A Month of Gatherings
Submitted by David Gilbert on Wed, 14/06/2006 - 05:08.
events | exploratory testing | general software testing | industry recognition | test analysis | test techniques
I have just finally landed after spending a month running around to various conferences and workshops. I will discuss each of them in a bit of detail below, but first I want to talk about the entire experience.
Conferences, tradeshows, and workshops have many purposes. For vendors, it is an opportunity to try and get your wares in front of an interested audience. For practitioners, it is an opportunity to see the latest in tools and technology, and attend tutorials and sessions, sometimes from prominent industry leaders. And for everyone, it is an opportunity to meet new colleagues, reconnect with old friends, and engage in that most basic and valuable activity of any true conference…conversation.
As a business owner, tools vendor, daily practitioner, and avid student of the art and craft of testing, all of these apply to me. Three years ago, I made a decision to drastically change the direction of my career. No longer satisfied with simply doing my job well, I wanted to find a way to be influential in the industry, to give back to a career path that has given so much to me, and to do something that provided me a higher level of personal satisfaction at the end of the day. I believed that one key to accomplishing all of this was to get close to a group of individuals that I looked up to as leaders in the industry. In that time I have taken advantage of every opportunity I could to attend these conferences, and speak, present, show my wares, and rub shoulders with anyone I could. What I discovered was that the people I was anxious to get to know were anxious to get to know me. This is not a braggerdly statement…the simple truth is that so many of the people at these conferences are simply there to waste their companies money, that if you go with a serious desire to better yourself and accomplish something meaningful, you will be noticed, and welcomed. And if you have something to say, they will listen. And if you have something to say, and after saying it you listen to their opinion about what you said, then they will respect you.
And so, if you are also at the point where you believe there is more to this than just sitting at your desk writing scripts, and you want to begin building a cadre of colleagues who are actively seeking to improve the state of the craft, I encourage you to begin attending these kinds of events…and keep in mind, most of these conferences are not 9 to 5 events. Some of the best conversations I have had at all of these events have been late at night over dinner or drinks. And as you will see below, bigger is not always better…
STAREast
Lets start with The Show, The Main Event, The Big League three ring circus mac daddy of software conferences on my side of the continent, STAREast. For testers, attendance at a STAR conference is almost a right of passage. For vendors, it is an experience not to be missed. And for those seeking new colleagues, the attendees list is usually a who’s who of industry leadership. This year, we had a vendor booth at the expo, did a session track, and did a vendor track for our products. It was a busy week, but more important than all of that was the time I spent nurturing the relationships with my new and expanding circle of friends.
WHET
Right on the heels of STAR was WHET, the Workshop on Heuristic and Exploratory Testing. In many ways, this is the opposite of STAR. Where STAR is all about the commercial side of the business, always selling something, even if it is just your personality and ideas, WHET was not about selling anything. Hosted by Cem Kaner and James Bach, WHET was a think tank style workshop, focusing this time on attempting to begin a task analysis of exploratory testing. With less than twelve people in attendance, everyone participated, everyone got to know everyone, and the debate, as well as the camaraderie, was strong. This was my first experience at a workshop like this, and I was proud to have been allowed to participate. There are times in a career where you quite suddenly experience the fulfillment of hard work done over a long time. Being at WHET was one of those moments for me.
CAST
And last but definitely not least, the hidden jewel in the crown, CAST, the first (hopefully) annual Conference of the Association for Software Testing. (http://associationforsoftwaretesting.org/index.html)
The distinguishing feature of CAST was that even though it was a tradeshow similar in nature to STAR, the presentations were all open debate, and presenters had to agree in advance to accept this level of participation, and possibly outright criticism, from the audience, before being accepted to present. And it certainly lived up to the promise of a free and open exchange of ideas and opinions on the presentation topics. As a first conference, it was predictably small by conference standards, but that is by no means a negative. At the end of 3 days, rather than floating through a sea of anonymous faces, you have actually made a half dozen new friends, and spent some time talking with them, getting to know them, and learning some new ideas from them. Also, as a first and hopefully growing conference, the expense of attending and participating was far less than other such conferences. Mike Kelly did an awesome job putting the conference together, and I look forward to follow on years at CAST. Finally, again, if you are looking for a way to make this testing thing more than just a job, I cannot think of a better way to get plugged into the industry and involved than to join a group like CAST and participate in the fledgling conferences. Twenty years from now, when CAST is huge, you can look back and say “I helped build that.”
So now I am back home, the whirlwind month over, and I have;
• Dozens of new features to put into our products, all contributed by people who honestly took the time to give me their opinions of where the tools could use improvement. Thank you all.
• Several ideas for blog entries, articles, papers, and maybe even a book or two. Wanna be a co-author?
• Hundreds of possible sales leads to follow up on…anyone wanna commission based job?
And a deep and satisfying sense that in my own small, small corner of the universe, life is just as it should be.
This is a great industry, and I encourage anyone in it to get more involved. Participate in online forums, local user groups, small community conferences, or the big ones, but find a place and get into the game. If you are driven by the intellectual stimulation of this career (and if your not, why are you reading this?), I promise you won’t be bored or sorry.
