Virtual Conference

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.

EuroSTAR Programme Review Process

March 1, 2021 by Suzanne Meade

Ever wonder how conference submissions are reviewed or how the overall review process works? Well we can tell you that the EuroSTAR Conference Programme is the culmination of a community wide collaboration.

Led and crafted by the EuroSTAR Committee, who first call for submissions in line with a theme chosen by the Programme Chair. In 2021, this is Fran O’Hara. Testers far and wide then submit their suggested talks. Each year, there are hundreds of submissions to be reviewed, and, in order to create a balanced and varied programme, each submission is reviewed by up to 5 people (anonymously i.e. talk details viewed, not the submitters’ name).

This is where the community get involved and each year, the EuroSTAR team welcome reviewers from the testing community. Some are past speakers, some have been involved with shaping EuroSTAR since the beginning and all are valued members of the EuroSTAR family.

This is time intensive and we are very grateful to each of our reviewers for their time and dedication. Following the community review, the Programme Committee will then come together to start crafting this year’s programme of talks.

This blog is a behind the scenes introduction to a first time reviewers experience, written by Sérgio Freire of Xray, and details how he approached his reviews.

EuroSTAR Behind the Scenes – Sérgio’s Experience

I was invited to review some submissions for EuroSTAR 2021 testing conference. I had never done it before, and even if time is scarce I understand that this is important for many who submit during the Call For Speakers; it’s also a learning experience for me. But how have I tackled this task? How can I make sure I’m fair enough to everyone? Can I test my review process somehow? This is the story of how I tested my review process. Let’s check it out.

Background

Before starting, it’s important to understand the conference context. EuroSTAR 2021 theme is “Engage”. Engagement is a broad topic. It’s about involvement, commitment, challenging, seeking understanding. We deep dive problems and challenges, we embrace them and we overcome them, no matter if they live within us or in our teams. Engaging is, in my perspective, about giving a step forward.

Infrastructure and supporting assets

The review was done using an online tool where we can easily jump between submissions. The tool itself has an interesting and scary bug that may mislead you to think that your already reviewed submissions/scores are lost… however, I found out that it is just a UI glitch 🙂 a forced browser refresh solved the issue.

EuroSTAR Programme Submission tool

To assist me as a reviewer, I had scoring instructions that I read before starting reviewing the submissions. These instructions were always open in one of my screens.

Criteria

There were 5 main criteria for me to score:

engaging
new ideas
scope
relevant to theme
overall feeling

I felt a bit of doubts on “engaging” vs “relevant to theme”, as the theme is “engaging” and thus some overlap exists. I used the scoring instructions several times, to decide how to score each one of them. Nevertheless, I would prefer a more clear separation between them as they’re not independent variables. The “scope” criterion also left me some doubts, as we’ll see ahead. Finally, there was an open text field “comments” where we could leave a qualitative assessment.

How I did it?

Day 1

I had a setup a quiet room (i.e. my office), so I could read and think carefully. I went over each one of the submissions and scored them; I skipped the “comments” section on purpose so I could not loose much time with them in the first iteration but also to try avoid a bit of bias. Whenever scoring, I regularly looked the scoring instructions if some criteria was not clear to me. I noticed that I was probably assigning “scope” not the meaning it should, as the scoring values were almost identical. Even so, I decided to look at it more carefully on a second iteration. Besides leaving the scores on the online tool, I also took notes in a spreadsheet; thus, I would have a backup 🙂 and I could use it for analysis.

EuroSTAR Programme Review Process

After scoring all submissions, I decided to go over the submissions once again to leave qualitative comments, that I structured in these bullets:

First impressions: Mostly based on the title and takeaways.
Takeaways & The Day After: Is it clear what to learn in the end of this session?
Final assessment: My overall feeling, i.e. a brief summary.
Would I attend: A yes or no, or eventually a perhaps.
Cliffhanger/invite to discover: Was there any mystery left? Any invite to learn something intesting during the session?
Suitable for: beginner, intermediate, advanced.

I was curious to understand if I had some bias that would be reflected more towards time. Thus, I traced a chart with the average scored and a trend line. The result was not shocking. I also made a column with the max score I add assigned in a specific criterion… and I didn’t see any relevant change with time.

Sergio's review process

I slept over and I was curious to see what would happen whenever I iterated on this.

Day 2

I went over the submissions once again, but in reversed order. Why? To avoid some possible bias related with time and exhaustion.

In terms of criteria, I also did a subtle change. While in the first day I considered “scope” as the criterion for being adequate for the time slot, in the second day I considered more the message clarity because it would be a factor that would help the fit for the available time slot.

Even though overall scoring is a bit lower, the results are not very different from the 1st iteration, where the chart shows also a similar trend line.

