ruud teunissen - accelerate testing and advance your career with eurostar 2010

POWER HOUR

Accelerate Testing And Advance Your

Career With EuroSTARRuud Teunissen

Polteq Test Services BV – The Netherlands

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Objectives of this Power Hour

• Accelerate Testing And Advance Your Career With EuroSTAR

• Increase the value of your participation in EuroSTAR 2010

– How to select the right ideas, tools, skills, methods, processes, ... to

advance YOUR carreer

– Use the trip home to plan your next step:

how to start with it tomorrow (next monday)

– Tips and trics, do's and don'ts from experts (conference alumni)

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A test career is defined by …growth and differentiation

Test design & execution

Team lead Test expert Infra&tool expert

Test coordination Test specialist Infra&tool specialist

Test management Test consultant Infra&tool consultant

???? Test ????

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… and using the full potential!

knowledge and skills

Training

Social skills

Experience

Coaching & support

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What defines a good tester?

IT Knowledge

Soft Skills Test Skills

Domain

Knowledge

Character

“Tester”

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Character - If I touch it, it will break

• Has to be there from the start, cannot be acquired

can only be improved by training & gaining experience

• Analytical quick insight in what and how to test

• Accuracy factual, precise, tot the point, …

• Creative able to create test cases, “out of thin air”

• Critical seeing is believing,

“check, check, double-check”

• Curious every good tester is an explorer

“to boldly go where no man has gone before”

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IT Knowledge Domain Knowledge

• General IT knowledge

– information services, policy, planning

– organization of information services

• Software Development

– DSDM, RUP, SDM II, Agile, …

– CASE, OO, CBD, …

• System Management

– Configuration / Change Management

– JCL, Security, …

• Infrastructure

– hardware, network, …

– OS, middleware, DBMS, …

• Requirements

– Use Cases, Business & System, …

• Industry knowledge

– standards and regulations

– terminology

• Business knowledge

– objectives

– processes and procedures

• Application knowledge

– look and feel, “how it works”(or should work)

– functional and non-functional requirements

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Test Skills Soft Skills

• Test execution

– execute test cases, log defects,

report results, …

– static testing, reviews, …

• Test preparation & specification

– test design techniques

– testability review

• Test tools and environments

• Test approach

– process, life cycle, planning,

management, …

– test strategy – when to apply

which techniques (coverage)

– how to apply test techniques

– how to use tools and

environments effectively

• Social

– enable others to add quality

– focus on resolution not blame

• Persistent

– goal focused

– rowing against the current

• Reporting

– factual

– honest

• “Being ignored”

– able to deal with unfinished and

unheard

– swallow the “I told you so’s again

and again

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What defines a good tester?

IT Knowledge

Soft Skills Test Skills

Domain

Knowledge

Character

“Tester”

IT Knowledge

Soft Skills Test Skills

Domain

Knowledge

Character

“Tester”

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Different types of “lessons learned”

• Wish you hadn’t gone there

– There are always a few of those that slip in…

… read the descriptions more careful next time!

• Confirmation of what you already knew

– Use it as a boost for your confidence!

• Great talk, but not for me

– Not in line with your organization, job, ambition, …

• Definitely improvement possibilities for me!

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Improvement possibilities

in line with your ambitions and potential

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Define “Impact”

• Will it help you?

– Wow! As if the speaker knew you were coming!

(valuable, visible, clear, quick-wins)

– Yes… Tune it to your context

(noticeable, evident, contributive)

– Well… Great talk but…

(small, marginal)

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Define “Term”

• When will it help you?

– Now (perfect for your current project!)

– Within a few weeks (perfect for your next project)

– Within a few months (perfect for the next step in your career)

– Never (nice talk, but…)

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Define “Investment”

• What investment is required?

– Free (what are you waiting for?)

– Low (buy the “book” and read it)

– Medium (go to the training days!)

– High (training, consulting, tooling, …)

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Define “Ease of Implementation”

• How easy is it to do?

– Just do it

– Instruct / Train / Support (with a little help you can do it)

– Major change (different then you’ve always done it)

– Force (only if they make me do it)

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Improvement possibilities

in line with your ambitions and potential

Ideal possibilities (potential silver bullets)

Term Impact Investment Ease of implementation

Now Wow! Free Just do it

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Select your improvement possibilities

Well, yes, but…

• Don’t focus on term only– A career is a long term effort!

• Invest in yourself– Your company pays for your training & conferences,

but you are the major investor yourself!

• Do the hard things first– Major steps forward are the hardest, but most rewarding!

• If you had the “Wow!” experience, you’re one of the lucky few– But you will always have several “yes’s”

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My list of improvements

• Will be based upon

– What is the message the presenter is sending?

– What is “special” about the presentation?

– Does it have any “instant value”?

– What’s in it for me?

– …

Ruud TeunissenPolteq Test Services BV – The Netherlands

ruud.teunissen@polteq.com - http://www.polteq.com

Ruud TeunissenPolteq Test Services BV – The Netherlands

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About the speaker

Ruud TeunissenPolteq Test Services, The Netherlands

In the testing world since 1989, Ruud Teunissen has held numerous test functions in different organizations and projects: tester, test specialist, test consultant, test manager, etcetera. Ruud is co-author of Software Testing - A Guide to the TMap® Approach and is a frequent speaker at (inter)national conferences and workshops. He was a member of the program committee for Quality Week Europe and EuroSTAR. Ruud is currently Manager Operations and International Test Consultant at Polteq Test Services BV.

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