Ronan Healy

EuroSTAR Summer Tutorials

April 13, 2021 by Ronan Healy

Over almost 30 years EuroSTAR Conferences has been a indispensable source of learning and connections for the software testing community in Europe. Through live events in Europe EuroSTAR Conferences have supported software testers in exploring the realms of software testing through our live events. One part of these live events that always prove to be the most popular and (for many) the most beneficial are the EuroSTAR Tutorials. The opportunity to engage with others and learn from real experts has always proven to be a really popular experience for EuroSTAR attendees.

Now get ready for your chance to attend EuroSTAR Tutorials wherever you are. The EuroSTAR Summer Tutorials take place virtually on 11th, 12th, and 13th May. Running all day from 9am to 4:30pm, each tutorial promises to be an immersive experience. Places are limited to allow for real interaction with the speaker. This will not be a lecture. This is a immersive experience. Let’s take a look at what is taking place at the EuroSTAR Summer Tutorials.

The first tutorial to take place on Monday 11th May is with Michael Bolton on Test Reporting. Michael Bolton needs no introduction. Co-author of Rapid Software Testing (RST), he has taught and educated testers all over the world. In this session titled “What’s The Story? Powerful Test Reporting” Michael will examine the elements of test reporting, what to include, what to exclude, how to justify what you include and more.

Then on Tuesday 12th May, the topic of Test Management – An Overview (in many different phases) will be explored with the help of three world class speakers. Join trainers Iris Pinkster O’Riordian, Bob van de Burgt and Bart Knaack as they explore test management skills you should be using. Utilising theory, discussion and exercises, the trainers will look not just at “standard” tools like Risk Based Thinking, Stakeholder Management and Test Approach but also the skills required to manage your environment. With real work examples from the trainers own experiences, there will be takeaways that you can apply to your own work.

Finally on Wednesday 13th May to round off a great three days of learning, Agile coach Huib Schoots with Martijn Langhorst will deep dive into risk. With the aim of sharpening your skills as a strategic thinker, “How Should We Test This? Practical Risk Analysis and Test Strategy Skills” will explore evaluating context, risk analysis and modelling products. You will get the opportunity to jump into groups to discuss risk using heuristics. Huib and Martijn have promised a fast-paced session with lots of fun included so you better get booking now. Even if you have not written risk strategy before, the session will welcome you to learn and explore in a engaging environment.

Live online learning is here. Join us and these great speakers for three days of in-depth exploration of these topics. Learn from thought leaders, get new ideas and explore with like minded professionals. We will see you there. Find out more how you can attend here.

The EuroSTAR Huddle Deep Dive Week: Agile Edition

April 1, 2021 by Ronan Healy

Recently EuroSTAR Huddle hosted the first Deep Dive Week. The first edition was a Agile week with some testing experts exploring all aspects of Agile. Over the course of five days, six experts in Agile discussed and explored, answered your questions on every aspect of Agile. From documentation to Quality, automation to metrics, weekly schedules to team motivation, everything was taken apart, discussed and put back together with some excellent questions from an engaged audience. If you didn’t get to attend or are curious what took place, let’s take a look back at the week’s activities.

Gitte Ottosen kicked off the week with an insightful exploration of Quality. She looked at measurements and metrics, what is value and, in particular, the VOICE model and the Goal Question Metric, and how this could be beneficial to your team.

Wednesday heralded our first AMA of the week with Bob Galen who focused on testing in Agile contexts attracting a wide variety of questions. He discussed quality related metrics, where automation fits in Agile and test strategy in Agile projects.

Also on Wednesday, Selena Delesie joined us to explore peer to peer relationships in Agile and how to get the best out of your team. She shared some real-world examples from her own career on how to communicate within your own team and how you should think about working with others including management.

Next up, Hanna Dernbrant shared her story of migrating from Waterfall to DevOps. This included the role of the tester in DevOps, her weekly schedule and how her team works. I think we were all fascinated by her meetings!

