Annual Summits
The next Test Management Summit will take place during the first week of February 2014.
- Day 1: six half-day Workshops at Balls Brothers Minster Court, Mincing Lane, London
- Day 2: Sixteen interactive sessions, keynote, Reception and Dinner at the Institute of Directors, Pall Mall, London
Previous Test Management Summits
2007 Test Management Summit
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Session 1A Metrics, Estimating & Planning
Sam Clarke, nFocus |
Session 1B Contracts, Acceptance Criteria and Outsourced Development Susan Windsor, WMHL Consulting |
Session 1C
Supporting Stakeholders with Feature Coverage Peter Farrell-Vinay, Alphabite |
|
Session 2A Managing Offshore Testing Margaret Edney, Thomson Financial |
Session 2B Future for Test Automation Sarah Saltzman, Compuware |
Session 2C
Test Management Models Ivan Ericsson, SQS Software Quality Systems Ltd |
|
Session 3A Testing From The Start – Test Driven Development Fran O’Hara, Insight Test Services |
Session 3B
Finding the Right Test Manager Bogdan Bereza-Jarocinski, BBJTest |
Session 3C
Improve Testing, Improve Software Paul Gerrard, Gerrard Consultin |
|
Session 4A Test Assurance – Ensuring Stakeholders get what they want
|
Session 4B What is the Big Issue – What causes issues to slip through the testing net?” |
Session 4C Future for Test Manager Skills
|
2008 Test Management Summit
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
Breakfast Facilitators Briefing |
|||
|
Coffee and Registration |
|||
|
Welcome and Introductions – NASH ROOM |
|||
|
WATERLOO |
TRAFALGAR 2 |
ST. JAMES 1 |
ST. JAMES 2 |
|
Session 1A Agile Testing David Evans/Ivan Ericsson, SQS
|
Session 1B Process Improvement - Part of the Test Manager's Role? Geoff Thomson, Experimentus |
Session 1C Top Ten Tips for Test Business Plans and Business Cases Declan Kavanagh, Insight Test Services |
Session 1D Automated Regression Testing - is this the key to IT Change Assurance? Sam Clarke, nFocus |
|
Break – NASH ROOM |
|||
|
Session 2A The Future of Functional Automation Duncan Brigginshaw Odin Technologies |
Session 2B Transforming Business People into Testers and Test Managers - How? Paul Gerrard, Aqastra |
Session 2C Protecting IT Service with a Federated Business Ben Brundell and Nigel Redman, HBOS |
Session 2D Non-Functional within OAT Stevan Zivanovic, Independent Consultant |
|
Lunch – NASH ROOM |
|||
|
WATERLOO |
TRAFALGAR 2 |
ST. JAMES 1 |
ST. JAMES 2 |
|
Session 3A Getting Business Value out of Metrics Richard Terry and Rob Baarda, Sogeti |
Session 3B Application Security and Testing Colin Robb, Hewlett-Packard |
Session 3C Keys to Successfully Hiring and Retaining Your Testing Team Jane Muller, Pervue |
Session 3D The Dandelion Model - Weed or Herb - Can negative attributes be good for testing? |
|
Break – NASH ROOM |
|||
|
Session 4A Managing 3rd party Supplier Testing Tony Simms, Roque Consulting |
Session 4B Accelerate Testing Cycles with Collaborative Performance Testing, Dan Koloski, Empirix |
Session 4C ERP Maintenance Testing Graham Marcus, Intercontinental Hotels |
Session 3D Dandelion Model Continued |
|
Reconvene in NASH Room |
|||
|
Keynote: Paul Herzlich, "The UK Test Management Forum Survey" |
|||
|
Drinks Reception – NASH ROOM |
|||
|
Dinner in Burton Room (with Merchant String Quartet) |
|||
|
Close |
|||
2009 Test Management Summit
The Third Test Management Summit took place on Wednesday 28 January 2009 at the sumptuous Institute of Directors at 116 Pall Mall, London.
The day was generously sponsored by our PATRONS, HP, SOGETI and SQS UK and our Summit Sponsors, FACILITA, NEOTYS and ORIGINAL Software.
You must be registered and logged-in to see the session downloads.
