testingReflections.com - industry recognition

Latest Column -- Testing training: Disturbing behaviors of students

Fri, 07 Nov 2008 13:17:13 -0600

My latest column...

Drive-by training. Never heard of it? It is exactly what it sounds like. You drive to a training facility (or an instructor drives to you), for a day or three the instructor delivers the pre-packaged training class, then everyone drives back home. It's not the best training model ever invented. There is generally no student assessment, and the only instructor/course provider accountability is reputation. Even so, many good ideas can be shared and lots of students come away feeling that it was well worth "the drive."

As it turns out, I've been delivering a lot of drive-by training to software testers this fall. That in itself isn't particularly noteworthy -- end-of-the-budget year is a popular time for drive-by training -- but something that is noteworthy is that I have noticed a rise in some disturbing behaviors among the individuals and organizations that select and attend drive-by training.

At first, I thought it was just me. But after an informal poll (and some lively discussions) with my employees and trainer friends in the testing realm, I became increasingly convinced that the behaviors I'm noticing are not exclusive to me and that I'm not the only one who thinks they are on the rise.

Read the rest of the column.

--
Scott Barber
President & Chief Technologist, PerfTestPlus, Inc.
Executive Director, Association for Software Testing
Co-Author, Performance Testing Guidance for Web Applications

"If you can see it in your mind...
you will find it in your life."

German Bank burns $500 million in automated transfer, and no one blames the computer?

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 04:59:30 -0500

The German media branded them “Germany’s dumbest bankers” but two Board members and a senior risk controller of the state owned KfW Bank were suspended then sacked two weeks later. They were blamed for a transfer of 350 million euros to the US Lehman Brothers, 2 hours before Lehman’s declared bankruptcy despite saturation media reporting of Lehman’s troubles.

June Issue of AST Update Now Available

Fri, 22 Aug 2008 12:55:01 -0500

June 2008 Issue of the Association for Software Testing Magazine and Newsletter Now Available

5 Questions with Scott Barber by a Braidy Tester

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 01:29:44 -0500

I recently had the honor of being interviewed by Michael Hunter, a Braidy Tester, for Dr. Dobbs Portal. Check it out: 5 Questions with Scott Barber.

--
Scott Barber
President & Chief Technologist, PerfTestPlus, Inc.
Executive Director, Association for Software Testing
Co-Author, Performance Testing Guidance for Web Applications

"If you can see it in your mind...
you will find it in your life."

I made CNBC.com (in a CAST press release)

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 01:19:42 -0500

High Demand Causes Three-Day Software Testing Conference to Add Fourth Day

Ok, so I know that this is all about CAST, and all about AST being true to it's word to adapt the conference on the fly to follow the energy and interests of the participants (in fact, that's why we refer to folks who come to the conference as participants, not attendees or delegates), and all about the fact that even during one of the worst economic years I can remember, CAST is so cool that we had to extend it!

I'm proud of whatever part I've played in making that happen as AST's Executive Director, and I'm extremely grateful to all of the volunteers who have worked hard to make this conference happen. In fact, if you're not already planning to be there, you should. It is the testing conference you won't want to miss, you know.

Ok, you guessed it, I came up with that tagline, but it is the one testing conference each year that I refuse to miss. Not because I'm AST's Executive Director, but because of the participation, conferring, facilitation, and challenging topics. So seriously, if you're still on the fence, (or your boss is still on the fence) take a look at the CNBC.com article http://www.cnbc.com/id/25091786/ (or take it to your boss), and then decide to come out and join us.

AST Instructors’ Tutorial at CAST in Toronto

Fri, 30 May 2008 16:26:00 -0500

This post is largely copied from Cem Kaner's blog because I saw no need to re-write the same information :)

You’ve read about the Association for Software Testing’s free software testing courses. Now find out how you can get involved in teaching these for AST, for your company, or independently. This workshop will use presentations, lectures, and hands-on exercises to address the challenges of teaching online: Becky Fiedler, Scott Barber and I will host the Live! AST Instructors’ Orientation Course Jumpstart Tutorial On July 17, 2008, in conjunction with this year’s Conference of the AST (CAST).

Scott Barber and AST now on Twitter

Mon, 19 May 2008 09:06:24 -0500

Recently I succumbed to peer pressure and tried Twitter. Twitter is a "micro-blogging" site. It took me a while to figure out what that meant and what value it has, but after trying it, I get it now. It's a great way to share little bits of information worth sharing, but that doesn't (or often doesn't *yet*) justify a whole blog post. I find that I like it. It's a quick and easy way to keep folks up to date on what I'm doing and/or thinking about, like giving conference talks, or trying to flesh out some half-baked performance testing ideas.

Registration for CAST 2008 now open!

