EuroSTAR Conference

Enter the 2019 RisingSTAR Award

August 1, 2019 by Suzanne Meade

The RisingSTAR Award, supported by EuroSTAR Conferences, James Lyndsay and Bart Knaack, was created to stimulate innovation and encourage new ideas in the software testing industry. The RisingSTAR brings together many of the most influential testing minds as a supporting group to help develop winning ideas for the overall benefit of the industry.

We are calling for entries for the 2019 RisingSTAR Award. Perhaps you would like to enter or maybe you know someone who would be ideal for this recognition and mentoring.

How to Enter

This is how you can become the 2019 RisingSTAR Award Winner:

Go to EuroSTAR Huddle & read the guidelines
Submit your Application before 31st August 2019
The RisingSTAR Committee will be in touch regarding your idea & supporting materials
Once selected as a finalist, you will be featured on EuroSTAR Huddle
The RisingSTAR Supporters (mentors) will vote for the best testing idea that will benefit the wider community
The Winner will be flown to #EuroSTARConf in November to accept their prize

What is a RisingSTAR Idea?

A new idea or concept that you have worked to a point where it is ready to share. It may be something ground-breaking that will reverberate through the testing community OR perhaps you see a gap in the current methodologies and approaches and have an idea to help make a specific area of testing more efficient. The mentoring and global connections of the Supporters will help to develop your idea further and bring it into being.

Types of Ideas we are looking for:

Ideas that challenge existing testing practices.
A novel application or spin on existing testing techniques to improve them further.
Cutting-edge ideas from other fields that can be applied to testing.
A way to take advantage of emerging trends to impact the future of testing.
A new perspective on a long-running, perplexing problem.

For more details see the RisingSTAR Award page on EuroSTAR Huddle.

RisingSTAR Mentoring

The 2018 winner was Sanne Visser of NS Netherlands. Sanne’s idea was to develop a testing framework for dealing with Blockchain-based applications as well as forming a Blockchain testing group to share knowledge to benefit the entire testing community.

As the winner, Sanne receive access to mentorship and wider connections of an incredible array of global testers – all very high profile and influential. Sanne will use that support to help her develop a workshop with a demo-blockchain environment, allowing her to teach testers about the technology, and to let them experiment with ways it might be tested.

We believe in helping the community and each of the Supporting Group contribute their time and knowledge to helping the winner to develop their idea and share this with the testing community. Where else would you have direct connections with such a group of testing experts, all committed to helping you grow your idea?

As the current RisingSTAR winner, Sanne will be provided with an ongoing platform on the EuroSTAR Huddle online community to update on her progress as well as an opportunity to present the overall concept and updates at this years’s EuroSTAR Software Testing Conference in Prague.

Beyond recognising and rewarding great ideas, the RisingSTAR Award is about encouraging new voices and developing future leaders in testing. Great ideas can come at any time and if you have a great idea that could change the testing world, don’t wait, submit now! Entries close 312st August 2019.

EuroSTAR Volunteers

July 25, 2019 by Suzanne Meade

Let’s celebrate testing together! We would like to invite you to be part of this years Conference team at the 27th EuroSTAR Conference in Prague, taking place Nov. 11-14!

This is a super fun and exciting way to get involved directly with the testing community.

Here are the areas that you can be part of at this years’ conference!

We want to hear from you! What area do you want to be part of? Tell us by entering here. entries close Aug 31st!

Benefits of volunteering at #EuroSTARConf

Networking with the testing community
Choose from 60+ sessions to attend
Share your thoughts and ideas for the conference
Learn from industry experts

and so much more – view the reasons to attend EuroSTAR

ENTER VOLUNTEER PROGRAMME TODAY

The City of a Hundred Spires – Prague Facts

July 25, 2019 by Fiona Nic Dhonnacha

Prague is home to a number of well-known cultural attractions, including the beautiful Prague Castle, the stunning Old Town Square, the intricate Astronomical Clock and much more. It is a one of a kind city and the EuroSTAR team are more than excited to host our annual conference in the capital of the Czech republic.

In one of our previous articles we mentioned the Top 5 Attractions in Prague which you can read here. There is so much to tell you about this fascinating city … did you know that Prague is also called the City of 100 Spires? This is based on a count by 19th century mathematician, Bernard Bolzano and today’s count has increased that to 500 as estimated by the Prague Information Service.

That’s right. we’re talking about the spiky structure on the top of a building, often a church tower, similar to a steep tented roof. Prague has got tons of them!

