STANZ 2012 Speakers

Meet Elisabeth, the most excited tester on the planet. There are thousands of testers in the world, hundreds of people who talk about testing and a handful who are inspiring, innovative and insightful presenters. But you would be hard pushed to find someone as test obsessed (the title of her blog ) as Elisabeth.

In her Google tech talk on Agile testing Elisabeth announces, “I am in fact test obsessed… I live, eat, breathe and sleep testing. I think it's FUN!”. That's why she's worked in the software industry since 1984. She began hearing about Agile in 2003, became a Certified Scrum Master in 2005 and joined the Agile Alliance board of directors in 2007.

Elisabeth has been a Tester, Programmer, Test Automation Manager, Quality Engineering Director and Technical Writer. She's worked for start-ups and multi-national software vendors. She's spoken at conferences in the U.S., Sweden, Portugal, Australia and New Zealand. She founded Quality Tree Software, Inc. in 1997 to provide training and consulting in software quality and testing.

In short, there is no doubt that Elisabeth knows testing, but what is different about her is that she's so excited about testing that when she speaks you can't help but feel excited too. Today she can be found teaching, writing and speaking about testing as well as working in Extreme Programming teams.

Elisabeth will be running a two and half hour workshop about Acceptance Test Driven Development (ATDD). She is a thought leader in this area which is all about collaborative practices. This conference is an opportunity to share her test experience and knowledge with testers in New Zealand. In Elisabeth's own words, “how cool is that?”

At STANZ Elisabeth will present a keynote on Exploratory Testing and the 2.5hr workshop:

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Beginning with the End in Mind: Acceptance Test Driven Development (ATDD) in Practice 

In The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen R. Covey names "Begin with the End in Mind" as the second of the seven habits. This habit applies not just to individuals, but also to software development teams. In Acceptance Test Driven Development (ATDD), the team focuses on eliciting expectations and examples from the product owner or business analyst during requirements discussions. The whole team then collaborates to distil these into acceptance tests that define the essence of "Done."

Modern testing frameworks such as Cucumber, Robot Framework, and FitNesse enable the team to express the tests in natural language while connecting them to automation code. The result is that the acceptance tests are automated while the software is being developed, not after. That means they become executable requirements that guide development from the very beginning.

In this demonstration-based session, Elisabeth uses ATDD to implement a feature in a sample application, live, with acceptance criteria coming from the audience. Along the way, she gives an overview of the ATDD cycle and how it fits with other Agile development and testing practices including TDD, Continuous Integration, and Exploratory Testing.

Alan is a funky guy who knows a lot about software testing - especially testing at Microsoft. He was the lead author on the book How We Test Software at Microsoft, contributed chapters for Beautiful Testing (Adam Goucher/Tim Riley) on large-scale test automation and Experiences of Test Automation: Case Studies of Software Test Automation (Dorothy Graham/Mark Fewster) on device simulation framework and wrote the foreword to James Whittaker's Exploratory Software Testing: Tips, Tricks, Tours, and Techniques to Guide Test Design.

More than just having the knowledge and writing about it (also see his blog at http://angryweasel.com/blog) he was a recent Director of Test Excellence at Microsoft looking after the technical training program for testers (some 10,000 of them) and other activities focused on improving testers, test tools, and testing across Microsoft so Alan knows a thing or two about training and how to help you learn.

Currently a Principal Software Design Engineer in Test (SDET) on the Xbox team, he continues to coach and mentor testers and test managers across the organisation on testing approaches and techniques. Alan also leads Microsoft's Test Architect Group (Alan was one of the first Test Architects at Microsoft) as well as other internal quality and testing focused communities and is active outside Microsoft with the Seattle Area Software Quality Assurance Group (SASQAG) and other groups. If you'd like a sneak peek into Alan's thoughts, as well as his blog, you can view a couple of video-inars on Vimeo.

All that makes Alan someone well worth coming along to meet, hear from and learn with, but how'd he get his funk?

Music, of course. In a time before Microsoft while holding down a day job as a bicycle messenger Alan (mis-)spent nights rockin' it away with numerous bands (he holds a masters degree in music composition and taught music in public schools for 4 years). It was while he was with a 9 piece funk band that "angry weasel" came up in a story, out of Germany, to "beware of the tooth of the weasel". Angry Weasel got hung as Alan's monkier and almost became the name of the band. I'm sure many of you'll agree that "tooth of the weasel" is more suited to the blog of a software tester than a funk band.

So there you have it. Alan is just another 'lost musician' who, as a number of others have, has found a better home in software development. If you ask nicely Alan might bang out a tune for you, he can certainly help your testing hum.

Join everyone at STANZ and meet the man who wrote the book on testing at Microsoft, Alan Page.

Alan will present the session on Testing Upside Down: Customer Focused Test Design and a 2.5hr workshop on Test Automation.

