STAREAST Virtual 2021 - Project Manager
Customize your STAREAST 2021 experience with sessions covering project management.
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...
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,...
From Hardware to Software: Cisco's DevOps Journey
DevOps was born of a simple problem - a lack of culture / sharing in a company, especially between the world of developers and the operations teams. Now that everything is becoming programmable and the world of technology is moving very fast, this gap exists between all functions within a company. In this session, I will talk about the last 4 years at Cisco, where I started and ran a company initiative to move our DevOps culture forward through community management, organizing unconferences and sharing best practices. I will also provide an update about where we are in our DevOps journey...
Visualizing the Futuristic View - Testing Serverless Applications
Speed is the name of the game now as we strive to deliver new features faster to end-users. When it comes to building and delivering the software faster - speed, quality, security, business growth, end-user satisfaction, and cost control also play an important role in driving success.Testing is important!
How do we test the serverless applications?How is this different from the native app?What are the differences between the traditional & serverless apps?How do we test the code which is running in some server which we do not manage?How are we going to test the lambda functions? ...Thursday, April 29
Valuing the Customer: Wagile Product Development
PreviewDo your new products launch with mediocre market reception? If so, your innovation process might be to blame. Traditional waterfall processes become bureaucratic while Agile systems have not delivered on their promises, either. New product development fails due to poor product designs and misunderstanding of the markets. Enter “Wagile” New Product Development. Wagile is a hybrid product development process that engages customers throughout the product design cycle while ensuring project execution meets internal requirements for scope, schedule, and budget. Implementing wagile leads...
4 Strategies to Champion Quality
Testing without a strategy or plan will always lead to missed opportunities to infuse quality earlier and often. As software leaders, you may be surprised to find that even today testing can still be an afterthought. From poor requirements or documentation, lengthy test cycles, flaky or bloated test automation suites, this issue can surface in many ways. In this talk, Erika Chestnut, Head of Quality Assurance at Calendly, will share how she is leading her organization to think more broadly about quality. In addition, she will...
Simplicity - The Path to Agile Testing Efficiency
The pace of an Agile project creates demands efficiency in all testing techniques and processes. Traditional approaches run counter to this efficiency and must be changed during the Agile transition. Join Paul as he applies the Agile Manifesto Principle #10: “Simplicity – the art of maximizing the amount of work not done - is essential” to distinguish what past testing practices work and don’t work to clean out the clutter of the non-working. He will identify common process traps when adopting Agile methodologies, suggest priorities that are most important to Agile testing, and present...
Want to Be a Manager? What No One Tells You About It
You have now successfully lead multiple projects for your team. You know you’re ready to be a manager but your organization disagrees or maybe you have already made the jump. You have seen good management in action. You also know of all the mistakes your previous managers have made and you are certain you won’t make them. Think again. Whether you’re looking to grow into a management role or you’re a new manager, what skills should you learn and grow so that you do not fail brilliantly at this new role? Join Aprajita Mathur as she shares her journey into management. What no one told her and...
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.