STARWEST 2021 - Tutorial | TechWell

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STARWEST 2021 - Tutorials

Full- and half-day tutorials are consistently the most popular and highly rated part of the conference. Tutorials allow you to take a deeper dive into a specific topic so that you can learn to make improvements to everyday processes in the areas that matter most to you.

Monday, October 4

Dionny Santiago
test.ai
MA

A Beginner's Guide to AI and Testing

New
Monday, October 4, 2021 - 8:30am to 12:00pm

AI has been rapidly changing the way we approach software testing. Traditional test automation is time-consuming to create and breaks down easily in the presence of change. Thankfully, AI is helping testing teams create less procedural, more resilient tests that are able to self-heal in the presence of modern, rapidly changing, highly dynamic production systems. This sounds great, but you may be asking yourself: How do I get started? What additional skills do I need to learn? What tools are available for me to start using, right now? Join Dionny Santiago as he breaks down different AI...

Tariq_King
test.ai
MB

Unit Testing: What Every Developer and Tester Should Know

Monday, October 4, 2021 - 8:30am to 12:00pm

Do you want to take your testing skills to the next level? Are you trying to stay relevant on an agile team where testing is shifting to the left on the project timeline? Do you want to help your organization reap the full benefits of testing earlier? Then join Tariq King to explore the fundamentals of unit testing so you can find bugs as soon as they happen and do more thorough, targeted testing during software development. This introductory session is for everyone—of all programming skill levels. Learn how to apply program-based techniques such as testing by looking, automated unit...

Chris_Loder
Upland InGenius
MC

Test Automation: Start and Succeed

Monday, October 4, 2021 - 8:30am to 12:00pm

Many organizations invest a lot of effort in test automation at the system level but then have serious problems as their product matures and changes over time. As a leader, how can you ensure that your new automation efforts will get off to a good start? What can you do to ensure that your automation work provides continuing added value? Chris Loder explains the critical issues you need to know to get a good start, and he will share his extensive experience in building great automation. He covers the most important management issues you should address for test automation success,...

Janna_Loeffler
Equinox Media
Adam Satterfield
Global Payments
MD

Test Strategies for a Modern World

Monday, October 4, 2021 - 8:30am to 12:00pm

With the advent of DevOps, Agile, and ever-increasing complex technologies under test, the classic, the bloated test strategy document has quickly become outdated. Many testers struggle to understand how to convey complex testing tasks concisely. However, there is hope! There is a way to create a concise, actionable, and useful test strategy for Agile, DevOps, and even the dreaded Waterfall! Janna and Adam will leverage real-world test strategies that they have used and will break down the critical components and detail out how to create a test strategy, no matter what development style...

ME

Cypress 101

New
Monday, October 4, 2021 - 8:30am to 12:00pm
NOTE: Due to a schedule conflict with the speaker, this tutorial will be held on Monday, October 11. Registrants of this tutorial will be contacted with more details.

Cypress is an end-to-end testing tool that is creating a lot of buzz in the world of test automation due to its speed, ease of use and many more factors! Are you new to the world of test automation or are you shifting from the world of Selenium to Cypress and don’t know where to start? No worries, this tutorial has got you covered! In this tutorial, we will start with the walkthrough of the basics of Web UI Automation that will help build your foundation and then we will get an understanding of the Cypress framework and some key differences between Cypress and Selenium Webdriver. After...

Tariq_King
test.ai
Jason_Arbon
test.ai
MF

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Skills for the Testing World

Monday, October 4, 2021 - 1:00pm to 4:30pm

Software continues to revolutionize the world, impacting nearly every aspect of our work, family, and personal life. Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are playing key roles in this revolution through improvements in search results, recommendations, forecasts, and other predictions. AI and ML technologies are being used in platforms for digital assistants, home entertainment, medical diagnosis, customer support, and autonomous vehicles. Testing practitioners are recognizing the potential for advances in AI and ML to be leveraged for automated testing—an area that still...