EuroSTAR Programme Review

In the spreadsheet, I calculated the absolute difference on the average and on the total score.

Sergio's blog

I flagged in red suspicious cases, that would affect my confidence:

absolute average scoring difference >= 0.5
absolute difference in individual scores > 1
absolute total scoring difference > 2

Gladly, only a few reviews appear that I need to have a look at once again. After going over them (i.e. scoring) in this localized 3rd iteration, I seem to be in my confidence interval except for one submission that remains flagged. Why? Well, because in the total score it had 3 points of difference. I read that submission all over and scored it once again. In the end, it was once again in my confidence interval.

sergio review process chart

Remember the “Comments” section? Well, I decided to go over it and look at “would I attend” bullet and compare it with the “overall feeling” criterion, that implictly should have that reflected. I notice that my decision to attend was correlated with the “overall feeling” criterion but it was not a consequence of it.

Conclusions and final thoughts

On the review process

I had quite a few doubts at start, especially this one: am I going to be fair? But also, I had doubts about how I would perform in this task, my biases, etc.

After looking at the results, my first iteration was trustworthy. I scored the submissions a bit lower during the second day, when I performed the 2nd, 3rd and 4th iterations. However, my first iteration was balanced and scores should reflect that.

I don’t assign 5 or 0 easily. I need to be quite impressed or reject something completely, which for me was not the case.

Scoring talks can be relatively fast but if you want to implement a process such as this one or your own, you’ll spend a lot more time. Even if you don’t, if you consider all the points that can affect a single criterion then it will consume more time indeed.

This whole process of revieweing submissions is also a discovery process about how each one of us works and is able of handling tasks. What works for someone, may not work for someone else.

On submitting a talk

Talks touch us in subtle different ways, so we value them differently. It makes sense, from a quality perspective: we assign value accordingly with our own definition of quality.

There are some generic rules that apply though in most cases and questions that you can think of:

Having a clear message, not that long not that short is crucial; if we get lost, we tend do discard it rightaway.
Why should we attend? What can we expect from it?
How will that talk help the attendee?
How does that talk align with conference?
Is it presenting something new, or your own learnings and challenges?

I’ve done a few submissions on the past and I have been unlucky most times. Yes, true. Therefore, I still have much to learn in this matter. I remember when I did a scientific submission for a Usenix conference few years ago, and even though it was a different audience, I had to iterate on the paper a couple of times before it was accepted and I was invited to present. Therefore, as everything, we need to iterate and learn.

Going over this review process, being on the other side of the fence, made even more clear some points mentioned above. By understanding the challenges a reviewer faces, when looking at dozens of submissions, I am a bit more aware of the things I need to have in mind for any submissions I may perform in the future.

It was an interesting thing to do and I’ve learned a bit more on the overall process of submitting (and reviewing) talks for testing conferences. I also appreciate the effort reviewers and program committees have to make, no matter what conference we’re talking about, because this is a process that requires considerable effort if you want to do it right and make it fair.

Note: the 2021 EuroSTAR Conference is taking place 28-30 September this year instead of November and the programme is usually launched at the end of April.

RECEIVE EUROSTAR PROGRAMME NEWS

Sérgio Freire – Xpand IT – Portugal

Sérgio Freire is a solution architect and testing advocate, working closely with many teams worldwide from distinct yet highly demanding sectors (Automotive, Health, and Telco among others) to help them achieve great, high-quality, testable products. By understanding how organizations work, their needs, context and background, processes and quality can be improved, while development and testing can “merge” towards a common goal: provide the best product that stakeholders need.

Sérgio spoke at EuroSTAR 2020 and you can check out his personal blog at www.sergiofreire.com

Why Speak at the EuroSTAR Conference

January 21, 2021 by Suzanne Meade

An experience talk from EuroSTAR 2020 speaker, Jorgen Lund:

Speaking at a conference is a daunting task for most people. There are so many inner voices telling you why you can’t or shouldn’t do it. I want to be that outer voice, telling you why you CAN and why you SHOULD!

My name is Jørgen. I’m a two-time, moderately successful speaker at EuroSTAR. I’m also suffering from some undiagnosed stage fright/anxiety.

Being anxious about doing public presentations is a common phobia – but we all experience it in different ways. I’ll tell you my story, and hopefully you can relate.

In school, I was a really obnoxious child. Sitting in the front row, raising my hand every time the teacher asked a question, and never being shy about pointing out others’ mistakes. I was also the smallest boy in the class, had a funny voice and some front teeth that were eager to see the world, until I had dental correction done in the 8^th grade – making me an easy victim for kids to get back at me. Being good at school stuff was my one thing to hang my hat on.

