TDT Cluj Meetup #76 on Experiential Learning

On the 29th of January we had a meetup on experiential learning. We had fun with the 8bit game of our childhood, Pacman, while the workshop facilitators guided the learning on bug investigation: Andreea Vescan, professor on Testing at Babes Bolyai University, and Adina Moldovan, software tester and consultant at Altom.

We went through the four steps David A. Kolb suggests. We started by experiencing the game, and its’ bugs. After, we reflected on our experience: from actions to how we felt, a step that we rarely do naturally in our day to day life. Then we analyzed more deeply how we worked, trying to figure out why we did what we did, followed by conceptualizing a group model on bug investigation. Sixteen people (in the picture, and more behind the scenes): testers, professors, students, offered seven versions for our goal: if we were to teach bug investigation in seven steps, which would they be? Together, we went though each proposal and came out with a group version.

The process was engaging, and it’s interesting to reflect on the results:

  • how people can use different words but mean the same thing
  • how much hands on experience can drive the creation of useful models
  • how anyone can do it, or
  • how easily we can build relevant models though the power of the group.

This part of idea development (abstractization & conceptualization), in our case modeling seven steps to bug investigation, was challenging but facilitated a deeper understanding on the subject. In the mindmap below, the words in bigger font are the seven steps we chose as a group, and the words deriving from them are all the different versions and aspects the people proposed before the categories existed.

We encourage you all to try an experiential learning experience with any goal. To make the process smoother in a group, we used menti.com to submit each version (see heatmap), and the consecrated flip-chart to group the terms together while discussing them. If you have the possibility to use directly a mind-mapping tool, we think it’s a great alternative over the flipchart. We mind-mapped it after the meetup.

Our meetup ended with sharing ideas about where we’ll use what we learned. This is an important aspect to challenge our mind to think at, so when the opportunity comes we’ll know what to do.

We hope you enjoyed our sharing and when you try, let us know how your experiential learning went.
TdT Cluj team.

Ideas for 2013…

On the 5th of December the Cluj chapter had the last monthly meetup for 2012. We started the evening by discussing about the things we liked so far at TdT and what we’d like to do in the future.

Below is the list with the items we came up with:

  • longer meetings (ie: 1-2 days conferences – Peer conference or Open Space Conference) where we can go more in depth
  • more hands on sessions
    • testlab
    • workshops for different skills and tools (new cool & geeky stuff)
    • test clinic – where people can present their problems and the community can come up with possible solutions
    • non-technical sessions (critical thinking, communication, presentation)
  • industry/domain specific presentations
  • have talks about test management
  • bring cool and smart people to attend our sessions
  • bring non-testers to talk – business people, developers, sells, support
  • community beyond meetups for testing things – small workgroups that meet to discuss specific themes and problems
  • community beyond the meetups – go out and have beer with peer testers 🙂
  • have interactions between the TdT chapters
  • organize a testing camp
  • organize a real conference in Romania

This list is not prioritized in any way, it’s just a bunch of ideas that we put on paper and would be of interest for the local chapter.

I’d personally like to know how the members from other chapters see it, so please leave a comment with the items you find interesting and if you’d want to get involved.

Alex

RoWST – Romanian Workshop on Software Testing

In 29-30 martie 2012, la Hotel Parliament in Bucuresti, va avea loc prima editie a RoWST – Romanian Workshop on Software Testing.

Acest eveniment va fi organizat de Altom si Tabara de Testare, va urma formatul unui Peer Conference, si se va bucura de participarea lui James Bach si a lui Maaret Pyhäjärvi.

