KEYNOTES
Lee Henson -
Chief Agile Enthusiast, AgileDad
Tuesday, October 16,
9:00am -
10:15am
It comes as no surprise that with the downfall of the economy in the US, many organizations have made testing an afterthought. Some have scaled testing efforts back so far that the end product has suffered more greatly than one can imagine. This is resulting in major consumer frustration and a great lack of organizational understanding of how best to tackle this issue. Agile does not mean do more with less. As we journey into a new frontier where smaller is better, less is more, and faster is always the right answer, traditional testing efforts have been morphed and picked apart to only include the parts that people want to see and hear. Effective testing can be done in an efficient manner without sacrificing quality at the end of the day. Learn based on real world scenarios how others have learned about and conquered this issue. Embark on a journey with ‘Ely Executive’ as he realizes the value and importance of quality to both his internal and external customer. Discover how a host of internal and external players help Ely reach his conclusion and bask in the ‘I can relate to that’ syndrome this scenario presents. This epic adventure will surely prove memorable and will be one you do not want to miss!
Speaker Biography
Lee’s 12 years of experience spans a broad array of software production roles and responsibilities. He is currently one of just over 100 Certified Scrum Trainers (CST) worldwide. He is also a Project Management Professional (PMP) and a PMI-Agile Certified Practitioner. Lee has worked as a GUI web developer, quality assurance analyst, automated test engineer, QA Manager, product manager, project manager, ScrumMaster, agile coach, consultant, & training professional. His client list includes over 25 of the Fortune 100 companies, Government sector projects, small and large software production facilities, and multiple large-scale e-commerce implementations.
Lee is a graduate of the Disney Management Institute and is the author of the Definitive Agile Checklist. He publishes the Agile Mentor Newsletter. He is the inventor of Rapid Release Planning and is continually looking for ways to advance testing practices in the Agile and Scrum community.
Jeff Havens -
Speaker, Trainer, Author
Wednesday, October 17,
9:00am -
10:15am
This award-winning keynote is a study in exactly what not to do. Promising to give his audiences permission rather than advice, Jeff will ‘encourage’ your team to criticize others and outsource blame before bringing it all home with a serious discussion about proper communication, customer service, and accountability practices.
By highlighting and then poking fun of practices we’re all guilty of, Uncrapify Your Life! offers a unique and delightful twist on the traditional keynote, one that has found favor with General Electric, USBank, Frito-Lay, Ford Motors, and hundreds of other companies representing virtually every industry in the United States and Canada. At once hilarious and meaningful, Uncrapify Your Life! offers a motivational keynote utterly unlike anything corporate America has ever seen, one that is guaranteed to leave your audience refreshed, surprised, and begging for more.
Session Takeaways:
- How to avoid negative and unproductive conversations
- The power of sincere, straightforward communication
- The importance of small things when it comes to delivering outstanding customer service
- How to approach change in order to achieve seamless integration
Tired of being told what to do. Sick of attending sessions that tell you how to become a better communicator or a more effective leader, and you definitely don't want to hear any more garbage about effective change management. Experience something different. You won’t be told what to do. Instead, you will be given permission to do all of the things you've always wanted to do - to become the worst person you can possibly be – to be sure that you are conveniently left off of company emails inviting you to social functions. And if you're not careful, you might actually learn something.
Speaker Biography
Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Vanderbilt University, Jeff Haven began his career as a high school English teacher before branching into the world of stand-up comedy, where he worked with some of the brightest lights in American comedy and honed the art of engaging audiences through laughter. But his impulse to teach never faded, and soon
he began looking for an avenue to combine both of his passions into entertaining and meaningful presentations.
Matt Johnston -
CMO, uTest
Wednesday, October 17,
2:00pm -
2:45pm
Serving consumers’ voracious appetite for smartphones, tablets, e-readers, gaming consoles, connect TVs and apps – advancements in mobile technology are happening at warp speed. Manufacturers, carriers and app makers have all their chips on the table, launching dozens of unique devices per year, releasing new and improved operating systems, and aligning behind a multitude of browsers and OS standards. It’s a dizzying task for test and engineering professionals to keep up with all the changes, let alone figure out which ones need to be supported in their industry, in their company, and in their department. Yet, despite all the fragmentation in today’s mobile universe, tech professionals have to make difficult choices. Daunting? Yes. But there’s something better than tea leaves and a crystal ball to take some of the “guess” out of our guesstimations: mobile market trends and statistics.
We’ll look at a wide variety of mobile metrics that cut through the hype, comparing the growing (and waning) popularity of different devices, operating systems and related tech that may influence attendees’ testing and development decisions.
Speaker Biography
Matt Johnston leads uTest’s marketing and community efforts as CMO, with more than a decade of marketing experience at companies ranging from early-stage startups to publicly traded enterprises. He continues to lead uTest’s efforts in shaping the brand, building awareness, generating leads and creating a world-class community
of testers. Matt earned a B.A. in Marketing from Calvin College, as well as an MBA in Marketing & Technology from New York University’s Stern School of Business.
Karen N. Johnson -
Founder, Software Test Management, Inc.
Thursday, October 18,
9:00am -
10:00am
The project manager asks: When will you be done? The development manager shifts in her chair and the developers sitting around the project team table now have their eyes fixed on you. There is silence while the team waits for your response. You ask or better yet, state how much time you need to finish a round of regression testing. But you know that no matter how much time you ask for there is always another test condition, always another set of data that could be tested. You sigh. How can you tell when you will be done testing when testing is a discovery activity not just a confirmation activity and you have no idea what issues you may find lurking in the software?
Back at your desk, you look up to your computer screen and there is that same old website you’ve been testing for days, perhaps weeks and if you’ve been on the team for a while, perhaps you have looked at this software for years.
And now your mission is to regression test this website yet again, preferably with fresh eyes and a thorough review. After all, you’re the one holding up this software from being used by paying customers. The pressure mounts and yet procrastination takes hold, as you glance at your desk phone and see messages, and your inbox of email has grown while you were in the team meeting.
It’s time, time to roll up your sleeves and finish the work at hand and yet, you just don’t feel like it. The old regression testing blues have taken hold and you can’t talk about that sensation to a single coworker as your teammates are waiting on you. How do you discipline yourself to get the job done? Discipline. Focus. How do you pull on the reservoirs of these necessary skills? These are not the cool sexy skills like knowing how to build an Android app, or how to get an application accepted into the Apple store but the unglamorous skills of buckling down and getting the job done.
How do we invoke discipline to get the job done? To begin you have to admit you have a challenge to overcome and in this presentation, the reality of needing to be disciplined and focused to get work done, most especially getting work done under pressure, will be discussed.
Tactics will be shared for getting through stacks of work when you don’t feel inspired. We will look at how to build rigor and discipline into your practice in software testing. Software testing takes a certain amount of discipline and rigor; it takes the ability to focus and think while frequently under stressful conditions. How can we improve our ability to focus? How do we deal with distractions?
This presentation will provide an honest look at (as well as practical tips) how to build rigor and discipline into your practice in software testing.
Speaker Biography
Karen N. Johnson is an independent software test consultant. She is a frequent speaker at conferences. Karen is a contributing author to the book, Beautiful Testing released by O’Reilly publishers. She is the co-founder of the WREST workshop, more information on WREST can be found at: http://www.wrestworkshop.com/Home.html. She has published numerous articles and blogs about her experiences with software testing. You can visit her website at: http://www.karennjohnson.com.