CAST 2011 Emerging Topics and Wrap Up of Thoughts

I started out looking at my previous several posts and realized how many times in each of them I used the work "amazing."  I promise I will do my best to not let my still spinning head succumb to such a word in this post.  The thing is, I find it really hard to NOT use that word when I've been inundated with intellectually stimulating ideas. 

Emerging Topics

After opening up to opportunity for anyone attending CAST to submit an idea to speak on, we then allowed anyone who was interested to comment, rank or otherwise ask questions around the proposals.  Matt Heusser and I reviewed these comments, rankings, questions (and their answers) to pull together a program from the ideas submitted.  Many of the proposals were from people who had not spoken at a conference before.  Personally, I found that exciting.  Why?

We were opening up venues for people to speak to one of the more challenging conference audiences I have ever encountered.  People who think, and who may not agree with some of your points, are not only encouraged to speak up and ask questions (or challenge the speakers) but are expected to do so. 

When Ben Yaroch let us know that there was a strong likelihood that we'd be able to stream the ET sessions live, that got me even more excited (yeah, right, as if I could get more excited.)  Adam the Volunteer (I never did get his last name) was a big help getting things going Monday afternoon.  That left me free to make sure the presenters were ready and we had their slide decks (presuming they had some) available.  Thanks Adam!  I do appreciate it. 

When Monday rolled around and we kicked off right after lunch, then the fun began.  The ensuing afternoon was much what I expected - a variety of speakers on a broad range of topics, all packed into 15 minute slots with 5 minutes saved for questions.  Some of the speakers were a little un-polished.  We did not care - It was the crisp thoughts they had (not crisp Powerpoint skills) we were interested in. 

Personally, I liked how many speakers used no slide decks at all, instead they focused on the flip chart in the room, using markers to interact with the people in the room.  Coolness - no Death by Powerpoint here!  :)

What was the best?  Hoo boy.  How do I choose? 

Michael Larsen gave an interesting presentation on EDGE (a cool Boy Scout acronym) and how that can be applied to testing.  Anna Royzman gave an experience report on how she got a mixed community of people to work together and apply exploratory approaches to improve UX and overall testing. Lanette Creamer gave a very very brave demonstration of testing on the fly around using tools everyone "knows" in new ways.  Neil Thompson and Felipe Knorr Kuhn both gave interesting talks (hard playing facilitator when the topics draw you in, not my most shining moment.)  Robert Berqvist gave an interesting comparison on the groove of music and the groove in testing  - yeah, drummers love that kind of stuff.  Ben Yaroch spoke to a packed room on leadership ideas drawn from the military, and how they can be applied to testing.  Finally, the most challenging presentation for the day was Geordie Keitt's presentation on "Complexity Quandary, or Why Certified Testers Continue to be in Demand."  This seemed almost tailor-made to draw on ideas in Michael Bolton's keynote, and to serve as a bridge between James Bach and Doug Hoffman's debate on the idea of Schools of testing being divisive.  We gave him a double long session (45 minutes) and the discussion went over that.  I was too busy moderating to tweet - great stuff though.

Tuesday, Eric Jacobsen kicked things off by talking about combatting Tester Fatigue (as I was still recovering from the flight and the excitement that comes from CAST, I thought it appropriate for me!)  Bill Matthews gave a good session on Myth Busting for Testers.  Frankly, I hated cutting both of them off when I did as I thought it was good stuff, and I only wish he had time for more.  Just before lunch, I gave a short version of "Messy Integration Testing" and how things that seem to be unrelated probably were not and needed to be considered in testing.  That was well received, I thought.  

After Lunch, Todd Mazierski gave a short overview of Sinatra.  This was followed by Geordie Keitt's All-Star Tester Revue (OK, I made that name up)  Geordie stood up and played guitar and sang songs around a testing theme (it helps when you write them!)  Then brought in a panel of Michael Bolton, Lanette Creamer, Dee Ann Pizzica who did some interesting improv comedy around a testing theme.  Capped off by Lanette singing a song, with Geordie backing her on guitar - and Geordie closing the session with another original composition.  What a great time.  Matt Heusser wrapped the ET track with a lesson in communicating with "Agilistas" drawn from his experience. 

