STARWEST 2021 Keynote : The Deal—Quality & Development Together

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Wednesday, October 6, 2021 - 8:30am to 9:45am

The Deal—Quality & Development Together

Why are developers and QA professionals so often at odds? We know that it takes both disciplines to make better software faster. So how do we get from an adversarial relationship to a beneficial one? Join Jenny Bramble, Director of Quality Engineering, and Adrian P. Dunston, Director of Backend Engineering, as they discuss and explore “The Deal”—a pact between one test engineer and one software engineer that can make a huge impact for the two and for the teams around them by strengthening both disciplines. They will describe The Deal (development supports test; test keeps development safe) and introduce you to the team members that you should target to make The Deal with as well as timing and how to maintain the relationship. If you've ever been on a toxic team and wanted to change it to something more positive, Jenny and Adrian are here to help guide you in the right direction. Learn how "dev supports test and test keeps dev safe." Working together creates higher quality codebases and organizations, while working against each other creates toxicity. Discover how to fit and finish so testers can have the opportunity to keep devs safe, and how to approach defects with kindness and an open mind. You come away with a plan to make a deal with your devs/testers. Watch for ways to have each other's backs and build trust with attentiveness, strategic praise, and issue framing.

Jenny Bramble
Papa

Jenny Bramble came up through support and DevOps, cutting her teeth on that interesting role that acts as the 'translator' between customer requests from support and the development team before diving headlong into her career as a tester. Her love of support and the human side of problems lets her find a sweet spot between empathy for the user and empathy for her team. She's done testing, support, or human interfacing for most of her career. She finds herself happiest when she's making an impact on other people--whether it's helping find issues in applications, speaking at events, or just grabbing coffee and chatting.

Adrian Dunston
Papa
Adrian P. Dunston has worked in companies of all sizes as a software developer, data architect, scrum master, manager, and briefly founder. His hobbies include cross-referencing several dozens of self-help and leadership books which he quotes endlessly to his amazing wife and fabulous children. Adrian is passionate about neurodiversity, using computers to help people, and storytelling. He also takes extensive notes.