EuroSTAR Conference

Women in Testing

June 20, 2019 by Fiona Nic Dhonnacha

A big thank to all of you that made last year’s EuroSTAR session “Women in Testing” in den Haag awesome. We had such a lovely time collaborating with all of you. Unfortunately the area was not the best suited space, but we all made the best of it and had a blast 🙂

What we did in 2018

We wanted this session to be as much of a collaboration as possible so basically before the session, from lunchtime Tuesday until late coffee break Wednesday we spent time in the community area to promote our session. Here we had come up with some ideas that we wanted to discuss with you and encouraged you to write down key words, interesting information that we could bring along to the session. Already here we started to get some good talks going. Since so many of you turned up for the session, we found that we needed to divide us all into groups to make sure we would get as much input from all of you as possible. It was really great seeing you all being so committed/eager and hearing all the buzzing from the different groups.

We started the session with some information about Women in IT/tech in Norway, which lead to us also getting some similar information about other countries. See fact box at end.

We are so thrilled to share with you an overview of your thoughts on the different areas we ended up discussing

Do women have a problem in tech/test industry?

The answer here was unanimously, unfortunately Yes – we are still judged and questioned harshly, more than men are.At the same time there were comments that we should be aware that we do not want the goal to be that women should become like men. But we want the same chances and treatment.

So why are we not taken seriously?

We believe we are being stereotyped. This is deep rooted over years and lots of people are biased (both men and women). We also have some unconscious bias which is even more difficult to “deal” with. Some people felt that women strive for perfection more than men and together with having a lower self-esteem and confidence, which together with being sometimes more averse at risk taking and tendency to be more agreeable which in some areas is looked upon as being weak. These points can maybe explain some of the reason?

And what can You/We do about this?

From the answers we got here you obviously believe that this should start at an early age and go on throughout the years at school and later in the workplace.

For the parents they need to nurture the tech abilities. Parents must raise their children equal, then they will choose what they like instead of what they are expected (i.e. the expectation that girls like dolls and boys like cars) Start early to give girls access to tech toys and coaching.

Awareness of the “problem” is important together with having good role models. There should be more open appreciation of good work done by women and both women and men should support each other. Also we should create safe spaces (not different ones for women) and do mentoring both by men and women. You also mentioned that women cannot (and should not have to) solve this alone. We need allies to support women testers, we need to have men and women in position of power who enforce equal treatment and education. Women must be more assertive, assert power, be less hesitant. (comments from us which is our prerogative J remember we want to be judged by who we are and do not want to become a man to achieve this).

Are you a girl/guy geek? Do you like IT?

With this question we thought we could maybe find some areas we could emphasize for helping women to become more confident and hence treated in the way we want. Not quite sure if we managed that, but here are your answers anyway.

Most of you answered positively to this. You commented like: This is part of who I am. I like: Star Trek, Star Wars, Lord of The Rings, Harry Potter, Gaming, so I like other geek stuff, not just in work. Not only in IT but also in everyday life. My background is not technical, but I LOVE testing. We liked that the rest of your answers/comments reflect that you caught up on our double question (do you like it (being a geek) do you like ITJ) Thank you so much, made our day.

Your comments range from math and coding is fun to the importance of diversity in the workplace. You mention that pretty much everything depends on IT, you need logical thinking and programming is not subjective. To find solutions empowers and problem solving gives satisfaction. You are able to combine soft skill like good communication and interpersonal skills with technology. The more complex something is, the more interesting it gets. In IT you not only learn new things, but you learn new things first. And of course we had a couple of comments about more guys as co-students colleagues and friends.

Finally we like to share the facts you gave us from your own countries:

Norway:

60% of all students at the universities are women

26% women working in tech and 17% women in top IT management

Estonia:

Population 3:1 (Women/Men)

Working in tech 2:10 (Women/Men)

Belgium:

55% testers are women in our company

The Netherlands:

13% of women in higher tech educational jobs

France:

70% women testers in off shore team in one company

Colombia:

60% women testing service company

UK:

50% women in test, 20% women in development in one company

Italy:

20% women in testing in one company

Thank you all so much for attending last year’s women in testing session and making this such a great happening.

Plans for EuroSTAR 2019 in Prague

This year we will run a Diversity & Inclusion session on Thursday afternoon of the EuroSTAR Conference and we hope to have some more facts for you, and to think more not just about women in testing but about the wider diversity in testing.. To help us plan, we would really like to hear back from you about what was good and what was not so good at the session.

Also do you have any ideas about how to make it even more awesome let us know. Any special topics you would like us to raise/to discuss. This will only be as good as we make it ourselves. See you in Prague.

Fiona Ring Østensvig & Tone Molyneux

Share your Requests for this year’s Diversity & Inclusion Session – communications@eurostarconferences.com

SEE DIVERSITY SESSION 2019

other Diversity and Inclusion sessions at #EuroSTARConf 2019: Diversity Strikes

Automation Tools you’ll find at EuroSTAR 2019

June 20, 2019 by Fiona Nic Dhonnacha

The EuroSTAR Conference is home to Europe’s Largest Software Testing Expo, attracting the leading testing tool and services providers each year with over 1,000 software testing & QA professionals attending.

