Paul Holland, Testing Thoughts

How to Organise a Peer Conference

www.eurostarconferences.com

@esconfs#esconfs

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Introduction

◦ Who am I? ◦ What is a Peer Conference?

◦ LAWST – The grandfather of Peer Conferences

How to get started

◦ People involved ◦ How do you pay for all of this?

◦ Theme statement ◦ IP Agreement

◦ Suggested schedule

Facilitation

◦ K-Cards ◦ Stack Management

◦ ◦ Daily Schedule

Independent S/W Testing consultant since Apr 2012

16+ years testing/test manager telecommunications equipment

and reworking test methodologies at Alcatel-Lucent

Presenter at STAREast, STARWest, Let’s Test, EuroSTAR and CAST

Facilitator at 50+ peer conferences and workshops

Teacher of S/W testing for the past 5 years

Teacher of Rapid Software Testing

◦ through Satisfice (James Bach): www.satisfice.com

Former Military Helicopter pilot – Canadian Sea Kings

www.testingthoughts.com

A small, invitation only gathering

Maximum of 15 to 25 people (depending on the facilitator’s ability)

Seating is typically in a “U”-shape

The participants are also the presenters

Very structured participation – who can talk and when

Typically the presentations are based on first hand experience

Everyone is expected to participate in the discussions

Having “observers” is permitted – they do not sit at main table

Presentations are more like telling a story than attempting to

instruct or presenting theoretical material

Can be small - within a city or company – up to an

international conference

A fantastic way to learn from your peers

Los Altos Workshop on Software Testing

Created in 1997 by Cem Kaner, Elizabeth Hendrickson, and

Brian Lawrence

Reason for LAWST1

Findings from LAWST1

Many spin-off meetings: WHET, WTST, STMR, TWST, WOPR,

STiFS, WREST, WWST, AWTA, POST, and many others

Rules created by LAWST meetings and subsequent spin-offs

◦ Clarifying/Open Season

◦ K-Cards

◦ Just-in-time facilitation

I have attended over 55 peer workshops and facilitated 50

(most of which I have helped organize)

Primary Organizer or Organizing Committee

◦ Works with everyone else listed – can be considered “the manager”

◦ Keeps track of the overall timing

when to send out CFP, acceptances, etc

◦ Often is also the Content Owner

Content Owner

◦ Theme

◦ Call for Proposals

◦ Selection of Participants

◦ Order of presentations during the conference

Facilities Prime

◦ Arranges for a suitable meeting room

◦ Food (typically breakfast, lunch and snacks are arranged)

◦ Security, Audio/Visual, arrange the room layout, facilitator’s chair

◦ Organize evening activities

The Facilitator

◦ Controls who is allowed to speak during the entire meeting

◦ Needs to have the full support of the Content Owner

◦ Must have the authority to remove non-compliant individuals

◦ Should not personally participate in the discussions

◦ Without a good facilitator, the meeting can quickly get out of control

Ask for donations from your attendees

Get a company that wants to host the conference - typically

for a guaranteed number of seats (2-3) at the conference

Pay for it yourself (often combined with the first option)