Later on Thursday, Lisa Crispin held our second AMA. Looking at Testing in Continuous Delivery, Lisa answered many of your excellent questions. She shared her thoughts on test plans for fluid projects, use of mind maps, what metrics she recommends in CD projects, the best time to write automation tests in Agile methodology and lots more. A big shout out to Clare & Clare who came on screen to ask their questions!

Friday came all too quickly and the final live talk of our Agile Deep Dive was with Derk-Jan De Grood (a member of the EuroSTAR 2021 Programme Committee). Derk-Jan discussed Built-In Agile in an interactive and fun session. He explained the concept of built-in quality, gave some examples, discussed faults and its effect on the line, what should be maximum feedback times for different scenarios and answered lots of your questions.

The team at EuoSTAR Huddle are already working on the next Deep Dive week. We are sure it will be as engaging as the Agile week. In the meantime, stay tuned to EuroSTAR for the announcement of the EuroSTAR 2021 Programme which is happening very soon.

EuroSTAR Huddle Deep Dive: Agile

March 11, 2021 by Ronan Healy

It has been twenty years since seventeen software developers met at a resort in Snowbird, Utah and since then Agile has become the dominant form of developing software.  At EuroSTAR Huddle, we will be acknowledging this with our just announced EuroSTAR Huddle Deep Dive: Agile week. Taking place from 22-26 March, the EuroSTAR Huddle Deep Dive will feature seven speakers, all experts on Agile who will guide you through all things Agile.
So at EuroSTAR Huddle we have invited seven highly regarded experts on Agile and software testing. Over the course of one week they will share their expertise with you across seven live events.
During the week we have some of the best minds on Agile. We have two new events in two AMA (Ask Me Anything) sessions.  First off is Lisa Crispin, a leading expert and author of numerous Agile books. She will be taking part in an  on Testing in Continuous Delivery. Also taking part in another AMA is Bob Galen who will be exploring Testing in Agile Context. Both events give you the chance to put your questions to these Agile experts with a wealth of experience in Agile.
But there is more! We will also have live presented events with practical takeaways that you can apply with your team. Gitte Ottosen will be sharing her thoughts on Quality in Agile and in particular what it means for your customer. Derk-Jan de Grood will also explore quality focusing on built in quality and how quality is organised at the team level. Speaking of teams in Agile Selena Delesie will be joining the Deep Dive week to demonstrate how you can super-charge your agile team and create Agile super teams. Mia Johannsson will explore the four key cornerstones of Agile QA and its importance in the software development process. Finally moving from teams to the user level, Hanna Dernbrant is going to explore what it is like to move from Waterfall to DevOps and what experiencing that sort of change can be like.
With this great quality (no pun intended) of speakers and minds on Agile, the EuroSTAR Huddle Deep Dive: Agile week is not to be missed. Plus there will be blogs throughout the week on all things Agile. Make sure to join us there.

EuroSTAR 2020 – A Sketchnoter’s Summary Part II

November 23, 2020 by Ronan Healy

EuroSTAR 2020 – A Sketchnoter’s Summary Part II

This is the second instalment of a two part series on my experience at EuroSTAR 2020. You can read part one here.

Day 3

The second day of the conference began with a keynote by Tomasz Dubikowski. He was sharing some “Real life stories of microservices testing“, including stories about micro mindset, contract testing, macro mindset, and the quality doctor’s toolbox.

Following that was “Surviving and thriving in the automation jungle” by Martin Gijsen. Martin presented the PUPPET Model which consists of the elements: Product, Understanding, People, Processes, Execution and Technology.

It’s all about making the difference for your users. In “Walk a mile in your user’s boots” Jørgen Lund shared how you can achieve great results for that by improving communication, building a learning culture and being passionate and enthusiastic.

The midday keynote was held by Tanja Vos. “GUI testing: From developing scripts to creating AI-enabled agents” was all about scriptless testing of the GUI, testing oracles, reinforcement learning and the tool Testar.

After the lunch break, Andrew Brown continued with “The Peltzman Effect – Why adding more test phases may not reduce bugs“. The Peltzman Effect, also known as risk compensation, is present in the software testing world and other IT areas. Not only this effect, but also other cognitive biases influence our way of working.