Pentru cei care au urmarit TdT, exista cateva diferente intre conferintele organizate la sfarsitul anului trecut si acest workshop:

  • durata: deoarece se va intinde pe parcusul a doua zile, vom avea ocazia sa ne cunoastem mai bine si sa acoperim anumite subiecte mai in detaliu.
  • taxa de participare: nu exista nici o taxa de participare, dar fiecare participant va trebui sa-si acopere cheltuielile cu pranzul. Altom va suporta cheltuielile cu sala, echipamentul , cafeaua / ceaiul si apa.
  • numarul de participanti: pentru a facilita schimbul de idei si experiente, numarul de participanti este limitat la 15 persoane, incluzandu-i pe James si Maaret.
  • prezentarile: vom incerca sa alegem mai atent prezentarile, astfel incat fiecare din ele sa fie un raport bazat pe experienta.
  • participarea: am trimis deja invitatii in functie de gradul de implicare in (incipienta) comunitate a testerilor din Romania. Daca nu ai primit invitatie si vrei sa participi, te rog sa imi dai un email la alex [punct] rotaru [la] altom [punct] ro.

Deoarece vom avea cel putin 2 participanti internationali, limba folosita in timpul conferintei va fi engleza.

RoWST Theme – “Everyday Software Testing Challenges”

What are the things that bother you most in your day-to-day work environment? We want to hear from you experience reports of everyday problems you’ve stumbled upon, the way you dealt with them, and the solutions you have come up with.

In case you haven’t found a solution to the issue, even better, because we love a good challenge! You can present the details of the situation and the steps you’ve taken and we’ll try to identify solutions together/discuss it further.

What we’re looking for: challenges and the ways you chose to deal with them, and not just complaints.

What we’re NOT looking for:

  • theoretical ideas you’ve read about but have never applied or experienced,
  • generic stories with no practical bearing,
  • stories for which the context is not available.

Examples of presentation topics (to guide you in identifying and naming your challenges):

  • Documenting your testing efficiently
  • How to deal with the false belief that the solution to every problem is a tool (magic tool to solve any problem)
  • Fighting against unreasonable requests/expectations from managers/clients (100% automation, complete coverage)
  • The shift from the traditional mode to more effective and relevant approaches.

As a result of the workshop, we will have a summary report of key learning points and conclusions to share with the testing community through http://tabaradetestare.ro.

 

Tabara de testare #2 Bucuresti – Post Mortem

In ultima saptamana a anului trecut, mai precis pe 28 Decembrie, Alexandra organiza o ultima intalnire a testarilor pe anul 2011. Mai jos puteti gasi cateva cuvinte din partea Alexandrei cu privire la aceasta intalnire.

Intalnirea de final de an intre pasionatii de testare a avut loc luni, 28 Decembrie, la ceainaria Rendez-Vous. Participarea a fost restransa, au raspuns la apelul facut de mine doar Crenguta M, Gabi Dobritescu si Michou (Mihai Balan). Cu toate acestea discutia a fost dinamica si animata, si desi am plecat cu un subiect prestabilit, discutiile au acoperit subiecte variate legate de domeniul testarii in general.

Tema propusa initial “cum sa nu scriem test-caseuri” a deschis dialogul (si ceaiurile calde dupa ploaia rece de afara). Fiind direct interesata de subiect, am gasit foarte interesante abordarile diferite ale celorlalti. Ca o concluzie si cel mai important pentru acest subiect este identificarea motivelor pentru care nu este necesara sau utila scrierea de test caseuri, precum si scopul final. Diverse tool-uri de testare precum si metode de testare gen Session Based Testing ajuta. Exemplu: toolul http://testing.gershon.info/reporter/ pe care, si ca urmare a discutiei cu Gabi, il consider unealta cea mai utila in sesiuni de testare ce nu necesita o planificare anterioara a testelor.

Discutia a deviat la diverse subiecte de testing. Ne-am bucurat de prezenta Crengutei, un proaspat venit in acest domeniu, pe care sper ca sfaturile noastre au ajutat-o. Gabi si Mihai au impartasit din experienta lor legata de interviuri si asa s-a ajuns la a discuta aprins despre tipurile de intervievare a persoanelor pentru junior testing. Ca idee finala cred ca cei ce sunt interesati de qa si testare si au nelamuriri sau intrebari de pus, pot cere ajutorul celor cu mai multa experienta si vor primi oricand ajutor.