Ask to use one of the attendee’s companies facilities

If you are a member, then ask the Association for Software

Testing for some financial support (max $500 – pre-approval

and receipts are required) – limited budget but it doesn’t hurt

to ask

Charge a cost sharing fee

◦ Similar to the first suggestion but the fee is mandatory

◦ May exclude the organizers

◦ NOTE: This will automatically prevent AST funding

Created by the content owner

Guides the direction of the submitted papers and thus the

conference

Can range in size from a single sentence to a page

A more specific theme should allow the meeting to go in the

direction desired by the CO

A more general theme will typically appeal to more people –

so more people are likely to apply to the conference but the

meeting may not go where the CO had intended

You can add focusing questions to help direct applications

Examples

Every peer conference should use an IP agreement to clarify the

rules of ownership of whatever is presented and developed at the

conference

Cem Kaner developed an IP agreement which is quite thorough

Anything presented is allowed to be used by anyone in attendance

with proper attribution to the presenter

Any thing developed out of the conference is attributable to all

attendees and not owned by anyone

These rules should help the conference participants share anything

they learned on a web page or blog without having to get more

permissions

Sharing new articles/blogs prior to publishing is encouraged

Anyone who does not want to be associated with a publication

from the meeting is allowed to have their name removed from the

list

IP Agreement

26+ weeks out: Organizers try to find a Content Owner and a Host

15-26 weeks out: The theme, dates and location are announced

14 weeks out: Publish and distribute a Call for Proposals

12 weeks out: Monitor early submissions – determine if more

adverstising is needed. Would like to have at least 10 names at this

time.

11 weeks out: Reminder email is sent – apply now, only one

week remaining

10 weeks out: CFP application deadline

8 weeks out: Acceptance letters are sent out. Anyone not on

the invitee list is put on a waiting list

6 weeks out: Logistics email is sent out (hotels, location,

dates, times, mention pre-conference dinner, etc)

4 weeks out: Mentors are assigned to “new” attendees

◦ Suggested time for expense sharing fee deadline

◦ CO gets a preliminary order for papers (need a strong lead off)

1-2 weeks out: A final logistics email with:

◦ location and timing of pre-conference dinner, start time of conference,

food being provided, any security issues, etc.

0 weeks out: Have a great conference

The method of facilitation is a major factor in the success of

LAWST-style and LAWST-inspired peer conferences

The rules are strictly followed because they work VERY well

Use Just-in-time facilitation

◦ Do not explain all the rules at the beginning

◦ Instead explain things as they come up (open season, thumb votes,

etc)

K-Cards – named after my wife “Karen”

◦ Green: New Thread

◦ Yellow: Same Thread

◦ Red: Oooh, oooh, I must speak now

◦ Purple (or Blue): Rat Hole

◦ Orange (fairly new): “I agree with that” – similar to “Like” or “+1”

A Rat Hole is a discussion that is going no where (e.g.: only one or

two people involved, or a topic that has no acceptable conclusion:

What is the definition of a Test Case)

Recognize Rat Holes – enlist help of participants

Let the group know that they control the direction of the meeting

with their energy levels and their questions and comments

Maintain control of group – do not allow anyone to talk out of turn

The speaker is allowed to respond to any comment or question

even if not directed at them – it is their presentation, after all

Stack Management:

◦ People who talk less should get called upon before frequent talkers

◦ Definitely not a FIFO queue

◦ Exhaust a thread (and its sub-threads) before moving to a new thread

◦ Exceptions: Rat Holes, Time Box, CO kills the thread – off theme

Try to finish with a strong participant (not easy to do)

Anyone mentioned by name in a comment or question is

always allowed to respond to confirm, deny, expand upon

what was said

Use humour to help control the participants

Ensure the break schedule is shared and adhered to

throughout the day

8:00 – 9:00: Breakfast and mingle (ensure A/V and room are ready)

9:00 – 10:00: Facilitator welcomes everyone and initiates a “check-in”

◦ The Content Owner will typically go last and restate the theme to focus everyone for the

meeting

◦ Cover the IP agreement. Ensure that EVERYONE agrees to it

◦ In the USA a witnessed verbal agreement is as binding as a signed written agreement

◦ Anyone who does not agree must leave the meeting

◦ Introduce the first speaker and have them do their talk (ensure there is at least 30 minutes

for them to tell their story or else have a break first).

10:00 – 10:15 – Break

10:15 – 11:15 – Open Season of first talk (if talk is complete)

11:15 – 11:30 - Break

11:30 – 12:30 – Open season continued or next speaker

12:30 – 1:30 - Lunch

1:30 – 2:30 - Open season continued or next speaker

2:30 – 2:45 – Break

2:45 – 3:45 - Open season continued or next speaker

3:45 – 4:00 – Break

4:00 – 4:40 - Open season continued or next speaker

4:40 – 5:00 – Check out (people summarize their day)