Delegates get the most out of their EuroSTAR experience when they visit the Expo and meet the excellent partners showcasing their testing tools and services. You will discover new automation tools and services that will benefit your day to day work, your company’s goals and objectives and find news ways to improve working well practices for you and your team.

Here are some of the top automation tools that you will find at the EuroSTAR Software Testing Expo:

Adaptavist Test Management for Jira is on of the top-rated Atlassian Jira app for quality assurance and test management. It’s a full-featured, enterprise test case management solution that is seamlessly integrated in Jira. It offers end-to-end traceability across issues, requirements, test cases, and execution. Test Management for Jira has been designed to meet the needs of testers, developers, QA directors and Jira admins. There is no need to switch between environments as you can do everything right inside Jira.

Applitools provides commercial-grade, visual AI-based test cloud that validates application under interfaces in a fully automated manner. It is built to test all the elements that appear on a screen with just one line of code. Using AI powered cognitive vision, you can automatically verify that your web or mobile app appears correctly across all devices, all browsers and all screen sizes.

Inflectra: SpiraTest is a test management software that lets you create and run all of your tests from a single QA powerhouse. Easily generate tests from requirements, and bugs from tests.

Jamo Solutions– Jamo Automator is a code-less cloud-based tool that allows the user to focus on the tester without needing a develop implementation. It uses an artificial intelligence-based engine to recognize uniquely UI objects. This tool facilitates the creation of automated test cases, report reading and test case maintenance.

JetBrains creates professional software development tools for coding in Java, Kotlin, C#, C++, Ruby, Python, PHP, JavaScript and more languages, as well as advanced team collaboration tools. By automating routine checks and corrections, their products speed up production, freeing developers to grow, discover and create.

Leapwork: is a great solution provider for intelligent, out-of-the-box software automation that everyone can use. With its unique visual flow designer, the LEAPWORK Automation Platform hides all unnecessary complexity from the end-user, works across technologies, and comes with on-demand, personal support from automation experts. With their tool, build automated tests from day one with codeless UI automation & eliminate the maintenance burden that’s holding back QA.

Mabl is changing the way QA is done with an auto-healing automation framework and cloud-based test infrastructure that eliminates the burden of test script and infrastructure maintenance. mabl is delivered as a robust, codeless, intelligent, all-in-one platform that allows QA teams to test continuously and at scale in DevOps. Using proprietary machine learning models to automatically identify application issues like visual regressions, increased latency, javascript errors, broken links and more, mabl brings traditional UI and regression testing to the modern age

Maveryx is a Test Automation Company that provides world-class innovation in software testing and automation to help improving quality of software applications, reducing complexity, saving time and costs. The Maveryx Test Automation Framework is an automated functional, regression, GUI, data-driven and keyword-driven testing tool. It provides powerful and easy-to-use automated capabilities to beginners (scriptless) and experts (scripting) for testing a wide range of Desktop and Web applications. This tool eliminates the need for recording actions, GUI Maps, Object Repositories and so on, cutting the connected expensive maintenance costs.

Microfocus provides critical tools to build, operate, secure and analyse an enterprise in a constantly changing world. useMango™ is a functional test automation tool that integrates with HPE ALM to test Oracle EBS, SAP GUI, and web applications. For organisations implementing, upgrading, patching or enhancing SAP, Oracle EBS, and web applications who are dissatisfied with their current level of test automation.

Parasoft SOAtest brings artificial intelligence and machine learning to functional testing to support users test applications with multiple interfaces, in-turn allowing simple end-to-end testing. The efficiency of Parasoft SOAtest can transform the functional testing artifacts into security and performance test, while building a foundation of automated tests to execute as part of Continuous Integration and DevOps pipelines.

Progile – TestResults.io automation service provider provide access to Test Automation by delivering Automated Testing to small, medium and highly regulated businesses such as MedTech. This service allows these companies to automate their regression, performance & stability tests as well as their live monitoring in a plug & play fashion combined with a simple pay-as-you-go approach.

Sauce Labs is one of the world largest cloud-based platforms for automated testing of web and mobile applications. Sauce labs enables companies to accelerate software development cycles, improve application quality and deploy with confidence over a vast range of browsers and OS platforms. They provide services to Fortune 500 businesses, worldwide.

Smart Bear – TestComplete is an automated UI testing tool that makes it fast and easy to create, maintain, and execute functional tests across desktop, web, and mobile applications. It can increase test coverage and ensure you ship high-quality, battle-tested software.

Xray is a highly rated manual & automated test management app for Quality Assurance in Jira. Developed by Xpand IT, a Platinum Atlassian Solution Partner, it’s a full-featured tool that lives inside and seamlessly integrates with Jira. Its aim is to help companies improve the quality of their products through effective and efficient testing. Xray integrates directly with the leading SDLC software: Jira. With your development and test teams working in the same tool, you never ship untested or broken code again.

If you are interested in showcasing your company at the 2019 EuroSTAR Conference, download the Expo Brochure today. Limited spaces left for this years event. We look forward to welcoming you to Prague, this November!

EuroSTAR Sessions You Should Attend As An Experienced Tester

May 31, 2019 by Ronan Healy

In this blog, the 2019 committee have recommended for an experienced testers. This journey is for people who want to look outside of “standard testing”, someone who has been around long enough and has seen lots of test design techniques, exploratory testing etc.