S-au discutat multe despre testare, despre echipe si relatia cu dezvoltatorii. Din partea mea scopul acestei intalniri a fost atins, am cunoscut alte persoane pasionate de ceea ce fac, de testing si tot ce implica asta, cu dorinta de a impartasi din experienta lor si de a afla lucruri si abordari noi.

As vrea sa organizez si pe viitor (2012) astfel de intalniri, de cateva ore, cu un numar de participanti cat sa permita discutiile fara haos. Ar fi utile in acest scop sugestii despre ce ati fi interesati sa aflati (subiecte de discutie).

Alexandra

Tabara de Testare este pe Meetup

Incepand de astazi “Tabara de Testare” si-a facut cont pe Meetup. Acest lucru ne va ajuta sa ne organizam mai bine pe viitor si sa creem un loc unde care cei care lucreaza ca “software testers” sau cei care sunt curiosi sa afle mai multe despre acest domeniu sa discute diverse teme sau probleme.

Daca ti-am captat atentia si vrei sa ni te alaturi te rugam sa “Join us!” pe unul din grupurile de mai jos. Deasemenea, ne-ar fi de mare ajutor daca ai face “share” sau “forward” la acest articol catre toti prietenii tai care crezi ca ar putea fi interesati sa ni se alature.

In caz de nu stiai, pana in momentul de fata au fost organizate deja 5 intalniri, dintre care 2 in Bucuresti, la care au participat in total aproximativ 80 persoane. Detalii despre aceste intalniri le poti gasi pe site-ul nostru http://tabaradetestare.ro.

Mai multe despre acest proiect pe pagina noastra de detalii: http://tabaradetestare.ro/despre-noi/.

Pana la o intalnire viitoare iti urez mult success!

Catalin

Tabara de testare #2 – Bucuresti

Ca sa incheiem anul intr-o nota pozitiva Alexandra Ichim a venit cu propunerea sa mai organizam o intalnire pana la sfarsitul anului. Detaliile exacte pot fi gasite mai jos.

Tema intalnirii: Cum sa nu scriem test case-uri!
Data: 19 Decembrie 2011
Locatie: Ceainaria Rendez-Vous, ora 18:30 

Termen limita pentru inscrieri: Vineri, 16 Decembrie 2011

Din dorinta de a continua seria de discutii cu teme de testare va propun o intalnire saptamana viitoare pe 19 Decembrie. Mi-ar placea sa ne reunim si sa facem schimb de idei pe o tema anume din domeniu. Scopul este sa invatam fiecare din experienta celorlalti si sa plecam cu cateva idei in plus pentru cum am putea sa ne imbunatatim activitatea.

Propunerea mea este: sa discutam despre cum sa nu scriem test-caseuri. Cred ca toti au fost in situatia de a testa fara a avea suficient timp pentru a scrie test caseuri foarte detaliate sau pe cat de multe ar fi fost necesare. De fapt as vrea sa fie o continuare a temelor foarte populare de exploratory testing, dar cumva sa depaseasca nivelul de doar testare prin explorare.

Mi-ar placea sa aflu de la oameni pusi in situatia asta: cum au planificat activitatile, cum au monitorizat taskurile, ce tooluri au folosit, cum au incadrat testarea automata si cat de eficiente au fost metodele abordate de ei.

Pentru aceasta intalnire m-am gandit la un grup de maxim 10 pesoane (daca sunt 10 persoane interesate 🙂 ), iar ca locatie la ceainaria Rendez-Vous (http://www.ceainarie.ro/index.php/locatii/universitate ) – au o sala separata pentru nefumatori in care putem rezerva toate locurile, astfel avand intimitate pentru discutii (evident consumatia este obligatorie 🙂 ). Eventual poate aveti o alta sugestie pentru locatie, din pacate eu nu am gasit alta solutie.