But answering questions is one matter – you can pop your head up when you have something to say. Attending oral exams – when you’re in front of people who don’t know you, but judge you based on your knowledge and ability to present it, is another. I worried for days ahead. And in the moment, I couldn’t think clearly, my heart was racing, my speech stumbled, and my mouth dried up in seconds. In high school for an oral exam, I got so nervous that I vomited in a trash bin when I had to pick the exam question (fun fact: a friend told me, when I told this story, she had done the same thing – you’re not alone out there!).

I’m 40 now – and while school and high school are a long time ago, those traits are still part of me today. Every public speaking engagement is a new exam. The good news is that it hasn’t stopped me from doing what I wanted to do. When I’ve opened up about my anxiety, I have found nothing but empathy and understanding – and I may have finally started realizing that many of the small mistakes that pile up in my head, are sometimes imperceptible to those listening.

I hope that by sharing my story and offering a few hints about my own EuroSTAR presentation, I can encourage you to quiet your inner critic for a short while and submit your story – big or small!

Why you CAN

First, a few words on psychology that has helped me see the world in a different way. I’m no expert – I only hold a YouTube degree in basic psychology. It helps me to understand my responses to certain situations – which is a good way for me to ‘hack’ my anxiety. I also have the attention span of a TED talk, so instead of recommending some books to collect dust on the shelf, I’ve included a few inspirational videos.

At EuroSTAR 2019, I was introduced to Carol Dweck’s theory on growth mindset vs. fixed mindset and the impact of a growth mindset’s ability for kids to thrive and succeed in school. A central part of a growth mindset is understanding that you’re always on a journey towards something. I think in many ways EuroSTAR embodies a growth mindset. Nobody attends to test if you know your stuff. People come to the conference to learn, connect, share, inspire and be inspired. I’ve met nothing but curious, helpful, friendly and compassionate people – from the delegates to the speakers, and the whole EuroSTAR staff. If you’re selected to speak, you are among friends all the way, who only want to help you succeed.

https://youtu.be/hiiEeMN7vbQ

The second part is about Imposter Syndrome. If you feel like you’re not skilled enough, not eloquent enough, or your ideas are not interesting to others to stand on that stage – there’s an above average chance that you’re doing just fine, and you’re just suffering from this common condition. Don’t let that nagging doubt convince you that you shouldn’t give it a go. Mike Cannon-Brookes, who’s the CEO of a ‘small’ Aussie tech company called Atlassian made a TED talk on the subject here:

https://youtu.be/ZkwqZfvbdFw

Why you SHOULD

Are you passionate about testing or other aspects of your work life? Then I’m sure there is someone out there who wants to hear about your passion!

EuroSTAR is a very diverse crowd. Some attendees have been around since the beginning – others are attending their first conference. Their projects and organizations are diverse as well. What’s trivial to some, will be a real eye-opener to others. Each year, the programme committee put together a program that has something for everybody – which means that what is near to your heart, is likely to appeal to somebody else as well.

Another reason why you should apply is, it’s good for you! You get to practice a lot of useful skills – writing a good abstract, creating a video to present your idea and showcase your speaking style (unless you’re part of the Tik Tok generation who grew up recording yourself) – and if you get selected, putting together a good presentation, and getting some experience under your belt in front of a crowd of wonderful people. And if you don’t get selected, maybe your idea will mature for another year and you’ll be clearer on your message, or you’ll get a new and even better idea that might not have come if you didn’t submit the first one!

It is likely to put you out of your comfort zone – but you’re never in too deep, and you’re always among friends. You don’t grow as a person if you don’t occasionally push the boundaries a bit!

My EuroSTAR Experience

By some miracle, I got selected to speak at EuroSTAR back in 2014. It wasn’t a great performance by any means, and the feedback reflected as much. It’s been nagging at the back of my head for a while. After some years of shying away, I applied again in 2019 where I didn’t get selected. I did attend the conference in 2019 as a delegate and really got hit by the EuroSTAR bug again. I wanted to go back! When the theme for 2020 was announced at the end of the conference, I was all in. Testing in the Wild. My biggest passion, making software that works for our military customers in the wild, was right in line with the theme.

I put all my energy into making a good abstract. I solicited help from some colleagues to zoom in on the key points of my presentation. I’ve shared my ideas with testers in my own department, testers in other departments, and colleagues in other job functions as well. It helped me get a better grasp of what was important, and whether it would be relevant to others as well.

The EuroSTAR team highly recommends submitting a video along with your abstract. This was another one of those mental barriers for me, but I enlisted the help of some colleagues in our marketing department to help me record it. Being comfortable in front of a camera and a crowd of one was a good, first step for me. I also sent the final result to my parents to see – for some reason it’s less scary for me to get up in front of a crowd of strangers than to present it to the people close to me.