Melissa Benua
mParticle
MG

Test Design for Fully Automated Build Architecture

Monday, October 4, 2021 - 1:00pm to 4:30pm

Imagine this … as soon as any developed functionality is submitted into the code repository, it is automatically subjected to the appropriate battery of tests and then released straight into production. Setting up the pipeline capable of doing just that is becoming more and more common and something you need to know about. But most organizations hit the same stumbling block—just what IS the appropriate battery of tests? Automated build architectures don't always lend themselves well to the traditional stages of testing. In this hands-on tutorial, Melissa Benua introduces you to key test...

Adam_Auerbach
EPAM Systems
MH

Instill a DevOps Testing Culture in Your Team and Organization

Monday, October 4, 2021 - 1:00pm to 4:30pm

The DevOps movement is here. Companies across many industries are breaking down siloed IT departments and federating them into product development teams. Testing and its practices are at the heart of these changes. Traditionally, IT organizations have been staffed with mostly manual testers and a limited number of automation and performance engineers. To keep pace with development in the new “you build it, you own it” environment, testing teams and individuals must develop new technical skills and even embrace coding to stay relevant and add greater value to the business. DevOps really...

Rob_Sabourin
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
MI

The Tester's (New) Role in Agile Development

Monday, October 4, 2021 - 1:00pm to 4:30pm

Avoiding siloed development is a tricky business. It’s so easy for agile teams to fall into the rut of testers only doing traditional testing activities and programmers strictly doing their time-worn coding activities. But there are actually many places testers can contribute value on a cross-functional team. Rob Sabourin will share a number of examples of how testing skills can be applied to a wide variety of activities in an agile project. For instance, testers are among the most skilled team members in story grooming, elicitation, and exploration. Risk analysis in self-organized agile...

Tuesday, October 5

Tariq_King
test.ai
TB

Testing Strategies for Microservices

Tuesday, October 5, 2021 - 8:30am to 4:30pm

Software development is trending toward building systems using small, autonomous, independently deployable services called microservices. Leveraging microservices makes it easier to add and modify system behavior with minimal or no service interruption. Because they facilitate releasing software early, frequently, and continuously, microservices are especially popular in DevOps. But how do microservices affect software testing and testability? Are there new testing challenges that arise from this paradigm? Or are these simply old challenges disguised as new ones? Join Tariq King as he...

Rich Mills
Coveros
TC

Web Security Testing: The Basics and More

Tuesday, October 5, 2021 - 8:30am to 12:00pm

Web applications are often security critical or serve as front-ends for security critical applications, making web testing for vulnerabilities an essential part of software testing. Unfortunately, most software testers have not been taught how to identify web security issues while testing applications. Join Richard Mills as he shares what you need to know to security test web-based applications as part of your overall testing process. Learn about the most common web security vulnerabilities and how they are introduced into web code and exploited by hackers. Explore test techniques for...

Jeff Payne
Coveros
TD

Getting Smart on API Testing & Automation

Tuesday, October 5, 2021 - 8:30am to 12:00pm

API testing has become more and more popular as service-oriented architectures have become common. In addition, testing at the API level can be effectively automated to provide maintainable regression tests that work well in a DevOps process. In this tutorial, Jeffery Payne discusses what API testing is all about and how it is effectively done. Techniques and tools are discussed that highlight where in the testing process API testing makes the most sense to perform. Various open source and commercial tools will be demonstrated and the pros and cons of various solutions discussed. Effective...

Chris_Loder
Upland InGenius
TE

Automation Framework Essentials

Tuesday, October 5, 2021 - 8:30am to 12:00pm

Automation is critical in today’s software delivery lifecycle, and yet many organizations struggle to keep their automation running. How can we mitigate difficulties and get consistent automation runs and results we can trust? The secret is implementing a solid automation framework, but that isn’t as easy as it seems. Chris Loder has built several automation frameworks over his career and has learned what works—and, more importantly, what doesn’t. This tutorial will cover what an automation framework is, the benefits of having one, and the keys to a successful framework, including...

Jeff Pierce
Coveros
TF

Quality and Testing Measures and Metrics

Tuesday, October 5, 2021 - 8:30am to 12:00pm

To be most effective, leaders—including development and testing managers, ScrumMasters, product owners, and IT managers—need metrics to help direct their efforts and make informed recommendations about the software’s release readiness and associated risks. Because one important evaluation activity is to “measure” the quality of the software, the progress and results of both development and testing must be measured. Collecting, analyzing, and using metrics are complicated because developers and testers often are concerned that the metrics will be used against them. Join Jeff Pierce as he...