From cathedrals to churches, towers and other magnificent buildings topped with stunning spires, Prague amazes every visitor with its beauty. Almost undamaged by World War II, the city’s compact medieval centre remains a beautiful mixture of fabulous lanes, walled courtyards, cathedrals and countless church spires all in the shadow of her majestic 9th century castle that looks eastward as the sun sets behind her. Sadly, the modern world doesn’t create such architecture anymore, but you can always enjoy visiting Prague for your fix of medieval buildings.

The annual EuroSTAR Software Testing Conference will take place in the Prague Congress Centre this November. It is located just 4 stops on the metro from the Old Town, close to some of the most amazing attractions on the capital. Stroll down to the river or get a tram to Prague Castle which is only 30 minutes from the conference. You will also notice the building nearby, called Saint Peter and Paul Basilica.

Too many spires for the day? Head down to see the Dancing House, a stunning building 30 minutes walk from the Congress Centre. Look out for Zofin Palance when you are there – this is where we will have our Gala Awards Dinner on Wednesday 13th November.

As you will be very busy learning and focusing your mind on the presentations during the conference, evening times can be spent walking down the streets of this amazing city. Prague, we are counting the days until we visit you in November!

Programme Chair Blog – EuroSTAR in Poetry

July 23, 2019 by Suzanne Meade

To many, code is poetry so this year, we have decided to introduce poetry to the story of the 27th EuroSTAR Software Testing Conference which takes place in Prague Congress Centre, 11-14 November.

Each Programme Chair brings their own unique magic to the EuroSTAR Conference. This is what makes our community so wonderful and diverse. Our 2019 Programme Chair, Isabel Evans, is a lover of poetry and she has taken all aspects of the talks, the committee, creating the programme and more, and woven them within beautiful Haiku poems.

“Haiku” is a traditional form of Japanese poetry. Translating the form to English is not an exact science, however, they are based on patterns in the syllables, for example each haiku poem can be a 17 syllable poem consisting of 3 lines. The first and last lines of a Haiku have 5 syllables and the middle line has 7 syllables. Before you tell us … in haiku, the lines rarely rhyme!

Below is an extended version of haiku just to get you started and hopefully intrigued. Over the coming months you will see snippets of these gorgeous haiku poems on our social channels as well as additional blogs.

We hope you like them!

To begin, a few words from Isabel Evans:

Programme Chair’s Blog – as Haiku This Year – Why? Because we can, we have.

Lorraine said “something
new please. Why not poems?” Well,
Lorraine – here we are!

Customary blog from
Programme chair in haiku form
this year – poems in

form of seventeen
syllables five seven five
I will have got it

wrong of course somewhere
in there – you are testers – check!
Isabel Evans

So How Did We Choose the 2019 Programme?

Choosing the programme,
how we laughed and cried. Too
much choice! Options?!?

So many submissions
To speak; only some chosen
The best; hard choices!

The Thoughts Behind the 2019 EuroSTAR Conference Theme

Working well, purpose
And practice right for people
Facing challenges

Surmount challenge through
Purpose, people and practice
This is working well

Serving our purpose
Understanding our customers
Deliver value

“Why this theme?” you ask
“Customers, craft, value, health
Community too”

Tools, automation
Vital support to practice
Need them working well

How to do this task?
What approaches help? Techniques?
Many ideas, choose!

People bring knowledge
And skills to solve problems well
That is us, working.

In teams we work, not
Solo but community
True for EuroSTAR too

If we’re not well
We can’t work well, take care of
Yourself and your team.

Are we craftspeople?
Or engineers? Both? Choose your
path and practices with care.

Future is hidden
We can guess at it, always
A challenge to us.

Change and growth help us
Face the future challenge
Always necessary

Unwell, a challenge
To life my head up
Face the future, smiling

“How can we test? We
don’t know our purpose.” “Can you
measure your value?”

UX/CX – new
To you? – important, fret not!
Vital, learnable!

Requirements, and
Stories, they’re how we know
What to deliver

We hope you enjoyed these poems from Isabel and look out for the next Programme Chair Blog – coming soon!

In the meantime, do check out the diverse programme of talks that Isabel and her committee; Gitte Ottosen, Jean Paul Varwijk and Ioana Chiorean have put together.

The Skills You Will Learn

July 18, 2019 by Fiona Nic Dhonnacha

This month at EuroSTAR we have planned some great webinars to ensure that your testing is ahead of the testing game.

