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People and Teams

Tutorials

ME What’s Your Leadership IQ? NEW
Jennifer Bonine, tap|QA, Inc.
Mon, 10/13/2014 - 8:30am

Have you ever needed a way to measure your leadership IQ? Or been in a performance review where the majority of time was spent discussing your need to improve as a leader? If you have ever wondered what your core leadership competencies are and how to build on and improve them, Jennifer Bonine shares a toolkit to help you do just that.

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MI A Dozen Keys to Agile Testing Maturity
Bob Galen, Velocity Partners
Mary Thorn, ChannelAdvisor
Mon, 10/13/2014 - 8:30am

You’ve “gone agile” and have been relatively successful. So, how do you know how well your team is really doing? And how do you continuously improve your practices? When things get rocky, how do you handle the challenges without reverting to old habits? You realize that the path to high-performance agile testing isn’t easy or quick. It also helps to have a guide. So consider this workshop your guide to ongoing, improved, and sustained high-performance. Join Bob Galen and Mary Thorn as they share lessons from their most successful agile testing transitions.

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MJ Applying Emotional Intelligence to Testing NEW
Thomas McCoy, Australian Department of Social Services
Mon, 10/13/2014 - 8:30am

As test managers and test professionals we can have an enormous emotional impact on others. We're constantly dealing with fragile egos, highly charged situations, and pressured people playing a high-stakes game under conditions of massive uncertainty. We're often the bearers of bad news and are sometimes perceived as critics, activating people's primal fear of being judged. Emotional intelligence (EI), the concept popularized by Harvard psychologist and science writer Daniel Goleman, has much to offer test managers and testers.

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ML Innovation Thinking: Evolve and Expand Your Capabilities SOLD OUT
Jennifer Bonine, tap|QA, Inc.
Mon, 10/13/2014 - 1:00pm

Innovation is a word frequently tossed around in organizations today. The standard clichés are do more with less and be creative. Companies want to be innovative but often struggle with how to define, implement, prioritize, and track their innovation efforts. Using the Innovation to Types model, Jennifer Bonine will help you transform your thinking regarding innovation and understand if your team and company goals match their innovation efforts. Learn how to classify your activities as "core" (to the business) or "context" (essential, but non-revenue generating).

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TO Getting Your Message Across: Communication Skills for Testers SOLD OUT NEW
Thomas McCoy, Australian Department of Social Services
Tue, 10/14/2014 - 1:00pm

Communication is at the heart of our profession. No matter how advanced our testing capabilities are, if we can’t convey our concerns in ways that connect with key members of the project team, our contribution is likely to be ignored. Because we act solely in an advisory capacity, rather than being in command, our power to exert influence is almost entirely based on our communication skills. With people suffering information overload and deluged with emails, it is more important than ever that we craft succinct and effective messages, using a range of communication modalities.

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Concurrent Sessions

W11 Adventures of a Social Tester
Martin Nilsson, House of Test
Wed, 10/15/2014 - 1:45pm

If we know that good co-worker relationships can positively impact our success, why don’t we take a systematic approach to relationship building? Martin Nilsson shares how building personal relationships has helped develop his personal competency. Even though Martin’s technical skills are high, his greatest successes as a tester have come from his ability to build relationships. He shares how a focused effort at building rapport resulted in greater cooperation. When he was mistaken for a test lead during a project, Martin learned that having coffee with someone can trump an email.

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W12 Test Improvement in Our Rapidly Changing World
Martin Pol, Polteq Testing Services BV
Wed, 10/15/2014 - 1:45pm

In organizations adopting the newest development approaches, classical test process improvement models no longer fit. A more flexible approach is required today. Solutions like SOA, virtualization, web technology, cloud computing, mobile, and the application of social media have changed the IT landscape. In addition, we are innovating the way we develop, test, and manage. Many organizations are moving toward a combination of agile/Scrum, context-driven testing, continuous integration and delivery, DevOps, and TestOps. Effective test automation has become a prerequisite for success.

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W17 Speak Like a Test Manager
Mike Sowers, Software Quality Engineering
Wed, 10/15/2014 - 3:00pm

Ever feel like your manager, development manager, product manager, product owner, or (you fill in the blank) is not listening to you or your team? Are you struggling to make an impact with your messages? Are you “pushing a wet rope uphill” in championing product quality? Are you talking, but no one is listening? Mike Sowers shares practical examples of how to more effectively speak like a test manager and offers concrete advice based on his experiences in the technology, financial, transportation, and professional services sectors.

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W18 Implementing Outsourced Testing Services with a Third Party
Shelley Rueger, Moxie Software
Wed, 10/15/2014 - 3:00pm

Outsourcing test services are all the rage today. But are they really faster, better, and cheaper? Shelley Rueger shares how you can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of your test process using a third-party test service. She provides guidance on how to determine if your product is a good candidate for testing services, how to select the right vendor, and how to avoid common pitfalls. Shelley discusses her team's experience as they made the transition from in-house testing to using external testing services. She addresses questions including: When should you outsource testing?

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T1 “Rainmaking” for Test Managers
Julie Gardiner, Redmind
Thu, 10/16/2014 - 9:45am

The dictionary defines a rainmaker as “an executive (or lawyer) in the unsentimental world of business with an exceptional ability to attract clients, use political connections, increase profits, etc.” Simply put, a rainmaker is someone who gets things done. Is this relevant to testing? Absolutely! It is too easy to get stuck in the status quo and to avoid trying something new because everything works well as it is. But what we do can always be made better.

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T7 Leading Internationally-Distributed Test Teams
Dennis Pikora, Symantec
Thu, 10/16/2014 - 11:15am

Are you employing your offshore test team to its best advantage—gaining the cost savings and test coverage you expected? Unless correct management methodologies are in place, you will lose rather than gain both time and money with internationally-distributed testers. If you are thinking you can go offshore with minimal effort, think again. Distributed test leadership and management issues apply when working with third-party firms, a subsidiary, or even your own employees. Don’t let unrealistic expectations impact your career or your company’s goals.

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