Being a Tester in 2015 Teri Charles and Lisa Crispin
A li7le about us Teri 15+ years tes=ng, co- organizer of Boulder QA Meetup Twi7er: @booksrg8 Lisa 20+ years tes=ng, agile teams since 2000 Currently tester on Pivotal Tracker team Twi7er: @lisacrispin Email: lisa@agiletester.ca
How About You? Tell us a li7le about yourselves!
Automating is the answer! Let s hire some SDETs! Why So Much Confusion?
Examples of Job Descrip=ons 2+ years C# is a must 2+ years working as a Quality Assurance in a SoYware Engineering test capacity 2+ web applica=on development 2+ JavaScript MVC framework 2+ years ASP.NET MVC Ability to architect and op=mize test frameworks for key automa=on ini=a=ves Integrate automated tests into con=nuous integra=on workflows BDD, TDD, Unit tes=ng, Jasmine, SpecFlow
More Examples of Job Descrip=ons! ASP.NET Web API, RESTful API development or integra=on Single Page Applica=on (SPA) development MongoDB or other NoSQL database Ember.js or SproutCore AWS deployment and management, cloud automa=on Expert knowledge of relevant development tools & code management repositories (Netbeans, Eclipse, Komodo, SVN or equivalent) High- scale performance tuning Competency in one of the following languages: C, C++, Perl, Java or Python is a plus
Where is the Confusion Coming From? Recruiters Hiring Managers Testers
Ques=on In your current job, what was the job pos=ng vs. what is it you actually do? Copyright 2015 Teri Charles and Lisa Crispin
To code or not to code, that is the ques=on!
Do You Need to Learn How to Code? Do you want to learn how to code? Ø Then do it Do you not want to learn how to code? Ø Then don t do it
Most Importantly Don t Freak Out Figure out who YOU are, what are YOU interested in Get more technical Ø Get more comfortable looking at code Ø Know your domain Ø Learn a bit of SQL, shell Ø Use IDE team uses Ø Ask ques=ons Ø Know what you need to add value
What is Being a Tester? Think like a Tester! Being a detec=ve! Ask the ques=ons! Communicate! Courage! Learn learn and then learn some more! Is it knowing processes, wri=ng test plans and test cases? Competencies trump roles
Learn the Rules So You Can Break the Rules! Copyright 2015 Teri Charles and Lisa Crispin
Ques=on What do we/you love about it being a tester?
Group Exercise At your table, write one item per s=cky note. What do you do now in your job? What would you like to be doing? Each person read your s=cky notes and place on table. Group similar items. Do any similar themes emerge?
Mentors Publica=ons Books Blog pos=ngs Webinars Conferences Meetups Online communi=es Learn New Skills
Exercise Pick your top learning goals and make a plan Ø For next week Ø For next month Ø For next six months Bonus: Pair with a buddy, exchange emails, keep each other informed on your progress
Educate Others One of the best ways to learn something is to teach something! Hold a brown bag at work Write. Get published! Present at conferences Present at local Meetups What are some other ideas?
Learning Resources Tes=ng Resources: h7ps://www.mindmeister.com/ 311371613 The Giant Mind Map of Testers to Follow: h7ps:// www.mindmeister.com/542046667 Lambert, Rob, "T- shaped Testers and Their Role In a Team", h7p://thesocialtester.co.uk/t- shaped- testers- and- their- role- in- a- team/, 2012 Levison, Mark, "The Beginner's Mind - An Approach to Listening", h7p://www.infoq.com/news/2008/08/ beginners_mind, InfoQ, 2008 McMillan, Darren, "Mind Mapping 101", for Tes=ng: h7p://www.be7ertes=ng.co.uk/content/?p=956, 2011 Pa7on, Jeff, User Story Mapping, 2014 Wynne, Ma7 and Aslak Hellesoy, The Cucumber Book: Behavior- Driven Development for Testers and Developers, Pragma=c Programmers, 2012
More Learning Resources Adzic, Gojko, SpecificaGon by Example: How Successful Teams Deliver the Right SoMware, Manning, 2011 Adzic, Gojko, Impact Mapping: Making a Big Impact with SoMware Products and Projects, 2012a h7p:// impactmapping.org Gärtner, Markus, ATDD By Example: A PracGcal Guide to Acceptance Test- Driven Development, Addison- Wesley, 2012a Karten, Naomi, "Are You Listening?", h7p:// www.agileconnec=on.com/ar=cle/are- you- listening, Agile Connec=on, 2009 Keogh, Liz, h7p://lunivore.com - look for her posts on BDD, Real Op=ons Knight, Adam P., "T- shaped Tester, Square Shaped Team", h7p://thesocialtester.co.uk/t- shaped- tester- square- shaped- team/, 2013