**** NOTE TO REVIEWERS: Proposing this as a 90 min workshop - but can do as a full day or half day if you wish ****

It has been said “Everything rises and falls on leadership”. The world has experienced many changes over the last few decades, and organizations must respond to this constant change at much greater speed than ever before.

Many companies are eliminating the role of the test manager in agile teams and creating flat organizations which combine the roles of dev and test into a hybrid function. Leadership is title agnostic. You can lead from all levels within the organization.

Regardless of the hierarchy, testing is called on to lead success within the project teams. This requires the ability to educate, inform, and support the project team, the executive team, and the stakeholders.

In agile contexts, the tester much be equipped with the ability to clearly communicate the value of testing and the results of the evaluations conducted for each product delivery. Collaboration with all teams becomes critical.

This presentation will focus on exercises which map to all levels within the testing team. Experienced leaders will be called on to give their experiences and share their approaches to success. New leaders will be called on to share their inputs, suggestions, and experiences as well.

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”?

Many years ago, Stephen Covey made the statement “Nothing Fails Like Success”. He spoke on how that the things we do to be successful today may not be enough for success tomorrow. This powerful statement can be directly applied to how that the changing landscape of IT is affecting the roles of our project teams. Processes, tools, and approaches that were once successful years ago may not be enough today, tomorrow, and beyond.

This concept relates heavily with the role of test teams today. Discussions we used to have years ago are no longer as relevant now. Waterfall teams have migrated to Agile & DevOps, and there is a need for strategic changes in how we operate within a project and how we communicate across teams.

In this 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.

How many times have you sat in line at the drive-thru window waiting and waiting? You watch as some people park their car, walk inside, buy their food, and then leave… all while you are still in line.

The drive-thru window was created to speed up the process and make things faster and pick up more efficient. However, going into the restaurant can get you the food faster many times.

In Agile environments, we are called upon to evaluate and determine alternative solutions at many stages throughout the development lifecycle. If we are not careful, we sometimes focus on a proven path that feels fastest, when there are better ways to achieve success. We are not required to continue our role the same way with every situation.

You are not alone. Many testers feel these constraints daily and share the same struggles which call for an alternative approach to reaching a solution.

Learning from the experiences of others is a proven method to plan for success. In this presentation, Mike Lyles will share his discussions with various leaders and practitioners in testing, their struggles, their strategies to overcome them, and their creative approaches to providing alternative solutions to make their testing organizations successful.

How many times have you driven all the way home, only to realize you didn’t remember anything from the drive. Your mind was in a different place, and you were driving on autopilot. Or maybe you walk out to your garage and get in your car every day and are so used to the surroundings that you don’t notice that something has been taken or moved to a new location. When our eyes are so familiar with the things we see every day, our brains are tricked into believing that there is nothing that has changed.

In the popular USA TV show, “Brain Games”, we find many exercises where you, the audience, are asked to pay attention and focus on what is happening. That simple focused attention gets the majority of people in trouble, because the art of focusing on a specific area or activity prohibits the audience from seeing things that are going on around them. This “inattentional blindness” causes key details to be missed. Your brain is the most complex tool that you will ever have in your possession. However, with a highly complex tool comes the need to ensure that it is used appropriately and to its full potential.

In the testing profession, such focused concentration, leading to “inattentional blindness” can be detrimental to the success of the product being delivered. As testers, we must find a way to constantly challenge our visual images and prohibit our brain from accepting that there are no changes which could impact the quality of the product. It is critical to be aware of the entire surroundings of the testing activity and to be able to recognize and call out changes that may be easily overlooked without an attention to detail.

In this presentation, Mike Lyles will challenge the audience to literally “think outside the box”. The audience will be given specific exercises to show how that the human mind sometimes overlooks details when they seem visually insignificant or unrelated. We will examine how testers can become better prepared for such oversights and discuss strategies that can be used immediately in your organizations. The key to eliminating the risk of oversight and missed problems is learning how to identify the areas where you may have originally ignored a focused effort.

Takeaways:

• An understanding that no matter how good we believe we are as testers, we have to realize that there is the possibility of being so familiar with a product that our eyes do not notice changes that sneak in.
• Tips to recognizing patterns and potential gaps that many visual testing activities may miss
• Techniques that can be used in becoming a better visual tester.

In the past Olympics, we watched as Michael Phelps did something that no other Olympian had ever managed to accomplish. He won more gold medals than ever before. We spent weeks watching as he won gold medals time after time.

It’s easy for someone to imagine that athletes such as Phelps are born winners. It’s easy to think that it’s in their DNA to experience such greatness. What many fail to realize is that while Phelps showed us his master skills in swimming for a few weeks, he prepared for these events for many months and years. He spent day after day practicing, refining his techniques, modifying his strategies, and improving his results.

Being an expert tester is no different. While the art and craft of testing and being a thinking tester is something that is built within you, simply going to work every day and being a tester is not always enough. Each of us have the opportunity to become “gold medal testers” by practicing, studying, refining our skills, and building our craft.

In this presentation, we will evaluate extracurricular activities and practices that will enable you to grow from a good tester to a great tester.

