I’ve just returned from Melbourne, where the inaugural Australia Testing Days 2016 (#ATD2k16) was held. I love these conferences. They are really what drives our community. In this case the TEAM Meetup Melbourne gave rise to the conference, which is new. Usually it’s the other way around, that smaller groups emerge from conferences. Nonetheless I thought it was a great success. People seemed to enjoy themselves and by the amount of participation I saw they were keenly interested too.
Category Archives: Communities
Australian Testing Days 2016 in Melbourne
For those that have missed this so far, take note that there will be a cool conference coming up in Melbourne with yours truly. My expectations are high for the 1st Australian Testing Days conferece. The lineup and topics look top notch. Have a look here: https://testengineeringalliance.com/australian-testing-days-2016/
If you decide to book use ERLEWEIN15 in the coupon section for a 15% conference discount.
KWST 2015
Just a follow up on the 2015 Kiwi Workshop on Software Testing (Aug 2015). Find my write-up here:
http://www.associationforsoftwaretesting.org/2015/10/11/grant-program-kwst2015/
In attendance this year were:
James Bach, Oliver Erlewein, Richard Robinson, Aaron Hodder, Sarah Burgess, Andy Harwood, Adam Howard, Mark Boyt, Chris Priest, Mike Talks, Joshua Raine, Scott Griffiths, John Lockhart, Sean Cresswell, Rachel Carson, Till Neunast, James Hailstone, David Robinson and Katrina Clokie
by
Oliver Erlewein
KWST 2014
A late report from our workshop last year. I stumbled across it again in my preparations for KWST (Kiwi Workshop on Software Testing) 2015. It was supposed to be published through our gracious sponsor, The Association for Software Testing (AST), but it never eventuated. So I thought I’d post it here. Better late than never.
So here goes….
For the fourth year in a row, Wellington (New Zealand) has successfully hosted the Kiwi Workshop on Software Testing. The two-day intensive testing workshop is one of the key drivers of the Context-Driven Testing (CDT) community Down Under.
In its beginnings, the aim was to give the experienced and senior community members a platform to drive innovation and exchange ideas. The impact of KWST in the community over these past years has had far reaching effects in New Zealand as well as Australia.
Workshops, conferences, and magazines have emerged since, which have lifted the game right across the board. KWST 2014 was specifically aimed at involving new faces in the community and not drawing as much on the established KWST crowd.
The topic this year was:
“How to speed up testing? – and why we shouldn’t”
Current ISO #stop29119 & Petition
As you probably can’t have overlooked there is a Petition out for stopping ISO29119. On this blog we have all signed the petition and wholeheartedly agree with the sentiments/concerns that a lot of testers have. Since there’s been a lot written about this we don’t think we have much detail to add. So if you want to sign the petition go here:
If you need the short and low down we suggest reading the excellent abstract by Michael Bolton here. The CAST presentation/video that kicked it all off here.
Also see our original post from way back when here. For MUCH more in depth stuff read everything you can find here (see you in a week or so 😉 ).
We’re all hoping you will join in supporting this cause. Also follow twitter hashtag #stop29119 for new developments.
by Oliver Erlewein
Sydney Testers have Levelled-up!
In the spirit of gamification, Sydney Testers Meetup have definitely levelled-up. Significant advancements in structure and commitment have seen a robust
platform to operate the meeting format from.
Last Wednesday’s evening on Test Automation, Vibe Hotel Sydney CBD, was a very successful event.
CITCON Auckland 2014
So, CITCON Auckland (http://www.citconf.com/) is over and what a blast it was!
What I really like about this conference is, that there is such a diversity of people coming to it. It is not the usual siloed Dev/Test/BA/… type conference but attendees come from all over. That means the know-how is totally diverse, as are the topics. And these were the topics (click on the pic to get the full res version): 
Testing Trapeze
The Australasian testing community has another reason to rejoice. We welcome the 1st issue of Testing Trapeze Magaine! Katrina has done a wonderful (and often hard) job of pulling together a fantastic magazine. And two of our own HTW writers, Aaron and David, are in it with cool articles that I am sure will rock some boats. So take some time over the weekend to have a look and read and I’m sure you will not be disappointed. And if you have something to say get in contact with Katrina to get published in future releases.
Rex Black on how to recognise a CDT tester [Updated]
We’re often in a spot, where we have to interview testers for a position. We also get interviewed ourselves. So as someone who considers himself aligning to CDT, how do you recognise who you have in an interview?
Over the years I’ve developed my own style and it gets me usable results but Rex Black and Michael Bolton have put it so nicely into this FaceBook post I really can’t resist posting it here. It makes the point so well I couldn’t possibly add anything more to it.
So if you ever wondered who you are or what a CDT tester interview looks like…
When you fail, get back up and do it again!
“This is the second KWST where I’ve woken up the next day thinking of looking for another career. Sometimes the problems in testing can feel just too big to tackle, and that hits home to me after the event (depressingly so).” – Anonymous
So, yet another wonderful software testing community event has come to an end; KWST3. Oh, did I mention I wasn’t there? Grrr… damn bills! However, I did follow it quite closely on Twitter and have seen some snippets of feedback since the event. The above quote was something that I could both relate to, and take great concern over.
Hello Test World 