Cei interesati pot lasa un comment la articol, cand avem lista de participanti vom mai schimba informatiile de organizare intre noi.

Alexandra

TDT Peer Conference Cluj-Napoca – Post Mortem

It was one of those Saturday mornings when there’s this deep white fog outside and all you want is a couple of more minutes under the warm cozy blanket. But after a hot cup of coffee all I could think about was the meeting with Tabara de Testare. Yes, I was a little bit nervous – Alexandru had finally convinced me to hold a presentation and I was looking over the final details: adjust the font/ jot down some notes/ rearrange the pictures.

I was among the last ones to arrive – everyone there was already chatting over tea or coffee and biscuits, Gabi was setting up the presentation gear and the day started at a little past 10AM. I was curious about how everyone would blend in – 20 people with no prior knowledge of each other, drawn to this place by their passion for QA – that should be a good starting point. Catalin and Alexandru walked us through the event’s schedule and presented themselves, their ideas behind Tabara de Testare and the whole concept of doing a peer conference about software testing. The new thing here would be the use of K-cards that encourage discussions in an orderly fashion – Alexandru seemed particularly fond of them, but then again, he was the moderator of the event, so that might have given him a valid excuse.

What are our expectations for today, we were asked, after everyone had introduced themselves. Well, personally, I wanted to meet these 20 people that hopefully shared my enthusiasm for QA and learn new things from them. And of course I would like this not to be a one-time event and have the courage to continue with this type of gatherings in the future.

First thing on the agenda: Gabi’s presentation. He walked us through the values that one can bring in the projects we work on, to the team we work with and last, but not least, to ourselves. I could not agree more. I believe we are in a constant process of improving ourselves and this is the foremost benefit of being a tester: working in a continuous developing environment, with new and exciting technologies and talented people. A thought that I personally liked from Gabi’s presentation was that “talking about change doesn’t make it happen”. There were lots of questions and themes to be debated after the talk, so much as the discussion went on for more than one hour. Alex was busy jotting down the participants’ numbers and the color of the K-card they had raised. It was quite refreshing to see people eager to share their experiences and ask questions – I forgot to mention that almost everyone there had at least 6 years of experience in testing, so that was a little bit intimidating for me, but it was a great plus conversational wise. Oana, Catalin, Adi, Vasile, Ioana and Jari were probably the most active participants here.

We went on to having lunch afterwards, in the restaurant downstairs – I still don’t know what that green sauce was, by the way, but it tasted good, nonetheless. It was a perfect opportunity for the participants to mingle and get to act more informal. I got to talking with Adina, who mentioned, among other things, how helpful it can get, while working on a project, for a tester to talk to the developer first and get things coordinated in the same direction. I thought it to be a great idea and it’s a practice that I also try to apply in my daily job. I also had a brief talk with Ionut, who’s doing some amazing performance testing with a tool he discovered, AutoIT. I liked what he said about bringing something new to the table in your domain of work – a question that one should ask themselves: “what is it that makes me different from everyone else? why would someone pick me?”

The conference continued with Lucian’s presentation, which was more an experience-based example of how to apply Agile practices in your projects. I particularly liked how he gave real examples and also the way he explained most of them, very patiently, by drawing on the flip-chart. He spoke of the challenges that might occur while working in a remote, multicultural environment, how sometimes one can feel they are not really contributing to the project and how does one find room to successfully apply Agile practices in such cases. I know Vasile, Sorina, Rares, Raluca, Istvan and Mihaela were glad that this topic was debated. Among others, a raising question was “how does one deal with last minute bugs that appear in the middle of the sprint?”. It was nice that everyone shared answers based on personal experience and they had bold solutions to propose.

