for women. Hear what industry professionals, leaders, and idea disruptors think the important career superpowers are for women in 2021 and going forward.