SUMMIT SESSIONS
|
Pragmatic Testing in Agile Projects Stuart Reid |
Getting Value out of Quality Center Paul Rolfe |
Managing Code Quality and Delivery in the 21st Century Sebastian Paczynski |
What Influences Me in Software Testing Graham Thomas |
|
Survival Skills for Difficult Times Bogdan Bereza-Jarocinski, Better Software |
Exploring Open and Free Tools Alan Richardson |
Managed Outsourced Testing Paul Godsafe |
Load and Performance Testing Challenges for 2009 Gordon McKeown |
|
Knowledge Management on a Testing Team Dan Prokopiwskyi |
Exploring Why Software Automation Fails or Succeeds George Wilson |
Why Aren't the Testers Testing Security? Ed Hill |
Performance and Test-Driven Development: Are they Compatible? Alan Gordon and David Evans |
|
Result-Driven Testing Business Alignment in Order to Show Our Added Derk-Jan de Grood |
Performance Testing Rich Thomas Ripoche |
Agile Seems to Have Cracked the Unit Test Issue but What About the Sam Clarke |
The Wider Benefits of the CCTM Security Testing Scheme Peter Fagan |
|
Keynote Talk: Paul Gerrard |
|||
2010 Test Management Summit
The abstracts and content for the 2010 TMF Workshops and Summit can be accessed through the links below.
Test Management Workshops - Abstracts and Materials
| The downloadable material (Powerpoint, PDF or Word documents) can be found at the bottom of this page. the links will not be available unless you are a logged-in, registered user. You can register for the site here. |
Alan Richardson, Compendium Developments, Exploratory and Innovative Testing Workshop
Does your test team innovate, and generate new approaches to your testing? As test managers we can build processes and shape our team culture to encourage innovation, learning and exploration.
This hands-on workshop will teach the principles and techniques of exploratory learning. You will use, and learn how to identify tools which augment your testing and we will discuss ways of identifying and building tailored approaches to help us innovate and get the most out of our teams and our testing.
This workshop for testers and managers willing to share their experiences and keep learning and moving their test process forward.
Equipment: Bring a laptop (with wireless or optionally a 5m network cable).
Susan Windsor, WMHL Consulting, Don’t shoot the messenger!
How many times have we taken criticism for being the bearer of bad news? Why are we misunderstood and not appreciated?
Getting our message over effectively requires others to receive it in a way they can understand. So, one key area we all strive to improve in the testing profession is in the area of communications. Being able to communicate effectively can enhance your career in your current organisation, improve your value as potential employee and provide you with greater self-confidence.
This workshop covers three elements of effective communication and Susan will stage exercises for each:
- The science of persuasion
- The art of story telling
- Communications styles
At the end of the workshop, you will be able to identify how you can apply these techniques in your workplace.
Ray Arell - Intel, Building a SCRUM based Test Strategy
In this workshop Ray will walk through the creation of a validation test strategy that fits the Agile SCRUM development life-cycle.
This will include an overview of SCRUM and the benefits/pitfalls for validation teams, a sample test framework, a deeper dive into customer personas and how to use them effectively in sprint deliverables, defect management, a breakdown of test methods that work well and ones that don't and why, test architecture impact, training, and key measurements.
Also, Ray will give insight into his team's transformation from a waterfall development culture to SCRUM. This will include a deeper view of the people impact within a large paradigm shift. This tutorial should be helpful for both managers and individual contributors who are at the start for their agile journey.
Paul Gerrard, Gerrard Consulting, Open Source and Free Tools Workshop
What can open source and free tools do for you? Surely they are unreliable? Where is the documentation? Where is the support? They are free but can’t do much for me, can they?
The number, scope and reliability of open source and free tools increase every day. In this session, We will explore the range of free tools available and how you can obtain, install and configure a few of them. The workshop aims to remove some of the mystique of open source, Linux-based and virtualisation tools. We’ll discuss how you need to adjust expectations, take a flexible, hands-on but realistic approach to exploring these new tools and opportunities.
Optional: Bring a laptop (with wireless or ideally a 5m network cable) if you want to download/try out the exemplar tools (to include Linux, OpenOffice, VMWare, Perl/Python/PHP, MySQL, Bugzilla, Watir, Selenium, Grinder).
Dave Evans and Mike Scott, SQS, Agile Test Management Workshop
In this workshop we will explore the most common issues and challenges faced by Test Managers working in an agile context.
Topics we’ll cover include test tooling strategy, test asset management, team size & configuration, management style, staff development & training, offshoring and distributed teams. We will also take the opportunity to workshop as a group the issues of greatest importance to you.
George Wilson, Original Software, Taking Control of Your Test Data
Every organisation faces the challenge of delivering quality IT systems to support rapidly evolving business demands. The effective management of data is critical in meeting this challenge, especially when it comes to building a test environment for ensuring your applications do what they are required to do. This workshop will explore strategies and techniques that can be used to support QA teams with the creation, management and verification of test data.