Monday

Tutorial D – Designing for Inclusiveness – Workshop on Accessibility by Parimala Hariprasad & Jyothi Rangaiah.

Does your website or mobile app create an inclusive experience for people? Does your organization incorporate accessibility standards for all its products? Did you know that accessibility is a legal mandate and a fundamental expectation in many countries? If the answer is yes, this workshop is for you.

The main objective of the workshop is to make testers become efficient in solving accessibility problems for differently abled people using technology in varying capacities in their daily lives.The workshop includes helping the participants recognize problems, glorify their strengths, acknowledge their weaknesses and focus on problem solving for differently abled people in the technology world. This can be achieved by a combination of training, demos and hands-on testing exercises.

Alternative: Optimising agile testing to your context by Fran O’Hara

Tuesday

Tutorial J – Working Well with PCT by Rik Marselis

In my opinion testing conferences should be about … testing. Most testers know how to (or instinctively do) apply boundary value analysis and some other basic approaches and techniques. But what about some more advanced test design techniques?

This half-day tutorial is dedicated to just one test design technique: The Process Cycle Test. This technique is very useful when testing business processes, for example in an acceptance test. The test cases that you create can be proven to test every path in the business process. Or if you want to achieve better coverage (also called a higher test-depth-level) you can test all combinations of 2 (or 3 or 4) consecutive paths.

Alternative: Using quality characteristics for powerful testing and reporting by Henrik Emilsson and Rikard Edgren

Tuesday Track 2 – Immanual Kant and deep rationality of testing by Anders Dinsen

Interacting with things always involves the complexity of experiencing and learning.

Kant’s philosophy supports the thinking, imagining, and rational tester to collaboratively engaging the team to educate people who matter on things that matter. The outcome we search for is driving collaboration and development in the organization.

After the talk, we’ll be able to say “transcendental knowledge” and understand what it means; we’ll understand the basics of Kant’s philosophy; we’ll know why intuitions sometimes matter more than facts when people collaborate about experiencing and learning; finally, we’ll see the power of narratives as the rational way to express what’s real and what’s not and helping stakeholders gain trust and good gut feeling about the system.

Tuesday Track 8 – How To Become As Agile As Your Team by Maud Lundh

What happens when your working method and processes are turned upside down? A few years into my career, I was the test manager for a new project labeled as “extremely agile”. What I learned early on was that the way to develop a project from start to finish had changed.

The project used a new process called “Conceptual Development”, a design-driven, lean development process. “Conceptual Development” focuses on customer collaboration and pushing through frequent deliveries from concept through design all the way to development. With a more traditional agile process, requirements would have first been planned and developed, before being tested near the end of a delivery. Now we tested concepts and prototypes first, and every prototype and design was its own delivery. This new process opened up new possibilities of testing since everything was testable from the get-go.

With “Conceptual Development” it is important to fail quickly and test with actual users before a single line of code is written. This new way of lean startup created new challenges for our team. Everyone needed to implement “Design Thinking” in their work. So how did we approach this new way of working as a team? Did we learn new skills and techniques, or just adapt those we had in a new environment? And what were the results?

Maybe more importantly, what did we learn?

Wednesday

W5 – Story Telling for Testers; A Crash Course by René Tuinhout

Why is one storyteller more effective than another?

And can you learn to tell stories more effectively?

You can indeed!

We’ll start this crash course with a short introduction into storytelling. Then we’ll do a number of exercises to get acquainted with the storytelling basics.

Questions like: How to set up a good story? How to enthrall an audience? and How to create a powerful story for an audience with a varied background? will be covered in this high-speed-talk.

W14 – Reframing Software Testing In The Light of AI by Dr. Chris McKillop

This workshop gives a firm grounding in what AI is, and what AI is not. We explore the deceptive nature of some AI, and the social and personal consequences of poorly designed and implemented AI. AI means that software is moving from deterministic outcomes, to a variable range of outcomes, which adds additional complexities, and responsibilities, on testing in the new future of AI. This tutorial gives you the knowledge and techniques to evolve your practice and update your skill set.

AI is changing the nature of software, as well as the human processes involved in developing it, as immense, rich, and complex data sets become an intrinsic part of the systems we develop. This tutorial will give you the tools you need to improve the efficiency and precision of your testing practice.

Thursday

TH2 – My AI Was Wrong by Laurent Bouhier

“My AI was wrong,” but isn’t it more like “I was wrong about my AI”?

The difficulty in testing AI comes from the ambivalence of this proposal. To differentiate between the 2 assumptions mentioned, the presentation will briefly show what an AI is (historical), how it learns (machine learning) and how it can be misled, voluntarily or not (cognitive bias or learning bias), and in which sectors of our daily lives they intervene today, and all this with playful illustrations. This is to emphasize the difficulty of testing AI, on the one hand because of the unpredictability of the expected result (problem of the “classical” test oracle) and on the other hand by the shortening of the development cycle of all these new features (IoT, Robotics…).

TH5 – When SciFi Becomes Reality: Deep Learning & IoT by Jaroslaw Hryszko

In 1961, Stanislaw Lem, the author of science-fiction novels, raised an interesting problem in one of his books – when the number of computers in the world exceeds the ability of people to control them, the correctness of their operation will have to be verified also by machines: computers will test computers.