I went into the registration system early to learn what information was required. At first, it was a bit overwhelming for me, so taking the time to letting the sections materialize really helped. I maintained an offline copy of the registration formular until I was ready to submit. The system does allow you to save a draft online, but I found it more accessible in a separate document – and easier to get feedback from my colleagues. There’s also some bits in there, like writing a bio and summarizing your speaking experience that takes a little time – don’t let it linger till the last minute.

It was a nerve-racking period for me, trying to put together the best possible presentation, and then enduring the excruciating waiting period until the speakers were announced. I had poured my heart and soul into it, and if it wasn’t gonna happen this year I would have been at a loss of what I could have done better. But in the end, it was all worth it, and getting accepted was a great confidence booster.

Since this post is already getting very long, I’ll spare you the details of how the preparation and presentation itself went – but in the end it turned out alright. I got a very respectable grade for my presentation. As a true imposter, I of course don’t trust any of the nice things people say to me – but anonymous reviews is a small window of truth!

After EuroSTAR, my colleagues in the marketing department were kind enough to put together a small video spot (shameless self/company promo alert). I can tell that I’m nervous in the video, but I feel that I’ve managed to not sound like a complete idiot – which is a major milestone for me! So even if it was a long and stressful journey, I can see the progress I’ve made

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/systematic_walk-a-mile-in-your-users-boots-activity-6737715389016375296-vGZ_

To sum it all up in the immortal words of the British speed metal band Dragonforce:

We all face our fears in the world,

We all hold our place in the (EuroSTAR) universe,

For eternity…

Check out the EuroSTAR Call for Speakers and consider submitting for this year. Submissions close on November 15th.

Author

Jørgen Lund, Systematic A/S, Denmark

After graduating with a master’s degree in Computer Science, I found my way into testing. Over the past 12 years, I have been part of building, testing, training, deploying and supporting software for our users – and I have used all of the knowledge gathered to become a better tester. Today, I work as a Senior Test Manager where I coach other Test Managers and Testers, implement strategic initiatives and train new employees in testing.

Rik Marselis: My Experience at a EuroSTAR online conference

October 14, 2020 by Fiona Nic Dhonnacha

Rik Marselis: My Experience at a EuroSTAR online conference

Curious about what’s coming up at EuroSTAR 2020 Online? How it all works? How you’ll connect with people on a virtual platform? We asked our programme chair Rik Marselis to tell us his experience from the Test & Quality Summit, a EuroSTAR-organised conference we held in September.

Here’s what Rik had to say:

The Test & Quality Summit was the first time I used the Hopin online conference platform (where EuroSTAR will also take place) – and it was a very positive experience.

I have become quite accustomed to working from my home office and have done my fair share of video meetings and online webinars.

But this kind of online conference platform has so many more features to offer.

Starting with navigation: the menu bar makes it easy to visit all the different ‘areas’ of the conference – the main stage, sessions (bonus talks), expo, and networking.

The main stage is of course where the programmed presentations are broadcast. But to get the real ‘conference feeling’, the other items on the menu are also important.

For example, the expo where the exhibitors had their virtual booths. I visited several of these booths: some featured product presentations, while I had good conversations with others using the built-in video-calling facility. In one conversation in particular, a few of us came together, which resulted in a meaningful exchange of views and ideas.

A feature that I really liked was the Speed Meeting. This is where you click to meet a random person to chat with. I just clicked the button to indicate that I was open to a meeting, and then I was connected to a random attendee.

To my – and her – surprise, the first random connection was with someone I’ve known for many years: Dorothy Graham. So, the 3 minutes for this speed meeting was far too short, but it was very nice to chat to her!

I also spoke to attendees that had watched my keynote presentation and wanted to know more. One person had a concrete practical problem in his job, and we were able to talk about a possible solution.

Luckily, the platform offers a variety of opportunities to contact people, so if the 3 minutes of the speed meeting is too short, we could just enter another room and connect via a 1:1 video chat feature!

At the Test & Quality Summit there were no parallel presentations, but there will be at EuroSTAR Online. Which means even more engagement and access to lots more sessions and talks.

I was pleasantly surprised by the direct interaction I had with attendees during my speaker presentation. Everybody can ask questions in the chat feature, and since my presentation was recorded to assure the quality, I could answer questions by text throughout, as well as coming on live for the official Q&A, which gave a whole new dimension to the interactivity of the conference.

There were lots of ways the platform captured the community feeling of a live conference. For example, the table quiz at the end of the day, the way you could virtually walk to the reception desk to ask questions about the programme, the organization, or whatever else you have a query on; and how you could travel from room to room.

