KW2 Keynote 5/1/2013 10:00:00 AM Surviving or Thriving: Top Ten Lessons for the Professional Tester Presented by: Lloyd Roden Lloyd Roden Consultancy Brought to you by: 340 Corporate Way, Suite 300, Orange Park, FL 32073 888-268-8770 ∙ 904-278-0524 ∙ [email protected]∙ www.sqe.com
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Keynote: Surviving or Thriving: Top Ten Lessons for the Professional Tester
As testers and test managers we often find ourselves struggling just to survive within our organization—sometimes with the possibility of job loss due to outsourcing looming. Often, we are told to become more “effective,” “efficient,” and do “more with less.” However, most testers and test managers are unsure of what those mandates actually mean. Today, it is not sufficient to just survive; we must take initiatives to thrive. Lloyd Roden shares ten valuable lessons on how you can become better at testing and thrive in your career. Lloyd's lessons include the importance of using modern technology in testing, using test design techniques when reviewing documentation, testing the testers with techniques such as bug seeding, reporting project waste, providing management with feedback on decisions that they made, becoming a pioneer or explorer rather than a settler or outlaw in your organization, and more. Lloyd’s advice is practical—and challenging—for all testers, test leads, and test managers.
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Transcript
KW2 Keynote
5/1/2013 10:00:00 AM
Surviving or Thriving: Top Ten Lessons
for the Professional Tester
Presented by:
Lloyd Roden
Lloyd Roden Consultancy
Brought to you by:
340 Corporate Way, Suite 300, Orange Park, FL 32073
With more than twenty-eight years in the software industry, Lloyd Roden has worked as a developer, test analyst, and test manager for many different organizations. Lloyd was a consultant/partner with Grove Consultants for twelve years. In 2011 he created Lloyd Roden Consultancy, an independent UK-based training and consultancy company specializing in software testing. Lloyd’s passion is to enthuse, excite, and inspire people in the area of software testing. He has spoken at conferences worldwide including STAREAST, STARWEST, Better Software, EuroSTAR, AsiaSTAR, and Special Interest Groups in software testing in several countries. In 2004, he won the European Testing Excellence award.
Surviving or thriving: Top 10 lessons for a professional tester Keynote Presentation
Thriving lesson #3: provide management with feedback on decisions that the make
! example: 4 weeks of testing:
! new data obtained:
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20
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60
80
100
120
0 1 2 3 4
Number of bugs
Actual
Management want to implement the software, but you suggest a
further week of exploratory testing and a final week of regression
testing due to the high number of bugs that have been found
0
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40
60
80
100
120
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0 1 2 3 4 5 6
Number of bugs
Actual
25 new bugs found and fixed…full regression pack run
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Using data to report back
! cost of bugs to find and fix in test = 1000€ ! cost of bugs to find and fix in live = 3000€ ! 1st month of live operation customers find 10 bugs ! if the old date (4 weeks) was used
! assume 35 bugs found by customer ! DDP = 100/135 = 74% ! cost of fixing = 35 * 3000€ = 105,000€
! if the new date (6 weeks) was used ! DDP = 125/135 = 93% ! cost of fixing = 10 * 3000€ = 30,000€
Thriving lesson #6: make your test environment the strongest link ! often the test environment becomes
the weakest link ! concentrate too much on test cases and
test scripts ! we believe the environment will happen ! often difficult to set up well ! reliant on other people
! make it the strongest link ! constantly think about your environment ! make it a priority prior to test execution ! learn to recognise environmental issues
and raise these with your managers
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Bad environments
if your environment is wrong, out-of-date, volatile, not representative, or messy then testing cannot succeed
ignore your test environment and the bugs will breed
! what makes you/your team different from others… ! that are cheaper? ! that are faster?
! your USP is so that you thrive…not just survive ! example USPs
! recognising and eliminating waste ! being able to find those “nasty” bugs quickly ! measuring and reporting the value of testing ! having a positive attitude at work ! collaborating always ! constantly improving efficiency
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Thriving lesson #8: become a pioneer (or explorer)…not a settler or outlaw
Thriving lesson #9: believe in yourself …and your abilities
! low self-esteem is one of the main
contributors to lacking drive and enthusiasm: ! reignite your passion
! fan the flame before it goes out ! see change as an opportunity rather than a threat ! create good habits
! 66 days to create a good habit ! set yourself daily goals and achieve them
! John, Susan, Nora and George
practice looking in the mirror each morning and saying…
“I am great!”
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Thriving lesson #10: take time to sharpen your axe
! don’t procrastinate ! create tools and utilities to make testing more efficient ! share your ideas with others ! understand new methodologies and technologies and how
they will affect you (keeping one step ahead) ! measure your own effectiveness and improve ! try something new ! create ‘me’ time