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| Alan Richardson - Exploratory Testing | 61.07 KB |
| Paul Gerrard - Open Source and Free Tools | 1.97 MB |
| Susan Windsor - Dont Shoot the Messenger | 1.18 MB |
| Ray Arell SCRUM Based Test Strategy | 4.54 MB |
| David Evans, Mike Scott - Agile Test Workshop | 14.59 KB |
Test Management Summit - Abstracts and Materials
| The downloadable material (Powerpoint, PDF or Word documents) can be found at the bottom of this page. the links will not be available unless you are a logged-in, registered user. You can register for the site here. |
George Wilson, Original Software: Agile Test Automation – Can it be Done?
Agile is a methodology that is seeing increasingly widespread adoption. Yet for the QA professional an Agile approach can cause discomfort. In the ideal world they would have a 'finished' product to verify against a finished specification. To be asked to validate a moving target against a changing backdrop is counter intuitive. It means that the use of technology and automation are much more difficult, and it requires a new approach to testing, in the same way that it does for the users and the developers. This session will explore how to define a test process to ensure application quality within an Agile environment.
Alan Richardson, Compendium Developments: Exploratory Testing Techniques
In this session we will discuss a range of topics on exploratory testing that are important to test managers and to provide answers to some critical questions to help you improve your team's exploratory testing.
- When is it appropriate to use exploratory techniques and how do we provide feedback on value of this test activity to stakeholders?
- How can test managers track the exploratory testing being done and remain sure that their testers are doing the 'right' testing?
- What do managers need to know to effectively mentor their testers in exploratory testing?
- What techniques do exploratory testers use?
- What tools do exploratory testers use?
- How do you recruit good exploratory testers?
- What are the secrets to exploratory testing that will make the biggest difference to your implementation of it?
- What are the steps you need to take to improve the quality of the exploratory testing done on your team?
Rob Lambert, iMeta: Agile is a mindset, not a methodology
Critics of Agile suggest it is chaotic and unstructured, but this misses the point. Agile empowers teams to define their own structures and frameworks that are right for that team, at that moment in time. This is because agile is a mindset, not a methodology. It's about getting things done the best way, not a set way. It's about adopting a new way of thinking, placing the power back with the people that need it, the team.
Gordon McKeown, Facilita: Establishing an effective performance testing environment
Creating and managing environments for effective load/performance testing is challenging and often “ends in tears”. After a breezy overview of the issues the session will be directed by the participants and we will share views and exchange experiences from the coal face. Topics to be covered include:
-
Test v Live; extrapolating from small scale to large.
- Managing test configurations: who with what?
- Testing needs versus security & other regulations.
- Test data: logistical, legal and ethical issues.
Ray Arell, Intel USA: Case Study - Moving to an Agile Environment
A while ago I went into my software staff and declared “Hey! We are going Agile!” Yep, I read an Agile project management book on a long flight to India, and like all good reactionary development managers I was sold! A few years later our adaptation of the Scrum framework has taken shape, but it was not without strain on our development, test, and other Q/A processes. This session focuses on a retrospective of what went right and more importantly what went wrong as we evolved to our new development/test process and the effect it had on our team. This will include an introduction to the software validation strategies we developed and adapted for SCRUM; an overview of what makes up a flexible validation plan; how we defined an iterative test development methods and execution processes; how to define a customer persona to help test teams understand customer expectations on quality in each sprint delivery; exploratory testing and usage in the SCRUM development flow as well as the development of key checklists and done criteria that can enable a team to find success in the fast pace world of agile development. Perhaps it will convince you that the shift to Agile is the way to go, and hopefully give you just a little more info on what you may be in for.
Graham Thomas, Independent: Test Process Improvement – Answering the BIG questions!
We all need to improve the testing process, but very few people actually answer the BIG questions, such as:
-
Why? Is it just to save money, or do it quicker?
- How? Do we follow an accepted method – TPI, TMMI? What change methodologies are there that we can use?
- What? Is it just automating test execution. What about planning, preparation, measurement and metrics, etc.?
- Where and When? So where in our organisations, large and small, do we do this, and when is the best time?
- And Who? Is this just a testing team initiative? Do we need help? Who else is involved?
It is easy to ask the BIG questions but what we really want to know are the answers! This session will work through these questions to draw useful conclusions from the group’s collective experience.
George Wilson, Original Software: Maximising Your Test Automation Success
For at least 20 years, test automation has been heralded as one of the saviours of IT development. But manual testing is still a vital part of the software testing process – 80% of testing is still carried out manually due to the failure of automated testing processes. This session will explore what determines the short and long term success of test automation, what to automate and what to leave as manual and how you can jump to automation in a seamless and painless manner.
Alan Gordon, SQS: Open Source vs Commercial (Performance) Tools - pros and cons
An option to reduce your performance test tool costs to zero sounds attractive - so why isn't everyone using open source tools? Alan Gordon from SQS will facilitate a session to discuss whether we could get more out of open source tools. In which situations are they most useful? What skills does your team require? How will it affect my performance test estimation & strategy? We will discuss our past experiences and the likelihood of increased open source usage in the future.