All in all, the online conference was a great experience, and now I’m really looking forward to EuroSTAR Online in November: to enjoy the community feeling, and exchange ideas and knowledge about our fantastic quality & testing profession.

Rik is the Programme Chair of EuroSTAR 2020 Online this November. Together with his committee Mette Bruhn-Pedersen, Marta Firlej and Zeger Van Hese, they have created a full line-up of incredible speakers giving insights on all the topics you care about, including agile, DevOps, automation, test management, and lots more.

Introduction to Exploratory Testing

October 12, 2020 by Fiona Nic Dhonnacha

Exploratory Testing

Although test automation is the biggest trend in software testing right now, only focusing your strategy on automation isn’t going to guarantee you a fool-proof QA process.

By diversifying your testing strategy with different methods, you’ll be able to cover more ground (i.e. untested code) and more unexpected discrepancies to your code and product.

Exploratory Testing should be a part of your testing strategy because it will test the effectiveness of your existing tests, discover code discrepancies, and alleviate bottlenecks where bugs hide the most.

In this post, QA Software Engineer, Pekka Pönkänen, tells us how he effectively performs Exploratory Testing and his advice on making the most of your sessions.

Why Exploratory Testing is important

In 2018 I walked the length of Japan, and one of my goals for the trip was to explore the country and its rich culture. During the trip, I decided to walk in different routes other than just following Google Maps, and as a result of that I had many exciting adventures. Undoubtedly, without having the curiosity to explore, I would have missed many unique places and interesting conversations with locals.

I firmly believe that in order to find new ways of seeing and experiencing the world, you need to be brave and curious about the unknown. The same goes for software testing. Always following the same paths, or tests, will get you expected results. On the contrary, if you go on an exploratory session of your application, you’ll be amazed to discover just how many bugs could be hiding or how much you can improve the functionality for the user.

If you want to try Exploratory Testing yourself, consider this your starting point.

What exactly is Exploratory Testing?

The term “Exploratory Testing” means that you are exploring the application and how it performs after different actions.

To truly understand the concept, it is essential to dig deeper into the roots of the terminology. The term “Exploratory Testing” was introduced in 1984 by Cem Kaner.

“Exploratory software testing is a style of software testing that emphasizes the personal freedom and responsibility of the individual tester to continually optimize the value of her work…”

James Bach’s 2003 paper, “Exploratory Testing Explained”

Through exploratory testing, your goal is to find out how a specific area of an application is working while using your skillset to provide valuable feedback to your team. You want to find the nastiest bugs under the hood and make sure that nothing critical or dangerous can happen in the app.

Preparing for Exploratory Testing

Before starting the testing run itself, it’s good to have tools to write down ideas, bugs, and defects. Personally, I like classic pen and paper and bug-tracking software to write down thoughts and plans for the future. During the run, you will see application logs, automation ideas, new approaches for new testing runs, and bugs that need to be fixed. Having good software that captures images, videos, and notes can be very helpful in centralizing your findings and sharing your insights with your team.

Keep in mind that your notes do not need to be the most delicate piece of art. What’s important is that you can gather a small story around it for your teammates or stakeholders after the session. I have heard very successful use cases with testers doing mind mapping during exploratory testing. Having this visual aid in the process can be valuable to build off of your ideas and create themes.

Identify your goal

The first thing to get started in exploratory testing is to define what to test. It can be a known bottleneck, possible risk, new feature, or an area which has a lot of bugs.

As a software tester, you may know the places to look, and the development team can define the areas which need more attention. When planning the testing, remember not to make it broad so that you don’t lose focus. Here are a few examples to get you started:

What to do:

Explore catalog page with a screen reader to verify page accessibility
Explore login process with iOS gestures to verify that functionality is accessible

These tasks can be timeboxed and can be done in one session and short enough to be focused.

On the other hand, you don’t want to choose a task that has too many options or paths to follow. The best way is to keep it simple and focus on smaller tasks.

What not to do:

Explore all possible mobile security issues to the system to discover any security-related threat

Once you’ve identified your goal and prepared your tools, here are the steps you can follow to complete an Exploratory Testing session:

1. Prep your session

After selecting an area to explore, design the test session. Once you know what to explore, you’ll get a flood of ideas about how to test different aspects — make sure to keep track of everything that comes to mind so you have a solid plan before you start testing. Write down your mission and prepare the notes about the way you want to proceed.

2. Setup the testing environment

Check that you have all credentials and access to enter the testing environment. Testing is pleasurable when you can focus on the testing itself, and when you don’t need to worry about usernames or unreachable servers.

3. Timebox and execute

Depending on the task, open the suitable logs, and monitor tools to log your actions during testing. Application logs are crucial to provide valuable information when things go wrong. While executing, keep your objective in mind, write notes, be systematic, collect info, gather ideas for the next sessions, and most importantly learn and explore your product.

