Celebrating 5 years of “Tabara de Testare” Bucuresti

If you check our meetup on November 9 we had set up our “usual” second Thursday of the month meetup just that it wasn’t usual at all… We celebrated 5 years of monthly meetups at Tabara de testare Bucuresti!!!

On the agenda for that evening we had the overview of the presentations/workshops we had during 2017 but this time we also prepared an overview of the previous years and afterwards we continued with the workshop on “Storytelling and communication” by Stefan Bratosin.

I’m going to start with Stefan’s workshop first because the 5 years part needs to be saved for last like all the good things.

Stefan’s workshop was inspired by some improvisation classes that he took and while being involved more and more in the classroom he realized how the exercises that he was doing could help other testers better communicate and be better story tellers since this is a big part of what we do.

The workshop had a lot of cool and fun exercises like:

  • The whole group had to count to 30 without anyone overlapping. The exercise was very interesting and we managed to count to 30 as a whole group(we were about 20) and without anyone overlapping. The “Aha” part of this exercise was when Stefan asked us to close our eyes and try this way to count to 30. We managed to listen and focus way better than the time we had our eyes opened and try to search each others all over the room and see who was the next one that will be going to say a number. We actually listened this time!
  • Question rally – something similar to “Whose line is it anyway” ( here is an example of the show with Whoopi Goldberg) where there were only questions. We were given a theme and we could answer only with a question. Really fun exercise in which we could see in action: open or closing questions, probing questions or rephrasing.
  • Another exercise from Stefan’s workshop showed us the difference between using “yes, and” and using “yes, but”. During the exercise we could notice that using “yes, but” was not at all constructive and at least during the exercise it was basically cutting off the conversation
  • In the story telling exercise we had to create a story and tell it as best as we could from a team of 5 volunteers point of view. It was really fun and again we could notice on how important is to listen to the other ones or things could derail quickly. An example of a story – “The New Year’s Eve “. Our team had to create a story and the main character was our friend “Georgica”. The twist of the exercise was that Stefan would point to us when we had to switch and take the role of the narrator. By the second team which tried telling the story they could notice that they have to better listen to their colleagues rather than focusing on what’s next so they can continue on what the story was all about. If you didn’t do that, in our teams story, the main character didn’t even make it to the new year’s eve party 🙂

Besides all the fun that we had during the workshop, we were reminded how important is communication and storytelling to our tester’s job so a big thank you to Stefan.

Here are some pictures from the exercises that we did:

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5 years of Tabara de Testare Bucuresti

5 years means a lot of time but as they say “time flies when you’re having fun”.

So what we wanted to do different this time from the other anniversary editions is to try and summarise all the years, basically a trip down memory lane.

For me personally were the best slides I’ve worked on so far for the anniversary editions. It let me remember how we started, how many people helped us start, what we did these past years and of course how many we accomplished, in the end showing that we are truly a community of software testers and that without the people in it, we wouldn’t have anything.

Was really challenging to summarise all of the above (and many more) so we tried our best to do it through an infographic:

atdt statistics

As you could see in the infographic there were 71 meetups in 60 months and we wanted to showcase the meetups in each year and for this we created gifs with pictures from them and verbally mention some of them since there were a lot to go through.

2012:

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2013:

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2014:

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2015:

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2016:

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2017:

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We couldn’t celebrate 5 years of Tabara de Testare Bucuresti without our traditional “Cartoon Tester” special cake . Here is also a big thank you for our supporters of this edition: ING Romania and QTeam Software Solutions which helped us with the cake and snacks/beverages.

 

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What’s next?

That’s a really good question!!! I remember 5 years ago when we started having the meetups I was thinking: ”let’s start it and see where it goes”. Oh well, it went very good, so for the next 5 years I expect even more amazing things, even more cooler meetups, more international speakers, more people being content owners, more workshops during the years and the list could continue.

Not sure what’s next or could say specific how is going to be in the next 5 years, but I certainly know it’s going to be awesome since YOU ARE “TABARA DE TESTARE”!!! and knowing the amazing people that are members of this community there is no other way than an even greater journey in the years to come.

See you at the 10 years anniversary edition,

Andrei Pirvulescu

Risk Analysis for Testers – o seară cu James Bach

 

Luni pe 10 octombrie la 18:30 te așteptăm la The Office, Cluj pentru un meetup special: James Bach ne va ține o prezentare despre Risk Analysis in Software Testing.

Ca și anul trecut, James Bach vine din nou la Cluj cu ocazia cursurilor RST si Session-Based Test Management organizate de Altom. James a acceptat invitația noastră de a vorbi în cadrul unui meetup despre un subiect foarte relevant pentru mulți dintre noi.

James Bach

“I’ve noticed that a lot of testers struggle with risk analysis, and yet risk analysis is really the core purpose of testing. So, for this presentation, I want to engage you in a risk analysis exercise.” – James Bach

La sfârșitul prezentării vom avea o oră de networking să ne cunoștem mai bine.

Ce spui, vii?

