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Julie Gardiner

Julie Gardiner
Hitachi Consulting

As director of consultancy for Hitachi Consulting, Julie Gardiner provides consultancy and training in all aspects of testing, management, and agile, and specializes in risk, test management, and usability. A certified ScrumMaster and agile coach, Julie has more than twenty years of experience as a developer, DBA, project manager, head of operations management, and head of R&D. She has held positions of test analyst, test team leader, test consultant, and test manager in the public sector and in the financial, broadcasting, insurance, utilities, retail, web, and telecom industries using both traditional and agile methodologies.

Speaker Presentations
Monday, September 28, 2015 - 8:30am
Half-day Tutorials
Applying Emotional Intelligence to Testing

As test managers and test professionals, 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. The concept of emotional intelligence (EI), popularized by Harvard psychologist and science writer Daniel Goleman, has much to offer test managers and testers. Key EI skills include self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management. Julie Gardiner discusses how EI can be useful in dealing with anger management, controlling negative thoughts, processing constructive criticism, and dealing with conflict—all within the context of the testing profession. Explore the concept of EI, assess your own levels of EI, and look at ways EI can help. This lively session is grounded in real-life examples, giving you concrete ideas to take back to work.

Monday, September 28, 2015 - 1:00pm
Half-day Tutorials
Get Your Message Across: Communication Skills for Testers

Communication is at the heart of our profession. 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—no matter how advanced our testing capabilities are. Because we act in an advisory capacity rather than being in command, our power to exert influence is almost entirely based on our communication skills. Join Julie Gardiner as she draws on techniques from psychology and marketing to help you get your message across. With people suffering information overload and deluged with emails, it is more important than ever to craft succinct and effective messages, using a range of communication modalities. Key themes include: non-verbal communication, presentation skills, persuasive writing, influencing skills, graphic communication, and communicating in teams and meetings. Attendees will use a range of hands-on exercises to practice the concepts being discussed.