It is been a week since EuroSTAR at the time I am writing this. I am still looking back at EuroSTAR 2017. A week in which I went to back to work and got back into my regular routine. I must admit a few days EuroSTAR in Copenhagen did me good. I enjoyed the atmosphere of EuroSTAR, I got a good sneak peek on what is going on the test community outside my job and as a benefit I enjoyed Copenhagen. It is almost like my hometown Amsterdam, only a little friendlier, cleaner, greener and a bit more expensive.
I think it is time now to reflect on the conference. To think about all the things I have heard and seen and to consider which ones made a lasting impression. Also it is helpful to look back to think about the things that are significant to be taken back into my own work sphere. Which ideas can I use to improve our test processes, the test team, or even to become a better version of my testing self.
What I Got From EuroSTAR
What I got out of the conference are a bunch of ideas, inspiration and eye-openers. The conference did not provide me with much practical knowledge and ready-to-implement tools. But on the other hand, I did not necessarily look for that, so the talks that may have been offering this, I might have well missed. I went to the conference with the idea of getting a better understanding where testing as profession and testing as process in software development are heading to in the future.
The conference definitely fed my mind with ideas on this. No clear answers, just possibilities. But enough possibilities to know that testing is alive and kicking and will be for the years to come.
The things that stuck into my mind the past week are:
- Think Big: organise a testing conference and celebrate 25 years of existence: wow!
- Think Critical: don’t blindly trust, but open your eyes for the blind spots that are there!
- Shift left: ensure developers become better testers, which with all the nice test tools should not be too hard anymore.
- Use your imagination and apply some magic and solve the impossible. Testers are often the glue in a project. At the final testing stage everything comes together. That’s why testing to me is magic.
- Remember: anything in your life may require a tester’s mindset, from finding a boy friend to hacking your pace maker, to saving your daughter. Wow.
For the conference was very worth while to attend. It opened my ideas, made me think, made me connect and made me explore. The conference surely did not cover all aspects of testing. Some important topics in tech, like performance, big data and artificial intelligence were not, or hardly covered. But like testing: a conference cannot cover everything.
By looking back, I see that the major theme “magic” inspired this conference to be all about mindset and thinking, being critical and shifting into new territories.