Happy Conferencing, everyone.
Conferences, tradeshows, and workshops have many purposes. For vendors, it is an opportunity to try and get your wares in front of an interested audience. For practitioners, it is an opportunity to see the latest in tools and technology, and attend tutorials and sessions, sometimes from prominent industry leaders. And for everyone, it is an opportunity to meet new colleagues, reconnect with old friends, and engage in that most basic and valuable activity of any true conference…conversation.
As a business owner, tools vendor, daily practitioner, and avid student of the art and craft of testing, all of these apply to me. Three years ago, I made a decision to drastically change the direction of my career. No longer satisfied with simply doing my job well, I wanted to find a way to be influential in the industry, to give back to a career path that has given so much to me, and to do something that provided me a higher level of personal satisfaction at the end of the day. I believed that one key to accomplishing all of this was to get close to a group of individuals that I looked up to as leaders in the industry. In that time I have taken advantage of every opportunity I could to attend these conferences, and speak, present, show my wares, and rub shoulders with anyone I could. What I discovered was that the people I was anxious to get to know were anxious to get to know me. This is not a braggerdly statement…the simple truth is that so many of the people at these conferences are simply there to waste their companies money, that if you go with a serious desire to better yourself and accomplish something meaningful, you will be noticed, and welcomed. And if you have something to say, they will listen. And if you have something to say, and after saying it you listen to their opinion about what you said, then they will respect you.
And so, if you are also at the point where you believe there is more to this than just sitting at your desk writing scripts, and you want to begin building a cadre of colleagues who are actively seeking to improve the state of the craft, I encourage you to begin attending these kinds of events…and keep in mind, most of these conferences are not 9 to 5 events. Some of the best conversations I have had at all of these events have been late at night over dinner or drinks. And as you will see below, bigger is not always better…
STAREast
Lets start with The Show, The Main Event, The Big League three ring circus mac daddy of software conferences on my side of the continent, STAREast. For testers, attendance at a STAR conference is almost a right of passage. For vendors, it is an experience not to be missed. And for those seeking new colleagues, the attendees list is usually a who’s who of industry leadership. This year, we had a vendor booth at the expo, did a session track, and did a vendor track for our products. It was a busy week, but more important than all of that was the time I spent nurturing the relationships with my new and expanding circle of friends.
WHET
Right on the heels of STAR was WHET, the Workshop on Heuristic and Exploratory Testing. In many ways, this is the opposite of STAR. Where STAR is all about the commercial side of the business, always selling something, even if it is just your personality and ideas, WHET was not about selling anything. Hosted by Cem Kaner and James Bach, WHET was a think tank style workshop, focusing this time on attempting to begin a task analysis of exploratory testing. With less than twelve people in attendance, everyone participated, everyone got to know everyone, and the debate, as well as the camaraderie, was strong. This was my first experience at a workshop like this, and I was proud to have been allowed to participate. There are times in a career where you quite suddenly experience the fulfillment of hard work done over a long time. Being at WHET was one of those moments for me.
CAST
And last but definitely not least, the hidden jewel in the crown, CAST, the first (hopefully) annual Conference of the Association for Software Testing. (http://associationforsoftwaretesting.org/index.html)
The distinguishing feature of CAST was that even though it was a tradeshow similar in nature to STAR, the presentations were all open debate, and presenters had to agree in advance to accept this level of participation, and possibly outright criticism, from the audience, before being accepted to present. And it certainly lived up to the promise of a free and open exchange of ideas and opinions on the presentation topics. As a first conference, it was predictably small by conference standards, but that is by no means a negative. At the end of 3 days, rather than floating through a sea of anonymous faces, you have actually made a half dozen new friends, and spent some time talking with them, getting to know them, and learning some new ideas from them. Also, as a first and hopefully growing conference, the expense of attending and participating was far less than other such conferences. Mike Kelly did an awesome job putting the conference together, and I look forward to follow on years at CAST. Finally, again, if you are looking for a way to make this testing thing more than just a job, I cannot think of a better way to get plugged into the industry and involved than to join a group like CAST and participate in the fledgling conferences. Twenty years from now, when CAST is huge, you can look back and say “I helped build that.”
So now I am back home, the whirlwind month over, and I have;
• Dozens of new features to put into our products, all contributed by people who honestly took the time to give me their opinions of where the tools could use improvement. Thank you all.
• Several ideas for blog entries, articles, papers, and maybe even a book or two. Wanna be a co-author?
• Hundreds of possible sales leads to follow up on…anyone wanna commission based job?
And a deep and satisfying sense that in my own small, small corner of the universe, life is just as it should be.
This is a great industry, and I encourage anyone in it to get more involved. Participate in online forums, local user groups, small community conferences, or the big ones, but find a place and get into the game. If you are driven by the intellectual stimulation of this career (and if your not, why are you reading this?), I promise you won’t be bored or sorry.
Happy Conferencing, everyone.