Exploratory testing is more of a mindset than a framework

Exploratory testing is in fact a skill which is developing all the time while your skillset as a tester is evolving. The beauty of testing is that you never get bored of it because there is always room for improvement. Be curious about the application, try different approaches to execute testing, learn about your software, and share the knowledge.

At the end of the day, software development is a team sport!

Inform others about the state, risks, and any other concerns. Share your mind map as well as any evidence that you collected like videos, images and notes. You don’t have to have all of the answers, but sharing them with your team will also help others discover themes and insights which you wouldn’t have known otherwise.

——————————————————————————————–

Author: Pekka Pönkänen

Xray Contributing Writer | QA Engineer

6 strategies for building AI-based software

October 1, 2020 by Fiona Nic Dhonnacha

Building AI-based software

Developing software that incorporates artificial intelligence (AI) can be unpredictable, and you need a unique set of knowledge and skills to code, test, and make sense of the data. What’s more, tuning the system can take time, and the decisions AI-based software makes can sometimes be difficult to explain.

My organization specializes in developing software test automation tools that help users develop tests that run on different platforms, such as desktop computers and mobile devices. We wanted to make it even easier to write and run these tests, and avoid having to customize the test for each platform.

Our research led to adopt natural-language processing, which allows users of our software to describe a test using simple English, and computer vision with optical character recognition to identify the objects on a screen.

Here are the lessons we learned that you can apply as you incorporate AI concepts into your products.

Make data an integral part of planning

An artificial neural network (ANN) is a layered structure of algorithms designed to use data to make intelligent decisions without human intervention. We incorporated an ANN in our system, fed it with hundreds of thousands of data samples, and let it do its magic to make informed decisions.

In a system that’s heavily based on data, planning is essential. We had to address:

What data we needed to train the model
How to acquire, clean and classify that data
How to obtain additional data from customers

This required expanding the role of the product management team, which traditionally focuses on the features and capabilities of the product, to include overseeing the data-related aspects of the system. That included defining the scope of the data, the acceptance criteria for the data, and how data was to be used within our AI models.

Lesson learned: Data must be front and center of everything your team does, and your product managers must become familiar with the AI techniques your team is using in order to ensure consistency and reliable outcomes.

Decouple the AI model from your product

Developing and tuning an AI model can take a long time. If your application is tied closely to the model, you can only progress at the speed of the model’s development.

The AI model should be decoupled from the rest of the system and treated as a separate pipeline. This allows each piece of the system to progress at its own pace, and you can apply updates to the AI model independently. This has two key benefits:

You can develop and test your main product independently of the model, giving you fast feedback on product features unrelated to the AI portion of the product, and you can continue developing and training the AI model without being impeded by unrelated issues, such as a code change to the main product that breaks the build and holds everyone up until it’s resolved.
You can release your main product and the AI model at different cadences. This is particularly significant for users of our on-premises product, since they can install the product once and apply subsequent updates to the AI model without going through an extensive upgrade process. Given that the nature of AI models is to continuously learn, adapt, and improve, this is an important capability that allows our users to stay on the cutting edge of AI without having to wait for updates to the entire product.

Designing the system correctly to allow the AI model to be developed and deployed separately is a crucial capability that you should tackle early. Our release timeline now consists of two parallel timelines; one for the product, and one for the AI model updates.

Create cross-functional, multi-disciplinary teams

After we decoupled the AI model from the main product, our teams could develop and test it independently. But we also needed to test the system as a whole, with all of the components deployed and working together. For effective end-to-end testing, you need expertise in both AI and software testing.

We created cross-functional teams that included software engineers, data scientists, data analysts, testers, architects, and the product manager. This gave us the best of both worlds—we have experts in designing and developing AI models working alongside our software engineering and software testing specialists. In this way we can leverage the knowledge and experience of the entire team to develop, test, and deliver each component independently, as well as test the entire system holistically.

This approach has helped to cross-pollinate specialized knowledge across the team, so that our developers and testers have come to understand AI better, and our AI experts have learned to become better developers and testers.

Understand that explaining results in an AI system can be challenging

We like to think of our deep learning system as a black box that knows how to think and make decisions, but sometimes it makes decisions we weren’t expecting. When a regular software system does something unexpected, you can debug it. It might take time, but you’ll figure it out. But in an AI system, it’s almost impossible to determine the combinations and sequences of data and logic that led to a decision.

Lesson learned: The most efficient way to influence a model’s decisions is through supervised trial and error, coupled with guidance from the AI experts who understand how the model works, and who can guide the learning and tuning process toward more accurate results.

