Paul Carvalho, Consultant, Software Testing and Quality Services (STAQS)
Topic: Testing with an Accent – A Primer for Internationalization
Session Topic: General Testing
Session Content Level: Beginner
Session Description:Internationalization Testing is more than just testing with accented characters, and you don’t need to speak a different language to be good at it. In today’s modern world, people from all over the world will use your applications. Are you taking these users into account? Will your App or System Under Test handle different configurations or data inputs as easily as the default settings and values? In this session we will cover: (1) risks you need to add to your Testing Strategies to expose potential holes that may affect your international markets, (2) simple tools and tricks you can use, and (3) discuss ways to incorporate i18n into your regular testing to make it seamless. Go beyond the standard ASCII character set! Explore with the richness of your real user base to deliver more value.
Speaker Bio: Paul Carvalho has been in the IT industry for more than twenty years, with roles in testing, management, software quality assurance, development, training and technical support. He specializes in systems analysis, test design and exploratory testing, and has a gift of teaching for understanding. As an Agile Testing Coach, Paul helps testers and teams grow and adapt to complement development efforts and to deliver more value to projects. He has been published in Better Software magazine, is a regular speaker at testing peer groups and conferences, blogs occasionally, loves scripting with Ruby, and enjoys discovering new ways to break systems and applications. It is rumored that he is also author of the forthcoming book “Handbook of Software Testing.”
Henrik Andersson, .Net Developer & Consultant, Jayway
Topic: Are You Stuck In An Agile Project?
Session topic: Agile Testing
Session content level: Intermediate
Session Description: Are you still running the test steps and are you still planning your two week sprint? Does it feel like you don’t belong to the agile team? An agile process is a light-weight process where the whole team will strive towards the same goal and as a tester in an agile team. I want to contribute to success, which means that I need to test new features fast and give the developer feedback of the new features that were implemented. The way of testing in an agile project requires different skills of the tester. I will discuss how I wrote test cases that are readable and easy to maintain and give some challenges into regression testing. I will touch on how to engage the entire team to feel responsible for the quality of the software and how I introduce the exploratory testing for the developers. Included will be an introduction to the concept DET, Developers Exploratory Testing. DET is the concept founded by Jayway. As test cases, for the regression test, I used a notation called Gherkin that is used in Behavior Driven Development. How can notation from BDD help me as a tester in a regression testing and how can DET be a part of regression testing. This type of testing is light years away from boring test steps that has to be executed and test planning as well as regression testing that require no brain activity. This type of testing requires technical skills and commitment to build the best product ever.
Speaker Bio: Henrik Andersson is a software test inspirer and consultant at Jayway. He loves the challenge of integrating testing in an agile team and improving how testers and developers can work together. Henrik
is co-founder of the Southern Chapter of the test community Swedish Association of Software Testing. When not speaking at conferences or in test communities, he is spending his time writing articles, blog posts and holding test courses throughout the Nordic countries. Henrik started his career as a developer, and then moved on to software testing. By speaking both languages he brings the gap between developers and testers closer.
Jason Little, Agile Coach, Trainer and Lean Startup Nut
Topic: Fight the Good Fight
Session topic: Leadership
Session content level: Any
Session Description: I’m a business guy, not a tester and throughout my career I’ve seen “QA” as the industry whipping-boy for too long. Enough is enough. It is ludicrous for an organization to put the onus of quality on “QA”. Worse than that, it’s irresponsible to place the stress of “ensuring quality” on a sole department. From my experience the perception that testing is the problem when poor quality is observed is plain wrong. Organizations that deliver software are much more complex than an assembly line that makes toasters. There are many ways to fight the good fight and depending on your organization’s culture, some might work while others might get you fired. I will share with you techniques for identifying your organizational culture which will help you find a common language to speak to “the business” to make progress towards improving quality.