We then turned the room over to Lightning talks - and I had the chance to go catch up with people. 

One of the people I kept running into during the conference was Adam Yuret.  No, not Adam the Volunteer mentioned before.  He and I have met cyberly for some time, banter on Twitter and various on-line forums.  All in all he's a good guy with ideas to consider. 

Keynotes 'N Stuff

I was looking forward to hearing Cem Kaner's keynote this year.  I missed him speaking last year as I was "otherwise engaged."  Unfortunately, he had to cancel and was not able to attend CAST, so the workshop he was scheduled to teach got shuffled, and Michael Bolton slid into the keynote spot where Cem was scheduled to speak.  Michael's keynote was astounding (avoiding the word "amazing" can ya tell?)  He covered things I have been trying to express for some time.  The minor issue encounterd, and gamely dealt with, was the projector simply did not work.  The result was Michael gave a very academic-like reading of his document which was absolutely chock-full of ideas around the history of scientific thought and how it related to testing and the idea of context driven testing. 

James Bach gave a keynote that, in my mind, was a solid argument on the benefits of avoiding processes that so many people advocate, and were challenged time and time again.  All in all, it was a call-to-arms to reject the set-piece examples and practices that are part of so many people's views of "best practices."

I was sitting with two different groups on Monday and Tuesday.  An amazing thing about CAST, so many people are welcoming and willing to engage in conversation no matter the topic or if you were a "famous" person.  Based on comments around the table, both were well received.

A couple of things stand out at this point in my rambling narration.  First, the hall was absolutely packed.  When the requisite question "How many are at CAST for the first time?" it seemed to me that half the people in the hall raised their hands.  It was an astounding sight.  The first time attendees I met all very readily engaged in the spirit of the conference and actively participated.  This bodes well for the future.

EdSIG - Education Special Interest Group

Tuesday night I participated in the discussions of the Education Special Interest Group.  Topics on the table included getting more instructors for the BBST courses up and active, the upcoming next installment in the series, Test Design, ideas around why there are so many fewer students taking Bug Advocacy than are taking Foundations, branching out (reaching out?) to people who want to help but are not certain where to go to help.  So, there are a stack of issues, including creating a "what to expect in this course" video for Foundations - hopefully so that the amount of work is not overwhelming to the student. 

There is more, but much (for example Michael Bolton's workshop on test framing) is worthy of its own blog post. 

I do want to thank the folks who organized the conference - I know James and Jon Bach were up to their eyebrows - but also Doug Hoffman, Ben Yaroch, Dawn Haynes (who is an all around trooper) - all the people who made all the big ideas (live web streaming for example) move from "idea" to "its happening now."

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. 

CAST 2011, Day 2, A Brief Summary

Again, I had intended to write this last night.  It is amazing top be how mentally and physically drained I am byt the end of each day at conferences.  So many smart people it seems impossible to keep up.

Right, so, people.  Had some really nice hallway conversations with Elana Houser, who was in the BBST Foundations course with me.  We did not always agree with each other in the course, she is, however, a very good thinker.  Lynn McKee, Nancy Kelln, Selena Delesie and had nice chats and gave great insights on discussion topics.  I also brifely met Karen Johnson - OK folks, she is smart and wise - doesn't always come in the same package. 

Amazing talk(s) with Michael Hunter - Yeah, the Braidy Tester guy.  He really is as good and inspriational as his blog posts seem.  Oh, now then, let's see, Had some Fantastic chats with Ajay.Balamurugadas. Ben Yaroch is crazy smart and a hard worker - really. Michael Larsen really DOES have as much energy as his podcasts make it seem like he does.  Let's see.  Also had some good visits with Justin Hunter, Paul Holland, Bill Matthews and Johan Jonasson - Phil McNealy is a good person to know as well. 

One of the highlights for me was seeing the Emerging Topics track come together and be a reality.  Some of the speakers had a bit of a rough go.  Many had never presented outside their own company before - WHAT a daunting task!  Yeah - Present a 20 minute idea in front of some of the best testers around.  YEAH!  Still, everyone made it through the experience, good information and ideas were shared - even if folks were a little nervous.