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Testing Upside Down: Customer Focused Test Design

Test design is the core of what testers do. We design and execute tests to understand the software we're testing, and to identify risks and issues in that software. Good test design comes from skilled testers using a toolbox of test ideas drawn from presentations, articles, books, and hands-on experience with test design. Great testers have great test designs because they have a generous test design toolbox.

A significant drawback of the test design ideas used by many testers is the heavy emphasis on functional testing of the software. While functional testing is a critical aspect of software testing, many test design ideas fail to include high-priority plans for testing areas such as performance, reliability, or security. Test teams frequently delegate these testing areas to specialists, and ignore the importance of early testing. Furthermore, when testers manage to design and run tests for these areas, the testing often occurs late in the product cycle, when it may be too late to fix these types of bugs.

The solution is Customer Focused Test Design. This test design approach includes an emphasis on testing end-to-end scenarios, real-time customer feedback, future customer trends, and, most importantly, a flip of emphasis away from functional tests and towards tests that affect the customer perception of quality early in the product cycle. This entertaining discussion will include concepts, examples, and stories - along with tips any test team can apply to their own product.

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The Big Picture of Test Automation

Successful test automation requires much more than scripts that manipulate the system under test. In many not-so-complex scenarios, writing the code can be the easiest part of a successful test automation system.

In this 2.5 hour workshop, Alan will walk you through scenarios and exercises designed to get you thinking about every aspect of a top-notch test automation system - and arm you with ideas and solutions to enable you to take on any aspect of implementing test automation. We'll start by building a strong foundation of test design ideas for automated tests, and move on to discuss options for executing automated tests, test architecture and more. Along the way, we'll discuss (and discover) common pitfalls and obstacles to writing trustworthy automation that lasts beyond the current release.

Whether you have a test team of three or three-hundred; no matter what programming languages you use, and regardless of your experience in test automation, this workshop will be full of new and practical concepts you can apply immediately and for years to come.

We'll use pseudo-code and discuss some code constructs, but coding skills are required for this workshop. Testing skills and a strong desire to learn and discuss new ideas in test automation and automation concepts are a must-have. Join Alan for a unique and informative dive into mostly uncharted territories of test automation.

Julie is not only a knowledgeable tester but also a great public speaker and trainer. She has won best presentation at STAREAST, best presentation at British Computer Society SIGiST and best tutorial at EuroSTAR. She has been a keynote speaker at STARWEST, Innovate Test Management and SoftEd's STANZ. She will now be adding Fusion to that impressive list of conference experience, where she is sure to once again get great reviews.

Julie is QA Test Manager at Sage UK and Principal Consultant at QST (her own company). Sage is a huge organisation, the world's third largest supplier of enterprise resource planning software (after Oracle and SAP), with over six million customers. Before taking her current role Julie was a senior consultant and trainer with Gove Consultants in the U.K. and has been an analyst programmer, Oracle database administrator and Project Manager with first-hand experience as a test analyst, test team leader, test consultant and test manager.

Julie has done lots of consulting and training over her twenty years' experience in the testing world. She has even been a marker for the ISEB Practitioner certification. She has used lots of software development methodologies, from waterfall to Agile, and is a certified ScrumMaster. Her specialities include risk-based testing, Agile testing, test management and people issues. She has worked in a variety of industries including financial, utilities, retail, insurance, construction and the public sector.

At SoftEd we love getting Julie to come 'down under' and share her testing expertise and enthusiasm. Many of you will remember her from STANZ 2008 and she was also a participant at STANZ 2011.

At STANZ in 2012 Julie will present the keynote The 2012 Survival Guide: Lessons for Every Tester and the 2.5hr workshop Usability Testing in a Nutshell.

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The 2012 Survival Guide: Lessons for Every Tester

This keynote is a thought-provoking session with take-backs on important principles, tools, and skills you need to survive - and even flourish - as a test professional.

When we are in dangerous situations, we need a well-thought-out survival guide to help save ourselves and others. These lifesaving principles and skills provide the basic necessities for life and help us think straight, navigate safely, signal for help, and avoid unpleasant consequences of interactions with our environment. Julie shares her 2012 Survival Guide for testers and test managers living in today's challenging business and technical environments. Topics in her guide include: Turn your job from a daily grind into a passion - life's too short not to have fun; Demonstrate every day the value of testing - if you aren't adding value or if others don't know what you're accomplishing, you may be toast; Choose your battles - if you try to fight every battle, you will certainly lose often, and become frustrated and angry; Make important expectations part of your schedule estimates and commitments - your performance relies on good requirements, working code, and a decent test environment; and most importantly, Maintain your integrity at all costs - otherwise, you won't be taken seriously, and you'll lose the respect of others. Join Julie in this thought-provoking session and take back the important principles, tools, and skills you need to survive - and even flourish - as a test professional.