In my speech, I would like to present in a simple and funny way the idea of applying deep learning in the process of testing complex IoT systems. I want to explain a general idea and then I will show solutions and tools that allow for effective testing of the Internet of Things, like TensorFlow – an open source library available for everyone.

Th11 – Guess the Number by Rikard Edgren & Henrik Emilsson

In this workshop we will do an exercise called Guess The Number.

It is a simple, but difficult exercise consisting of a Windows executable with a command-line interface, so many of you must bring computers. We will split up in groups, because it is even more difficult on your own. It stimulates logical thinking, critical thinking, and creativity.

Most of you probably won’t solve the exercise in an hour, but we will break at that time so we can do a proper debrief. You will not get actual hints, but might get inspiration about how to think. Some of you will be frustrated, or even upset, but that is not dangerous. It can be solved in 10 minutes; if that happens, we will pat your back and you can watch the others struggle.

EuroSTAR Conference 2019 – Keynote Speakers And Presentations

May 22, 2019 by Fiona Nic Dhonnacha

The EuroSTAR Conference is home to the best speakers in testing, industry innovators and global change makers. Together with the Programme Committee, we welcome lots of amazing testers and quality assurance professions to the conference each year. In this article, we highlight this year’s four keynote speakers and tell you a little bit about their talks that they will present on the EuroSTAR keynote stage in Prague this November.

Dr. Chris McKillop – CEO/Co-Founder, Turalt

We are very glad to have Chris on board for the 2019 Software Testing Conference. Dr. Chris McKillop is a thought leader on AI, ethics, and empathy. She is CEO/Co-Founder of Turalt. Dr. McKillop has a degree in Artificial Intelligence, an MSc in Human-Centred Computer Systems, and a PhD in Educational Technology which focused on the emotional dimensions of learning. Her research led to over 25 publications and numerous international conference presentations. Her personal mission is to show how AI can help us understand our humanity, and to help make the world a more empathetic place. Chris will be presenting her presentation on Tuesday,

Talk : Developing Your BS Detector: The Hype & Reality of AI
Time & Date: Tuesday, 12th November, 1.45pm

Talk Abstract:

In this talk, we look at popular myths about what AI is, and what AI could be in the future. We look at current examples of AI, how they use deception to appear more ‘intelligent’, and look at lessons we can learn from stories of big AI failures. AI’s unique characteristic is that it accentuates and reflects our humanity. Bias in AI demonstrates this and over-hype and trust in AI’s abilities can have negative implications for individuals, group and society in general. We need to think about the impact of our technology on people, to understand and take responsibility for the social and personal impact it can have. As software testers, developing your BS detector, with an empathetic framework, will enable you to ensure AI systems are valuable, ethical, and successful through your practice.

VIEW TALK

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Fiona Charles – Agile Testing Coach & Software Testing Consultant , Quality Intelligence, Canada

Fiona Charles is an independent consultant, specialising in the human side of software development and projects: teaching organizations to manage their software testing risk, and IT practitioners project skills “beyond process”—hands-on practical skills essential to thrive and excel on any kind of software project. She consults with clients on testing and test management, works as an Agile testing coach, and acts occasionally as a program-level test manager on difficult projects. She speaks and conducts workshops at international conferences and in-house for clients, has recorded many webinars, and published many articles in test-related publications.

Talk Title: Technology’s Feet on Society’s Ground
Time & Date: 09:00 am on Wednesday, 13th November 2019

Talk Abstract:

Technological advances have always trampled and rearranged the ground occupied by society. Each wave of Industrial Revolution has brought massive social disruptions and individual suffering as well as major benefits and social progress. Each has posed ethical challenges too, as people adjusted to new realities. Each had its nay-sayers and prophets of societal doom.

We are now in the midst of change so rapid and profound that the ethical questions have fallen far behind the technological answers. Welcome to the ethical quagmire of the Fourth Industrial Revolution! Which microphones are listening inside your house and uploading your family’s conversations to unknown recipients? Do you know how many cameras are watching you? For whom? Who is profiting? Who should profit? What facial recognition apps are comparing you to which uploaded data and making decisions about you?

Who can access your biometric data and your DNA? Who knows where you are at any given time?

VIEW TALK

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Alexandre Bauduin – Automation Test Engineer, House of Test

Alexandre Bauduin is a 53 year old world traveler. He worked in consulting firms gaining experience in several fields (medical, manufacturing, aerospace, pay TV, data warehouse—to name a few) in different countries (Switzerland, France, Spain, Canada, etc.) His career started in the space industry where he discovered his passion for aerospace, working on both military and civilian projects. He was sometimes steered away from aerospace but his passion pushed him to become an airline pilot, as a way to really understand how those instruments he programmed and integrated were operating in a cockpit.

Talk Title: Flying High – Test Automation in the Boeing 777

Time & Date: Wednesday, 13th Nov at 5pm

Talk Abstract:

Are you confronted with automating tests of large, complex systems? Are there more conditions to test than you can do in a lifetime? Are auditors demanding compliance to a never-ending collection of regulations? Do stakeholders want slick dashboards tracking abstract key process indicators? Join Alexandre Bauduin as he shares his experience leading the complex system testing challenges of a real-time Boeing 777 Flight Simulator.