Expect longer cycle times when building the product

Traditional software products compile quickly—even large enterprise software products complete a build in no more than a few hours.

AI models are different. Training a neural net first involves gathering data samples, and then cleaning and tagging the data, which can take days, depending on the quantity and quality of the data you need. Only then can you start the training process, which can take several days for each training cycle. In our case, it takes about three days on a machine with a powerful processor to train just one model.

This is a major motivation for splitting the AI model out from the rest of the product, reducing dependencies and making it a separate and independent pipeline, as discussed above.

Retrain your AI models with customer data

It’s impossible to achieve 100% accuracy and zero defects in an autonomous, continuously improving, self-learning system. We train our AI models extensively in our own labs, but when the model is exposed to the customers’ environment, it has to make decisions about something it may not have seen before. The most effective way to tune the system so that it makes the best decisions is to augment the model’s training data with the customer’s data.

We work with our customers to improve the accuracy of our systems in their environments by obtaining their approval to use their data to retrain and optimize our models. This helps the model make better decisions, and creates better outcomes for our customers.

Apply these strategies to your own AI development

The software industry is undergoing an AI revolution, and vendors are adding new AI capabilities to their products every day. My organization has made significant adjustments to the way we develop and deliver software, and we have restructured our teams to include experts in AI—something you’ll need to do as well. We also work more closely than ever with our customers to learn from their environments and improve their outcomes.

AI development might be challenging, but it’s worthwhile. If you’re joining the AI revolution, make sure you apply these strategies to your software development process to get the most out of it for your team, your product, and your users.

This story was originally published on TechBeacon.

Want to know more about AI and how to apply it to your software testing? Check out EuroSTAR Online – we’ve got a programme packed with all of the topics you care about.

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Author: Jecky Toledo, R&D Director, Micro Focus, Functional Testing

As Research and Development Director at Micro Focus, Jecky Toledo leads the groups responsible for the company’s functional testing and mobile testing portfolios. He has 20 years’ experience building and managing development teams using various methodologies, practices and delivery methods. Most recently, he has been leveraging the power of artificial intelligence and the transformation that AI-based systems bring to the entire software development lifecycle. Jecky trains in martial arts in his spare time, and is a father of three.

3 reasons to book your early bird ticket now

September 25, 2020 by Fiona Nic Dhonnacha

We’re getting ready for a high-energy, jam-packed, 3-day online celebration of testing this November: with 6 keynotes, 9 half-day tutorials, & 40 track sessions, plus lots of community networking.

You’re getting hands-on learning, problem solving with your peers, and juicy insights to get your creativity flowing – and if you can’t join us on the day, it’s all on demand after.

Right now, you can save €150 and secure your place at EuroSTAR Online. But hurry, our offer is closing in just a few days!

GET EARLY BIRD TICKETS

Here are 3 reasons you can’t miss it.

EuroSTAR Conference keynote speakers

The Speakers

Our keynote speakers are leaders in their field, and they’re bringing their expertise to the topics you care most about, including agile, DevOps, automation, functional testing, quality improvement, and lots more.

Jason Arbon shares real-world examples demonstrating the limitations and pain of some AI approaches. Michael Bolton will help you ask those tough questions in testing. Join Abby Bangser for examples and explanations on leveraging the dynamic duo of observability and testing in production.

Learn more about about common testing challenges while moving to cloud-based, microservice architecture with Tomasz Dubikowski. Learn how to develop a quality narrative that communicates the true value of your quality team throughout the company with Ronald Cummings-John.

The Learning

Team working together at a EuroSTAR Conference tutorial

With expert speakers, hands-on workshops and tutorials, you’ll absorb infinite and invaluable knowledge from many of the world’s brightest minds. Tutorials this year include Addressing Real Life Agile Testing Challenges with Fran O Hara, technical web testing with Alan Richardson, a strategic testing masterclass from Fiona Charles, and lots more. You’ll be back at your desk filled with actionable ideas to apply to your work. Check out our programme here!

Don’t worry, we’ve still got your Huddle favourites, re-imagined for an online platform: take part in our TestLab by completing challenges, exercises and games; and solve all your testing problems at our dedicated Test Clinic.

The Community

Team working together at a EuroSTAR conference tutorial We’re thrilled to be gathering the global testing community online this year – which means it’s easier than ever to chat with your peers – people who share the same problems as you, even on the other side of the world.

Say hello to new friends: connect 1:1 on video chat, try speed meeting, community networking, and jump into conversations from around the globe!

GET EARLY BIRD TICKETS

7 Reasons to Attend a Virtual Conference this Year

August 27, 2020 by Fiona Nic Dhonnacha

Looking for reasons to attend a virtual conference this year?