RSVP pe meetup: http://www.meetup.com/Tabara-de-Testare-Cluj/events/233995367/

 

Principii de testare – un duet reusit

Vara a luat sfarsit si cu ea s-au dus si intalnirile Test and Beer.

Toamna aceasta a inceput cu o premiera. Doi dintre colegii nostri, Dana Aonofriesei si Gabi Dobritescu, si-au unit fortele pentru prezentarea din septembrie.

Avand in spate experiente diferite au abordat o prezentare in paralel a principiilor de testare. Ne-au impartasit viziunea lor asupra fiecaruia, descriindu-ne problemele de care se lovesc si solutiile pe care le-au incercat.

Principiile atinse au fost:

  • Testarea exhaustiva – De multe ori echipele cu care lucram se asteapta la asa ceva de la noi, sau cel putin asta cred. Ce facem in acest caz? Dana ne-a povestit despre cum foloseste pairwise testing pentru a avea o acoperire buna in timp ce Gabi ne-a spus cum planifica si prioritizeaza in functie de timpul pe care il are la dispozitie.
We Have To Test Everything

We Have To Test Everything

  • Oracole folosite in testare – fac testarea mai grea sau mai usora? Cand si cat de des trebuie updatate?
  • Dependenta de context – am primit cateva exemple de cum influenteaza contextul in care va rula aplicatia tipul de problemele care pot sa apara in productie
  • Test to pass vs. test to fail  – un subiect ce a pornit cateva discutii. Ce e prioritar: sa verificam daca aplicatia se comporta conform cu specificatiile sau sa gasim the big, bad, ugly bugs?
  • Inceperea testarii cat mai devreme in cadrul ciclului de dezvoltare – este unul din primele lucruri pe care le aflam despre testare, cum costul unui bug creste cu cat este descoperit mai tarziu in cadrul ciclului de dezvoltare. Si totusi se intampla des ca testerii sa nu fie inclusi in definirea requirementurilor. Am primit de la Dana si Gabi cateva idei interesante despre cum am putea sa convingem echipa sa includa testarea in discutiile initiale.
  • Popularitatea testerului – Sunt mai importante soft skills sau technical skills pentru un tester? Parerile au fost ca de obicei impartite generand noi subiecte de discutie.

Si intalnirea nu s-a terminat aici. Ca de obicei am continuat discutiile despre testare. Multumim Optaros pentru sala si pizza.

Intalnirea din Octombrie este deja stabilita. Detaliile pot fi gasite pe meetup aici. Ne vedem acolo!

Va las cu cateva poze de la intalnire.

Andra Marin

 

Autumn Camp 6-8.Sept.2013 – Tabara de Testare Cluj

Tabara de Testare > 6-8 septembrie 2013 > Muntele Baisoara, Romania
#TdTCamp #TabaraDeTestare #TdTCluj #TdT #SoftwareTestingCamp

Cand am sarbatorit un an de meetup-uri la Cluj, am scris o poezie:

A year has passed, can’t say ‘gone by’.
We’ve learned, we’ve changed, stayed side by side.
Through sunny days and winter snow
We fought for our right to grow.
QA, software, gadgets, we like,
Made Cluj & Silicon Valley alike.

Si am facut o promisiune de a organiza o adevarata tabara de testare.
Am vrut sa fie o surpriza pentru toata lumea si prin angajamentul public sa nu mai avem cale de-ntoarcere.
Eniko Csokasi m-a sunat intr-o seara si printre ideile pentru tortul aniversar mi-a pus si intrebarea: ‘Iuliana, organizam tabara de testare?’
Si uite asa a inceput totul.

Unde-s doi puterea creste?  Unde-s cinci totu-nfloreste!

TdTCamp@Cluj

It’s time for a real Testing camp!

Impreuna cu Ru Cindrea, Oana Casapu si Alex Rotaru am muncit pentru acest eveniment.

Cred ca am avut toti concedii foarte interesante anul acesta; care mai de care cautand o unda de semnal pentru inca un telefon, inca un e-mail 🙂

 

MacBook @ the country side

Vacation time is study time

Am descoperit ce bine se incadreaza in peisajul de la tara un MacBook si ca poate imparti aceeasi masa cu un Android.

Viata la tara … cu Xcode si Instruments
I’d do it again!

Multumesc Oana si Alex pentru MacBook!

Ru a venit din Finlanda nu doar la atelierul din 6-8 septembrie, ci si la unele intalniri organizatorice.

In the end, we’ve all mixed business with pleasure (i.e. holiday time)

Participantii au fost si ei ingaduitori si rabdatori si le multumesc din nou pentru cooperare, rabdare si atitudinea pozitiva!

Si acum, cateva cuvinte despre cum a fost in tabara:

A fost un weekend foarte frumos! O noua confirmare a faptului ca impreuna putem realiza mai usor ceea ce ne propunem, un anume scop comun, chiar daca are mai multe nuante.

Startul in forta cu setup-ul a fost un energizant super. Atatea cabluri, laptop-uri, Mac-uri, miniMac-uri, parole, conturi, intrebari si solutii (plus un meci de fotbal) pe mp ne-a mobilizat si incantat.