Alexandre will outline how he overcame the many challenges faced by combining his skills in test design and his expertise as an airline pilot, including the decision-making process used to focus testing and checking of the simulator, constrained by aviation authorities requesting a very detailed simulation with a blend of realistic scenarios and catastrophic failures. You will learn strategies to organize and prioritize automation, develop regression checking suites for very large mission-critical software systems, and report the meaningful information to stakeholders.

VIEW TALK

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Dona Sarkar – Head of the Windows Insider Program, Microsoft

Dona Sarkar wishes she’d been born a cat so she could have had nine lives. Since that didn’t work out, she decided to live nine lives in this one. Dona spends her days running the Windows Insiders program at Microsoft, celebrating diversity in STEM fields as a fashion blogger at Fibonacci Sequins, and launching her first fashion line called Prima Dona Style, this fall. She is the author of six works of fiction and nonfiction, including Scattered Ashes, which was deemed “too controversial” by fifteen publishing imprints! Dona feels very fortunate to have found her life’s calling: to help the next generation of creatives prepare for the technical revolution that’s about to transform everything—again.

Talk Title: Be the Lord of Your OWN Rings: Build Your OWN Insider Testing Program!

Time & Date: Thursday, 14th November at 12:00pm

Talk Abstract:

Once upon a time in a land not too far from here.
Companies used to make products. Test them in-house.

…and throw them over the wall at their users.

It was a dark time.

We all had NSync CDs. AOL dialup was a thing. You used to go home and binge watch Dawson’s Creek (don’t lie, you did too). But those days are GONE. What worked then does not work now.

Today, you can’t just create for your customers. You must co-create with them. But how? Come and hear about how one of the biggest software projects in the world, Windows 10 shifted to this paradigm and attracted a community of 16.5 million global Windows Insiders who we have been co-creating with for 4 years. By the end, you’ll know how to set up your own community and fan club and more important, how to co-create with them. Come learn our 10 step process for how you can do this TOMORROW in your own business.

VIEW TALK

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It’s not too late! Get 15% off tickets to EuroSTAR Software Testing Conference 2019! Offer ends on 14th June.

See What’s Coming – EuroSTAR 2019

April 24, 2019 by Fiona Nic Dhonnacha

Bigger. Stronger. Louder- These are the 3 words that perfectly describe what is coming to Prague this November.

As EuroSTAR is growing since 26 years and successfully helping attendees improve their testing skills, this year we hope to do much more. From November 11th up until November 14th, these 4 days i Prague, Czech Republic, will be packed with amazing presentations and tutorials from top software testers. This article will highlight the programme and what you can expect at the upcoming conference.

Tutorials At EuroSTAR 2019

The tutorials for the upcoming conference are carefully chosen, delegates choose an area they want to explore in great detail or “dive deep” into. There are 12 amazing tutorials to choose from and they are divided between Monday (6 tutorials) and Tuesday (6 tutorials). These tutorials will be around topics such as Python, Risk in Testing, Games & Testing, Performance Testing, Test Designs and much more. EuroSTAR offers 2,5 day tickets if you want to stay and view those tutorials.

Check out Tutorials

Track Talks at EuroSTAR 2019

This year our programme committee has worked hard to deliver the perfect blend of topics for EuroSTAR 2019 – there’s something for every tester. Over 30 new & expert speakers will give a track talk at the EuroSTAR Conference in Prague this November. That’s right, this wide selection of tracks were selected to enlighten and inspire and we give our guarantee that they will! We have invited many great speakers, including Michael Bolton, Rob Lambert, Iris Pinkster-O’Riordain, Jaroslaw Hryszko,Rikard Edgren an many more. Exciting, isn’t it?

Check out Track Talks

Keynote Speakers

We cannot leave without mentioning the keynote speakers of course! We are excited to introduce you the 2019 EuroSTAR keynote speakers. On board this year, we have the amazing Fiona Charles, Canada, Chris McKillop from Turalt, Canada, Dona Sarkar from Microsoft, US and Alexandre Bauduin from House of Test, Switzerland. Discover the reality & hype of AI, we question the ethical impact of our technological advancements, learn about testing a Boeing 777 flight simulator and how one of the largest companies in the world harness the power of community.

Check Keynote Speakers

The EuroSTAR 2019 will be an amazing event and the 4 days of great tutorials will help attendees improve their software testing skills. We hope to see you there. There are differenct offers available, if you want to head to the cofnerence as a group, EuroSTAR has a 5 for 3 offer and individual tickets are 20% off

Beginner’s Guide to Attending EuroSTAR Conference 2019

April 17, 2019 by Fiona Nic Dhonnacha

EuroSTAR Conference is one of the top chosen conferences for software testers around the world. It’s been around for many many years and has been adored by many testers. Attending it can be an excellent way to learn new skills and support your professional development. In one of our previous articles we mentioned the 6 reasons for attending a software testing conference in our previous article. With every conference, there’s preparation and strategy involved in getting the most out of these events. In this article we will provide some useful tips on how to get around our conference, so

Create Your Personalized Timetable

Before attending EuroSTAR, you should plan out all the sessions that you want to see. Our programme is available online and you can also download it on your mobile. Grab a pen and write down the times of the sessions as well as the room names. Creating a personalised timetable means that you won’t be wasting time at the event deciding what talks to go to and making a bad decision. Also you should create a checklist for the event.