Paul Gerrard, Gerrard Consulting: Innovative Testing Practices
What are the emerging testing practices that have most promise? What have you tried and works for you? Importantly, what did not work? Current buzzwords include ‘testing in the cloud’, ‘testing in the crowd’, ‘lean test management’, ‘open source test automation’ and of course Agile. This session attempts to separate the hype from the reality and provide some pointers for the future.
Paul Godsafe, Independent: Non-Functional Testing
Why is this so often not done at all or done badly? Can we build a Test Managers toolkit to help? What would it contain?
There are a range of possible reasons why effective non-functional testing is not more common than it is today. In this session we will have the opportunity to explore some of these reasons and decide whether we can realistically address them by building a toolkit for Test Managers.
The proposition is that it takes much more than a toolkit to implement a worthwhile solution for delivering non-functional testing. We can investigate this with a view to determining whether there is scope for improving the uptake in these types of testing and whether Test Managers have a realistic chance of making a difference in this challenging field.
Susan Windsor, WMHL Consulting: Selecting our Testers and Measuring their Performance
This session will look at how to identify the skills and competencies your testing team will require (driven by your testing approach) and then select staff to meet your needs. This includes reviewing their potential for contribution against a framework of Skills and Competencies; techniques for skills assessment; some pitfalls to look out for; and identification of training needs.
Come to this session if you want to learn more about this topic and if you’ve got your own experiences, hints and tips to share.
Sam Clarke, nFocus and Giles Davies, Microsoft: “How can I tightly integrate my testing into the Application Development Lifecycle?”
Testing has a role to play throughout the entire lifecycle of a software development project. However test is still often seen as a “necessary evil” getting in the way of progress. Even newer methodologies such as SCRUM struggle with how testing should be implemented. It could be argued that testing protects the reputation of the product, business and ultimately the company by reducing the risk of shipping unreliable or difficult to use software. This can cover many things for example software defects, missed requirements, usability, performance, security and manageability.
Sam and Giles will demonstrate how Microsoft’s Visual Studio 2010 enables full integration of the software testing process focussing on how facilities within the tool help test deal with the problematic area of changes which could potentially damage existing tested function. There will then be a workshop session where we will look at the critical success factors of fully integrating testing into the Application Lifecycle Management process.
Please note that this talk and workshop is applicable to iterative fast moving agile style projects as well as most other development methodologies.
Paul Gerrard, Gerrard Consulting: Regression testing: what to automate and how
Regression testing continues to be the main focus of test automation. However, regression and testing is still a bit of a black art.
How much regression testing is enough? What and how much could and should be automated? What is the measure of success for regression testing? What is the best approach to building, running and maintaining an effective regression test suite?
This sessions looks at what to automate and how.
Susan Windsor, WMHL Consulting: TMF Requirements Debate: “Testers need formal, written requirements to test”
Textbook approaches usually assume that we have perfect requirements, well-understood and agreed by our stakeholders.
But we know things are much more complicated. Requirements are never perfect, understood or agreed.
Should we, as testers press (and wait) for perfect requirements or should we go with what we have and just get on with it’?
This debate considers the issues.
Giles Davies, Microsoft and Sam Clarke, nFocus: TMF Test Manager Debate: Are Test Managers Necessary?
It could be said that a test manager is the project manager for the testing activities. If so, why don’t project managers pick up this role? Agile approaches seem to not mention the test manager role at all – is it necessary?
This debate considers whether test management is a role for an individual or an activity that others might fulfil.
Should we be seeking to manage our way out of a role or better establish our position’s value?
Giles will present the developer’s angle and Sam will put the tester’s case.
Mike Scott, SQS: Test Driven Development
What is TDD? Is it a technique for developers, testers or both? What do I need to know about it? How do I get my team started? Should I believe the excuses the developers give for not doing this? What tools and skills do my team need?
Mike will facilitate a group discussion around these and other pertinent questions in this interactive session.
2011 Test Management Summit
| The FIFTH TEST MANAGEMENT SUMMIT will take place on Tuesday 25th and Wednesday 26th January 2011. | |
| FINAL Summit Programme Now Available |
The Summit is sponsored by nFocus and Microsoft, Facilita, Original Software and IBM and is hosted by Gerrard Consulting.
| Day 1 - Tuesday 25 January 2011 Test Management Workshops Venue: Balls's Brothers, Minster Pavement £95 plus vat |
Day 2 - Wednesday 26 January 2011 The Test Management Summit Venue: Institute of Directors at 116 Pall Mall, London £100 plus vat |
To Book a Place
To book places at the Workshops, the Summit and dinner, download the booking form, complete and fax or email to us.
