Conference Presentations

Better Software West 2018, Agile Dev West 2018, DevOps West 2018 Taking Your Automation Framework to the Next Level Using Machine Learning
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Automation fails frequently in companies due to a variety of reasons, including poor team communication, lack of skills, flaky tests, and inadequate understanding of test coverage. Even when things are going well, the automated tests sometimes grow to a size where the test suites take too long to execute for the run to be viable. James Farrier is a test automation architect who will show you ways to leverage machine learning to address these challenges. You'll learn how to determine which tests are valuable to run after each commit or build in order to cut down the suite run time, how to automatically close and open defects based on test run results, and how to separate a test into different test runs to keep track of tests in different states. Finally, he will show you how to create a results dashboard that allows for team collaboration and a better understanding of test coverage so that testing can be further streamlined.

James Farrier
Agile Dev West 2018, Better Software West 2018, DevOps West 2018 Faster Food and a Better Place to Sleep: Applying Agile Outside Software
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Agile methods aren’t just for software anymore—actually, they haven’t been for quite a while. Agile's collaborative, iterative, incremental approaches to work have caused it to go mainstream. But can we apply team-based agile straight out of the box in a nonsoftware context? Although most of the principles and patterns apply, sometimes the practices and frameworks need modification for a particular context. Mike Cottmeyer will explore two case studies of agile journeys: an international hotel chain going through a major rebranding initiative, and a well-known fast food restaurant looking to optimize its kitchen production capacity. These are two totally different companies in two totally different industries, both trying to use agile to solve their problems. We’ll look at the challenges each faced, what they had in common, and the patterns, tools, and techniques they are using.

Mike Cottmeyer
STAREAST 2018 Devices and Desires: How Do Humans Experience Software?
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We consume and still we desire more—more devices, more apps, more data, more bandwidth, more connectivity. The more we have, the more we want. We assume that to be true—those of us who work in the software industry. But is that true? To understand what is really required of our products, we need to design and test a pyramid of interlocking quality attributes that, together, make for an optimum experience. Isabel Evans discusses why and how we can evaluate UX and what is takes to deliver better UX to our customers. Isabel looks at the needs of the individual software user in conjunction with pressures from the commercial imperatives from the business and external forces from government, the environment, and the needs of society. To test the UX and thus deliver a good experience, we first need to understand the humans who use our products and match their needs and desires to the software’s user experience.

Isabel Evans
STAREAST 2018 Exploratory Testing: Learn to Do It like a Bloodhound
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Let’s face it—dogs are born to sniff everything. Using their noses, they gather information from other dogs, people, and most everything. We teach dogs to use their noses to find bombs, predict seizures, locate cancer cells, detect drugs, and so much more. When dogs smell, they are not just recording an odor; they get an entire story. Although testers have fewer scent receptors than dogs, Susan Zampino says that we can learn how to gather information like a dog to drive our exploratory testing. Using active audience participation, Susan will stimulate participants to rely on their sense of “smell” during exploratory testing sessions. Learn and practice multiple new techniques to gather information and uncover hidden risks. With some practice and consistent focus on using your technical, business, and testing experiences, you can become a bloodhound exploratory tester.

Susan Zampino
STAREAST 2018 Mindmapping: A General Purpose (Test) Planning Tool
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MindMapping is a general technique of organizing your thoughts, aligning your ideas, and breaking things down. It’s uses are, in fact, mind blowing. But in this session, join Bob Galen, as he takes you on a visual tour of mindmapping as applied in the software testing space. We’ll be using a free tool and be creating maps to illustrate test case design, test idea generation, sprint-level test planning, and release-level test planning using mindmaps. Along the way, you’ll also gain some new insights into risk-based testing with an agile twist, as we explore the 3-Amigos metaphor. You’ll leave this session with a rudimentary library of maps and another, quite powerful tool, to add to your toolbox. Bring your laptop or other device, as we’ll be using MindMup to create a few simple mindmaps.

Bob Galen
BSE Testing Word Smatter: Exploring Semantics, Testers, and Problems
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ers [do|don’t] (help) [prevent|detect] problems.” Throughout his career, Damian Synadinos has encountered many variations of this phrase, which uses just a few small words to express many big ideas. It is important to understand what each word means individually to better understand the...

Damian Synadinos
BSE Testing Keep Engagement High in Difficult Projects
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Aggressive timelines, scope creep, changing requirements, development delays, and the imperative to finish on the imposed timeline … how can you keep your team motivated and engaged when everything seems to go wrong? Larissa Rosochansky describes the major factors of team...

Larissa Rosochansky
The New Normal for Software Development and Testing The New Normal for Software Development and Testing

Customers expect fast-paced, quality product releases. To meet these demands, you must consider test automation, testing in production, and the extensive use of data and analytics.

Michael Sowers's picture Michael Sowers
STARCANADA Testing The Three Pillars Approach to an Agile Testing Strategy
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Far too often, organizations focus solely on the development teams and their technical practices as their agile adoption strategy. And then there’s the near constant focus on acquiring development tools. Often the testing activity and the testing teams are left behind in agile adoption...

Bob Galen
STARCANADA Testing Amp Up Your Testing by Harnessing Test Data
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The data tsunami is coming—or maybe it’s already here. Data science, big data, and machine learning are the buzzwords of the day. Data is changing our products and the way we build them, so we should also change the way we verify our products. In a world of increasing connectivity and...

Steve Rowe

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