2020 is rapidly becoming the year of the virtual conference — and they are not going anywhere. This is a good thing: in terms of savings, environmental footprint, accessibility and of course, immunity against external factors (ahem)… virtual events claim all the pros and not many cons.

We have 28 years’ experience hosting a worldwide software testing conference. Since 1993, we’ve brought software testers and QA professionals together to learn, test and connect. And every year, we get a little bigger. Now — well, we’re thrilled to be the largest, friendliest software testing event in Europe.

This year we’re doing things differently. We’re re-imagining our live event and taking our entire programme online. That’s 55+ speakers, 3 days of tutorials, keynotes, track talks, networking events, and more.

It’s going to be our best programme yet. Why? Because going virtual opens up a whole new arena of possibilities for us — and for you.

With this in mind, here are 7 reasons you should attend a virtual conference this year.

1. Connect with a global network

Team at a tutorial working together to solve a problem With endless online networking opportunities, it’s easier than ever to make connections that are most relevant to you at a virtual conference. Talk it out with those who are in the same boat, even if they’re not on the same continent — people who tackle the same problems, and get just as excited about a solution. At EuroSTAR 2020 Online, you can meet and jump into conversations with the world’s largest testing community

The conference is a melting pot of creative people. Hear new thoughts, validate your ideas, or change your perspectives — it’s all possible.

2. Get access to all the learnings

Ever gone to a conference and had to make a tough choice between two sessions you’d love to attend — but both are happening at the same time? You don’t have to worry about that with virtual conferences. In most cases sessions will be recorded, as they are streamed. At EuroSTAR 2020 Online, we’re including post conference on-demand access to ALL 60+ hours of talks, so you don’t have to miss a thing. That’s some serious learning at your disposal — our tutorials are super interactive and practical to get your creativity flowing. You’ll hit your desk filled with actionable ideas to apply to your work.

3. Solve testing challenges

We know that an important part of a live conference is that you get help with those frustrating problems creating bottlenecks in your work. Attendees at the Huddle It’s also where you’re sometimes hit with your best ideas, inspired by random interactions with your fellow attendees. But that doesn’t mean you won’t get that same chance at a virtual conference. For example, our live conference will feature the EuroSTAR Test Clinic, where you can bring your toughest and most complex questions to our testing experts. We’re creating a dedicated online space where you can get 1:1 help and resolve even the most frustrating testing challenges.

4. Explore new tools & vendors

Trying cool new tools and demos from vendors is all part of the conference experience. There are tons of opportunities to replicate this online, with platforms offering extremely sophisticated virtual expo booth experiences. We’re going to make sure you get the most out of our software testing expo — it’s Europe’s biggest, and draws some of the best companies in the world, armed with all the latest testing tools. Chat face to face, ask questions, try online demos and tools, and add new processes to your testing toolkit. And did we mention the virtual swag bag…?

5. Bring an open mind, take new perspectives home

One of the best things about a conference is that it’s a new space and a chance to put your thinking cap on; away from the usual daily grind. Well, that’s still a given with a virtual conference when it’s done right. It’s all about the people taking part in the online space — and our community is so passionate and enthusiastic about testing, the vibes will jump out of the screen! Plus, it can be easier to ask questions in a virtual setting. Our live Q&A sessions mean you get to pick our speakers’ brains and absorb lots of extra knowledge.

A team working together at a tutorial

6. Increase team bonding

Yes, there’s a huge benefit to giving your whole team access to a virtual conference. Everyone is absorbing the knowledge together and getting into the same headspace. Create a ‘divide and conquer’ approach to split up the programme of talks and maximize the learnings from all sessions. Co-ordinate talks and keynotes in order to get different perspectives and learnings and hop in and out of different breakout session as a team. This nurtures team building, strengthens your company culture and gets everyone thinking creatively so you can test more efficiently as a group. If your team has a backlog of ideas, now is the time to let them flourish! With on-demand access to all the sessions after the conference, your team can use the content as a learning resource all year.

7 Save, save, save

This is a no brainer, but you really are saving on a huge cost by attending a virtual conference. Most of the potential physical barriers are gone — travel and accommodation, accessibility, and all the other reasons that may have stopped you from attending a conference. You can join an online conference from anywhere — all you need is your device and an Internet connection. You don’t even have to show up for the entire conference if you really don’t want to — just secure your ticket and enjoy the peace of mind that comes with knowing you’ll have access to recordings. It’s a win-win.

EuroSTAR Online is happening this November, 17–19. It’s Europe’s largest software testing conference and has been bringing software testers and quality professionals together since 1993!

This is where you are going to solve your testing problems — straight from the comfort of your home or office. Check out our programme for even more reasons to attend a virtual conference…