Booking form with new VAT Rate
Click "Read More..." for more information.
Day 1, 25 January: Test Management Workshops
We'll be presenting six Pre-Summit workshops on Tuesday 25 January at the
Ball's Brothers Conference Centre at Minster Pavement as follows:
9.00am-10.00am Registration, Tea/Coffee |
10.00am - 13.00pm Sessions A, B, CA. Susan Windsor, Gerrard Consulting: How to deliver Test AssuranceTest Assurance is a whole set of skills and competencies above and beyond Test Management. It's a role that is a natural career progression from Test Management, but not many people can make the transition, can you? It requires working directly for senior stake-holders, being independent from the Test Activity but fully aware of its status, recommending rectification action to get the project back on track, and most importantly reporting back to your senior stakeholders. This session is designed for people who want to learn about what's involved; so they can either undertake such a role themselves in the future or identify how to introduce such a role into their organisation. B. James Lyndsay, Workroom Productions: How to Diagnose BugsGood testers need to be able to go beyond simply logging a problem. To give value to their stakeholders and integrate with their development teams, testers need to be able to investigate the problems that they find. Diagnostic skills will help a tester to isolate genuine problems from a rash of symptoms, to work out what lies behind field reports, and to communicate her bugs effectively by describing plausible models. In this hands-on workshop, we will use a succession of practical exercises based on real problems including truncation, bottlenecks, boundaries and emergent behaviours. Participants will select test conditions to isolate and emphasise a bug, analyse data to reveal connections and populations, and work with logs and events to arrive at sequences that reveal potential cause and effect. At the end of the workshop, participants will have an improved C. Paul Murray, Rational QM Technical Lead, IBM: Introduction to Jazz and Rational Quality ManagerIBM is building a new generation of products to make software development more collaborative, productive and enjoyable. |
LUNCH 13.00pm-13.45pm |
D. Paul Gerrard, Gerrard Consulting: Using Stories to Example and Test Requirements and SystemsThis workshop explores how stories can be used to provide examples of a system in use. Stories that are derived from written requirements can be used to walk-through business scenarios and when users 'see the proposed system in action', requirements anomalies stand out a mile and trigger discussion of scenarios, variations and outcomes. A disciplined approach to story-writing and requirements testing can improve requirements and the solution target dramatically. These stories can be used as examples for developers to see what was intended, but can also provide the basis for later acceptance tests. E. Dan Crone, nFocus: A Deeper Dive into the Test Functionality of Visual Studio 2010This session dives deeper into understanding some of the test functionality within Visual Studio 2010. As we all know, the collaboration between developers and testers is vital; it can make the difference between shipping quality applications and systems, or release dates slipping because of show stopping bugs found late on. In this interactive workshop, we will show you the full application lifecycle using Visual Studio 2010. This will include how developers and testers can benefit from integrated tools throughout the lifecycle. We'll show you how test case management tools can aide in creating and organising test cases, how we can easily replay application execution history, how actionable bugs can be created in the new Microsoft Test and Lab manager, analysing code churn using test impact collector and much much more! F. Fran O'Hara, Inspire Quality Services:
|
16.45pm Close |
Day 2, 26 January: Test Management Summit
The Summit day will structured into four parallel streams with four sessions in each stream. At the end of the day, we will all convene in the Nash Room to hear John Higgins' keynote talk. The programme of topics is listed below the running order in each stream will be defined on the outcome of the Summit Topic Survey - below.
| Timetable | |
| 9.00am | Registration/Tea/Coffee |
| 10.00am | Sessions 1-4 |
| 11.15am | Tea/Coffee in the Nash Room |
| 11.45am | Sessions 5-8 |
| 13.00pm | Lunch in the Nash Room |
| 14.00pm | Sessions 9-12 |
| 15.15pm | Tea/Coffee in the Nash Room |
| 15.45pm | Sessions 13-16 |
| 17.00pm | Return to Nash Room |
| 17.15pm | Keynote Speaker: John Higgins |
| 17.45pm | Drinks Reception in the Waterloo Room |
| 18.30pm | Dinner in the Burton Room |
The Summit Topic Survey will Determine the Running Order
One of the key advantages of the Summit is that we survey the delegates to find out which combinations of sessions are most popular and we then structure the programme running order to reduce conflict so that everyone has the best chance of seeing exactly the sessions they wish to.
Keynote - John Higgins, Director General, Intellect
We are delighted to announce that we have engaged John Higgins, Director General of Intellect to present the Closing Keynote. His topic will be "Computing with Cuts, Carbon and Coalition": Some of the challenges facing the high tech industry and how we might deal with them.