Jenna Charlton
Coveros
TG

Agile Black Box Test Design Techniques

New
Tuesday, October 5, 2021 - 8:30am to 12:00pm
Agile Black Box Test Design Techniques begins where most software testing training ends, when it is time to create specific test cases. Because testing everything is impossible and agile practices demand, we test strategically, focusing on risk to give us the highest return on our testing investment. This course shows you how to create an effective set of test cases and develops your practical skills to become a more effective and strategic tester.  Explore the science and the art of designing test cases for black-box testing, getting hands-on with practical exercises designed to challenge...
Jenna Charlton
Coveros
TH

Exploratory Testing in Action

New
Tuesday, October 5, 2021 - 1:00pm to 4:30pm

Exploratory testing is where the art and science of software testing meet and fills in the gap between automation, unit testing, and story testing. Exploratory testing is unique. Unlike other test techniques, exploratory testing values the individual tester’s expertise and perspective, centering the testers’ intuition and knowledge of software as the test basis. Explore the science and the art of exploratory testing, getting hands-on with exploratory testing by exploring real applications and playing testing games designed to challenge and deepen your skills. The respected instructor...

Aprajita-Mathur
Guardant Health
TI

Docker 101

New
Tuesday, October 5, 2021 - 1:00pm to 4:30pm

Docker is the most popular containerized solution being used in the software industry for development. Test automation is no exception to this. Like any other test automation tool, implementation and testing can get complicated, tricky, and unmaintainable if all you understand is the “Record and Playback” features of Docker or think it is the same as using a virtual machine. Do you want to better test Docker-based applications and use Docker for your automation needs? Then join Aprajita Mathur to understand fundamental concepts of Dockers like images, containers, volumes, most used Docker...

TJ

Running Risk Assessment Sessions

Tuesday, October 5, 2021 - 1:00pm to 4:30pm

Risk is a feature of every project. We work to minimize it when we're aware of it and mitigate it regardless. However, we have very few avenues to formally discuss risk with our teammates, which is why we need risk assessment sessions. Jenny will lead the group through the five stages of a well-run risk assessment session, and you will be able to break off into smaller groups to run your mini risk assessment on an example application! You will pick your features: how do we select the features for a risk assessment session? Jenny will suggest several methods, including grouping by pages and...

Jeff Payne
Coveros
TK

Integrating Automated Testing into DevOps

Tuesday, October 5, 2021 - 1:00pm to 4:30pm

In many organizations, agile development processes are driving the pursuit of faster software releases, which has spawned a set of new practices—DevOps. DevOps stresses communications and integration between development and operations, including rapid deployment, continuous integration, and continuous delivery. Because DevOps practices require confidence that changes made to the code base will function as expected, automated testing is essential. Join Jeffery Payne as he discusses the unique challenges associated with integrating automated testing into continuous integration/continuous...

TL

Holistic Performance Testing for Modern Applications

Tuesday, October 5, 2021 - 1:00pm to 4:30pm

With the advent of frameworks like Angular, React, and Vue, the landscape of application performance has changed significantly in terms of testing and measurement. Gone are the days of measuring response time as a single value based on back-end performance. In modern web and mobile applications, additional layers need to be peeled apart at the front end to truly understand its performance characteristics. Traditional approaches to performance testing are no longer sufficient to provide a delightfully responsive user experience. Join Kaushal Dalvi as he details new developments in the...

Rob_Sabourin
AmiBug.Com, Inc.
TM

Test Estimation in the Face of Uncertainty

Tuesday, October 5, 2021 - 1:00pm to 4:30pm

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 keys to good estimates are understanding the primary variables, comparing them to known standards, and normalizing the estimates based on their differences. This is easy to say but difficult to accomplish because estimates are frequently required even when we know very little about the project—and what we do know is constantly changing. Throw in a healthy dose of politics and a bit of wishful thinking,...