Although we were a little behind schedule and it was already past 4 o’clock, Jari’s presentation shook our spirits and brought out the fun side of testing. I feel everyone will agree that his energetic presence, funny spirit and cheerful presentation did not only bring a smile to our faces, but also made us question the ground principles that we apply when testing: “what is it that we are doing wrong now and how can we avoid that in the future”. I especially liked his metaphor on exploratory testing versus scripted testing in the form of a short story: “Two kids are out on the streets on the hunt for candy, on a Halloween evening. The exploratory kid would follow an undefined trail and no matter how many times he would repeat the process, he gets more candy, because he would always have new doors to knock on in his trail. The scripted kid would have a predefined road and when repeating it, he would only get the candy once, because he would be knocking on the same doors all over again.” I hope I served the story justice – this is how I remember it 🙂

My presentation came last – I silently hoped that there would be no time left, but I didn’t have that luck. Honestly, I am not very fond of speaking in public – that’s why I tailored my presentation to focus more on the audience, thus hoping to shift the spotlight. I wanted to both share thoughts from my personal experience and also learn from other’s experiences – I brought forward questions that I often ask myself and I wanted fresh new answers from those present: “why did you become a software tester? why do you keep doing it? if you could name it, what would your QA super-power be? how did you overcome your failures? how deep do you go when testing? where do you stand in a team?” and I could go on. I got some of the answers I was looking for – I liked Claudia’s answer on why she became a tester: “because I thought I wasn’t good enough as a developer and I knew I could be great in testing, thus proving others wrong” and Vasile’s humorous take on his QA super power: “the Chuck Norris of bugs”.

And some ending thoughts… well, I believe Catalin will be able to get everyone’s names right from now on. Also, I think Alexandru will be proud to know that having those K-cards actually helped a lot in mediating the discussions, proving my resistance futile 🙂 Another thing on the plus side was that everyone felt comfortable enough to speak in English – of course, under the false pretense of humoring Jari 🙂 Overall, it was a great meeting. I met some nice people in a friendly, informal and cozy atmosphere (with lots of IKEA items), shared some ideas, asked myself some questions, learned something new. The ice has definitely been broken, so I believe there’s room for more. I’m looking forward to the next meeting with Tabara de Testare and hopefully continue to shine some light on software testing.

 

Ana

TDT Peer Conference Iasi – Post Mortem

În urmă cu 12 zile a avut loc la Iași cea de-a doua întâlnire TdT – Peer Conference.

Pentru mine totul a început joi seara cu un drum București – Cluj cu trenul, urmat vineri de o călătorie Cluj – Iași cu mașina. Recunosc că nu a fost cea mai scurtă rută din București către Iași, dar cred că se putea și mai rău :).

Sâmbăta dimineață în jur de 8:30 am fost la sediul WorldTradeCenter unde ne așteptau Ana-Maria Figher împreuna cu Daniel Buleu care se ocupau de ultimele detalii pentru eveniment.

Toată lumea a fost punctuală, în afară de un participant care nici nu a binevoit să ne anunțe că nu vine. E foarte important să precizez că deoarece el nu ne-a anunțat măcar cu o zi înainte, altcineva nu a putut participa in locul lui. Sunt curios dacă persoana respectivă ar fi avut același comportament / atitudine dacă ar fi plătit o taxă de participare.

Am găsit la Iași oameni pasionați de testare, care vor să învețe lucruri noi și să-și perfecționeze abilitățile, să împărtășească din experiențele lor și să le asculte pe ale celorlalți.

Deși toți participanții au luat parte la discuții, aș vrea să le mulțumesc în mod special celor care s-au implicat cel mai mult și au adus cea mai mare valoare prin  întrebările și  comentariile lor: Victor Stuiber, Ana-Maria Figher, Maria Bahnareanu și Adina Pitul.

Feedback

Am continuat ideea de feedback în timp real pe un flip-chart si la acest eveniment. Dacă nu foarte mulți participanți au dorit să folosească această metodă pentru a ne spune părerile lor despre eveniment

Feedback TdT Peer Conference Iasi

aproape toți au completat formularul online pe care l-am trimis.