Launch of Mentoring Scheme
At lunchtime during the Summit, we will launch the mentoring scheme for Test Managers. We'll publish a proposal for how we suggest the scheme works soon.
Any questions?
To Book a Place
To book places at the Workshops, the Summit and dinner, download the booking form, complete and fax or email to us.
2012 Test Management Summit
| The SIXTH TEST MANAGEMENT SUMMIT took place on Monday 6th and Tuesday 7th February 2012 |
Designing for performance, Stevan Zivanovic, BJSS
Designing any testing is hard. The pressures imposed from projects are such that testing is expected to “just do it" and deliver. Is this fair? What can be done? How does this change when we deal with performance testing? This session will be highly interactive, exploring mechanisms for designing test approaches using the experiences of the participants.
Testing is a passion for Stevan. Over the 19 years that he has been actively involved, he has worked in a wide variety of businesses, from aircraft safety critical to financial “start-ups”. He has a pragmatic approach to testing and has a proven track record of implementing realistic, workable, real world changes from the individual to large, multinational teams. Stevan has presented at EuroSTAR, the UK Test Managers Forum, IQNITE, Agile Business Conference and various companies. He enjoys speaking and training people to motivate them in testing and quality.
Does testing improve quality? Ben Fry, SQS
“Quality” means different things to different people. To a user its meaning is different to that of a developer or a tester. It’s clear that conversations between senior and exec management focus on quality, not Testing. So, what role does Testing play in an organisation’s attempt to achieve an appropriate level of “quality”? And, what role should Testing play? We will discuss the different perceptions of “quality”, the role Testing plays, the role Testing should play, and ways we can improve the organisation-wide understanding and appreciation of “quality” and Testing.
Designing for Regression Testing, Nikhil Nashikkar & Vishnu Chittan, ThinkSoft Global
As the economic conditions hit, IT budgets are cut and more so the testing spend. While change is inevitable in IT organisations, the focus of the CIOs is to reduce the cost spent on regular so called “Business As usual activities”. From the test team’s perspective the changes need to be acknowledged when regression testing. This session will cover the following:
-
What components make a good cost effective regression test?
-
How do you measure success of a regression test?
-
Open discussion to the floor: How faster, smarter and better is the regression testing in your organisation?
Managing Remote Teams, Mike Bartley,T&V Solutions
“Susan, we need you to take over the team in X. Please make sure there is no drop in quality”
“Paul, the merger with Y means we have a team of software testers in Z to add to your existing team. That should solve your resource problems.”
“Jo, the CEO has decided we need to cut costs and outsource the software testing to X. Can you find a supplier and then manage the team please? Oh, and make sure the CEO gets his cost reduction!”
People are asked to manage remote teams for a variety of reasons and then expected to deliver to certain externally imposed targets.
In this session we will discuss the practicalities of managing a remote team and what needs to put in place to ensure that the various objectives can be met. We will ask what specific challenges are raised when the remote team is performing software testing.
Developing team skills, Mike Jarred and Luke Avsejs, IDBS
This session will outline the journey taken to implement a competency based Professional Development Framework for testing within IDBS. Most of the testers within IDBS have come from a scientific background so have huge domain knowledge; the PDF has been used to establish their level of skills and competency for testing, as well as show-casing their achievements to the rest of the organisation.
As well as sharing their implementation experience, Mike and Luke will host an interactive discussion on all aspects of skills development so the group can share knowledge and learn from each other.
Mike Jarred is the Director of Testing at IDBS, a market leading provider of innovative enterprise data management, analytics and modelling solutions which increase efficiency, reduce costs and improve the productivity of industrial R&D and clinical research. Mike has been in QA & Testing since 1990, implementing and developing testing teams in a variety of domains including Investment Banking, General Insurance, Retail and Private Medical Insurance.
Dr. Luke Avsejs is a Test Team Lead at IDBS with eight years of experience in IT involved with the development of staff. Currently working with pharmaceutical data management software Luke has a background in research chemistry and life sciences.
Crowdsourced Testing – Does it have Legs? Richard Neeve, Independent
Up until six months ago my interest in the burgeoning topic of crowdsourcing and specifically crowdsourced testing had been merely academic. But since then I’ve managed a client’s full-blooded embrace of crowdsourced testing, crowdsourced a name and logo for a startup and worked in a business that has crowdsourcing at its core. Previous TMF discussions on this topic have fallen a little flat and this one may too but I think the lack of concrete experience reports has been a problem.
Hopefully I can start to plug that gap by sharing what I’ve learned and trying to respond to the hopes and concerns people may have about using this approach in their own organisations.
