Although this session is not about Paul Simon's famous song, "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover", it will be most entertaining nonetheless. In this fast-paced presentation, Mark Fewster shares fifty ways for you to consider, adopt, or adapt to meet your organization's needs-management, metrics, organizational structure, scripting methods, comparison techniques, testware architecture, and many more. These ideas will give you fresh insight into your current processes and help you identify actions to reverse undesirable trends, correct ailing procedures, and magnify the benefits of test automation. Although the ideas cannot be discussed in great detail due to time restrictions, there will be enough information for you to understand and then apply. So join Mark-become informed, enthusiastic, and even entertained by this whirlwind of test automation ideas.

• Key areas of test automation or failure

One stakeholder says "Zig." The other says "Zag." No compromise is in sight, and the project deadline looms nearer. The rock and the hard place-welcome to the test manager’s world! How do you deal with an overly emotional stakeholder or a developer who is ignoring your requests? Few of us like conflict, but our ability to navigate conflict goes a long way toward determining how successfully we can deliver quality projects. Andy Kaufman introduces you to "conflict handling modes" that describe different approaches you can take to deal with conflict. Understanding these different modes can help you get beyond your typical responses to conflict to those that can be more effective. Join Andy as he discusses real-world project conflicts, and learn practical ideas to improve your ability to manage them.

• Different conflict handling modes you can use to manage issues

Session-based exploratory testing is an effective means to test when time is short and requirements are not clearly defined. Is it advisable to use session-based exploratory testing when the requirements are known and documented? How about when the test cases are already defined? What if half of the test team is unfamiliar with the software under test? The answers are yes, yes, yes. Brenda Lee explains how her team modified the session-based exploratory testing approach to include requirements and test cases as part of its charter. In one instance, during the short seven-day test window the team validated forty-one out of forty-five requirements, executed more than 200 test cases using seventeen charters, and identified fifteen new, significant issues. The team was able to present a high-level test summary to the customer only two days after the conclusion of system test. What did the customer say?

To test professionally and understand software risks fully, we need to know what our tests cover. Counting test cases is not enough-that's like sizing business requirements by counting program modules. Neil Thompson presents a test analysis and design method that integrates four key elements into a holistic approach: test items, testable features, test basis documents, and product risks. Testing standards and many textbooks have anaesthetized us into the delusion that test cases are simple and can easily be derived through basic techniques. This is false thinking. According to Neil, we must consider and prioritize all available test techniques, incorporating both exploratory techniques and new thinking into our testing. Join Neil to learn a holistic approach for test design and the need for more complete information traceability.

• The different types of coverage-logical and physical