Janus Part 2: Looking Ahead 2012

Last year was really incredibly busy for me.  Work stuff happened that was crazy hectic, then the "speaker" thing moved from 1st to 2nd gear. Then the broader community expanded a bit more - or maybe my awareness of it did.  The local testing group moved from "once in a while" to "monthly meetings".

What am I looking forward to in 2012?  That is an interesting question.

Personal/Professional Development

This is something that is kind of included in the following areas.  There is much I want to learn and much I want to participate in - to help learn and see how things work in the world and not just in the theory/idea stage.  Broadly, I want to "engage closer" in the local test community, the broader community of thinking testers, a variety of projects and meetups and... life.

So, a little more detail...

Projects, Writing, Work.

The day-job is the day-job.  Yeah, there will be some interesting projects there, including a cool mobile device project.  The projects I mean here are some interesting side-projects - things with other people.  There are some cool initiatives with Matt Heusser that are interesting.  Matt is a bundle of energy with lots of ideas.  I'm flying as his wing-man on some items coming up (more on that as they get closer on the horizon.)

I'm looking into doing more writing.  Writing is cool.  It is work I can do anywhere and still have some semblance of a home life.  Its funny - the more you write on a topic, the more you find there is to learn about on the same topic.  So, if I can continue the process of writing/learning/sharing - so much the better.  There are some magazines I've decided I want to approach about article submission - and follow-up on some contacts from late in 2011.  Look for more on this in the near future.

This past August, I expressed an interest in getting more involved in the EdSIG - Education Special Interest Group of the Association for Software Testing.  Aside from a few emails, I've been really lax in that.  I want to change that this year.  I'd like to become more involved with, and as a result learn more about, training software testers - helping them learn and think and grow as craftsmen.

Two interesting factors here - First is the announced Test Coach Camp the weekend before CAST - the Conference for the Association of Software Testing.  This year's conference theme is The Thinking Tester - its going to be cool.  The Coach Camp though is a new addition and it looks fantastic - a peer conference to talk about improving how we coach testers.  I'm excited about that.

The second interesting factor is I volunteered to be a "contingency" instructor (I kind of missed the rush of people signing up to be "assistant" instructors because I let non-work email slip a bit while wrapping a project) for the BBST Foundations Course this March.  I don't know if it will balance out, but I'm looking forward to it. 

Community

Aside from the education and learning stuff, there are other aspects I'm looking forward to engaging (OK, note, don't try and write something after watching "Office Space" and trying to sound "professional").  The local tester group is up and running - next meeting is in two weeks and on a topic that should bring about good discussion - we're talking metrics.  Oh yeah, pass the popcorn. 

Toward the end of 2011, I began attempting to be more helpful in online forums - I'm afraid some folks consider my approach "annoying" - others seem to realize I'm asking questions to help me form an answer, and will "play along". 

There are, of course, a pile of conferences out there - the mentioned CAST conference in July.  STPCon Spring, I'm afraid I can't make work, but there are other possibilities out there.  It will be a busy, fantastic year that way, I think.

Cool People

There are many folks out there that I spend time with as much as I can.  There are others that, if I can, I want to spend more time with, learning from, learning with, sharing ideas and getting a clue.  Now, some are broadly spread - over North America, Europe, some in India... So, kind of a "I'd like to and I'm not sure I can make it work, but I want to" list. 

In generally alphabetical order, people I really want to find a way to hang with and learn from this year...

Perze Ababa   Ajay Balamurugadas   Bernie Berger   Paul Carvalho  
Salena Delesie   Markus Gaertner    Paul Holland     Phil Kirkham  
Micahel Larsen   Darren McMillan   Catherine Powell   Mark Tomlinson
And of course, the folks I enjoy learning from already, although meetings are sometimes few and far between, and often only by Skype - Fiona Charles, Michael Bolton, James & Jon Bach, Griffin Jones, Nancy Kelln, Lanette Creamer, Matt Heusser, Mel Bugai, Lynn McKee... and all the rest.

For all you have done to help me learn, thank you.  I look forward to learning with you all this year.

Cross-Pollination or How Talking With Smart People Helps You Learn

I was looking at some of my blog posts over the last 6 or 8 months or so.  That made me wonder so I went back looking at some of my older blog posts.  That made me wonder some more, so I went out looking for blogs from other people I respect.  These people are involved in other groups or go to conferences or, well, just hang out with other testers and tester types. 

I discovered something about myself, and I believe others, that led to this blog post. 

Here's what I learned:  The more you expose yourself to good thinkers and intelligent conversation and engage with them, the more you learn and the more you can learn. 

I can't prove this with any firm science.  What I can do is look at how things have changed since I went out looking for different sources.  I can also see how other people, significant, famous testers, interact and learn from each other. 

I've been fortunate in having the opportunity to go to various conferences the last few years.  This has given me the chance to meet people whose writings I have read and enjoyed and I have learned from.  I also have had the opportunity to meet people whose writings I have read and I disagreed with.  Now, some folks might shake their head and say "They're wrong."  For me, this was an opportunity to understand something I did not understand before.  Possibly, I could learn from that understanding and find something to appreciate and find common ground for future meetings.

What has astounded me, is just how much I have learned and grown from all these meetings.  Ideas I have had for some time and have been trying to formulate have found the form and structure I needed to organize them.  The result has been, among other things, this blog, articles, an inteview, conference presentations.

Do you need to travel all over North America or the world to find the same level of thought provoking conversation?  Hardly.

I bet there are people in your company or your community you can talk with and have the same experience.  I bet there are others in your city or town who are interested in discussing similar things.  Great ideas can come from many sources - not just the famous conference speakers and articles.  They can come from the person in the cube next to you or from someone doing similar work at a different company in your town. 

Want to see if I'm right?  Try an experiment. 

Talk with people at your company about meeting after hours to talk about software and testing.  Then, have those people drop an email to people they know at other companies.  Invite testers, designers, programmers/developers - anyone who works on software.  Then talk.

You don't need a big group, a few people is a good start.  Don't worry about being formal - just try talking with other people with an interest.  Don't worry about being right - instead focus on sharing ideas. 

Thats all.

Try sharing ideas and see what you can learn.  Maybe other people will learn something from you.