One of the hardest things about testing is showing the value of it to others. Ingo Philipp addressed this in his talk “Doing excellent testing is one thing, selling it to management is another“. He explained 8 selling principles:

selling
targeting
consistency
practicing
collaboration
connectivity
differentiation
debunking

In his talk “APIs are loose in the wild; how do we test them” Adam Sandman made clear, that once an API is published, it is out in the world and you can’t just change it as this might affect lots of applications. With versioning, looking at data formats and authentication and mocking, testing of APIs can be made a little easier.

The final talk of the day, and the conference, was the keynote by Jason Arbon about “AI testing in the wild“. He presented us the AI Superpowers and how you can use test.ai to release those.

The EuroSTAR Conference ended with the Award ceremony in which the winners of the best tutorial (Rikard Edgren) and the best paper (Gitte Ottosen) were announced. The highlight of the Awards ceremony was the Testing Excellence Award which was awarded to Maaret Pyhäjärvi this year. Finally the programme chair for 2021 was revealed to be Fran O’Hara.

All in all I can say that the EuroSTAR Conference 2020 was quite a success and that I had a lot of fun being there. I enjoyed the talks, the tutorials and connecting to the testing community all over the world. Well done, EuroSTAR team!

Read EuroSTAR 2020 – A Sketchnoter’s Summary Part I here.

About The Author

Katja Budnikov is a software tester and sketchnoter from Northern Germany. Katja is passionate about software testing and sketch noting! She loves attending events like EuroSTAR and sharing her experience and learnings with others on her blog Katjasays.com. Katja first started sketchnoting in 2016. First analogue with pen and paper and now digitally with an iPad and Apple Pencil.

In her work life Katja started out in online marketing, then specialized in search engine optimisation and is now a quality assurance specialist in both manual and automated software testing. Away from work Katja loves photography, especially taking photos of nature, including many of her dog Auri, a young Australian Shepherd, who is super cute and fun to take photos of. She loves to spend time with her dog and partner, going out for walks, traveling and eating cake at a nearby coffee shop with a beautiful garden.

Sing with your Community

September 25, 2020 by Ronan Healy

Sing with your Community

Open to Singers of All Levels

What better way to connect with your community than by coming together to sing in a virtual choir? Yes you read that correctly, the EuroSTAR Community Choir is coming soon to a screen near you!

This year, when we all need it most, we invited the testing community to come together & sing in a virtual choir, led by an experienced Choir Master who is well versed in virtual rehearsals.

We had our first virtual rehearsal on Sept. 23rd, and it’s fair to say everyone was beaming with ear-to-ear smiles after a fantastic evening!

You will bey surprised about how easy and causal it is, and not as scary as you might have anticipated! You couldn’t hear everyone else singing, so there was nothing to be self-conscious about. Sean, the choir Master is absolutely fantastic and has a video to explain the easy process involved.

Do you want to hear the good news? 😀

You can still take part, and we can send you the recording of the first rehearsal so you can see what it was like.

So come on, sign up today and we’ll send you all the music, lyrics and how to guides. It’s going to be amazing!

Sign me up for the EuroSTAR Community Choir

Never Sung Before?

Everyone can sing and a choir is about the mix of voices and harmonies over individual abilities so why not give it a go and surprise yourself? We’ve an incredible choir master who is well versed at bringing the best out of people, even in a virtual setting.

What’s Involved?

Register your interest HERE.
Join for 3 x 1 hour rehearsals – 23rd Sept, 30th Sept & 7th Oct @ 19.30 BST
Record the chosen song as a group

You’ll be amazed at what a community can achieve in just three rehearsals!

How to make the most of exhibiting at EuroSTAR Online

June 11, 2020 by Ronan Healy

Join these industry leaders in our Expo.

