All participants can select to attend either a full day tutorial, or two half day tutorials. Half day tutorials are marked AM and PM to indicate whether they start in the morning (AM) or afternoon (PM) and all participants can freely select which AM and which PM tutorial to sign up for. All tutorials have a maximum number of seats and are subject to availability on a first come first serve basis.

For a better overview of all tutorials, see the Detailed Program.pdf

Tutorial is full! Tutorial #1 (Full day) Tutorial is full!
“Just-In-Time Testing” - Rob Sabourin

Turbulent development projects experience almost daily requirements modifications, changes to user interfaces, and the continual integration of new functions, features, and technologies.  Rob Sabourin shares proven, practical techniques to keep your testing efforts on track while reacting to fast-paced projects with changing priorities, technologies, and user needs. Rob covers test planning techniques and organization strategies, scheduling and tracking, blending scripted and exploratory testing, identifying key project workflows, and using testing and test management tools. Learn how to create key decision-making workflows for test prioritization and bug triage, adapt testing focus as priorities change, identify technical risks, and respect business priorities. Take away a new perspective on your testing challenges and discover ways to take control of the situation—rather than to be controlled by it.

This workshop includes interactive group activities to teach about coming up with great test ideas and test prioritization. Several case studies applying these techniques to real world projects will be included.

Slides and reference material:
- Just In Time Testing (pdf)
- Just In Time Testing (ppt)
- WOMMAP
- Wrap-O-Matic
- Wrap-O-Matic Projects (pdf, new)

Robert Sabourin, P. Eng., has more than twenty-nine years of management experience leading teams of software development professionals. A well-respected member of the software engineering community, Robert has managed, trained, mentored, and coached hundreds of top professionals in the field. He frequently speaks at conferences and writes on software engineering, SQA, testing, management, and internationalization. Robert is the author of I am a Bug!, the popular software testing children’s book; an adjunct professor of software engineering at McGill University; and the principle consultant (and president/janitor) of AmiBug.Com, Inc. Contact Robert at rsabourin@amibug.com.

Tutorial #2 (Full day)
“Context Appropriate Performance Testing, from Simple to Rocket Science” - Scott Barber

When most people think of performance testing, they think about the hard parts – the very hard parts. They think about the expensive and complicated tools that are required to simulate the activity of thousands of end-users all at the same time, while collecting tens or hundreds of thousands of measurements.

In reality, many performance issues can be detected and diagnosed with exactly the tools and knowledge you already have at your disposal using information obtained from quick, easy and cheap performance tests. In fact, much of the performance related information that stakeholders need to make good decisions and development teams need to dramatically improve system performance is easily obtainable by the performance-testing layman.  The trick is knowing what performance tests to apply when, and how much time/effort is worth investing based on the business importance of performance — in other words, context!

In this hands-on tutorial (bring your laptop or risk reduced value and intermittent boredom), Scott Barber will introduce you to several techniques that the performance testing layperson can use to speed up and simplify the collection of valuable performance-related information; many of which you can use during the tutorial to test your current website if it’s accessible from the classroom. You’ll also receive an introduction to the ‘rocket science’ side of performance testing along with some things that you can do to make life easier for your resident ‘performance testing rocket scientist’.

A prominent thought-leader in the area of software system performance and testing software systems in general, Scott Barber, founder and Chief Technologist of PerfTestPlus, makes his living writing, speaking, consulting, and coaching with the goal of advancing the understanding and practice of software testing. Scott has contributed to four books (co-author,Performance Testing Guidance for Web Applications, Microsoft Press; 2007, contributing author Beautiful Testing, O’Reilly Media; 2009, contributing author How to Reduce the Cost of Testing, CRC Press; 2011, author Web Load Testing for Dummies,  John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; 2011), composed over 100 articles and papers, delivered keynote addresses on five continents, served the testing community as the Executive Director of the Association for Software Testing, and co-founded the Workshop on Performance and Reliability.

Today, Scott is focused on applying and enhancing his thoughts on delivering world-class system performance in complex business and technical environments with a variety of clients and is actively building the foundation for his next project: driving the integration of testing commercial software systems with the core objectives of the businesses funding the creation of those systems.