Don’t Stick With Your Friends

Yup, you read it correctly. Every conference is a perfect place for you to branch out and meet new people. You are going to this conference because this is an area that you work in or are interested in. And guess what? The same applies for every other attendee. They have the same problems and issues and many questions to ask. Many of the attendees have same experiences and loads of common ground that you have. This is one way to meet others in this unique situation.

Build Valuable Relationships

The EuroSTAR Conference in the Hague can hold 1,000 attendees. This is a perfect chance for you to build valuable relationships. Concentrate on meeting high quality individuals with whom you can build a bright future. From speakers, to conference organizers and companies attending EuroSTAR, there will be plenty of brilliant people! Absorb all the knowledge that you can gain from them.

Attend the Social Events

One of the biggest values of a conference is the after-parties. This is where you’ll get the great information. These after-parties help people relax, share their opinion and network with others. It’s also a good time to ask any questions that you have and gather some valuable feedback. EuroSTAR 2019 in Prague will be the 27th annual EuroSTAR Conference. It promises to be another fantastic celebration of the very best in software testing across Europe and further afield. Our popular networking social events give attendees an opportunity to catch up with other delegates that they met during the day and network with their peers.

Don’t Forget to Follow Up

At this point, the conference is over, right? Well, technically it is, but for you, it isn’t. You have to follow up with EVERY person you met at the event. If you don’t, you’ll never end up building any real relationships. Meeting someone is great, but if you don’t get to know the people you meet, you won’t gain value from the conference. If a portion of the people you email or call don’t respond to you, you can try following up again in a few weeks, but I recommend letting it go. You don’t want to come across as being bothersome.

Ready to Attend the biggest software testing conference in Europe?

Attend EuroSTAR 2019 in Prague This November!

Expo Area – The Benefits of Exhibiting at a Conference

April 9, 2019 by Fiona Nic Dhonnacha

Exhibiting at a conference can bring a number of benefits to your business. You can meet directly with potential customers and generate leads. You can also build a strong network and spy on your competitors. At such events you can have a one-to-one interaction with your customers. Every conference is different and attracts a certain crown based on the theme of the event, so you should carefully select one that is very relative to your business. EuroSTAR Conferences, for example attract many software testers to learn, network and be inspired by other testers and software testing companies. Companies such as Micro Focus, Accenture, Sauce Labs and many more have been successfully exhibiting at our annual conferences (for the full EuroSTAR exhibitor listing, check our expo area).

Today, let’s point out some of the key benefits of exhibiting at a busy conference and why it’s good for your business.

Raise Awareness

Exhibiting at industry events is a good way to raise your profiles and generate brand awareness. As well as taking a stand at an event, there are usually other advertising and sponsorship opportunities.

Meet Clients in Person

Meeting face-to-face with potential customers is a great way to start building relationships. It has always have a good impact on any business, also people who have had a good customer experience will recommend your business by word of mouth.

Build your database

Meeting with potential customers at an exhibition helps you to start building your marketing lists and generate qualified sales leads. If you have great prizes that people at the conference can win, they can fill in a form with their email address – something you will find beneficial for your newsletter!

Networking

Like most conferences, including EuroSTAR, exhibiting at such events are a great way to not only meet, but connect with potential customers, suppliers and to learn more about your competitors. You will see many kinds of businesses at one event which could help you identify how you can improve as a business or whether or not you stand out from the crowd.

Launch New Product

Last but not least, exhibiting at conferences are a good place to introduce a new product or service. Being able to explain your offering in person and answer questions is ideal if your product is innovative.

As you can see, exhibiting at a conference that brings potential clients can be a big benefit for your company. It is a one-to-one place to meet your clients. At EuroSTAR conferences, we still have a few expo spaces available. Call our sales team directly on (091) 514 470. You can also download the expo brochure

Download The Expo Brochure

The Amazing Women at EuroSTAR

March 8, 2019 by Fiona Nic Dhonnacha

The EuroSTAR Community is made up of many amazing people. Over the past 27 years, it is this community of incredible speakers, dedicated programme committee members and fantastic attendees that have helped build EuroSTAR into one of the largest annual gatherings of software testing professionals in the world! We are celebrating International Women’s Day by highlighting some of the women that have been part of EuroSTAR in the last year and together with many others help to make EuroSTAR such a welcoming and unmissable event.

Bojana Lund

Bojana has been working with SW Development for over 10 years and has very broad experience with both SW development, CI, Test and Automation. She has a great passion for test and is currently working hard on establishing a profession group for Technical Testers across several Consultant Houses in Denmark. She strongly believes in continuous learning and creative solutions. She is a hard working mother of two energetic small boys and proud wife of a fellow Technical Tester.

Follow Bojana @BojanaLund

Seretta Gamba

Seretta Gamba has 40 years’ experience in development and fifteen in test automation. After going through all the usual developer roles, in 2001 she was put in charge of test automation for her company. She developed a framework that enabled her company to quickly get excellent results. Having talked about the framework in a couple of conferences she met Dorothy Graham and was invited to write a chapter in the book, Experiences of Test Automation. With Dorothy Graham she has been developing the Test Automation Patterns Wiki and launched a book on Test Automation Patterns with Dot Graham at the 2018 EuroSTAR Conference.