Exhibiting at EuroSTAR is one of the most cost-effective ways of getting your products and services in front of customers- as long as you’re ready to work hard to maximise your presence! On average, 75% of visitors to an exhibition are there to buy, or plan to buy in the future. The EuroSTAR audience is a highly qualified audience – so make sure your pitch is just right for them.

Exhibiting at EuroSTAR Online allows you to truly interact with potential customers and showcase your products to influential decision makers. Industry research and reports show that virtual events attract double the attendance of the previously planned live event.

To maximise on this opportunity, you first need to decide why you are exhibiting, and what you want to achieve. Have some specific, measurable targets in mind – for example, get 300 qualified sales leads, or conduct 50 research interviews.

Download Expo Brochure

Make sure your online presence is smart, attractive, visible and reflects well on your company. For physical events, it’s good to have one person in charge of every aspect of the event. EuroSTAR is happy to work with your whole team to familiarise you with the virtual world.

Some studies suggest that 80% of stand success is down to your staff, so train them thoroughly and ensure they are working hard throughout the day. If you can invite people, do. Use social media, email messaging, and your website to get the message out and invite potential customers to your stand. Don’t forget, EuroSTAR Online has a free Expo Access ticket available to everyone. It is good to formulate a plan for how you will follow up all of your leads.

It’s important to let people know you are there during the conference – make the most of your virtual speaking slot, and run a prize giveaway to encourage visitors to your booth – we will provide you with all the reporting and analysis information of those who visited and interacted with your booth! It’s easier than ever to get in-depth information on your prospective leads.

Standard best practices suggest asking open-ended questions to encourage prospects to talk about their business, issues and needs. Exhibiting at EuroSTAR Online offers you the ability to video chat with prospects at your booth.Similarly to physical events, your aim is to speak to as many prospects as possible.
Once you get the information of the visitors to your stand, have a clear nurture journey prepared. Listen to your prospect and sell the benefits, not the features, of your products or services. Make sure you can explain how your business can solve their problems. EuroSTAR Online is a three-day event, so have daily team debriefs to help you understand what you can do better the following day.

Classify all leads – don’t just take details; ensure you know who the person is and what they’re looking for, so your follow-up is personal and relevant. Remember why you are there – stay focused on your objectives. Talk less and listen more to draw more insights out of your prospect. At the end of the event, conduct a show debrief with the stand team, and identify what went well and what didn’t.
52% of EuroSTAR attendees are decision makers, so be sure to follow up leads with a personalised message or call. You may need to contact them on average six times before they convert. Make use of all the information you have gathered. For example, use attendee feedback to drive future product development.

I hope you’ve found this helpful, and keep an eye out for more articles on making the most of your partnership with EuroSTAR. If you have any questions, contact me at [email protected].

A New Goal for 2020 – Speak at a Conference

January 14, 2020 by Ronan Healy

Speaking at an international event for the first time can be scary. However, as the quote goes, “courage only exists when fear is there”, hence being afraid is fine. Overcoming a fear or a doubt, will be forever beneficial to you.

So why not make this year your time to speak on an international stage? How long are you going to put off submitting to speak? No excuses!

We want you to say yes to speaking on stage! We want to help you, guide you on your journey to becoming an international speaker. The first step is always the hardest.

Take the 1st step now: Read the EuroSTAR 2020 Call for Speakers information. Learn about the theme, the talk types, discover why speak at EuroSTAR and the incredible benefits associated. See what previous speakers have to say.

Do you need help writing your talk proposal? In addition to the above video from previous speakers, you can find more tips and tricks in the webinar with programme chair, Rik Marselis. With many years of speaking experience, his expertise is invaluable. Watch it back, take notes, and apply it to your proposal for any conference. View Webinar

Would you like 1:1 advice? Reach out to any of our committee members and they would love to help you in any way they can. Meet the Committee.

Don’t worry if you proposal isn’t accepted on your first attempt, everyone has to start somewhere! The committee will be reviewing every submission and will provide feedback on how to better improve your submission.

So make 2020 your year to get on to an international stage! Submit to speak at EuroSTAR 2020 in Antwerp. Start writing your proposal today!

Submissions close Friday 7th February, 2020.

