CAST 2013

This tutorial teaches you how to coach software testers. In particular, it focuses on coaching testers on skill and developing a questioning mindset. 

A lot of tester training focuses on explaining definitions. It explains testing by pointing to a test methodology, or test case template. 

Experienced testers know though, that there is more to testing than this. Give two testers the same test, one tester will find great bugs while the other struggles to find anything beyond the superficial. 

This is because great testing requires great skill. Part of that skill is learning the ability to ask useful questions. 

The coaching that I do, focuses on improving skill through questioning and practice to develop a deep understanding of testing and how to perform it. 

Specifically coaching can help:

• Sharpen your reasoning


• Explain your actions while testing


• Defend your reasoning 


• Understand and deal with ambiguity


• testing concepts 

The coaching model that I use is being developed by myself and James Bach. It uses Socratic questioning to probe the students knowledge, challenging them to think deeper and through practice come to a greater understanding of what testing is as well as how to test in a better way.  

The intent is for the tester to leave coaching feeling enthusiastic about testing, with the motivation to continue self-learning. 

The tutorial will examine the coaching model. In particular we will look at the following: 

•  Socratic Questioning 


• Coaching Task 


• Managing a coaching session


• Evaluating Coaching

Testers will have the opportunity to observe, analyse and practice and steer coaching sessions throughout the day.

This workshop is suitable for experienced testers and test managers who want to learn how to coach testers either remotely or in a team environment. 

Testers, leads and managers are expected to overcome problems that do not have clear solutions. That's just a part of the job. You are at a conference where your manager sends you and tells you to come back with solutions, or at least ideas, for fixing these problems.

Some problems have common solutions and some of the common 'solutions' often fail.  If you can bring in an outside perspective, you may be able to see if these solutions can help your specific organization.  In this exercise we provide participants with a whole room full of perspective and the tools to work through a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis.  We then break into small groups and work through a round of problems.

This session does several things.  You get the chance to express what the real problems you are facing are right now.  You meet with others who are also having problems.   Then, you discuss possible solutions to these problems – things you did to overcome a problem similar to theirs and, just maybe, talk with people who have dealt with problems similar to yours.  Finally, you will meet and confer with people very intensely and possibly build a basis for sharing of ideas,  future collaboration and meeting some of the cool people attending CAST this year.

You might not come away with a solution to your specific problem from this workshop.  You will come away with a tool you can use at the office on Monday to help organize, frame and direct problem-solving, even when information is limited and the time pressure is strong.

Register Now (limited to 24, must be attending CAST to register)

This session is will focus on practical tips for keeping automated tests more flexible and maintainable. Attendees will learn key ideas from software engineering and craftsmanship movements (such as  abstraction, the Single Responsibility Principle, Don't Repeat Yourself and Clean Code) and then apply them to test design and automation.

We'll finish out this session with examples of how testers can further use these concepts to become an effective pair with coders throughout the development lifecycle. You'll leave this session with practical knowledge on applying software craftsmanship principles to test automation--and you'll be a step further to the elusive goal of being a generalizing specialist on a truly cross-functional team.

In this talk, I will be sharing my personal experience of how I have been building and running my company focused on context driven and exploratory testing successful so far, which is obvious from the title. However, the non obvious things I would be sharing are

How money can trouble the vision of being context driven? ( and how I fixed it) [so that future tester entrepreneurs don’t need to fall into the same trap]
    How we told our customers "We don't do scripted testing"? (and still continue to get business)

How I made bold decisions of pulling out of a business when it does not align to context driven testing? (How it meant more business)
    How to help customers understand the value we are bringing to them? (and how we need to improve on it)
    The challenge of creating context driven testers (and how we are solving it)

How I see the context driven testing community is changing? (and not changing, too)

What unity can do to this community? (and why we aren’t there yet)

What is this community doing wrong? (and why I think I need to present at CAST)

I don’t just have these questions but also answers to it, presented in a form of story mixed with presenting live examples. Here is how I think about it - this presentation is a reflection of what the context driven testing community has done to me and how I am taking the impact to the world.