I had a chance to drop in the tail end of the Open Season of the BBST Experience track.  Cool Q&A session, lots of energy.  The Lightning Talks, which I dropped in on after the BBST talk ended, were interesting - ideas and "quick hits" with ideas.  Fun.

I ended up having an interesting conversation with Felipe Knorr Kuhn, Gary Masnica, Phil McNealy and Lanette Creamer.  Job Titles, Job Roles, What to Do, How things work... highly enjoyable, mentally invigorating.  This set me up for a good session in the EdSIG - Education Special Interest Group. 

Michael Larsen, me, some dozen other people talking via Skype with Rebecca Fiedler and Cem Kaner (who could not be at CAST.)  Good ideas, much meaty discussion - look for another blog post on that before too long. 

It was an amazing day. 

Oh, I did not get elected to the Board of Directors for AST.  Now, some folks tried to console me, I was unconsoleable.  Well, technically, literally, there was nothing to console me about!  I believe that each of the five candidates were eminently qualified to serve on the board and three were selected.  This is good. 

So, this morning, I find myself sitting at a table (starting this blog post actually) and Michael Hunter sat down to chat and have a little breakfast.  Griffon Jones dropped his pack and went for a little breakfast, but got tied up.  As it was, Michael and I had a great visit before we headed off to Michael Bolton's workshop on Test Framing.  That, too, is another blog post. 

CAST 2011 Emerging Topics Track and Deadline

No odd philosophical ramblings in this post.  No questioning definitions or other people's dearly held beliefs.  Still, I'm getting pretty excited.

The Conference for the Association of Software Testing (CAST) is coming up REALLY fast - August 8 through 10 in Seattle (to be precise) Part of the fun this year is to hold an "Emerging Topics" track - 20 minute sessions that anyone already attending the conference can submit a proposal to give.

Yeah, anyone who is registered and who wants to give a short talk on something they do not see covered in the balance of the program can do so. 

Here's the catch:  In order to make a schedule and give everyone attending the opportunity to review the abstracts for the Emerging Topics session they might be interested in, we will need to cut off entries and voting for them, on July 1, 2011. 

So, if you are attending CAST and want to submit a proposal, or review and vote on proposals in the Emerging Topics track, please drop an email to me or Matt Heusser.  We'll get you setup with access to see (and create) them.

UPDATE!!!!!!!!!!
July 20, 2011 -
The Submission and Voting period is now closed, selections and a schedule have been made. This has been an interesting, thought provoking and fun project to work on. I am looking forward to meeting everyone in person after communicating by email and telephone.

Thanks to all who participated - Pete

On Learning and Enlightenment and Software Testing

This has been a remarkable week for me.

Over the weekend, I finished the "Lesson" portion of the Black Box Software Testing Foundations course from the Association for Software Testing.  I wrote the exam Monday night.  I'm not sure how to describe this experience.  It was a massively intense (as opposed to mildly intense?)  experience where there was a lot of information poured out.  On top of that, the conversations in discussion forums around the lessons, quizes and whatnot tended to sometimes take on a life of their own.  All in all I found myself in an intense learning experience where ideas did not so much flow as rush at you.  (My lady-wife compares this to trying to drink from a firehose.) 

I can safely say that there was more information about testing that came at me over the course of this class than I can remember having in some time.  Invigorating does not begin to describe it. 

So, as I'm catching up on other things, and decompressing from the experience, and dealing with work stuff and trying to keep up with that.  I come across tweets about the EuroStar Testing Time Out. Then I realize that the first time out speaker is Lynn McKee!  I've mentioned Lynn more than once in blog posts.  She is really good and takes a fresh look on things.  THEN, I see she has a blog post on the experience.  Way Cool!

Then today I was working with the boss on polishing the presentation we're doing together at STPCon.  She asked me what I thought I could apply from the class right now.  I began listing off ideas where some of the concepts from BBST could be applied right then.  There were others where some of the ideas would take a bit of work to explain, then maybe experiment with,  They may have to wait a bit (we are pressed for time right now.) 

