EuroSTAR2015 – Personas and A Road Map

[Ruud]

This week I had a look at the programme of this years event and I think we (the EuroSTAR Programme Committee) managed to put together an exciting event. All the currently “hot” topics are included, we have seasoned speakers as well as novices. It’s great to see that we have a broader platform across Europe.

One of the things on my “to do”-list is to create roadmaps through the programme for different “personas” that will join us in Maastricht (personas are fictional characters created to represent the different delegate types that will join the conference and might visit similar tracks and sessions based on their shared interest.

Feel free to share your thoughts about personas as well as a possible roadmap with me.

Cheers
Ruud

[Ronan Healy]

@ruudteunissen I think this is definitely a great idea. I think for roadmaps we could have those that are attending to highlight their own testing role, the area of testing they are interested in, and what talks they would like to attend.

An example could be:

Test Role: Test Lead

Testing Areas: Context-driven testing

Sessions Planning on Attending: Wednesday: Paul Coyne, Stephen Janaway, Stuart Reid . Thursday: Ian McCowatt, Michael Bolton.

This is just a suggested idea for a road map. If you are attending or were attending EuroSTAR, how would you map out the sessions that are relevant to you?

[Paul]

I’m probably not a typical delegate. I present at ten to twenty conferences each year and was EuroSTAR Programme Chair last year, of course. I’ll leave it to others to name my ‘persona’.

My choices at conferences has three drivers:

1. My current interests (Mobile/Internet of things, DevOps/Automation
2. Speakers I know offering something new
3. Speakers I don’t know offering something new (or come recommended by someone I do know).

So my choices, today, are below. I’ve no doubt my mind will change on the day :O)

Tuesday:
The App is not Enough – Testing Wearable Banking, Carl Johnson, SOCO Norge AS, Norway
Mobile Testing: One Step Forward or Two Steps Back? Susan van de Ven, Marktplaats (eBay Classifieds), Netherlands

Wednesday:
Becoming A Manager – Some ideas for Those Who Are New to Management, Rob Lambert, NewVoiceMedia, UK
Why I Lost My Job As a Test Manager and What I Learnt As a Result, Stephen Janaway, NET-A-PORTER GROUP, UK
Demystifying Embedded Software, Shmuel Gershon, Intel, Israel
Testing with a Zone Defense, Pamela Gillaspie, TestPlant, USA
Using Docker/Software Containers for Automated Testing, Pini Reznik, Container Solutions, Netherlands
Testing your Marriage, René Tuinhout, Piqto, Netherlands

Thursday:
Virtualizing APIs for Better App Testing, Lorinda Brandon, SmartBear Software, USA
No More Exploratory Testing, Michael Bolton, DevelopSense, Canada

[Pusser]

Test Role: Test Manager
Testing Areas: Manual scripted and exploratory testing, user acceptance test. Test team development and other people related stuff.
Main interest (this year): Knowledge sharing
I tend to look for sessions with funny or unusual titles. I think I will take something with me from any session.

Sessions Planning on Attending:

Tuesday:
T3 15:00 The Coffee Cup is Mightier Than the Keyboard by Martin Nilsson, House of Test, Sweden
T6 16:00 End-users: Involved at last! by Michał Stryjak, PiLab, Poland

Wednesday:
I’m not sure about the first slot on Wednesday, I might attend the lab there.
W7 11:00 Why I Lost My Job As a Test Manager and What I Learnt As a Result by Stephen Janaway, NET-A-PORTER GROUP, UK
I’ll have to team up with my colleague Karina on the next slot, so we can cover both:
W10 12:00 Measured Perception of Quality – The True Quality Metric by Ronnie Østgaard, Sopra Steria, Norway
W11 12:00 The 2015 Survival Guide: Lessons for Testing in the Wild by Julie Gardiner, Hitachi Consulting, UK
Next slot is also difficult. Maybe I’ll go listen and support the novices, maybe I’ll find out about Testing with a Zone Defense.
W19 14:45 Your Testing is a Joke by James Thomas, Linguamatics, UK, because he seems to know what he is talking about, and I love it when the speaker really knows their stuff.
Either:
W21 16:00 Just One Slide Inspired Me To Be a Better Coach for Testers in Agile teams by Grace O’Mahony, Openet, Ireland
Or:
W22 16:00 How My Test Strategy Made a Difference by Jurian van de Laar, Philips Healthcare, Netherlands

Thursday:
Th3 09:45 Test Process Improvement – How Hard Can It Be? by Geoff Thompson, Experimentus, UK
Th8 11:00 To Each His Own – How Needs Dictate the Tools by Martin Pihl, Konsultbolag1, Sweden, he has a funny introduction video, and I think I might learn something from him.

I’ll reserve my opinion on the last slots until the time approaches 

[Craig Lynch]

Test Role: Test Manager
Previous Eurostar Attendee?: No
Testing Areas: Manual Testing, Focussed on how to establish Automation in an existing test service
Sessions Planning on Attending: Mon: Rapid Software Testing; Tues: Survival Techniques for Testers; Weds: Automation sessions (W4, W8 and W12); Thurs: Test process Improvement and Test Design Made Easy

[Anonymous]

Still 4 Weeks ahead !
I’m looking forward to get inspired at Eurostar with real stories and real lessons learned: “Walking the Testing Talk”. But also getting more familiar with the new challenges, quality management is facing to near future.

Test Role: Team Lead

Testing Areas: Verification and Validation at one of Europe’s biggest Airports

Sessions planning on attending, at least:

Monday:
Root Causes of Agile Project Failures, Jeffery Payne

Tuesdag:
Implementing a Crowd Sourced Testing Effort, Rajini Padmanaban
Keynote 1 – TRENDZ 2030, Richard van Hooijdonk
Mobile Testing: One Step Forward or Two Steps Back?, Susan van de Ven
Keynote 2 – Kanban Testing and Lego, Kristoffer Nordström

Wednesday:
Keynote 3 – Test Automation: The DevOps Achilles Heel, Jeffery Payne
Integrating Beta Community Testing into Development using Gamification, Jana Gierloff
Why I Lost My Job As a Test Manager and What I Learnt As a Result, Stephen Janaway
How My Test Strategy Made a Difference, Jurian van de Laar

Thursday:
Keynote 4 – Growing From a Reckless Bughunter to a Stakeholder Conversationalist, Rikard Edgren
Snappy Visualizations for Test Communication, Thomas Vaniotis
Recap – Do Over Session

[Jinxu]

Monday: Exploring Web App (In)Security
Tuesday: Management Game!

[Ruud]

Thanks for the reactions and sharing your “roadmap”.

The personas I will use are based on following roles:
– (Test) Engineer – Specialized in Manual and/or Automated Testing
– Team Lead – Still participates in hands-on test activities
– (Test) Manager – Responsible for creating the “best possible” context for testing
– (Test) Consultant – Helping anyone to improve their testing

If applicable, I’ll take the different testing areas into account (e.g. context driven, manual, automated, Agile, regulatory, verification & validation, …)

If possible, I’ll highlight tracks and sessions that are of interest to “newbies”, “experts” and “alumni”.

The coming weeks, I’ll publish the roadmaps per persona so you can prepare yourself in advance.
And by the way, it’s only an advice…

[Author]

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