Key Takeaways:

• Inputs from the testing community on how they improve their skills
• Suggestions for online training and materials which should be studied
• How to leverage social media to interact with the testing community
• Contributions you can make to the testing community to build your brand

Have you ever locked yourself out of your house or locked the keys in your car? If so, you can surely recall the feeling of helplessness that you experience when this happens. You’re able to see everything through the windows, but there is no easy way to get inside. You find yourself searching for creative ways to get inside - whether it’s searching for a backup key, using alternative methods to open a window or door, or giving up completely and resorting to breaking a window to climb inside.

Too many times, we find a similar situation with the engagement between our test teams and the rest of the organization. We are told “the team will let you know when the product is ready for testing” and asked to “wait outside” while the development lifecycle takes its course. All of the work involved from initiation through development complete takes place without testing involvement. Testing needs a seat at the table and when they are “locked out” from being at the table, we find many risks to the delivery of the products we support.

As the Director of two teams (Testing and Project Management), Mike Lyles drove the inclusion of his test team to be part of the software development lifecycle (SDLC) as early as possible. By using mindmaps, the teams worked more collaboratively and spoke the same language. Mapping testing to all phases of the SDLC is critical to the success of projects and it enables the test team to identify issues, report findings, and call out risks and defects earlier in the process. Ultimately, products shipped to production have a better chance of good quality.

In this highly interactive presentation, Mike will share with you his experience in mapping testing throughout the SDLC, the obstacles that had to be overcome, and the lessons learned from the activity. We will walk through the role of testing at each phase of the SDLC, how that value can be added at each stage, and what YOU can do to unlock the doors in your organization and become part of the overall SDLC process.

Key Takeaways:

• Documenting lessons learned from the experience of attendees in testing vs. SDLC
• How to use mindmaps to bridge the gaps between project teams
• Hands-On exercises to experience the role of testing at each phase of the SDLC
• Checklist of actions that every test team can take to “open the door”
• Tactics you need to “sell testing” to the leadership team if they’re not bought in

How many times have you driven all the way home, only to realize you didn’t remember anything from the drive. Your mind was in a different place, and you were driving on autopilot. Or maybe you walk out to your garage and get in your car every day and are so used to the surroundings that you don’t notice that something has been taken or moved to a new location. When our eyes are so familiar with the things we see every day, our brains are tricked into believing that there is nothing that has changed.

In the popular USA TV show, “Brain Games”, we find many exercises where you, the audience, are asked to pay attention and focus on what is happening. That simple focused attention gets the majority of people in trouble, because the art of focusing on a specific area or activity prohibits the audience from seeing things that are going on around them. This “inattentional blindness” causes key details to be missed. Your brain is the most complex tool that you will ever have in your possession. However, with a highly complex tool comes the need to ensure that it is used appropriately and to its full potential.

In the testing profession, such focused concentration, leading to “inattentional blindness” can be detrimental to the success of the product being delivered. As testers, we must find a way to constantly challenge our visual images and prohibit our brain from accepting that there are no changes which could impact the quality of the product. It is critical to be aware of the entire surroundings of the testing activity and to be able to recognize and call out changes that may be easily overlooked without an attention to detail.

Mike Lyles will challenge the audience to literally “think outside the box”. The audience will be given specific exercises to show how that the human mind sometimes overlooks details when they seem visually insignificant or unrelated. We will examine how testers can become better prepared for such oversights and discuss strategies that can be used immediately in your organizations. The key to eliminating the risk of oversight and missed problems is learning how to identify the areas where you may have originally ignored a focused effort.

It has been said “Everything rises and falls on leadership”. The world has experienced many changes over the last few decades, and organizations must respond to this constant change at much greater speed than ever before.

Many companies are eliminating the role of the test manager and creating flat organizations that are equally focused on combining the roles of development and testing into one hybrid function. Being a leader does not require someone to have the title of manager. You can lead from all levels within the organization.

In addition to hierarchy changes, we are seeing an increase in senior leadership with little or no experience in testing. This requires testers to educate, inform, and ‘manage up’ to support the senior leadership and to build successful strategies.

Being a successful tester today requires an understanding of the multiple channels within the organization. Everyone within the team must learn how to clearly communicate the value of testing and its importance to the delivery of a successful product. Collaboration with all teams external to testing becomes critical.

Mike Lyles will lead a discussion on leadership at all levels within testing organizations. Attendees will be called on to give their experiences, to discuss and debate the problems (as well as propose solutions) that we face today. Come prepared to give your insights as well as learn something new!

In the past Olympics, we watched as Michael Phelps did something that no other Olympian had ever managed to accomplish. He won more gold medals than ever before. We spent weeks watching as he won gold medals time after time.

It’s easy for someone to imagine that athletes such as Phelps are born winners. It’s easy to think that it’s in their DNA to experience such greatness. What many fail to realize is that while Phelps showed us his master skills in swimming for a few weeks, he prepared for these events for many months and years. He spent day after day practicing, refining his techniques, modifying his strategies, and improving his results.

Being an expert tester is no different. While the art and craft of testing and being a thinking tester is something that is built within you, simply going to work every day and being a tester is not always enough. Each of us have the opportunity to become “gold medal testers” by practicing, studying, refining our skills, and building our craft.

In this presentation, we will evaluate extracurricular activities and practices that will enable you to grow from a good tester to a great tester.