Tutorial #3 (Full day)
“Inspiring Testing – Test Leadership Workshop” - Fiona Charles

A leader sets an example and inspires others to follow and then to lead in their turn. You don’t have to be a manager to be a leader—but if you’re not also a leader, you can’t be a good manager.

– What does it take to be a leader?
– Is test leadership different from any other kind of leadership?
– How can you get to be a leader?
– Can you be a leader in a collaborative team?

Inspiring testing means much more than getting a team to follow you. It means fostering teamwork that will enhance the effectiveness of your whole project team. It also means earning credibility for testing, so that managers and fellow team members understand testing’s value, and the importance of the information your testing uncovers.
You can shine as a test leader even if you are the only tester on your project team.

In this full-day interactive workshop, we’ll work together to explore and practice qualities and skills that make a real test leader. You’ll have an opportunity to assess your leadership aspirations and potential, and to develop a personal roadmap to help you become the leader you want to be and bring benefits to the projects you work on.
This workshop is for testers, test managers, test leads—anyone who wants to become a leader or a more effective leader.

Fiona Charles is a software test consultant who teaches organizations to match their software testing to their business risks and opportunities. With extensive experience in software development and integration, she has managed testing and consulted on testing on many challenging projects for clients in retail, banking, financial services, health care, telecommunications and emergency services.

Throughout her career Fiona has advocated, designed, implemented, and taught pragmatic and humane practices to deliver software worth having—in even the most difficult project circumstances. Her articles on testing and test management appear frequently and she speaks and conducts experiential workshops at conferences. Fiona edited The Gift of Time, and guest-edited the “Women of Influence” issue of STP magazine. Fiona is co-founder and host of the Toronto Workshop on Software Testing.

Tutorial #4 (Half day, AM)
“Extending the Boundaries of Test Automation for Web Applications” - Julian Harty

We can extend the range and capabilities of our automated tests beyond basic functional testing in many ways including detecting user-interaction bugs, accessibility problems. We can even detect various issues that may adversely affect testability and Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

This ½ day tutorial provides the opportunity to experiment hands-on with several free an opensource tools to augment automated functional tests. Come and learn how these tests can help extend the reach and capabilities of your automated tests. And if you bring a laptop with Selenium 2.0 Tools installed you can experiment during the workshop.

This work is based on existing presentations and articles on the topic. Background material is available online at http://blog.bettersoftwaretesting.com And there is a tutorial for Selenium 2.0 at http://code.google.com/p/selenium/wiki/GettingStarted

(Participants should bring a computer to this tutorial!)

Julian Harty has been actively involved in the software testing world since 1999 when he realised testing was one way to help deliver better software for the ultimate users. Over the years he has run various companies, worked at Google for 4 years as a senior test engineer, and is currently the Tester At Large at eBay.

Much of his work is freely available online including various opensource projects, training material, and notes on test automation for web and mobile applications. He wrote the first book on test automation for smartphone applications, published articles, given tutorials and classes globally on testing and test automation. He’s also one of the editors, and the main author for the testing sections, for the popular Don’t Panic Mobile Developers Guide to the Galaxy book, the 10th edition is being launched in February 2012.

He has a BSc in Computer Science, and he holds distinctions in the ISEB software testing qualifications (he was also on the examination panel for several years).

Tutorial #5 (Half day, PM)
“A Test Automation MasterClass for Mobile Phone Applications” - Julian Harty

Test Automation for mobile phone applications includes many challenges. These challenges include complexities and limitations in the test automation software; how to control or simulate the myriad sensors; etc. In practice few people manage to get beyond semi-automated testing or limited automated functional testing. However we can do better. Techniques such as Model-Based-Testing (MBT) can be integrated with driver code to exercise our applications. We can design our mobile applications so they’re more testable and we can enhance existing test automation frameworks to make them more capable.

Join this ½ day MasterClass to learn ways we can lead the test automation for mobile phone applications.

The MasterClass is aimed at people who have already written some automated tests for mobile phone applications and who are comfortable working with source code. Bring a laptop with your favourite mobile development environment to try out some of the ideas. Examples will include test automation for various platforms including Android.

(Participants should bring a computer to this tutorial!)

Julian Harty has been actively involved in the software testing world since 1999 when he realised testing was one way to help deliver better software for the ultimate users. Over the years he has run various companies, worked at Google for 4 years as a senior test engineer, and is currently the Tester At Large at eBay.