Speaker Bio: Jason is currently working as an independent Agile Coach and recently won the Lean Startup Machine Toronto weekend competition. In his spare time Jason builds iOS applications and built a mobile business inside an established company using the Lean Startup methodology where he went from $0 to $200K of business within 3 months. Before making a year-long pitstop as a full-time employee for Q4 Web Systems, Jason worked as an Agile Coach for 2 years working with all sizes of organizations, providing Agile coaching and training. In 2011, Jason spoke at LSSC and Agile 2011 on the importance of visibility and Agile Transformation and founded the Silicon Halton Agile/Lean Peer to Peer group which brings Agile goodness to the local technology community in the Halton Region.
Kevin Malley, Team Lead SV&V, Research In Motion Ltd.
Topic: The Road to Agile from the Bottom Up
Session topic: Agile
Session content level: Beginner
Session Description: What happens when those that work the trench day in and day out see a need for change? What if that change is a shift in how everyone works and when discussed at a broader level everyone thinks they are already working like this but in fact they have just picked up on a bit of the lingo. Originally adopting agile as a method to close the gap between development and test, we will walk through how the teams working agile like influenced wider scale changes, how these changes have lead to greater customer satisfaction, better adherence to release schedules and better productivity. As the saying goes no pain no gain, and our road to agile is no exception, we will share some of the pains and certainly some of our successes in our ever evolving road to agile.
Speaker Bio: Kevin Malley has worn multiple testing and project management hats throughout his 14+ year career. He has had experience in the broadcast, financials and handheld device industries and currently holds a QA Team Lead position at Research in Motion. At RIM Kevin is focusing on guiding and supporting his team of software testers, in collaboration with their development partners, to adopt the Agile methodology.
Co-presenter info: Tracey Clark Research In Motion, Manager SAP QA & SV&V
Griffin Jones, Consultant, Congruent Compliance
Topic: Surviving an FDA Audit: Heuristics for Exploratory Testing
Session topic: Getting audited and learning how to deal with it
Session content level: Beginner
Session Description: In FDA regulated industries, audits are high-stakes, fact-finding exercises required to verify compliance to regulations and an organization’s internal procedures. Although exploratory testing has emerged as a powerful test approach within regulated industries, an audit is the impact point where exploratory testing and regulatory worlds collide. Griffin Jones describes a heuristic model-Congruence, Honesty, Competence, Appropriate Process Model, Willingness, Control, and Evidence-his team used to survive an audit. You can use this model to prepare for an audit or to baseline your current practices for an improvement program. Griffin highlights the common misconceptions and traps to avoid with exploratory testing in your regulated industry. Avoid mutual misunderstandings that can trigger episodes of incongruous behavior and an unsuccessful audit. Learn how to maintain your composure during a stressful audit and leave with valuable heuristics to help you organize and present your exploratory testing results with confidence.
Speaker Bio: Griffin Jones provides consulting services on context-driven software testing and regulatory compliance to companies in regulated industries, e.g., FDA. Recently he was the Director of Quality and Regulatory Compliance at iCardiac Technologies which provides core lab services for the pharmaceutical industry to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy or safety of their potential new drugs. Griffin was responsible for all matters relating to quality and regulatory compliance for an FDA, GCP, 21 CFR Part 11 regulatory compliant quality system, including frequently presenting the verification and validation (testing) results to external regulatory auditors. Griffin was previously a product quality lead for eighteen years at Eastman Kodak. He is currently the principal consultant with Congruent Compliance and can be reached at griffin.jones@congruentcompliance.com.
John Hazel, Test Manager, Alcatel-Lucent
Topic: Interviewing for success
Session topic: Leadership
Session content level: Beginner
Session Description: John Hazel has been a SW test manager for 14 years and over that time he has developed non-traditional interview questions that have proven time and time again to tap into the thinking brain of potential testers. Working with his fellow manager, Paul Holland, they have interviewed well over 500 candidates to fill roughly 100 positions. By using and refining these interview questions they have managed to maintain a very high success rate. John will share their interview questions and explain why traditional interview techniques are not as effective at finding excellent test professionals.
