Event venue: Grand Hotel Italia

Conference Theme: Testing Perspectives & Perceptions

Improving how testing is viewed

I am excited about this theme because it has two components that are equally important:

First is how testers are viewed by other team members, competencies, and stakeholders that testers serve. We want to explore how testers can improve our testing to become much more valuable to the development process, and hopefully more respected. This includes improving test reporting, bug reporting, investigation skills, question asking, and communication. Essentially, any skill that will increase the visibility and effectiveness of testers within our teams and in the eyes of the stakeholders that rely on us, as testers, to provide accurate, actionable information.

The second aspect of the theme is improving how testing is viewed by testers. Many testers may feel bored or limited in their roles. Especially if we are performing repetitive and fairly unrewarding tasks like writing detailed scripts and/or executing the same tests over and over again. Some of us likely feel powerless on how we can improve our situation. In this edition of RTC we encourage talks that will help us improve how we, as testers, perform our jobs with a special focus on the small things that any of us should be able to perform regardless of our current situation.

If we can improve how testing is viewed by the people performing the testing then the value and importance of testing should become more obvious to those that rely on testers to investigate, explore and report on the status of the product. So they can make informed decisions about quality and deployments.

We’re bringing you an exciting and engaging conference format full of rich content over two days of amazing content and interactions.

This year’s conference will span over two days with the first day consisting of tutorials followed by a test-a-thon/hack-a-thon. The second day will have keynotes, track sessions, and workshops.

On the first day, the presenters will have five hours to show their material and then there will be a five hour test-a-thon/hack-a-thon where you will have the opportunity to practice what you just learned while experienced trainers/coaches are available in the room ready to help you increase your effectiveness and complete the mission.

I am also announcing the call for papers from anyone who feels that they have a talk that addresses either aspect of the theme as described above. If you have found a way to bring higher value and job satisfaction within a job that has constraints or if you have a way of reporting on your testing status and improving visibility of the product’s quality then we want to hear from you.

I am really looking forward to this iteration of RTC as I am confident we will have awesome speakers and a very exciting tutorial day with actual hands-on practice to help you put your new skills to the test. I hope to see you there.