Sogeti Ireland

I've just finished viewing another Sogeti Webinar, "Applying TPI®NEXT to your situation".

Sogeti is a commercial business and I have links to them:

• I'm on the softtest committee who are sponsored by Sogeti
  
• Recently, I got them in-house to deliver "Advanced Test Techniques"
  

They're not concrete links – I don't benefit in any way financially from them (although I'll never say no to a free book). But they are links nonetheless.

So having "come clean" with above links, I want to take this opportunity to thank Sogeti.

They are doing an incredible job of educating the test community in Ireland with their free webinars!

Every time I attend a webinar, I learn something, my pre-existing opinions may be challenged, or I look at something in a new way that opens up exciting ideas and opportunities to build on.

Each webinar is recorded so if I have a conflict and am unable to watch "live", I can catch up later.

If you're not viewing these webinars, then you are missing out!

Check out: http://www.sogeti.ie/en/News--Events/Events/ for their upcoming scheduled webinars and http://www.sogeti.ie/en/Resources--Downloads/Thought-Leadership-Presentations/ for their archive.

User Profiles in Testing

I just finished reading Joel Montveliksy's blog called:

5 Ideas on how “User Profiles” can Improve Your Testing

I really like the concept.

What struck me most is I asked myself, "how well do I understand the users of the software that I test?"

Joel proposes that each user profile should contain all the personal and professional traits that are relevant to the work this person does with your software. That includes describing how the user works, what their goals for using your software are, what annoys and frustrates them, what delights them, and so on....

How many of us can sit down and describe our users?

Shouldn't these user profiles, whether we use them or not, be created and validated by others? To ensure that our assumptions are correct?

Shouldn't this be absolutely essential if our testing is as effective as it can be?

SoftTest Webinar: Testing a SaaS Platform on an Agile World

SoftTest free webinar Wednesday, April 21, 2010 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM BST

Testing a SaaS (Software as a Service) Platform on an Agile World

SaaS (Software as a Service) products and applications are becoming more common in today’s development Industry, especially as Cloud Computing becomes a household name pushed forward by software players such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, etc.

In contrast to regular Web-Based systems, SaaS applications require a different approach to testing than what we are used to from other more traditional projects. In some cases testing a SaaS system is simpler than testing a regular Web-based platforms, but in many others it is a lot more challenging and demanding. It’s made even more interesting by the fact that many of the teams developing SaaS Applications are based Agile Development Methodologies.

In this webinar, Joel Montvelisky will provide an overview of the main areas to cover when testing a SaaS Application or Platform based on his own experience at PractiTest (a SaaS QA Management Platform developed by his company). He will give some insights into the type of approaches and ideas that work best, and will also talk about some of the tools and methodologies his team currently uses while testing PractiTest.

The seminar is aimed at Test Engineers, Test Leaders, QA Managers, Project Managers, Developers and Development Managers.

Please see below a link to the registration page.

https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/506544250

Webinar features:

All of the content is online. For audio, you can listen with headphones or speakers (VOIP option) or dial-in using a local number.

We can also record the presentation and have it available to view afterwards.

Short Bio
Joel Montvelisky is one of the founders and Product Architect of PractiTest, a company providing an End-to-End Test and QA Management System. He is also a QA Instructor and Consultant for multiple high-tech firms in Israel.

Joel has been part of the QA Industry for over 13 years, having managed the QA in companies ranging from small Internet Start-Ups and all the way to HP/Mercury where he managed the QA for TestDirector/Quality Center, QTP, WR and additional products in their Testing Platforms Family.

A member of the Advisory Board of the Israeli Testing Certification Board (the Israeli chapter of the ISTQB); he publishes articles and a periodic QA blog under http:/qablog.practitest.com/, and is an active speaker in local and international conferences. Joel holds a B.Sc in Industrial Engineering and an MBA from Tel Aviv University.


Thanks to our sponsors and our supporters in organising this webinar:
Sogeti Ireland
InterTradeIreland
Software Skillnet
Anne-Marie Charrett of Testing Times

Professional Tester Mag

FYI: Professional Tester has been relaunched in January/February 2010.

It's available free for electronic download at:

http://www.professionaltester.com/files/PT-issue1.pdf

This month's episode contains:

- TPI Next
- VELT
- Towards Quantitative Governance
- Improving Process Improvement
- Rude Coarse Analysis
- Incident Log

Within Europe subscription is €50 per year (6 printed mags). Alternatively, it looks like you can always download the electronic version for FREE.

SoftTest Events February 2010

I just finished my third speaking engagement with SoftTest today.

On Tuesday I was in Belfast, Wednesday in Dublin and Thursday in Cork. My voice no longer works and I'm rather tired now.

I spoke on Lean Test Process Improvement in Agile Testing and I welcome any questions/suggestions on such.

I highly recommend that if you have a topic you could speak on, please volunteer. On a personal front, you gain so much from standing up in front of your peers and speaking.

Don't forget, it also facilitates the sharing of knowledge among the Irish testing community. The Irish testing community is part of the knowledge economy and it is mutually beneficial to help each other out!

I'll be posting my ppt on test-soft.com in the coming days.

If you attended my talk - Thank You! It was an absolute pleasure!

For those you didn't - you missed out on a free learning (I hope) event. Keep an eye on softtest.ie for forthcoming events. More will be advertised very soon.

Tuturial at Iqnite 2010 Germany

My proposal to run a tutorial titled "An Introduction to LEAN Test Process Improvement" has been accepted by Iqnite and is planned for 27 April, 2010 in Dusseldorf, Germany.

On completion of the tutorial, the participants will be able to:

• Describe the key industry test process improvement models.
o TMMi
o TPI
o LEAN

• Understand the LEAN principles.

• Use value stream mapping to model current processes.

• Use value stream maps to identify waste.

• Define a strategy for using the LEAN model to support your test organization and process improvement goals.

• Understand how to implement these models and methods in practice for maximum benefit.

It's a lot to get through in a day! However, it is vitial for testing to continuously improve in order to drive greater efficiencies and effectiveness!

http://www.iqnite-conferences.com/de-en/index.html

Transition to a Test Management Role

So, this week, I place my individual contributor hat aside and I join the ranks of management.

It's actually quite overwhelming because my first instinctive reaction is to open the software and start testing! But that's the hero tester coming to save the day reaction which just frankly isn't appropriate.

I need to look at my team and ensure that we don't need hero testers!

I have a great team and my role is to facilitate them doing their jobs - to ensure that they have what they need to get the job done.

What does that mean? I'm not too sure but I have copious amounts of reading to get through over the holidays. Watch this space...