Speaker Bio: John Hazel has been a test manager for 14 years. He is currently the Customer Focus Test Manager for the North American Access market for Alcatel-Lucent in Kanata. He leverages his diversified experience in software design, system test, technical & project management, and organizational leadership to solve problems, deliver results and add value. He helps teams conceive and implement customized solutions to project and business challenges, by leveraging the wisdom gained from his experience and applying techniques from software development, system testing, project management, process improvement, and people skills.
Fiona Charles
Topic: Standing In – Testers Representing Stakeholders
Session topic: Testers Representing Stakeholders
Session content level: Beginner
Session Descprition: Everyone on a software project has an obligation to deliver the value expected by project stakeholders. But arguably, testers have a special obligation. We have a duty to represent our stakeholders as we test. Who are “our” stakeholders? This isn’t always as obvious as we might think. There are the potential users of the software—and then who? Stakeholders can come in many forms, and the ones whose interests we represent may not always be limited to those identified by or for the project. In this interactive session, we’ll explore who our testing stakeholders are and why it’s our job to represent them: questions central to what we do as testers.
Speaker Bio: Fiona Charles is a software test consultant who teaches organizations to match their software testing to their business risks and opportunities. With extensive experience in software development and integration, she has managed testing and consulted on testing on many challenging projects for clients in retail, banking, financial services, health care, telecommunications and emergency services. Throughout her career Fiona has advocated, designed, implemented, and taught pragmatic and humane practices to deliver software worth having—in even the most difficult project circumstances. Her articles on testing and test management appear frequently and she speaks and conducts experiential workshops at international conferences. Fiona edited The Gift of Time, and guest-edited the “Women of Influence” issue of STP magazine. Fiona is co-founder and host of the Toronto Workshop on Software Testing.
Declan Whelan
Topic: Testing Effectively with Specification by Example
Session topic: Specification by Example
Session content level: Beginner
Session Description: Are you tired of mindless manual regression tests? Does your testing get continually squeezed between development delays and unmovable ship dates? Are you frustrated that software delivered to you simply does not work or has major gaps that make testing futile? Specification by example is a practice that expresses desired functionality as scenarios that are sufficiently clear that they can be automated. This allows a testing mindset to be applied early in the development cycle and helps drive development towards making these scenarios work. And it builds a valuable regression suite that is focused on the most important system scenarios.This session will be an introduction to specification by example and will provide practical tips on how to get this going in your organization.
Speaker Bio: Coming Shortly
Griffin Jones, Consultant, Congruent Compliance
Topic: Can You Have Collaboration Without Chaos?
Session topic: Testing management
Session content level: Intermediate Beginner
Session Description: Some software testing over- values the efficient mechanical execution of tasks; and fidelity to the collective wisdom embodied in organizational processes. This “Procedural Over-Specification” model works – to a point. It has very firm, clear control – but does it always produce the most meaningful testing? Is there a more effective model that leverages the knowledge and creativity of the people doing the task, yet exerts reliable control in a different way? Can you have collaboration without chaos? Yes, it is called an “adaptive discretionary control model”. Griffin dissects this model – showing the prescriptive and discretionary parts; then examines how the “orient” function animates and gives it adaptability. We then explore some arch-types of control and the values that they are oriented on, while classifying task activities into types and preferred control methods. Leave with an understanding of how you can leverage the wisdom and creativity of people to make your testing more meaningful.
Speaker Bio: Griffin Jones provides consulting services on context-driven software testing and regulatory compliance to companies in regulated industries, e.g., FDA. Recently he was the Director of Quality and Regulatory Compliance at iCardiac Technologies which provides core lab services for the pharmaceutical industry to evaluate the therapeutic efficacy or safety of their potential new drugs. Griffin was responsible for all matters relating to quality and regulatory compliance for an FDA, GCP, 21 CFR Part 11 regulatory compliant quality system, including frequently presenting the verification and validation (testing) results to external regulatory auditors. Griffin was previously a product quality lead for eighteen years at Eastman Kodak. He is currently the principal consultant with Congruent Compliance and can be reached at griffin.jones@congruentcompliance.com.