We are excited to have Paul Gerrard back with us with his webinar Future Skills of Software Testers. With the software testing industry constantly evolving, the tester needs to evolve too. Change in the industry means testing and tester skills need to change too. The current training that is there for testers is simply not enough- certification and courses available will not excel your testing and Paul is currently working on building a tester skill programme designed to meet the current and future needs of the testing community. With this webinar, learn to think for yourself!

We are also thrilled to have Ken Johnston with us from Microsoft with his webinar AB Testing is Hard: But You Should Do it Anyway. Experimentation, often called A/B Testing, has been around as a common practice for web sites for more than 20 years. With Microsoft Windows and Office, people now AB test not just UX Changes but also bug fixes. One thing we find all the time, it’s easier to mess up an AB test than it is to get it right. Everything from designing the test to actually prove the hypothesis to getting a proper distribution. It really is hard but even so, you need to get great at it and you just need to do it. Join Ken Johnston this month to learn how to build an experimentation culture, design good experiments and develop actionable data.

Register for all upcoming webinars this month and next and sign up to our newsletter to be the first to hear about the latest content coming your way!

TeamSTAR Competition

July 8, 2019 by Suzanne Meade

TeamSTAR has been running for almost a decade and it is one of our favourite competitions for the software testing & QA community. We love bringing the community together, and TeamSTAR does just that with lots of fun at the same time.

Do you host a meet-up for software testers or quality assurance teams? Or have you ever considered hosting a testing meet-up? We’d like to reward you for your efforts in bringing the testing community together.

Now is you chance – register & host a testing meet-up in your area before the end of September 2019 and you could win 4 tickets to the EuroSTAR Conference in Prague!

Do you want to take on the challenge?

Once you have registered, here is what you have to do win…

Promote your event online and tag us on social media so we can help! – @esconfs #EuroSTARConnects
Host your meet-up before September 30th
Play a 1 minute EuroSTAR video at your meet-up so you see what we have in store for the winners!
Get social with your fellow attendees – it could be pictures, stories, tweets, videos, snaps – tag us and we’ll share
Send us a short blog summary of your meet-up, what you did, what you spoke about and we will use this to help choose the winners.

Simple 🙂

We can’t wait to hear all about your event! Register your meet-up now and we will send you the cool materials & giveaways for the event too!

Good luck and enjoy!

4 Software Testing Webinars You Cannot Miss

July 4, 2019 by Fiona Nic Dhonnacha

Software testing is evolving at a rapid pace. You need to learn more, know more, test more – but that’s OK, As long as you are keeping up with it, you won’t be left behind.

There is a few great ways to keep up to date with software testing news. One would be to follow your favorite software testers on social. The other one is to check software testing websites and blogs run by experienced testing people. And last but not least you can register for webinars and download eBooks.

This is where EuroSTAR Huddle comes in. We are in close contact with the best minds in software testing and our goal is to provide our readers with fresh content, great webinars and awesome eBooks. And today, we want to show you our 4 webinars that you can register for. Our guests will share their testing knowledge an pass it on to you. Learn from top testers in the game with EuroSTAR Huddle.

Future Skills of Software Testers

Webinar Description: How do you build a tester skills program that matches the requirements of the software industry? Paul will describe how he is helping a consortium of software companies in the Cork area to build a tester skills programme designed to meet the current and future needs of their testing community. The Tester Skills Program encourages and helps testers to think for themselves.

Webinar Info: 23rd July, 2pm BST with Paul Gerrard

RESERVE YOUR SEAT

AB Testing is Hard: But You Should Do it Anyway

Webinar Description: Experimentation, often called A/B Testing, has been around as a common practice for web sites for more than 20 years. With Microsoft Windows and Office we now AB test not just UX Changes but also bug fixes. One thing we find all the time, it’s easier to mess up an AB test than it is to get it right. Everything from designing the test to actually prove the hypothesis to getting a proper distribution. It really is hard but even so, you need to get great at it and you just need to do it.

Webinar Info: 25th July, 3pm BST with Ken Johnston

RESERVE YOUR SEAT

Working Well with Test Design Techniques & Test Approaches

Webinar Info: 20th Aug, 2pm BST with Rik Marselis

RESERVE YOUR SEAT

Re-Shaping The Test Pyramid for App Teams

Webinar Description: In this session Jennifer Bonine and Rick Faulise will explore new shifts in testing paradigms. Demonstrate an AI first testing method that integrates with your current manual and automation testing, and understand AI that aids your app teams. Re-think where you want to spend time and money in your testing team in a challenge that plagues most companies of too much to test and too little time.

Webinar Info: 22nd Aug, 2pm BST with Jennifer Bonine & Rick Faulise

RESERVE YOUR SEAT

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