Much of his work is freely available online including various opensource projects, training material, and notes on test automation for web and mobile applications. He wrote the first book on test automation for smartphone applications, published articles, given tutorials and classes globally on testing and test automation. He’s also one of the editors, and the main author for the testing sections, for the popular Don’t Panic Mobile Developers Guide to the Galaxy book, the 10th edition is being launched in February 2012.

He has a BSc in Computer Science, and he holds distinctions in the ISEB software testing qualifications (he was also on the examination panel for several years).

Tutorial is full! Tutorial #6 (Half day, AM) Tutorial is full!
“Critical Thinking Skills for Testers” - Michael Bolton

– Every test must have an expected, predicted result.
– Effective testing requires complete, clear, consistent, and unambiguous specifications.
– Bugs found earlier cost less to fix than bugs found later.
– Testers are the quality gatekeepers for a product.
– Repeated tests are fundamentally more valuable.
– You can’t manage what you can’t measure.
– Testing at boundary values is the best way to find bugs.
– Test documentation is needed to deflect legal liability.
– The more bugs testers find before release, the better the testing effort.
– Exploratory testing is unstructured testing, and is therefore unreliable.
– Adopting best practices will guarantee that we do a good job of testing.

If you’re a tester or a test manager, you’ve probably heard statements like these touted as universal, unquestionable truths about testing. At best, these bits of mythology and folklore are heuristics — fallible methods for solving a problem or making a decision. At worst, they’re potentially dangerous simplifications or outright fallacies that can threaten a tester’s credibility, a product’s value, or an organization’s business.

Testers live in a world of enormous complexity, scarce information, and extraordinary time pressure. In order to deal with this, they need skills of critical thinking — thinking about thinking, with the intention of not being fooled. This half-day workshop, presented by Michael Bolton, is designed to teach strategies and skills — questioning skills, critical thinking, context-driven thinking, general systems thinking — that can help testers deal confidently and thoughtfully with difficult testing situations.
In the workshop, we’ll question the myths of software testing; examine common cognitive biases, and the critical thinking tools that can help to manage them; learn modeling and general systems approaches to manage complexity and observational challenges; and work through exercises that model difficult testing problems — and suggest approaches to solving them.
Participants are encouraged to bring a Windows-based laptop computer to the workshop.

Michael Bolton is a software tester, consultant, and trainer with 20 years of experience around the world, testing, developing, managing, and writing about software. He is the co-author (with senior author James Bach) of Rapid Software Testing, a course that presents a methodology and mindset for testing software expertly in uncertain conditions and under extreme time pressure.

Currently, he leads DevelopSense, a Toronto-based consultancy. Prior to that, he was with Quarterdeck Corporation for eight years, during which I managed the companyís flagship products and directed project and testing teams both in-house and around the world. Contact Michael at michael@developsense.com, or through his Web site, http://www.developsense.com

Tutorial #7 (Half day, PM)
“Now, what’s your plan?” - Henrik Andersson and Leo Hepis

The future is here.  Our top-notch robots at Let’s Test — robots you can see with your eyes and touch with your hands — are ready to solve problems.

Or are they?

(Maybe we should test them first!!!)

In this interactive and challenging session, we will develop strategies to test these remote-controlled robots, exploring the impact of context changes as we go along.
We will group in small teams and receive different stories regarding the robots’ use. We will explore and debate how the different stories make you plan testing on the same product in different ways.  Who knows, maybe some “Best Practices” will not seem that “best” when considered in unfolding context.
Just when you thought you had a grip of things, guess what  happens…… As the session progresses, developments will cast different light on the robot projects, forcing us into tough decisions about these context-changes.  The users may not be who we thought they were; or the terrain might be different.  How will your test strategy evolve as a result?

We will end this session with a brainstorm on context variables to consider when test planning. This will provide you with a list of context variables you might like to consider next time you plan your testing. If you start using the list in your work, over time you will most likely come up even more variables to add to the list to make it all yours in your context.

Because the number of robots available for our exercise is limited, please sign up as soon as possible to guarantee a seat.

Come test the robots!

