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Thursday, October 1, 2015 - 1:30pm - 2:30pm
Personal Excellence
T17

The Secret Life of Testers: Where Your Time Really Goes Prior Year Content

Testing is on the schedule. Your title is Tester. It is time to test. The team is waiting for you. Everybody thinks you spend your time testing. So, why does it seem that you spend so little time actually testing? Michael Bolton and James Bach will show you. They have developed a training and research tool to visually animate the progress of testing. Through the use of testopsies and session-based test management data, Michael and James have collected patterns of how context-driven testers use their time—from the micro to the macro level. Among their findings are that a good tester can spend a whole week in earnest work, and yet achieve only one day of actual progress toward the testing goal. Learn how you can use these patterns to make sensible estimates and set better expectations with your clients.

 

Michael Bolton
Michael Bolton, DevelopSense

Tester, consultant, and trainer Michael Bolton is the coauthor (with James Bach) of Rapid Software Testing, a course that presents a methodology and mindset for testing software expertly in uncertain conditions and under extreme time pressure. A leader in the context-driven software testing movement, Michael has twenty years of experience testing, developing, managing, and writing about software. Currently, he leads DevelopSense, a Toronto-based consultancy. Prior to DevelopSense, he was with Quarterdeck Corporation, where he managed the company’s flagship products and directed project and testing teams—both in-house and worldwide. Contact Michael at [email protected].

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James Bach
James Bach, Satisfice, Inc.

James Bach is founder and principal consultant of Satisfice, Inc., a software testing and quality assurance company. In the 1980s, James cut his teeth as a programmer, tester, and SQA manager in Silicon Valley in the world of market-driven software development. For nearly fifteen years, he has traveled the world teaching rapid software testing skills and serving as an expert witness on court cases involving software testing. James is the author of Lessons Learned in Software Testing and Secrets of a Buccaneer-Scholar: How Self-Education and the Pursuit of Passion Can Lead to a Lifetime of Success.

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