1. Cum ți s-a părut întâlnirea?

  • Foarte reușită – 57.1%
  • Reușită – 42.9%
  • Mai puțin reușită – 0.0%

2. Cum ți s-au părut prezentările? (Notele sunt date pe o scară de la 1 la 10)

  • From zero to tester, Adrian Apostolache- 5.50
  • Help them to help you, Victor Stuiber – 7.54
  • Test automation techniques for Windows applications, Dragoș Cogean – 6.43
  • Învățând prin explorare, Oana Casapu – 8.15

 

Mai jos am spicuit din mesajele primite.

Continue reading

TDT Peer Conference – Cluj

În primul rând vrem să mulțumim tuturor celor care s-au înscris și celor care ne-au ajutat cu promovarea și organizarea evenimentului din Cluj.

Motivul pentru care am ales să mergem cu un număr atât de mic de  participanți  este strâns legat de formatul conferinței care presupune un grad foarte mare de interacțiune.

Mai jos puteți găsi agenda evenimentului și lista finală de participanți.

Agenda:

  • 09:30 – 10:00 – Sosire participanți
  • 10:00 – 11:00 – Introducere
  • 11:00 – 12:00 – Prezentare 1
  • 12:00 – 13:00 – Pauză de masă
  • 13:00 – 14:00 – Prezentare 2
  • 14:00 – 14:15 – Pauză
  • 14:15 – 15:15 – Prezentare 3
  • 15:15 – 15:30 – Pauză
  • 15:30 – 16:30 – Prezentare 4
  • 16:30 – 17:00 – Concluzii

Participanții:

  1. Catalin Anastasoaie – Facilitator
  2. Alexandru Rotaru – Content Owner
  3. Gabriel Dobritescu – Prezentator, “Tester cu beneficii
  4. Lucian Aruncutean – Prezentator, “Learning the Agile way
  5. Laakso Jari – Prezentator, “How to bring creativity in testing
  6. Moga Ana-Alexandra – Prezentator, “QA with a twist”
  7. Coroiu Ionut Cristian
  8. Oana Casapu
  9. Beleanu Ady
  10. István Székely
  11. Csalanosi Csilla
  12. Pop Mihaela
  13. Claudia Pilca
  14. Pintea Sorina
  15. Ioana Matros
  16. Pop Vasile
  17. Sandu Adina
  18. Rares Coste
  19. Cozos Andreea Raluca

Ne vedem sâmbăta, 26 Noiembrie, în clădirea Cluj City Center din Cluj-Napoca, Calea Dorobantilor 14-16, la etajul 2, Altom (biroul 208).

TDT Peer Conference Bucuresti – Impresii din public

TDT Peer conference, Bucuresti: 
am fost, am vazut, am interactionat, mi-a placut. MAI VREAU!

Formatul conferintei este unul care ma atrage.

Fara sa repet din cele ce s-au mai explicat aici, si fara sa pot acoper toate aspectele, despre ce este vorba:

  • Se tin prezentari care constituie puncte de plecare pentru schimburi de idei, experiente proprii, opinii in legatura cu subiectul prezentarii sau subiecte conexe.
  • Participantii la conferinta interactioneaza cu prezentatorul, interactioneaza intre ei. Pun intrebari, cer informatii suplimentare, pun sub semnul intrebarii cele prezentate, isi exprima propriile puncte de vedere.
  • Pentru a permite genul acesta de dialog, acelasi interval de timp, 30 de minute, este alocat atat prezentarii cat si sesiunii de discutii de dupa.
  • Participantii isi exprima dorinta de a vorbi cu ajutorul unor cartonase colorate, ce sunt foarte haios de folosit. Totul se desfasoara sub atenta indrumare a unui moderator care are grija ca toata lumea sa aiba oportunitatea sa vorbeasca si in acelasi timp sa pastreze un fir logic la discutiile care se intampla.