EuroSTAR Conference

Europe's Best Software Testing Conference

Tutorial I

Testing the Test Tools

Michael Bolton

14:00-17:30 CEST Tuesday 28th Sept

“We shape our tools; thereafter they shape us.”

Vendors say that their tools make testing easy by making it easy to automate the GUI or API. Open-source developers wrap frameworks around other frameworks to make APIs and UIs more accessible to non-programmers. Managers hear the claims, see a demo, and want to invest time, money, or both in the tools. Then testers discover the differences between the sales pitches and the realities.

Everyone has the best of intentions; that is the starting point. The goal of this tutorial is to help people with strategies for looking at tools with clear eyes instead of rose-coloured glasses. We will examine testing tools, and develop models for evaluating them and how they might be used. Rather than simply touring their features, we’ll consider how tools might help us to test the product—and how they might not. That point of view allows us to see clear benefits and take appropriate cautions.

Our tools can lighten our load and help us to see the invisible, but when used indiscriminately, they can also become a burden and a distraction. Our managers and our teams need to be aware of this. We do too.

So we’ll examine the ways in which tools focus testers on specific tasks and on particular perspectives of the product. We’ll consider potential value from tool use that is often ignored. We’ll also consider subtle costs and hidden risks in strategies that centre on tools. We’ll look at how tools, while powerful and useful, can disengage us from our primary task: experiencing, exploring, and experimenting with the product to find problems that matter to our organizations and their clients.

Participants will be encouraged to share stories of their own experiences.

What you will learn

  1. The goal is for testers to leave this session with new perspectives on tools
  2. Apply testing skills and critical thinking not only to evaluating products, but also to evaluating tools and practices
  3. Learn to use tools to help deepen our testing, rather than simply to perform shallow checks
  4. Strategies for talking about tools with managers, developers, and other testers; connecting the insider view of testing with perspectives and pressures from the outside

Session Details

  • Intermediate
  • 3.5 Hours
  • Interactive Tutorial
  • Coaching & Skills Development
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Michael Bolton Tutorial EuroSTAR 2019

“Michael Bolton is an amazing speaker, his knowledge and passion for testing are outstanding. I wish the Tutorial will have been a bit longer as I had the feeling there was still much more to learn from him. Still, I got tons of insights and ideas that I can apply at my own work as a tester.”

Michael Bolton has been speaking regularly at EuroSTAR. Attendees frequently tell us how much they learn from Michael and benefit from his experience.

Session Speaker

Michael Bolton EuroSTAR speaker

Michael Bolton

Consulting Software Tester – DevelopSense, Canada

Michael Bolton is a consulting software tester and testing teacher who helps people to solve testing problems that they didn’t realize they could solve. In 2006, he became co-author (with James Bach) of Rapid Software Testing (RST), a methodology and mindset for testing software expertly and credibly in uncertain conditions and under extreme time pressure. Since then, he has flown over a million miles to teach RST in 35 countries on six continents. Michael has over 30 years of experience testing, developing, managing, and writing about software. For over 20 years, he has led DevelopSense, a Toronto-based testing and development consultancy. Prior to that, he was with Quarterdeck Corporation for eight years, during which he managed the company’s flagship products and directed project and testing teams both in-house and around the world. Contact Michael on email, on Twitter @michaelbolton, or via his website.

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