Seretta and Dorothy’s New Wiki is now live at the following location : https://testautomationpatterns.org

Dorothy Graham

Dorothy Graham has been in software testing for over 40 years, and is co-author of 4 books: Software Inspection, Software Test Automation, Foundations of Software Testing and Experiences of Test Automation, and has developed the wiki TestAutomationPatterns.org as well as co-writing Test Automation Patterns book with Seretta Gamba. Dorothy has been on the boards of conferences and publications in software testing, including programme chair for EuroStar (twice). She was a founder member of the ISEB Software Testing Board and helped develop the first ISTQB Foundation Syllabus. She has attended every EuroStar. She was awarded the European Excellence Award in Software Testing in 1999 and the first ISTQB Excellence Award in 2012. You can read more about Dorothy’s session from 2018 here as well as check Dorothy’s website https://www.dorothygraham.co.uk/

Follow Dorothy: @DorothyGraham

Seretta and Dorothy’s New Wiki is now live at the following location : https://testautomationpatterns.org

Franka Buurmeijer

“Throughout my career Franka has been combining science and technology with creative activities such as writing, presenting and creating teaching materials. As an science communicator and astronomer, she started out in the field of astronomy, but I gradually expanded my field of expertise to physics, mathematics and computer science. As a tester, I now combine my knowledge of communication with automated and manual testing to improve the results of software development.” – Read more about Franka’s session from the EuroSTAR Software Testing Conference 2018.

Gitte Oberbossel

She has worked within test management and improvement of test processes for 25 years in different companies. Because of this, she has experience in performing test management for several types of solutions, both application and technical. Her experience with working in test improvement includes all the steps of improvement: Defining and implementing test models, coaching and training, and performing measurements on the quality of running tests. She is now managing a test laboratory, which also includes defining and maintaining ISO27002 requirements for the laboratory house, tests and equipment.

Elena Kolpakova

Elena is a tester and a test coach with >10y of professional experience. Being a daughter of a software developer, you could say she took the path of a software tester as early as her childhood. Currently Elena applies her skills at AKQA GmbH in Berlin. This involves all kinds of testing activities, manual or automated, and helps her stay on track with the latest and pioneering technologies. In addition, she takes part in hiring testers and helps them develop and grow through coaching sessions, tech talks, and workshops.

Follow Elena: @HeleneKolpakova

Elizabeth Zagroba

Elizabeth tests software at Mendix in Rotterdam. She’s tested web apps, mobile apps, APIs, and content management systems. Her article about mind maps became one of the most viewed on Ministry of Testing Dojo in 2017. She’s spoken at conferences in the United States and Europe.

Follow Elizabeth @ezagroba

Sal Freudenberg

Dr. Sallyann Freudenberg is an agile consultant and trainer who assists companies in transitioning to more nimble, customer-centric and human(e) ways of working. She holds a PhD in the Psychology of Collaborative Software Development and since parenting an autistic son has developed an interest in neurodiversity. Through re-assessing her own traits and neurology, and considering the extra-ordinary people with whom she has worked over her 25+ years in tech, Sal is raising awareness of the benefits of having diversity in our organisations, and is helping the industry to begin to understand how to support and nurture every kind of brain.

Follow Sal @SalFreudenberg

Iris Pinkster-O’Riordain

Iris Pinkster-O’Riordain is test advisor at Professional Testing and has experience in testing and test management since 1996. She co-developed Logica’s method for structured testing: TestFrame ®, their test management approach and TestGrip, the method on test policy and test organization. Iris is the co-author of the books published on these topics. She often speaks at (inter) national conferences. In 2007 she won the EuroSTAR award for “Best Tutorial”. In 2017 Iris was Program Chair for the EuroSTAR Conference in Copenhagen.

Follow Iris @PinksterIris

Isa Vilacides

Isa started her career as a developer, but ended up managing Quality Engineering teams which she has continued doing for the last ten years. Since then she has helped different companies to reach continuous delivery by improving their development, testing and release processes through automation and risk analysis: the biggest Spanish social network Tuenti, a Rakuten video-on-demand service, the JIRA Cloud and Infrastructure Services divisions at Atlassian and currently CloudBees. She believes in giving back to the community and is therefore a frequent speaker at testing meet-ups like After Test and Agile Barcelona, and she has also spoken at international conferences such as Jenkins World 2017 (SF), Sevilla Developer Conference 2017, Devops Days Barcelona 2013, itSMF 2014 and expoQA where she has also formed part of the selection

Follow Isa @vilacides

Karen Johnson

Karen N. Johnson is a longtime contributor to the software testing community. She speaks at conferences both in the US and internationally. She is a contributing author to the book, Beautiful Testing by O’Reilly publishers. She has published numerous articles; she blogs and tweets about her experiences. Find her on Twitter as @karennjohnson (note the two n’s) and her website: https://www.karennicolejohnson.com. Karen was previously an independent consultant but is now employed as Director, Jamf Now Development & Delivery at JAMF.

Mais Tawfik Ashkar

Mais Tawfik Ashkar is a Performance Engineering Consultant guiding clients to delivering faster, more scalable and reliable applications. Prior to consulting, Mais was a Performance Engineering Manager and lead with Pearson Learning Technologies representing their Denver and offshore teams and overseeing performance and scale solutions. An organizer of the Workshop on Performance and Reliability [WOPR] and a former SQUAD board member, Mais has over 12 years of experience in the software engineering industry working as a software performance engineer, automation engineer, and consultant. An accomplished speaker, Mais has presented at ExpoQA, QUEST QAI, WOPR and SQuAD conferences. Mais is passionate about the multi-faceted discipline of software quality engineering and data analytics. Mais was also winner of the Best Tutorial at EuroSTAR 2018 as voted by the attendees.

