Description:

About a decade ago people with advanced knowledge built test automation frameworks with essentially two separate layers: Test Scripts and Test Libraries. The problem with this Bi-Layer architecture is the challenges of reusability in other applications, specifically, the size and complexity of test libraries along with the application-dependent solutions being intertwined made it very difficult, sometimes impossible to reuse them.

That's how the idea of the Tri-Layer Testing Architecture was born: why not add a 3rd layer, for all the libraries that can be easily reused anywhere?

In this presentation, Peter will talk about the main differences between the Bi-Layer and the Tri-Layer architectures. The three layers are Test (runnable test scripts), Business (all the application-specific libraries), and Core (independent, reusable libraries). Peter will provide examples from his experience at big fintech and other companies, where he successfully implemented the Tri-Layer Testing Architecture and dramatically lowered the test automation costs for these big companies.

Key Takeaways:

• Attendees will be able to identify signs of a smelly architecture

• Designing a test automation architecture is way easier than you would first think

• Reusable components and properly designed layers are the heart of a great test automation framework.

Description:

In the software testing game, it is all about the details. Testing is really a simple thing to describe; does the software behave as expected? The complexity comes in knowing the details of what to expect and then designing tests to verify the behavior is as expected. Human brains are great at testing given knowledge of what the application should do. Automation tools have no knowledge. The trick is to find a way to make the tools know what you mean. Let’s discuss.

Description:

The world of software testing is rife with myths about automation that have been with us for years. A quick internet search, however, shows that most of these myths have been debunked by multiple people in blogs, articles, conferences, and webinars. Many of the authors debunk a specific myth with similar logic and examples; this is good because it provides consistency for the “common case”. We easily can find debunking of myths ranging from “automation is best for regression testing” to “it’s feasible to automate everything”. But do these “debunkings” hold true for all contexts? Is “Record and Playback” always a bad idea? Is partial automation at all valuable? Are technology and programming really the hard parts?

Join Paul Grizzaffi as he explores some of the classic myths, their debunking, and the myths about those myths, i.e., instances when a myth is not a myth if applied to a specific context.

Description:

Accessibility is a large topic and one that often gets a variety of approaches to deal with. Often it is seen as having to focus on a large checklist (the WCAG standard) and make sure that everything complies. While this is a great goal and focus, often it is overwhelming and frustrating, putting people in the unfortunate role of having to read and understand an entire process before they feel they can be effective. It does not have to be this way.

Key Takeaways:

My goal is to help condense this a little and give some key areas to focus on and be effective in identifying Accessibility issues quickly and helping testers become effective advocates.

We will look at ways to:

• find issues

• advocate for them

• help make strides to greater understanding and focus moving forward.

Description:

Organizations and leaders are often supportive of DevOps, but they don’t always understand what DevOps is and what it will change. It isn’t a one-size-fits-all issue; different environments need different benefits from a DevOps transformation. Join Gene Gotimer as he explains the most important parts of understanding DevOps. We'll discuss how to determine what parts of DevOps your organization needs to concentrate on first and how you should measure improvement. This session boils DevOps down to its most basic parts and makes sure you have a foundation for understanding how to make it work for your situation and organization.

Key Takeaways:

• DevOps is a culture. Embrace the Three Ways.

• The Four Key Metrics are measures of DevOps maturity, not goals.

• Use value stream analysis to understand your process and find your biggest impediments.

Description:

It’s true that an automation framework is like a puzzle piece that brings a testing practice together, an engine that makes a car zoom, and a conveyor that transforms system analysts into automated testers. But do some frameworks do this better than others and what role does it play in DevSecOps? Is it possible that your automation engineers are spending a tremendous amount of time maintaining legacy solutions? Even more important, can regaining that time increase your return on investment? To truly understand the possibilities, we need to recognize that automated testing, like any technology, is an evolving practice.

Key Takeaways:

• What role does an automation framework play in DevSecOps?

• How can you best implement to streamline processes and shorten development time?

• How can a stronger testing plan improve security?

Description:

There is a lot of confusion about what the various terms associated with 'DevOps' actually mean. DevOps, DevSecOps, DevTestOpt, DevPerfOps, and even BizDevTestSecPerfOps are tossed around in our industry! This confusion often results in mismatches in expectations when embarking on DevOps efforts and disappointment when the effort doesn't meet these expectations. Join Jeffery Payne as he discusses various DevOps terms and sets the record straight on which terms are important to understand and why. Learn the key differences between DevOps and all the other ones and why you should care. Take home a butter understanding of the DevOps alphabet soup and what it means for you.

Key Takeaways:

• What DevOps and related terms really mean

• How to best talk about your DevOps efforts to set the right expectations

Description:

Organizations have adopted Agile, Scrum, DevOps, CI/CD practices widely in order to increase their adaptivity. While doing so, they learn that it is impossible to speed up the IT deliverance without trusting the quality. Lean and SAFe have Built-in Quality as a core principle, but what does that mean for teams and organizations?

In this presentation, Derk-Jan will share the challenges he encounters at various organizations. How do teams work and collaborate in order to release valuable increments, and what are approaches to increase quality awareness? We will discuss the role of testers on the team level but also investigate how quality is organized in scaled settings where teams need to collaborate on a single increment. How can you organize quality on release level, what types of releases can we distinguish and who is responsible? What do we see in practice and how should it work? In order to have quality built-in, we need more than just good tests. But a strategy also. Implementing this on various levels is challenging and has an impact on the way we develop our software.

Key Takeaways:

• Understand that built-in quality is a multi-level challenge that is gaining importance

• Discover real-life patterns that make grip on quality a challenge

• Have a look at practices in order to improve the quality

• How to define quality feedback loops and the impact on the development and business.

