|
|
Becoming a Successful Test Manager In this article, Chris DeNardis discusses the skills necessary to becoming a successful test manager. He outlines how to get organized, and how to better communicate with your team. Read all about it and take the first step on the road to being a better test manager.
|
Christopher DeNardis, Rockwell Automation
|
|
|
Personal Skills for Test Professionals This paper discusses personal skills for test professionals and managers. In addition to excellent technical skills and an understanding of testing methodologies and tools, testers, and their managers, must have a rich portfolio of
personal skills.
|
Steve Allott, ElectroMind Limited
|
|
|
Choosing and Managing the Ideal Test Team This paper discusses what it takes to assemble the right members to make a successful test team. Examples are given of what to do and what not to do. Want to know how to recruit the right testers for your project? Read on and find out!
|
Lloyd Roden, Grove Consultants
|
|
|
Getting Creative: A Fresh Perspective on Software Testing Being creative means using all the resources at your disposal to analyze, strategize, plan, test, and ultimately deliver the information your management needs, when they need it, so they can make better decisions. We need to be creative because there’s no one right way to do anything. Best practices in one environment may be worst practices in another.
|
Elisabeth Hendrickson, Quality Tree Software, Inc.
|
|
|
"Excel-erating" Test Status Reporting As a tester, you're often asked how far along your testing effort is, and when it will actually be done. This is one of the most difficult-and nerve-wracking-questions to answer, especially when a project has just begun or is nearing completion. While a tool is what's needed to help gather information and effectively answer this inquiry, many companies cannot afford to purchase or implement a complex, commercial tool. But there is a solution available in commercial spreadsheet products, particularly Microsoft's Excel. Earl Burba shows you how to use the logic and formula functions of Excel along with a combination of linked worksheets to develop an easy-to-use test status report tool.
|
Earl Burba and Jim Hazen, SysTest Labs
|
|
|
Conversations I Never Expected to Have as a Test Manager There are times in a test manager's career when the work situation becomes surreal. If you've been in situations where you think you must be dreaming, sometimes it helps to look at things from the other person's perspective. As we mature in our jobs, we can examine these situations and see how to better answer the questions we have about unexpected communications. In this session we'll look at some typical conversations and discuss alternative ways to help everyone find the true reality, then better deal with the situation. From her years of experience as a consultant and her personal encounters, Johanna Rothman shares her insights and gets you involved in discovering what's really being said in these strange conversations.
|
Johanna Rothman, Rothman Consulting Group
|
|
|
How to Successfully Communicate the State of Testing in Your Organization Many QA, process improvement, and test engineering personnel feel their company's management doesn't sufficiently understand, support, or value their contributions. You know what? They're right! What's the root cause of this lack? Robert Galen believes it's our inability to effectively communicate-to promote our teams and our abilities. We expect that either our work should speak for itself, or our value proposition accompanied by the metrics and data will make our case for us. As a discipline, we need to improve our salesmanship when it comes to our contribution. This session imparts public relations (PR) skills you need to employ so that your key stakeholders will better understand your role and its importance.
|
Robert L Galen, EMC Corporation
|
|
|
Smarter Testing with the 80:20 Rule It may not be a silver bullet, but knowledge of the 80:20 rule, and the special variation that applies to software testing, can help you dramatically improve your testing-and your entire software development lifecycle. This session explains what the rule is using real-life examples, then shows you how to use it within your test team. Erik Petersen then investigates the different ways the rule is being used by leading testers and developers today. This talk has motivated some Australian testers to change the way they test. Will this approach from Down Under turn your testing ideas upside down?
|
Erik Petersen, Specialist
|
|
|
A Missing Link: Project Management in the Testing Organization The emerging discipline of project management within the information technology arena can be a major move toward your testing organization accomplishing its stated goals. That's because effective project management leverages the best practices of quality control and quality assurance, with the basic principles of a sound project strategy. This means working toward goals in an organized way, and using a road map that integrates test project management into the organization. Karol Vastrick shares the road map to help you manage this change, especially if you're in an environment where chaos often rules.
|
Karol Vastrick, Federal Express
|
|
|
Keeping Your Outsourced Testing Under Control As companies focus on their core business, the option to outsource software testing becomes more and more attractive. And there are plenty of organizations out there that specialize in the practice. But implementing outsourcing can feel like an uncertain proposition. In this session, Martin Pol explains how you can effectively select, implement, and audit outsourced testing activities. He shows you step by step what needs to be done to make outsourcing work for you and your company.
|
Martin Pol, POLTEQ IT Services BV
|