Henrik Andersson is consultant and founder of House of Test, consultancy and outsourcing based in Sweden and China. He helps companies increase their efficiency and reconstructing their testing. He provides leadership and consulting for coaches managers and leads. He tests,, consults, speaks, writes, manages and thinks about software testing and problem solving. Henrik has worked in a broad range of fields such as medtech, defense, financial, pension, commercial web apps, logistics, SAP, search engines and telecom. This has given him a deep understanding of the way differences of context influences testing. You can follow Henrik on Twitter as @henkeandersson

 

 

Leonidas Hepis has been testing software and managing test teams since 1994. As a tester he has become an expert at *not knowing*, helping organizations understand what can be reasonably considered known, or not, through testing. Better informed about the limits of testing, organizations can better steer processes and products towards creating value for customers. In that regard, he considers excellence in Testing to be on par with excellence in science.

He’s a member of the Association for Software Testing, as well as a senior member of the American Society for Quality. He believes that organizations must maintain their sense of humor and playfulness if they are to creatively solve problems. For over a decade he has lived in San Diego, California, where he’s helped small companies with their software testing and quality efforts.

Tutorial #8 (Half day, AM)
“Hands-On Software Diagnosis” - James Lyndsay

Good testers need to be able to go beyond simply logging a problem. To give value to their stakeholders and integrate with their development teams, testers need to be able to investigate the problems that they find. Diagnostic skills will help a tester to isolate genuine problems from a rash of symptoms, to work out what lies behind field reports, and to communicate her bugs effectively by describing plausible models.
In this hands-on workshop, we will use a succession of practical exercises based on real problems and surprises. If you’ve been to James’ workshops before, these are new real problems. Participants will select test conditions to isolate and emphasise a bug, analyse data to reveal connections and populations, and apply techniques to reveal potential cause and effect. At the end of the workshop, participants will have an improved understanding of the techniques and principles of diagnosis that can be applied to issues found in their own systems.
Please note: we will test software – bring a laptop to get the most from this session.

James has been testing since 1986, and has worked independently since setting up Workroom Productions in 1994. As a consultant, he’s worked in a variety of businesses and project styles; from retail to telecommunications, from rapidly-evolving internet start-ups to more traditional large-scale enterprise. He’s worked to technical requirements for companies that make and sell software, to commercial requirements for companies that buy and use software, and to unexpected requirements everywhere. He’s been in and out of agile (and Agile) teams since 2002. James was an internal irritant to the ISEB exam process for five years, is a regular speaker and occasional teacher, runs LEWT (the London Exploratory Workshop in Testing) and has won prizes for his papers.

Tutorial is full! Tutorial #9 (Half day, PM) Tutorial is full!

“Exploratory Test Design” - Rikard Edgren

Lots have been written about test design; most of it from a narrow, natural science perspective.
My wide definition of test design has two components:

– Freedom and responsibility to design and execute tests as you go
– Investigative analysis and design from many more sources than requirements

Since we don’t know exactly what we are looking for, we want to sample broadly, trust the tester, and count on serendipity.
This half-day tutorial will arm you with:

– 35 sources for test ideas to help you find what is important
– A broad set of quality characteristics, and lightweight methods to get you started
– A hundred test design heuristics to choose from

We will not go through all of these, but use some of them in practical exercises.
You will also get the latest version of The Little Black Book on Test Design to use when you get home.
This is not primarily about being able to test a product you haven’t seen before.
It is about using an exploratory test design to dig deeper into products you know pretty well.

Rikard Edgren, test expert at Qamcom Research & Technology. Started a journey towards humanistic testing in 1998 with localized Microsoft products. 11 years with Spotfire’s interactive data analytics software gave a depth that has been generalized in works like The Little Black Book on Test Design and Software Quality Characteristics (co-authored with Henrik Emilsson and Martin Jansson, the other two founders of the test eye think-tank.) 2011 saw a switch to consulting at Qamcom Karlstad, now leaning more towards teaching testing, e.g. at 2-year higher vocational studies for software testers in Karlstad.

With an educational background in Philosphy and Musical Science, focus is not on binary verification, but rather on communicating what is important, which requires creativity since every software effort is unique. Rikard has five appearances at EuroSTAR (one in program committee), many presentations at Swedish events, and is a delegate and organizer of Swedish Workshop on Exploratory Testing.