EuroSTAR Conference

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Track Talk Th3

DevOps Testing – How to Get into T-shape

Gerard van Engelen

09:00-09:45 CEST Thursday 9th June

Software development is in continuous change, and so is testing. As testers, our role has evolved into multiple forms, mostly focusing on being more T-shaped. But how do you become more T-shaped, and what is T-shaping? During this talk, I’ll explain various forms of T-shaping within DevOps engineering, like CI/CD enabling, software development, and operations.

After that, I will talk from personal experience on how I’ve worked to become more T-shaped, approaching it like a personal trainer.

1. Determine your goal
Any successful project has a clear and achievable goal. It doesn’t matter if you’re in a group or by yourself. Research your challenge and set an attainable goal. I learned about CI/CD and Operations, so I want to publish an application in a fully automated way.

2. Create stepping stones
Now that we have a goal, what is required to achieve this goal? While thinking must be big, action should be small and plannable. So brainstorm about what is required, do you need to do research, workshops, or certify yourself? I’ll show you how mind mapping results in a starting point for this process.

3. Learn, apply, and teach
Every stepping stone will have its deliverable: it could be following a workshop, reading a book, or following a full-blown training session. This is the learning part, but then it starts. We need to apply it. This can be on the job or maybe a personal project. Now it’s taking form, but true knowledge comes from being able to transfer it to others. So spend some time telling people what you’ve learned, make an open-source project, or write a blog.

4. Retrospect
Sometimes your stepping stones or goal do not work or fit your ambition. Don’t be afraid to change your approach. Ask for help and take time to learn more about a certain topic. Knowledge comes from learning and learning comes from making mistakes. Keep going through the steps until you achieve the goal.

If you follow these steps, you can get into a T-shape. Or, like us, get a whole group into a T-shape.

What you will learn

  1. Achieving knowledge is about setting goals
  2. Learn, apply and teach
  3. Don't be afraid to make mistakes

Session Details

  • Intermediate
  • 45 Minutes
  • Includes 15mins Q&A
  • Coaching & Skills Development
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Session Speaker

EuroSTAR 2022 speaker Gerard van Engelen

Gerard van Engelen

DevOps Test Consultant – Testpeople, Netherlands

As a hands-on DevOps Test Consultant I help teams and organizations with improving the QA Process, comparing difficult problems with simple everyday examples. By looking at the bigger picture I help solve the details. In this way improvements are done in a scalable and predictable way.

I have experience with different products which support e-commerce flows, where I’ve worked on projects involving different test automation tools like Selenium, Puppeteer, Pact, Postman, etc. Within these projects I’ve learned that it provides more benefits to focus on the problem that’s at play, instead of focusing on tool selection. In my opinion test automation should provide a solution to a problem, and should not be a goal on its own. My ambition is to keep working on new projects where I can learn something new every day. I feel most challenged in environments with a lot of activities, where I can contribute to the vision of the company.

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