Gaining Consciousness

Testers make difficult decisions with minimal information in turbulent times on critical projects.  Independent consultant, Fiona Charles, suggests that testers must learn to draw a line in the decision-making process between trained intuition and careless assumption.  In this presentation, Fiona shares her experience with helping testers train their instincts leading to better decision making. Skilled practitioners naturally make some decisions purely on instinct. For example, an expert medical doctor makes a dazzlingly accurate diagnosis in a complex case that baffles other physicians yet cannot explain how she knows what ails the patient. In other cases, a doctor with similar or greater expertise might miss the diagnostic mark entirely.  As testers, we have trained our instincts through increasing experience and practice in the craft. But if we fool ourselves into believing that we can operate on instinct alone, we can lapse into an autopilot state like sleepwalking. You will learn to avoid the rigid mindset of sleepwalkers and the potential mistakes that could result, to challenge everything and especially to be conscious of and to question your own assumptions.