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Keynotes

Below find information on the featured keynotes at STARWEST 2013.

Keynotes
K1
Michael Kelly, DeveloperTown
Jeanette Thebeau, Ex2 Partners
Wednesday, October 2, 2013 - 8:30am - 9:30am

Professional testers and test managers are feeling the pressures of low-cost competition and tools that claim to replace them through automation. So, how can test teams add more value to their projects and organization? In a recent survey of executives and testers, Mike Kelly and Jeanette Thebeau found major disconnects between what executives and testers believe are most important to the business. They explore new insights into the risks and concerns executives perceive and what you should do differently. In the survey, most testers believed that finding ways to cut operational costs was a low priority test objective, but executives listed operational cost reduction as a high value testing activity. On the flip side, testers believed that regulatory compliance was a high priority, while most executives reported compliance testing was a low priority. Join Mike and Jeanette to find new ways to help ensure the products you test solve the business problem, meet customer needs, reduce operational costs, scale easily as demand increases, and are built to quickly add new features over time.

More Information
Learn more about Michael Kelly and Jeanette Thebeau.
K2
Alan Page, Microsoft
Wednesday, October 2, 2013 - 10:00am - 11:00am

Testing a game console isn’t all fun and games. However, with more than 50 million Xbox 360 consoles sold, and the amazing success of the Kinect sensor, it’s certainly a hotbed of excitement for software developers and testers alike. Veteran tester Alan Page is having a blast on the Xbox console team and shares an insider’s view of what it’s like to test one of the most popular entertainment systems ever created. Learn the details of testing the Xbox from the guts of the operating system to the latest applications—and everything in between. Discover how the Xbox team creatively balances test automation with hands-on testing, how they’ve turned traditional measures of code coverage and test pass rates on edge, and many other ways the Xbox team  builds, tests, and delivers software that both end-users and game developers love. Join Alan to discover new ideas, see exciting demonstrations, and take away practical ideas that any team can use.

More Information
Learn more about Alan Page.
K3
Lee Copeland, Software Quality Engineering
Wednesday, October 2, 2013 - 4:30pm - 5:30pm

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 ten keynote presentations for the price of one—and have some fun at the same time.

More Information
Learn more about Lee Copeland.
K4
Jon Bach, eBay, Inc.
Thursday, October 3, 2013 - 8:30am - 9:30am

In the February Fortune magazine, eBay made the cover with the title “eBay is Back!” The article cited improvements in the look and feel of the site, strategic investments in fulfillment, and technology partnerships with retailers to establish it as more than just an online auction service. Jon Bach joined just as eBay was making big bets to make notable and visible gains with this strategy. Jon recounts his two and a half years as a quality engineering director and introduces a concept he calls Live Site Quality. It means the value your customers get while experiencing different activity flows through your online product or service. It’s the impression they’re left with as they try to solve a problem or meet a need—whether it’s a simple task or a complex exploration of your site’s capabilities. Jon’s main idea is selling stakeholders on different Live Site Quality perspectives and getting eBay colleagues from different parts of the organization to buy into the idea that bugs that might most affect their Live Site Quality may lie between their team and another.

More Information
Learn more about Jon Bach.
K5
Shaun Bradshaw, Zenergy Technologies, Inc.
Thursday, October 3, 2013 - 4:15pm - 5:15pm

When you think of a bounty, do you think of Dog the Bounty Hunter, a reality series featuring a biker dude with a bad mullet, or maybe Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino’s latest film about a slave-turned-bounty-hunter? Shaun Bradshaw doesn’t have a mullet and isn’t a movie star, but he has witnessed his fair share of bounty-style incentives used to motivate test teams to find more bugs, in hopes of improving software quality. But bounties can backfire—commonly referred to as the Cobra Effect—and create tension within a development organization without improving software quality. Join Shaun as he discusses alternate merit-based methods that can add a fresh take on incentivized testing and productivity. Learn why you should keep bonuses a surprise. Start to reward collaboration rather than competition. Understand how to use both subjective and objective measurements in your favor, and implement a rewards system that is “safe to fail.” Shaun explains these concepts and more in “The Bounty Conundrum.”

More Information
Learn more about Shaun Bradshaw.