Description:

Is your team made up of some of the best talents in the company and consists of a Project Manager, Certified Scrum Master (CSM), Solution Architect, Data Architect, Developers, a Senior Performance Test Engineer, and an Automated Functional Tester. Your customer is open to HCD but has no idea what that entails. As a professional skilled and experienced in the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), the Agile Scrum methodology and with some knowledge of Human-Centered Design (HCD), as you start a project, this two-part session will take you on a journey on how to incorporate HCD when delivering using a DevOps workstream.

• What are some of the benefits of using HCD for a software or systems integration project?

• Does your team anticipate challenges using HCD now?

• What risks exist if you do NOT use HCD?

• If you are already sold on HCD, how do you incorporate it into Agile Scrum and/or DevOps environments?

• If you need to start using HCD, how will you reorganize your work to continue to deliver?

Well, this two-part session is for you and your team. You will experience how HCD methods can be incorporated into both Agile Transformation and DevOps Planning. Bring your thinking caps and be ready to work collaboratively during this interactive event as you take a DevOps problem and take it from Epic to Feature Test employing HCD methods.

Part 1: Using Empathize and Define to plan Epics and Features

During Part I, we will apply HCD methods and frameworks for user research and problem definition to develop Epics and Features for a DevOps case study.  

Part 2: Using Ideate, Prototype, and Test to detail Features and Work Items

During Part II, we will apply HCD methods and frameworks related to brainstorming, prototyping, and testing at the Feature- and Work Item-levels such as user stories, associated wireframes, and additional Work Items based on test results.

Description:

The two primary contributors to poor quality in an organization are lack of involvement by management and lack of knowledge about quality. Without the right process and people, quality will be either a cost center or forgotten component by development. To achieve organizational success, enterprise quality must take action to build quality from top down. Managers must accept responsibility for the quality practice within the organization and promote it across the organization. Everyone is responsible for quality, not just QA. The journey is fraught with obstacles – maturing the quality practice of an organization builds long term success with robust process and will train employees.

Key Takeaways:

• Everyone is responsible for Quality, but Management is responsible for Quality practice.

• Quality is not a destination, it’s a journey.

Description:

The Metaverse - the digital replication of experiences in created worlds outside of our physical world.  What does that mean? 

We will be exploring the difference between the tech mania/buzz and what experiences should remain as “real” human interactions in our actual physical world.  We are on the dawn of a new everything.   Let’s explore what it means to be human at a moment of unprecedented technological possibility.

We will discuss a perspective on how the brain and body connect to the world

Look to understand the new landscape from both scientific and cultural experiment perspectives. Companies are experimenting with our data, buying patterns, and embedding gamification into all verticals in our world.

Let’s examine how gaming and gamification will start to permeate our social life, work, buying habits, consumer goods, and entertainment. 

We are in an exciting, unprecedented, and fast-paced rate of technological advancement.  Let’s discuss it together! 

Description:

Coming Soon

Description:

No doubt you’re an amazing tester. If we could clone you and have twenty such team members we would. Life would be good! We’d crush the testing! But…we can’t clone you. When it comes to our team, the best we can hope for is to hire the right people with the right attitude and aptitude and nurture their QA and testing skills. How do we accomplish such a monumental task?

Throughout my 31 years in IT, I’ve been tasked with building and mentoring testing teams regularly. I do so now to build and sustain my own successful business. Agile and DevOps…no problem! Test automation and frameworks…piece of cake! Build and grow a team…YIKES!

Many years ago, I had an epiphany…GAMES! I recalled my military days and the war games we’d play. I thought back to my consulting for the U.S. Navy to teach them how to automate tests against flight simulators. I flashed back to the puzzles I had to solve in my attempt to become an air traffic controller. History tells us games go back over 2,300 as a tool to teach with Chess being a perfect example. It was used as a strategy teaching game to prepare soldiers to do battle! The games many of us play to improve specific skills…such as memory, speed of thinking, creativity…came to mind.

Thus, I began using games and puzzles. I use them to assess if a potential new hire has what’s needed to be part of our engineering team and to continually hone the skills of our software test engineers.

Join Bob Crews for this interactive, high-participation, fun presentation as we play the games and solve the puzzles which can assist in building and developing phenomenal software testing teams!

The audience will learn:

• How games have been used throughout history to hone specific skills of the participants

• The types of games to use to assist in identifying personality traits and key attributes

• The value of games, puzzles, and games and what both the player and observers can learn

• That games do more than teach…they boost moral!

Key Takeaways:

• Specific games, puzzles, and brainteasers and the personality traits and attributes they target

• An understanding of when to play and when to observe

• The correlation between skills needed for games and skills needed by testers

Description:

How many times have you heard statements like, “How did we miss this in test”, “This defect doesn’t happen on my machine”, “We do not need automation”, or “We are waiting on testing to give us the green light”? Far too often, teams are spending a lot of time diving into discussions that they no longer need to have.  This builds frustration, affects team alignment, and can potentially impact the quality and milestones of the project. Through the years, we have seen a need for processes, tools, and old-school approaches to change. Discussions we needed to have years ago are no longer the same now.  There is a need for strategic changes in how we operate within a project and how we communicate across teams.

In this HIGHLY INTERACTIVE presentation, we will discuss many of the well-known phrases, philosophies, and theories around testing of years past, and how that we must overcome the obstacles and be successful today.  We will discuss how the dynamics within the teams must change, and most importantly, how you, as a tester, can influence across the organization.

Key Takeaways:

·       Evaluate previous successes in our SDLC and testing processes that now must evolve

·       Group discussion on challenges YOU are facing & suggestions for how to overcome them

·       Suggestions for how we can drive DIFFICULT discussions into solution-focused results

·       How to tell if YOUR team is stuck – and what you must do to address it

·       Tips and guidelines for how to best influence across the team and organization