Follow Mais @MaisTawfik

Mia Johansson

Mia worked with test since 2001. I have tested, educated customers in the importance of testing, outlining test strategies and acted as Test Manager in all kinds of areas. The last ten years she has worked in agile projects, adapting processes and ways of working within test and verification for complex systems. Since 2015 Mia is the QA Manager at Data Ductus. Mia is responsible for test and QA strategies both on a project- and company level and work with customer communication to spread the word on QA. I am also a storyteller, engaged in the local storytelling society.

Follow Mia @falamh

Nathalie Rooseboom de Vries van Delft

Nathalie is an energetic, passionate and ambitious software and system test manager, test architect and –adviser. She puts the the question mark behind technological solutions and digital innovations.
Since 2004 she participated in and lead various projects in the financial domain, retail domain and public transport and has gained a solid experience with testing, coordinating and managing test activities within a diverse palette of development and management methods -including Prince2, IAD, SCRUM and SAFe- and types of organization.

Follow Nathalie @FunTESTic

Ioana Chiorean

Ioana is a software engineer that has more than 9 years testing experience with a specialization in mobile apps. Currently located in Romania she is leading a number of teams in a digital innovation leading company, Softvision. These teams are responsible for several mobile apps. Web compatibility and testing IAM and community participation tools. She is the Module Owner for Mozilla Reps – a program that unites volunteers from around the world. As one of Moz Tech Speakers, she takes the stage and talks about different technical topics or community building subjects. In her free time, Ioana contributes to Open Source projects while enjoying a coffee or a good wine.

Follow Ioana @ioana_cis

Gitte Ottosen

Gitte Ottosen is a managing consultant at Capgemini-Sogeti Denmark and has 22 years experience in test engineering and test management, in both traditional and agile contexts. Gitte works with test management, test process improvement and supports projects and companies in their agile transition with her quality perspective. In her current assignment she supports an agile transition within a SAFe framework, ensuring a sufficient and proactive quality perspective. As a self-confessed test evangelist who preaches the need for a structured and committed approach to testing, Gitte is a strong advocate for a context-driven approach, a role requiring profound professional insight, passion, and persistence—qualities that Gitte holds in abundance. Gitte holds a number of certificates within testing as well as agile; ISEB Practitioner, CAT, TMap Test Engineer/Master and Certified SCRUM Master. She is a SAFe Program Consultant and is member of SogetiLabs

Follow Gitte @Godtesen

Isabel Evans

Programme CHair for EuroSTAR 2019, Isabel Evans is an independent quality and testing consultant with more than thirty years of IT experience in the financial, communications, and software sectors. Her work focuses on quality management, software testing and user experience (UX). She encourages IT teams and customers to work together via flexible processes that are designed and tailored by the teams that use them. Isabel authored Achieving Software Quality Through Teamwork and chapters in Agile Testing: How to Succeed in an eXtreme Testing Environment; The Testing Practitioner; and Foundations of Software Testing.

A popular speaker and story-teller at software conferences worldwide, Isabel is a Chartered IT Professional and Fellow of the British Computer Society, Programme Secretary of the BCS SIGiST, and has been a member of software industry improvement working groups for over 20 years. Isabel was also the recipient of the 2017 EuroSTAR Testing Excellence Award.

Follow Isabel @IsabelE_Test

Fiona Charles

Fiona Charles teaches organizations to manage their software testing risk, and IT practitioners project skills “beyond process”—hands-on practical skills essential to thrive and excel on any kind of software project. Fiona’s articles and blog posts appear frequently, and she conducts experiential workshops at international conferences, and in-house for clients. She is the co-founder (with Anne-Marie Charrett), of Speak Easy, a volunteer organization whose goal is to increase gender diversity at tech conferences and help new speakers find their voices. Contact Fiona via her website www.quality-intelligence.com, and follow her on twitter @FionaCCharles.

Anne Mette Hass

Anne Mette Hass has worked in software testing for over 30 years. She is interested in the technical aspect of testing as well as in the human aspect; after all, testers are people, people are different, and differences should be understood and respected. Anne Mette has written the book “Guide to Advanced Software Testing” and taught ISTQB Foundation and Advanced Test Manager and Advanced Analyst numerous times. She has spoken at many conferences over most of the world and is fluent in English even though it is not her mother tongue.

Follow Anne Mette on Twitter: @AnneMetteHass

Fiona Ring Ostensvig & Tone Molyneux

Tone and Fiona from the Norwegian computer society have hosted a special session on women in testing. Tone and Fiona are passionate about teting and see the need to get younger people and especially women into the testing industry. They have been an amazing inspiration to many women, including the female testers at our 2018 EuroSTAR conference in Prague.

Follow Tone on Twitter: @ToneMo

Follow Fiona on Twitter: @Anoifeiram

These amazing women and many, many others help the EuroSTAR Community to grow in unimaginable ways. They inspire other female testers around the world and we will continue to help and encourage female testers to be recognized and given opportunity to develop.