CAST 2012, or CASTing Through the Computer Screen

CAST 2012 recently wrapped up.  The annual Conference of the Association for Software Testing was held in San Jose, California, Monday and Tuesday, July 16 and 17, 2012.  Wednesday the 18th saw tutorials.  Thursday was the Board of Directors meeting.

First, even though I had helped plan the Emerging Topics track, I had some conflicts arise that kept me away (physically).  I was a tad disappointed that after the work that went in, I would not be drinking in the goodness that is the CAST experience.

Why is that a big deal? 

Its a conference, right?

CAST is unlike any conference I have ever attended.  They make it a point of being a participatory, engaged, function - not merely sitting listening to someone drone on reading power point slides.  There is required time in each session for questions and discussion around the presentation.  Some of them can be quite brutally honest.

This becomes an issue for some people.

When one engages with people who think, rote-learned answers do not hold up well.  Watching the interplay as people, including the presenters, learn, is something that is in itself, a top-flite education in testing.

And I could not be there.  Bummer.

I chose the next best thing - I joined in the video stream as much as the day-job and other responsibilities allowed.  I listened to Emerging Topics presentations, keynotes, a panel discussion on the results of Test Coach Camp and CASTLive - the evening series of interviews with speakers and participants - with online chat and... stuff.

While I could not be there in person, this was a pretty decent substitute.

Other cool things

Keynotes by Tripp Babbitt and Elizabeth Hendrickson.  Great panel discussions on what people learned from at Test Coach Camp, and, cool stuff.

Simply put, there are recordings to be viewed and listened to here.

Other things happened as well, like announcing the election results for AST Board of Directors.

I was elected to the Board of Directors to serve a single year, to fill a position left vacant by a Board Member who could not finish his term.

I am deeply honored to have been selected to serve in this way.

I am humbled, and looking forward to this new chapter in testing adventure.

On Learning and Learning and, well, Learning

The last few weeks I have had the honour of being an assistant instructor for the current Foundations course in the AST's Black Box Software Testing (BBST) course. 

Going in, I was a little nervous.  Partly, I think, because I had agreed to be a "contingency instructor" for the course.  That is, should one of the other instructors not be able to, well, instruct, I'd step in.  Well, that happened.  On top of that, the day-job is going nuts and I'm way behind on other writing (which is why I'm taking a minute to write a quick blog entry - don't tell anyone.)

Oh, I have presentations and a paper to prepare and.. well, never mind.

Some 20+ students dove in, and the instructors dove in with them.  And the fun began.  Really.

Exercises and reading and lectures and learning and group exercises and... thinking.  Lots of thinking.  And learning.  When I took the course it was like trying to take a drink from a fire hydrant.  Massive amounts of information and ideas and, well, huge learning.

You know what I've learned as an instructor?  Lots.  Huge learning.  Massive amounts.  I half expected this from teaching drumming and drumming workshops, but, whoa. 

So, we are about to start the final lesson, then the exam. hooo-boy.

What have I learned most?  If you want to really learn something, try explaining it to someone else.

CAST 2011, General Observations

I'm writing this the evening of Wednesday, August 10.  This is the evening after the Workshop day of CAST 2011 in Seattle.  Overall, this has been an amazing experience.  The whole experience was highly rewarding in many ways. 

James and John Bach took an unconventional approach to putting together the program.  Speakers were chosen on reputatuon, not on submission topic.  Yeah, it was different.  At the same time, I had the opportunity to work closely with Matt Heusser on putting together the Emerging Topics track.  This was a cool idea, an experiment, and overall, it came off well.

Another experiment was the live webcasting of the keynotes, the ET sessions, lightning talks and "tester interviews."  The discussions were astoinding - no experiment there - certainty was closer to it.  I personally appreciate the great conversations Neil Thompson, Bill Matthews, Fiona Charles, Paul Holland, Dawn Haynes (who is a terrific person and hard worker who does not get nearly enough credit for making things just work)

Oh - I met more people from Sweeden at a testing conference this year than I can imagine!