Thu, 15 May 2008 22:48:30 -0500

The 3rd Annual Conference of the Association of Software Testing (CAST) 2008

Toronto, Ontario, Canada, July 14-16, 2008

Beyond the Boundaries: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Software Testing

Keynote Presentations by Gerald M. Weinberg,

Cem Kaner, Robert Sabourin, and Brian Fisher

Tutorials by Gerald M. Weinberg, Scott Barber, Hung Nguyen, and Julian Harty

The Association for Software Testing is pleased to announce its third annual conference (CAST 2008), to be held July 14-16. The meeting will be held in Toronto, Canada, a city which features enormous diversity in culture, businesses, educational institutions, and the arts. Toronto is the perfect location for a conference on this year’s theme: "Beyond the Boundaries: Interdisciplinary Approaches to Software Testing".

You can view the most recent brochure here, and you can see the conference program here.

Identity crisis or delusions of grandeur?

Thu, 15 May 2008 14:33:57 -0500

In this month's installment of "Peak Performance" I discuss the frequently erroneous and often grandiose titles software testers have on their business cards or in their e-mail SIGs. Identity crisis or delusions of grandeur?

--
Scott Barber
President & Chief Technologist, PerfTestPlus, Inc.
Vice President & Executive Director, Association for Software Testing
www.perftestplus.com
www.associationforsoftwaretesting.org
"If you can see it in your mind...
you will find it in your life."

Brazil and Uruguay and Conferences, Oh my!

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 23:13:02 -0500

This morning I arrived in Brazil. For the next 2 weeks I’ll be doing some consulting, some training, and speaking at 3 conferences spanning Brazil and Uruguay.

The first is Performance Summit 2008 hosted by Dell Brazil. The local organization team, including my friends and top-notch performance testers Carlos Panato and Walter Munstock, have already gone well out of their way to make me feel at home. Thanks guys!

Performance Summit 2008, CFP

Thu, 22 Nov 2007 11:50:58 -0600

PERFORMANCE SUMMIT 2008

March 20 - 21, 2008, Porto Alegre (Brazil)

Sponsored by: DELL- Brazil / PUCRS

SUBJECT OF THE CONFERENCE

Globalization pushes information technology to its limits. Also it makes companies more and more dependent on their IT resources, so speed and scalability became a critical factor for the companies to be successful. Performance Engineering (PE) came to help developing faster and more scalable applications by applying performance testing end engineering practices. Performance Engineering can be a complex area, demanding very skilled and experienced professionals. Also, this is a relatively new area in the business world, so there are plenty of room for development of techniques, practices and people. This summit has 2 main goals: to introduce performance engineering to the IT community, in order to increase the number of professionals in the discipline, and to share the best practices in the Performance engineering discipline, methods to tuning applications, find memory leaks, bottlenecks, etc.

From The Web: "Noncertified IT pros earn more..."

Tue, 23 Oct 2007 09:48:40 -0500

Stop the presses! Can it be true? The industry wants effective, qualified, multi-dimensional people who are capable of understanding business drivers & risk mitigation and applying that in a sapient way to their job as opposed to folks who paid someone to teach them how to pass a multiple-choice exam?!? Amazing!

Noncertified IT pros earn more than certified counterparts: survey

Scott Barber Interviewed by Empirix QA Zone

Sun, 14 Oct 2007 23:17:08 -0500

About 6 months after Marina Gil Santamaria approached me about being interviewed for Empirix’s QA website, our schedules finally matched up well enough to get it done. You can read the interview at Empirix QAZone.

--
Scott Barber
President & Chief Technologist, PerfTestPlus, Inc.
Vice President & Executive Director, Association for Software Testing
www.perftestplus.com
www.associationforsoftwaretesting.org

"If you can see it in your mind...
you will find it in your life."

Hourly Rant...

Thu, 09 Aug 2007 08:53:32 -0500

I just finished answering a question posted on LinkedIn by Esther Schindler in researching a article she is working on for CIO.com

She asks (summarized):

"There's just one question to answer: If you could get the (client) boss(es) to understand JUST ONE THING about computer consulting and contracting, what would it be?

Or, to put the same question another way: If you were given a single wish of something to change (about a current or past client) what would it be?"

Announcing CAST 2007

Sun, 05 Aug 2007 16:23:11 -0500

I attend a lot of conferences. I enjoy different conferences for different reasons. That said, there is only one conference that I automatically budget my own money and my own time to attend every time....

CAST - the annual Conference of the Association for Software Testing

If you haven't already registered I recommend you do it soon - seats are going fast, and there are only a limited number available. If you really care about good testing, teaching testing, advancing testing, conferring with thought leaders, sharing ideas and getting your questions answered, CAST is the place to be. Every talk includes *more* time for questions and answers than for the presentation, dramatically increasing your ability to learn the details you need to apply or internalize new ideas.