Within a week of gaining a first class degree in computer science in 1998 Richard was recruited as a contract tester by Antony Marcano before rising through the ranks in a wide range of environments to become the BBC’s Head Of Testing in just his ninth year of experience. In 2010/11 he worked with CxO level stakeholders to successfully deliver a critical troubleshoot for a city firm in the credit derivatives space despite having no previous financial experience. He has maintained a 100% contract renewals record and has recently used commercial crowdsourcing to achieve objectives that have included, but also extended beyond, software testing.
Agile Techniques: Which ones really work in practice?, Paul Gerrard, Gerrard Consutling
After a brief brainstorm to set the agenda, this session will be run as a Goldfish Bowl. Come along and bring YOUR questions and experience to the group. Listen to people's experiences of what does and doesn't work.
We'll explain how a goldfish bowl works when you arrive, but put simply, it is a cross between musical chairs and a panel session where you take a seat on the panel to speak to the group. A civilised 'question time' that usually works very well at the TMF.
Paul Gerrard is a consultant, teacher, author, webmaster, programmer, tester, conference speaker, rowing coach and most recently a publisher. He has conducted consulting assignments in all aspects of software testing and quality assurance, specialising in test assurance. He has presented keynote talks and tutorials at testing conferences across Europe, the USA, Australia, South Africa and occasionally won awards for them. Educated at the universities of Oxford and Imperial College London, he is a Principal of Gerrard Consulting Limited and is the host of the UK Test Management Forum.
Testing phases, are they still relevant? Derk-Jan de Grood, Valori
Lately there is a lot of discussion about how test will be organised in the near future. Some state that the test phase will cease to exist. This session discusses that statement. Testing will be required throughout the development lifecycle. It is expected that test activities will shift from an independent phase near the end to the life cycle, towards various activities throughout the lifecycle. These activities include reviews as well as end-to-end testing and even testing in production. In order to decide whether a separate test phase has value, we need to regard two components. Testing has a technical and an intelligence component. The first has it focus on making the software work. The second component has its focus on governance and on providing information. We do not testing because we can, but we organize test activities because they matter. Each activity aims in not only finding bugs, but also in providing trust in an early stage of the development process. Is a lot of testing to be done by non-testers? e.g. The BA review of requirements, testing by developers in their SCRUM sprint. Plus, James Whittaker states that users will be involved in testing more and more. Is the testers role more of a coaching or controlling role? But this does not suit all situations. Lets consider where an old-school testing-phase might be the best solution. So we end up having more options, tools and measures to choose from. To do so, we require vision and understanding of the goals and the test profession.
Derk-Jan de Grood, works for Valori and is an experienced test manager and advises companies on how to set up their test projects. Derk-Jan published several successful books. Currently he is co-authoring a book on the future of testing. This book is expected medio 2012.
Load Testing in the Cloud – Benefits and Challenges, Bruno Duval and Thomas Ripoche, Neotys
Many companies have moved applications to the cloud as a way to reduce capital expenditure while improving IT focus and effectiveness. End users see the cloud as a way to access their documents and applications remotely from anywhere and from any device. IT managers see the cloud as a means of rapidly adapting their infrastructures as needed via virtualization using a pay-as-you-go model. But what about load & performance testing engineers? Can they seize the opportunities afforded by the cloud to better test the performance of web applications?
As with past overhyped trends in IT, it is important to look beyond the talk to find concrete ways to take advantage of this new technology’s flexibility and scalability to save time, reduce costs, and improve the way your organization works.
This presentation describes how the cloud is revolutionising load testing and discusses the advantages it provides in many situations to ensure your web applications perform well in production. We will also look at the drawbacks of only using the Cloud and investigate the key capabilities to look for in a load testing solution. Without the right tools in place, simply moving your testing activities to the cloud will likely not deliver the results necessary to justify the move. Understanding how to apply the right tools and practices to make the most of the cloud is fundamental to cloud-based testing and vital to ultimately going live with total confidence.
Bruno Duval has a master degree in Network and Distributed Systems and spent the last 10 years in the load and performance testing field. He has performed critical load tests in all industries and on all technologies. He is a real load test expert and has set up performance testing teams around the globe for several corporate accounts. In the last 5 years, he has lead the Neotys Professional Services team with consultants in Europe and America and actively participated in creating the groundbreaking Neotys Cloud Platform. Recently Bruno realized numerous successful high volume load tests over the globe using NeoLoad and the Neotys Cloud Platform to generate over 100,000 concurrent users once again proving the strong expertise of Neotys on large projects.
Thomas Ripoche is VP of Sales EMEA & AsiaPac at Neotys. Through his career he has a vast experience in dealing with highly critical web performance testing projects. One of his main responsibilities is to enable the implementation of modern load testing practices using NeoLoad. This new generation of load testing tool, suited to today's web applications, generates more value for organizations while increasing efficiency and shortening load testing cycles.