OK, other people I met whom I have not mentioned - yeah, there were a stack, but these stood out ... Lets see - Christin Wiedemann was in my class today, then - sitting behind me, and next to Michael Hunter was Cathy McBride.  Oh!  Another Alex Bantz was also there.

I had the pleasure of helping with the EdSIG meeting and looking for ways to get the people who were interested in helping in the SIG, and getting involved in BBST, actually involved and active,  The thing is, this is also the same central idea behind keeping any non-profit, volunteer organization - finding tasks that need to be done, matching them up with people with the skills and interest in doing them, and matching them up. 

My experience in Michael Bolton's Test Framing workshop really deserves its own post.  For now, suffice to say it was interesting.

I had intended to decompress, have a quite dinner then get some work done.  Instead, after finishing an adult beverage, as my "take out" dinner was about to come out, Selene Deliesie, Lynn McKee and Nancy Kelln walked into the restaraunt.  What could I do?  We sat down, enjoyed a meal together and had a fantastic conversation. 

Now, it is very late, I'm remarkably tired and have more thoughts running through my head from the last three days and looking forward to more general thought absorption, internalization and a little sight-seeing tomorrow before heading home.

Thank you Seattle and AST for an amazing experience. 

More Cool Stuff from AST

In July I blogged about being nominated for a position on the Board of Directors for the Association for Software Testing.  You can find more on AST at the website.  Its a cool group made up of interesting people. 

So last week we got together and talked via Skype.  It was half-jokingly referred to as a "debate" but it was less debate and more people talking about what they are interested in.  (Come to think of it, there was a good deal of information shared and straight-forward answers given than in the pretend-political debates in the US the last several election cycles.)

In the course of the "ramp-up" some of us sent messages via twitter on what would be happening.  That was picked up by a couple of other folks who asked if there would be a Q&A session via twitter.  So, why not?  We ran it by some other folks and picked a day and time...

So the DAY is TODAY!  The First of August - 9:00 to 10:00 PM Eastern Time (yeah, I know, very US centric but its when those of us on twitter are available...)  If you are interested in the AST and the elections, and want to participate in the town hall meeting on twitter, just follow the hashtag #ASTElect. 

More information on the "almost debate" and the Twitter Town-Hall-Meeting will be available here. 

A Moment's Thought: AST and Walking Among the Mighty

The morning of June 24, I opened my email and found a message that said, in part:

...you have been nominated for AST's 2011-2012 Board of Directors Election. The Nominations and Elections Committee needs to confirm you are willing to run for the Board Of Directors. Can you confirm or disconfirm your interest in running?

Gobsmacked does not begin to describe my reaction.  Astounded?  Thunderstuck?  Not even close.

I asked a few questions.  Actually, I asked a lot of questions.  They involved expected time commitment, level of involvement and things of that nature.  Mostly I was looking to weigh those expectations against the needs of my family and my day-job, you know, testing.

My problem, as my lady-wife well knows, is this: When I agree to something, I dive in head first and will put in massive amounts of time and energy to fulfill that commitment.  In the past, it has sometimes been to the detriment of other things.  I have learned to limit myself carefully.  It can be a struggle to set aside things that are emotionally and mentally rewarding to deal with things that are more mundane, yet pressing, like painting the house or fixing that drip in the kitchen faucet.  Let's face it, some things are just more fun than others.  Sure, they all leave you with a sense of satisfaction, like, the house looks really nice or the annoying drip is not wasting water and costing money.  Still, they don't have the mental stimulation that sharing time with people equally passionate about things as you are does. 

I had come across the Association for Software Testing some time ago.  How long ago, I don't rightly recall.  It was while reading "Lessons Learned in Software Testing" that I read of the "Context Driven School of Testing."  What I read made sense.  It rang more true to me than the more procedural or dogmatic oriented approaches to testing.  There was a reference to a Yahoo email group in the back of the book, and I signed up, and was accepted.