Munca in echipa a fost atat de naturala! Din curiozitate sau din placerea de a ajuta.
Fiecare succes elibera o parere care se transforma in solutie pentru altcineva.
Fiind atatea device-uri, unele detalii trebuiau adaptate. Astfel, am intrevazut deja ce dimensiune are mobile testing (&development) pentru ca mai tarziu sa aflam si de Android fragmentation.

Cu ajutorul lui Ru Cindrea, am scris si teste pentru Android si am aflat de bug-uri interesante in legatura cu detalii carora le acordam o prioritate scazuta incat uneori uitam de ele complet. Oare cate astfel de detalii am putea descoperi in ceea ce facem zi de zi? Ce ni se pare ceva atat de banal incat sa poata fi trecut cu vederea?

Eniko Csokasi ne-a provocat sa invatam cum putem lucra cu Instruments si script-uri JavaScript pentru iOS si ce presupune development-ul pentru produse Apple.

Ne-am prins urechile in modificarea testelor pentru iOS, dar asta nu ne-a facut decat sa comunicam si mai mult.
Si daca nu au fost intrebari de la unii, au fost de la altii si mereu aparea cel putin o provocare din vecini.

Am descoperit si Firefox OS prin intermediul lui Ioana Chiorean si Florin Strugariu.
Informatiile despre comunitatea si proiectele Mozilla au oferit baza unor posibile oportunitati de dezvoltare pentru noi intr-un cadru international.

Am invatat si ne-am reamintit o abordare pentru crearea unui test strategy.
Pentru implementare am folosit principiul Mind Maps si tool-ul XMind. Si am descoperit cat potential are aceasta abordare si pentru proiecte inafara testarii software.

Oana Casapu ne-a fotografiat in ipostazele noastre creative si a fost coordonatorul administrativ ceea ce a insemnat enorm pentru desfasurarea activitatilor noastre ‘testaresti’. Ne-a provocat la debriefing, un exercitiu foarte util, doar ca mie nu imi place sa il fac ‘live’. (Tocmai de aceia e un exercitiu bun pentru mine? 🙂 )

Alex Rotaru a avut, ca de obicei, o prezenta foarte energica, cu intrebari si alternative si voie buna.
Ajuns devreme la locul evenimentului s-a si ‘luptat’ cu amenajarea salii.
Ajunsi mai repede la fata locului au fost si Ru (venita tocmai din Finlanda pentru aceste workshop-uri), Costin Ion si Marius Ioana (veniti tocmai din Bucuresti) care i-au dat o mana de ajutor lui Alex.

Am primit toti tricouri ‘Tabara de Testare’ cu sprijinul Altom Consulting. Eu cu siguranta am sa il port si cu alte ocazii.

Sper sa ii revad pe participantii din aceasta tabara si la alte evenimente #TdT organizate de @Tabara de Testare. M-am bucurat sa cunosc alti testeri din Cluj si Bucuresti si sa descopar oameni cu diverse interese si idei. As putea spune si din Iasi, dar Simina Rendler tocmai s-a mutat la Cluj 🙂

Ne-am tinut cuvantul si am facut si sport dimineata de la 7:30.

Sambata dimineata am alergat aproximativ 3.5km, iar duminica am avut un antrenament variat pe terenul de sport al pensiunii.
Setul de activitati sportive propuse de Eniko ne-a cam lucrat toti muschii.
Ma bucur ca am facut aceasta activitate, deci se poate si ce-ar fi sa ne continuam diminetile asa? (chiar daca nu impreuna:)

Weekend-ul a fost foarte incarcat, nu prea a fost timp de relaxare, dar tot ne-am gasit energia sa si petrecem sambata noaptea.
Eu n-am mai dansat de foarte mult timp, asa ca a fost super!
Ada Coste m-a invatat o noua miscare de dans – trebuie s-o mai exersez.

Jocul de biliard este cam solicitant cand de abia putem distinge culorile bilelor… We need a re-match, Dorel Natea! 🙂

Sper ca in viitor sa fiu si mai cooperanta, mai relaxata, mai pozitiva si mai vorbareata la debriefing, sa ascult mai mult si sa ii cunosc pe ceilalti mai bine.

Cu drag,

.Iuliana Silvasan

Cateva poze:

Setup - how it's done @ Tabara de Testare

Setup – how it’s done!
Tabara de Testare Cluj > Autumn Camp > 6-8.sept.2013

Work in Progress @ Tabara de Testare

Work in Progress @ Tabara de Testare Cluj > Autumn Camp > 6-8.sept.2013

Setup = How it's done

Setup – how it’s done @ Tabara de Testare – Autumn Camp > 6-8.sept.2013

Networking @ Tabara de Testare

Networking @ Tabara de Testare Cluj – Autumn Camp > 6-8.sept.2013

Team Spirit

The team @ Tabara de Testare Cluj – Autumn Camp 6-8.sept.2013
(photo by Denis Rendler)

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 #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.

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