Latest Open Source Successes, Paul Rolfe & Vishnu Chittan, ThinkSoft Global
Does the Test tool’s capability limit the degree of completeness that can be delivered? – While there could be a mixed response to this question, from a commercial stand point one has to consider what open source tools are capable of delivering.
This session will explore some of the recent successes and lessons learnt in practically delivering Test automation & performance testing using open source tools. It will be an interactive session with practical examples of open source tool problems solved to deliver desired results. The audience will also be encouraged to share their experiences.
Test Estimation – a pain or painless experience? Lloyd Roden, Lloyd Roden Consultancy
Test Estimation is one of the hardest activities to do well in testing, the main reason is that testing is not an independent activity and often has destabilising dependencies. During this session we shall uncover some of the common problems in test estimation, how to overcome them together with 7 ways we can estimate test effort. Learn how to estimate one of the vial missing ingredients when it comes to testing - estimation of quality. Learn how there is a direct correlation between the estimate of effort and the estimate of the quality that we supply to management.
Lloyd says … “With more than twenty-eight years in the software industry, I have worked as a Developer, Test Analyst and Test Manager for a variety of different organisations. From 1999 to 2011 I worked as a consultant/partner within Grove Consultants. In 2011 I set up Lloyd Roden Consultancy, an independent training and consultancy company specialising in software testing. My passion is to enthuse, excite and inspire people in the area of software testing and I have enjoyed opportunities to speak at various conferences throughout the world including STAREAST, STARWEST, EuroSTAR, AsiaSTAR, Belgium Testing Days and Better Software as well as Special Interest Groups in software testing in several countries. I was privileged to be Programme Chair for both the tenth and eleventh EuroSTAR conferences and won the European Testing Excellence award in 2004.”
The Ten (false) Commandments of Testing, Morten Hougaard, Pretty Good Testing
The Ten (false) Commandments of Testing’ are:
-
You shall NOT start testing without requirements
-
You shall find EVERY bug
-
You shall use BEST PRACTICE
-
You shall be CERTIFIED
-
You shall AUTOMATE everything
-
You shall use THE Tool
-
You shall ENSURE (high) Quality
-
You shall use THE test technique
-
You shall use THE Model (Waterfall, V-Model, Scrum...)
-
You shall stay FULLY INDEPENDENT (from developers)
For many years, these (and more) false ‘commandments’, have quite heavily impacted the testing industry and done so much harm. And as an even worse thing, these ‘wrong messages’ (at least to a certain degree), still seems to be ‘preached out there’.
Morten invites you to participate in this discussion on what kind of (false) commandments we (still) meet ‘out there’ and how we can use whatever fit’s our situation best, becoming pragmatically (and thinking) test professionals, instead of merely ‘blind followers’.
Navigating the Sea of Siloes for Application Delivery, George Wilson, Original Software
A survey just over 18 months ago revealed discontent in the Application Quality Management (AQM) market, with 84% of users stating that their products did not meet their functional requirements. So why is it then that so many companies still rely on a plethora of management products to help with their application delivery? From defect management to bug recording, from requirements management to development reporting and from agile management to ALM dashboards, the fact is there doesn't
seem to be a solution that is able to provide a holistic view and complete metrics when it comes to managing and reporting on all aspects of software delivery. This session will explore ways to provide a real time dashboard of ALM processes so that you can plot your exact position and navigate your voyage successfully.
Mobile Testing: a mandatory task or an option? Michael Hentze, Tricentis
In 2011, sales of smartphones have increased by 74% compared with the previous year, and 2012 this trend will continue. A wide range of technologies, operating systems and application types do not only pose a technical challenge to software tests, but they also require considering basic requirements. Test managers must make strategic decisions on whether they use simulators or real mobile devices for their tests; they must guarantee security and integrate the test into existing ALM infrastructures. But: what must be tested and is this test mandatory or optional?
| Attachment | Size |
|---|---|
| AgileWhatWorks.pptx | 1.69 MB |
| RichardNeeveCrowdsourcing.pptx | 197.77 KB |
| Crowdsourced_Testing_Handout.pptx | 87.06 KB |
| Designing Performance.pdf | 1.03 MB |
| Lloyd Roden, Test Estimation | 5.61 MB |
| Mike Jared, Luke Avsejs, Professional Development Framework | 421.56 KB |
| Derk-Jan de Grood, Testphases Still Relevant? | 5.04 MB |
| Ben Fry, Does Testing Improve Quality? | 242.44 KB |
| Morten Hougaard, The Ten FALSE Commandments of Testing | 1.71 MB |
| George Wilson, Navigating the Sea of Silos | 10.07 MB |