I remember reading in there of the Association for Software Testing and organizing a conference.  Me, I stayed on the sidelines and dealt with other things, watching and observing the discussions with interest.

Fast forward several years. 

In the fall of 2009, I found myself at a conference in Toronto, going in place of my boss, who could not attend at the last moment.  I landed there.  While I was sitting at breakfast, realizing that the nice friendly lady at the table chatting with the handful of us was Fiona Charles, whose writings I had read for some time, a voice rang out.

"Pete Walen! The last time we talked you had just been fired for doing your job!" With that, Michael Bolton sat down next to Fiona and tore into his breakfast along with the rest of us.  (Talk about instant street-cred with a table full of people you have never met...)  Mind you, we had "talked" by email and discussion forum posts and never in person.

Later at the same conference I met Lynn McKee and Nancy Kelln.  Both left me absolutely amazed at their energy and excitement.  In the midst of a lively discussion around measurement, metrics, goals and the like, huge issues for the company I was working for at the time, Michael and Fiona both said "You should join AST, you'd be very happy with that group." (Actually, that was a paraphrase of what was said, but you get the idea.)

Later that month, after returning home, I bought myself a birthday present of an AST membership.  Shortly after returning home I met (in person) Matt Heusser.  Rarely have I met someone with as much drive, energy and focus as Matt.  He confirmed that joining AST was absolutely the right thing for me.  Since that first meeting, Matt and I have worked to get the local tester group meeting, and helping its members, on a regular basis. 

My first experience at CAST came the next summer.  Another eye-opening experience.  I met Fiona again, was introduced to Griffin Jones and a whole host of other people.  I blogged very excitedly about it at the time.  (See?  Here and here.)

This spring I took the BBST Foundations course.  The coursework was only part of the experience.  Meeting people of differing backgrounds from around the world, even cyberly, was fantastic. I remain in contact with several of the class particpants through Skype and Twitter.  Gotta love technology. 

James and Jon Bach, Karen Johnson and others I met in person and was able to spend time in conversation with helped me better my undersanding of my chosen craft.  Each of them are inspirational in their own way.

I was asked once, quite recently, what I liked about AST and why I kept my membership current, and did I think it was "worth it."  Is it "worth it?"  Absolutely.  Why?

That took a bit more thought. 

I realized that at the core of it, was the community that was the center of the Association.  I found a group of people who may not agree with you (or even each other) on a topic and were willing to discuss ir like, well, adult professionals  Many of the members I have met demonstrate traits that I associate with people who are true masters of their craft.  They will discuss an idea with you in order to learn, and posibly inform their own understanding of the concept.  Of course, there is also the chance of teaching you and sharing their understanding with you.

Another thing I find attracting me to AST is the focus on Context.  It is not merely being Context Aware.  It is keeping Context at the center.  It was the idea of Context Driven Testing that I found appealing originally when reading Lessons Learned.  It is still sppealing to me.  This recognition that context can and must color and drive testing and discussions arouind testing has pushed me to be a better tester, a better colleague and professional, and a better craftsman.

There have been many people who have encouraged me and pushed me forward in my development as a tester.  Those I named stand out for the mark they made and their willingness to talk with me easily, without let or reservation.

That is the third and most important point to me.  Many AST members, from the very famous "someones" to the other faces in the crowd, are willing to put in time and effort to better the community of testers as a whole.

I am deeply honored to have been nominated for the Board of AST.  I realized that if I had the opportunity to pass on the gifts I had received, I would.  Someone like me who is not a jet-setting "famous tester" or author of testing books or a famous consultant, yet is one of the many who want to better themselves and those around them in their trade and craft, has a choice.  We can allow the great ones of our craft to engage in this work alone.  Or, we can say "Should I be elected by the members, I would serve." 

I see it as an opportunity to "do my bit" for the greater good.  Therefor, as I responded to the email, I am interested in running for the Board of Directors. 

I was told I would need to prepare a short statement about my interest in AST.  I'm suspect this is not "short" enough.