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Rob Sabourin

AmiBug.com

Rob Sabourin, P. Eng., has more than thirty-three years of management experience leading teams of software development professionals. A well-respected member of the software engineering community, Rob has managed, trained, mentored, and coached hundreds of top professionals in the field. He frequently speaks at conferences and writes on software engineering, SQA, testing, management, and internationalization. Rob wrote I am a Bug!, the popular software testing children's book; works as an adjunct professor of software engineering at McGill University; and serves as the principle consultant (and president/janitor) of AmiBug.Com, Inc. Contact Rob at [email protected].

Speaker Presentations
Tuesday, October 14, 2014 - 8:30am
Half-day Tutorials
Exploring Usability Testing for Mobile and Web Technologies SOLD OUT

It’s not enough to verify that software conforms to requirements by passing established acceptance tests. Successful software products engage, entertain, and support the users' experience. Goals vary from project to project, but no matter how robust and reliable your software is, if your users do not embrace it, business can slip from your hands. Rob Sabourin shares how to elicit effective usability requirements with techniques such as storyboarding and task analysis. Together, testers, programmers, and users collaborate to blend the requirements, design, and test cycles into a tight feedback loop. Learn how to select a subset of system functions to test with a small group of users to get high value information at low cost. Learn how usability testers can take advantage of naïve questions from novice users as well as the tunnel vision and bias of domain experts. Rob shares examples of usability testing for a variety of technologies including mobile and web-based products.

Tuesday, October 14, 2014 - 1:00pm
Half-day Tutorials
Test Estimation in Practice SOLD OUT

Anyone who has ever attempted to estimate software testing effort realizes just how difficult the task can be. The number of factors that can affect the estimate is virtually unlimited. The key to good estimates is to understand the primary variables, compare them to known standards, and normalize the estimates based on their differences. This is easy to say but difficult to accomplish because estimates are frequently required even when very little is known about the project and what is known is constantly changing. Throw in a healthy dose of politics and a bit of wishful thinking and estimation can become a nightmare. Rob Sabourin provides a foundation for anyone who must estimate software testing work effort. Learn about the test team’s and tester’s roles in estimation and measurement, and how to estimate in the face of uncertainty. Analysts, developers, leads, test managers, testers, and QA personnel can all benefit from this tutorial.

Wednesday, October 15, 2014 - 11:30am
Test Techniques
Testing Lessons Learned from Sesame Street

Rob Sabourin has discovered testing lessons in the Simpsons, the Looney Tunes gang, Great Detectives, Dr. Seuss, and other unlikely places, but this year he journeys to Sesame Street. Sesame Street teaches basic life skills in a safe, entertaining, memorable style. Rob uses them to solve stubborn technical, management, and people-related testing problems. Oscar the Grouch guides us through failure mode analysis. Ernie and Bert help us tackle problems from different perspectives. Big Bird and Mr. Snuffleupagus teach about persistence, rhetoric, and bug advocacy. The Count misdirects management with fallacious metrics. And Kermit demonstrates that it is not easy being a tester, but we can make a difference by getting the right things done well. Sesame Street songs teach testing lessons, too. Rob performs a powerful affinity analysis singing "One of these things …".  Enjoy testing lessons brought to you by Rob and your friends at Sesame Street.