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Usability Testing in a Nutshell 

Learn how to define usability goals and how to get management to take usability defects seriously. If you want to improve your skills in usability testing, this session is for you.

Because our systems are becoming more complex and the market is becoming saturated with competing brands, usability can be a differentiating factor in purchasing decisions. A classic system requirement is "The system must be user-friendly" but what does that mean, and more importantly, how do we test for this requirement? Join Julie Gardiner as she describes usability techniques you can employ to demonstrate a user interface's efficiency and effectiveness. Find out how to predict and test for usability, and, most importantly, for user satisfaction before the software's release. Take back new knowledge of proven usability testing techniques: heuristic evaluation, cognitive walkthroughs, focus groups, user personas, contextual task analysis, usability labs, and satisfaction surveys. Learn how to define usability goals and how to get management to take usability defects seriously. If you want to improve your skills in usability testing, this session is for you.

Geoff Horne is not afraid of a challenge. After many years working in IT in various roles such as software development, sales and marketing and project management, Geoff found himself, almost by accident, involved in testing a complex fault management system. Since then he has worked on a variety of testing and QA assignments and founded and run two testing companies.

Geoff's companies are ISQA, a strategic and tactical testing consultancy, and Testimation.com which focuses on the development of testing tools. Although based in New Zealand, he has worked with clients in Australia, the UK and USA. Recently he has focused on a few select clients running complex test projects in a programme test management capacity. Geoff has worked with Auckland City Council, Tower Insurance, Capgemini, Southern Cross and IBM so he understands how to get things done in large and complicated organisations.

Geoff likes to share his testing knowledge and experience and does so by writing white papers and speaking conferences. He has spoken at STANZ as well as TPNs, the Better Software Conference and AsiaStar and STAREAST (at which he has presented keynote sessions).

As well as taking on professional challenges in 2011 Geoff was the Chief Pilot and Navigator on a three month trip around Europe with his better half. In 2012 he'll be doing some travelling a bit closer to home when he presents at STANZ in Auckland and Christchurch.

Geoff is currently Programme Test Manager at Auckland Watercare Services.

At STANZ Geoff will present the session:

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A Method of Assessing Testing Risk Mitigations

Testing projects have habit of getting into strife. After all, after years of being the last piece in the SDLC pie, there are always deadline and budget squeezes that often require that we Test Managers find a way to do the impossible under the least conducive conditions. Most of us have had to manage risks as part of the test management process, however we can find that the most seemingly plausible mitigation strategy is not always the best one.

Geoff Horne will present a proven method for identifying and appropriately assessing risks and their mitigations for testing projects. This method has been successfully used on a number of different projects across a number of different types of business and testing. It is based on evaluation of risks and assessing the impacts across a variety of key criteria including resources, productivity, cost, quality and confidence. It is then presented in a colour-code graphical format that enables easy and straightforward comparison and prioritisation of the mitigation strategies to be deployed. 

This session will cover:

• The importance of good test risk management
• How to assess each risk impact across a number of criteria
• How to collate, present and interpret the results in a manner that facilitates an easy sell to management.  

Sharon is SoftEd's Software Testing Practice Lead and trainer. She has more letters after her name than are in the alphabet (see for yourself; B.Sc(Hons), Grad.Dip.IT, ISTQB CTFL, CTAL-ATA, CTAL-ATM, CTAL-TTA) and many years' experience in testing. She develops and delivers Agile and Software Testing training courses at every level.

Sharon was recognised as one of the 13 most influential women Software Testers in the world by US magazine Software Test & Performance in 2010. She has spoken at STANZ, Agile Australia, ANZTB conference, ISTQB Special Interest Groups, Test Professional Network (TPN), at STARWEST (USA), and has presented to the US Department of Defense. As well as high course participant scores, Sharon also gets great conference feedback for her entertaining and informative style.

She is generous with her time and always keen to meet and talk to testers or anyone involved in software development. At last year's STANZ event she was the last person out of the room in the evening and the first one back in the morning and we're delighted she will be speaking at Fusion.

Sharon was a founding member of the Australia and New Zealand Testing Board (ANZTB) and served on it from 2005 until 2010 and was Chair of the ISTQB Marketing Working Group from 2008 until 2010, responsible for managing and organising the international marketing approach for ISTQB.

Sharon will present the session on leadership techniques: 

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Leading The Way - From The Back of The Room  

Leadership is a very powerful term and is something that every team needs. However delivering leadership instead of management can be an issue in today's teams.

We need to understand how to motivate the team, energise the team, move the team forward without hampering the team's ability to deliver, and remember to deliver Business Value (meeting the business needs). Learning how to balance the need for control with the need for innovation and solid delivery is vital.

Key leadership principles and techniques, as well as how to apply them are discussed in this session.