Submit to speak

Get to Know WrotQA- TeamSTAR 2019

November 7, 2019 by Ronan Healy

We are so delighted to welcome the 2019 TeamSTAR winners, WrotQA to Prague! Get to know the team members in this blog post and learn what talks, sessions and events they will be attending at EuroSTAR. If you see them at EuroSTAR, be sure to say hello and get a selfie! There is a competition on the EuroSTAR Conference app for best photo, so don’t be afraid to get social! 🙂 Here’s what they have to say..

Get to know the WrotQA Team

We’re now counting our last days to finally go to Prague and attend EuroSTAR, what a great feeling to be the part of this event! Meanwhile – we’re slowly planning our agendas to use it to the max. Check out our plans below and also a few words of introduction about ourselves:

Lukasz Pietrucha

I am a co-founder and co-organizer of WrotQA. Passionate about quality and lean/agile development approach and its everyday evangelist. I am a big fan of Context-driven testing school. I believe that „it depends” is always a good starting point to answer a difficult question… 😉 This is my 2nd EuroSTAR, so I am definitely planning to visit social zones, knowing how great they are: The Huddle and Test Clinic among others. As for tracks Change & Growth and Teams & Organisations both seem very interesting and it will be a tough choice, willing to somehow magically attend all the talks ;). As a statistics freak Measuring Release Quality & Delivering Value and A Critical Approach to Using Analytics for Testing are both must see for me. Supporting our Polish fellows Emilia Lendzion-Barszcz and Adam Matlacz is also on the agenda. To put a cherry on top, how could it will be to hear about automation for Boeing 777, right?! For Thursday I plan to visit Can’t Grow Without People by Marta Firlej and Quality Coaching in Scrum@Scale by Ashwin Desai. As for the after-lunch talks let’s see who get selected for a do-over. I didn’t mention all the keynotes intentionally as the names speak for themselves and it’s an obvious choice to watch them 🙂

Damian Zygmuntowicz

In general, I’m keeping an eye on the rest of the team so that they can release the highest quality software. For me being a tester is more than just checking new features. It’s more about taking care of the quality of the whole process in the software development in every possible way. Sometimes my teammates call me a FullStack tester. I deal with issues and ideas put forwarded by the client, take care about automation, starting from integration tests thru E2E testing. I also prepare and perform production deploys. Sometimes if an issue is not tricky I’m able to fix it by myself. In WrotQA i’m generally responsible for media, and again one man army I’m producer, filmmaker, montage, publisher. During EuroSTAR I will been trying be everywhere and see everything. I’m looking forward to Why is my Regression Pack full of Junk Tests by Andrew Brown. Also I would like to rediscover exploratory tests with Ingo Philipp, know more about the future along Martin Karsberg and get Pro tips how to be better Tester from Kwesi Peterson. Thursday will be the people day so Can’t Grow Without People is must and next Finding & Developing Good Software Testers

Dominika Góra

I am associated with QA for about 10 years, but my first experiences are from food and clothing industry. I have started my adventure in IT a few years ago as a software tester. Currently, I am a Product Owner. In free time, I am a co-organizer of WrotQA.
It will be my first time at the EuroSTAR Conference and I am really excited about that. I found it difficult to choose the most interesting talks. I will focus on topics connected to Leadership, Agile and UX/CX. I am very curious about EuroSTAR Huddle, Test Lab and Test Clinic. I hope there will be enough time to visit all these places and still have time for networking.

Paulina Gawron

My journey with quality began a few years ago in the production engineering industry. Now I am working in IT as a Senior Quality Assurance Engineer. My current project is focused on GIS and process coordination in infrastructure projects. In my free time, I organize with my friends the WrotQA meetups.
I am really glad that I have got the opportunity to be at the EuroSTAR Conference for the first time. I am most interested in topics related to Approaches & Techniques and Skills & Knowledge. I am also planning to visit EuroSTAR Huddle, ask the Doctor in the Test Clinic and check the Test Lab. I hope that I will have enough time to realize my plan.