In this experience report I will talk about how actively trying to prioritize learning helped me overcome the fear of failing, as well as skyrocketed my development as a tester. It's a story that starts with me bailing out from a major test conference, scared of being perceived as a lousy tester, and ends with me being a presenter on a similar conference one year later. I will walk you through my actions and decisions. Actions like setting up a development plan and adding small challenges to all my learning activities. Decisions like not accepting my own excuses. It's been an amazing adventure so far, I hope I can inspire and help you experience it too!

Simply put this is an experience report (ER) on experience reports.  Rob Sabourin will share an approach used to construct many different types of experience reports.  See examples of short five minute lightning talks, framed professional conference experience reports and open ended peer conference experience reports.

Rob will demonstrate by example sharing experience reports about experience reports.

If this is the first conference you've attended that uses the ER method then this primer will help you understand the dynamics of an ER. If you plan to give an ER in the future this session will provide insights into ways you can better share your story and help your audience draw wonderful lessons from your experience.

This session describes how I use mind mapping software as a lean test management tool to model the software, organise and manage the testing activities, and report on the testing story to date.

The biggest threats to lean systems testing are the way testing artefacts are traditionally produced and the prevalence of pre-scripted tests.

I propose an alternative using James Bach's Heuristic Test Strategy Model as the skeleton for a visual model of the software under test. By using this skeleton to ask questions and as a prompt to learn more about the application, I build a model of the application under test. I will
demonstrate how I can use the map as a tool to aid with test estimation, and how it can be used to give testing transcripts context and communicate certain aspects of the testing story visually.

4 years ago my company reorganized into product units, and my QA manager position became obsolete. The new reality was not comfortable at first, until, some time and practice later I recognized that my test manager/strategist skills are equally important and applicable to the new role of a tester on the multidisciplinary team. That synthesis emerged into a new role of a "peer leader" which I later identified as a new trend -- through conversations with coaches and thought leaders of our industry. Quality Leader skills are in demand now, and, as I foresee, will be in even higher demand in the future.

I firmly believe that an advancement of the testing profession is calling for leaders, fully versed in testing strategies, equipped with the knowledge of psychology and team dynamics, who know how to utilize all available resources to optimize product delivery.  Quality Leaders are motivators and educators who can transform every team member into the quality advocate.

No matter which position you hold now, if you are a member of a team that delivers software products, you will need to advance yourself in order to advance the team to the next level of productivity. To be successful in this endeavor, you have to evaluate your current position and what sets you aside, make an analysis on what the team needs and in what ways you can add most value. We will discuss what's unique about the role that makes it an ideal fit for the context-driven test professional, and what skills are needed to succeed.

Whether you are a line manager in test, a head of the test organization or an aspiring test lead, every day you are faced with questions on how to do your job more effectively. We offer you a unique opportunity to learn from your peers who have done that successfully.  Join us for the panel discussion where leaders in software testing share their insights, practices, stories of what worked and what failed, and strategies that lead them to their success. The experts will debate and answer your questions on:

Leading an effective test team and test organization
Hiring the right people
Enabling your team for success: building a nourishing environment for learning and growing
Motivating your people
Strategies for managing stakeholders' expectations
Software test leader's skills and qualities
Career advancement in software test leadership

Our panel members collectively possess over 200 years of experience in leading software testers. They are active members of context-driven testing community.

AST Quality Leader Special Interest Group is dedicated to build a community of context driven test leaders, and provide resources and support for advancing test management, quality advocacy and leadership skills and practices.

Quality Leader SIG identifies test management as a distinct skill that needs mastering. Test managers envision and drive testing strategy on different levels through deep understanding of the context, advance their soft skills for successful collaboration with the other disciplines and stakeholders, build an extensive toolkit of test tools and methodologies, and create an environment for their people to succeed and grow.

Also, Quality Leader SIG recognizes that recently changed industry landscape (such as organizational Agile transformation) introduced new challenges for testers — as well as new opportunities. Oftentimes, the single testers on Agile teams are anticipated to take on responsibilities of test managers or leads (through creating test strategy, distributing or supervising test-related activities, influencing their team members to become quality advocates, etc.), yet having to work with their peers, not direct or indirect reports.

Quality Leader SIG recognizes and supports variety of different paths for career development of software test professionals. Our activities  comprise of facilitating workshops for test leaders and providing the platform for sharing and exchanging techniques and stories. In the long term, we plan to create the Body of Knowledge for context driven test professionals who are accepting the leaders’ role in their organizations.