This evening I looked at what was coming up and got all excited all over again.  CAST is coming up in August. The main track sessions look amazing.  I'm excited about the emerging topics track.  There have been some interesting proposals submitted already. (We set some up as examples - and several people have submitted really good, interesting ideas.)  If you have something you're passionate about, and are going to CAST, why not try your hand on an idea that you're passionate about?  More information is here. 

So, yeah, the more I learn, the more things I find interesting and the more I realize I want to know.  Amazing, isn't it?

Speaking and CASTing or Presenting Your Ideas In Context

I'm really excited today. 

I find test conferences amazingly inspirational.  What I find to be the best part of many conferences are the converstions that presentations can inspire. 

One way to get a lot of ideas out there is by lightning talks - quick presentations on a topic.  Sometimes, that's it.  Somebody talks for a few minutes and the next person gets up and talks on a totally different topic. 

Some conferences, like CAST, are different.  Any time someone presents an idea (gives a talk) there is scheduled time for discussion.  If the participants in the discussion want to continue their chat after the alloted period of time they can grab a corner or a hallway and carry on.  The next person gets up and gives their presentation and the cycle repeats itself. 

Now, the CAST version of "lightning talks" has often been an "emerging trends" session track.  This year the take is a little bit different.  The idea is that you can check out the conference schedule and see what is being presented, what topics are being discussed.  If there is one that you believe should be discussed and you want to present it, you can submit a proposal for the Emerging Topics track. 

This track will feature 20 minute time slots which include 5 to 10 minutes of discussion, for the topic that people want to speak on and believe would be important. 

Here's the cool part.

Instead of signing up on a paper stuck to a wall, you, the person with the idea, can enter a proposal at a WIKI set up specifically for this.  (The good folks at Socialtext are contributing the wiki space, thanks folks!)

If you would like to speak at CAST 2011, you can propose a topic for the Emerging Topics session.

Now, each topic is slated for 20 minutes with at least five minutes for discussion. If you think that you would need more time to "do justice" to the topic, please make your case and reasons clear.  The deal is, the more topics that get more time, the fewer the number of people who will have the chance to speak.  So, the organizers would really like to make that the exception than the rule. 

To propose a session, you need to join the CAST 2011 Socialtext group and create a wiki page using the proposal template.

Once you have created your proposal, other folks will be able to vote and comment on your proposal and others as well.  You can read the notes, change your porposal - and evaluators can return and comment repeatedly as well, and change their scores!  

Voting will be cut off a little early - right now the plan is July 15th.  That way we can create and post a coherent program before the conference so folks can see what may be of interest to them in advance.  The idea is to take the feedback from votes in serious consideration, along with conference theme and reputation of the speakers.

Now for the part that I am personally excited about...

In order to apply email either Matt Heusser (matt.heusser@gmail.com) or ME (peterwalen@msn.com) and ask to be invited to the CAST 2011 Emerging Topics Group on Socialtext. One of us will send you an email about the group and a link to follow.  From there you can follow the instructions to add a talk or comment on a talk or whatever. 

We also may need some help - one or two people to manage the rooms. Depending on how things go, that role might be expanded to include some wiki gardening and possibly help creating the schedule. You could be an ombudsman, sergeant-at-arms, or whatever other title you'd like.

We can not offer any compensation for helping out, nor for giving a talk. If you give a talk or help out, I would be personally in your debt.  I can tell you from my previous experience that the conference will have greater value for you in that you can build deeper relationships, be more engaged and generally have a ton of fun while learning.

Matt says "One thing I can promise if you give a talk or help out with emerging topics: At CAST two thousand and eleven, at least ... you'll never have to eat a bagel alone."

My take is "If you give a talk or help out with the emerging topics at CAST2011, I'll think you're way cool."

UPDATE!!!!!!!!!!

July 20, 2011 -

The Submission and Voting period is now closed, selections and a schedule have been made.  This has been an interesting, thought provoking and fun project to work on.  I am looking forward to meeting everyone in person after communicating by email and telephone.

Thanks to all who participated -  Pete