Ok, I’m just going to come right out and say it… I am a EuroSTAR Tragic. I was hooked from my very first Conference in a incredibly cold and snowy Munich in 1998. I’d flown almost 17,000 Km from Melbourne, Australia on a recommendation from Dot Graham – the most generous person I have ever met in the software testing community. It’s no exaggeration to say that Dot lit the “software testing fire” in my belly, when I first met her in London in 1995, and that fire still burns as bright as ever today!!
It’s incredible to think that I’m back for my seventh EuroSTAR as the official TEST Huddle Community Blogger, a role I am incredibly proud to have secured. When I attended EuroSTAR98, there were no social media feeds, no laptops, tablets or mobiles sending thousands of tweets, photos and memes to the software testing masses. In fact, the term Blogger didn’t even exist.
My main aim in this Conference Preview is to whet appetites, tickle fancies and hopefully help you hit the ground running. I know the biggest challenge for me as a delegate is to sift through the daily menu for something inspiring, intriguing, controversial or ground-breaking. So, with that in mind, on Tuesday afternoon I will be dropping in on @Susie13 for her Mobile Testing: One Step Forward or Two Steps Back session. I’ve already checked out Susie’s video synopsis and am ready for the real action.
On Wednesday morning, I’m looking forward to Jordan Setters Quality Debt: Is Your Project Going Bankrupt? One word in Jordan’s written synopsis appealed to me and that was “pragmatic”. Software testers who do not have pragmatism in their arsenal always struggle with stress and success. I have used my own tools to achieve the outcomes Jordan describes, so I’m keen to see how someone else has been successful with this technique.
Just before lunch on Wednesday, I’ll be reacquainting myself with @cheekytester and her 2015 Survival Guide: Lessons for Testing in the Wild. Julie Gardiner is always inspiring, thought-provoking and insightful. This is a really tough call because @ronnie_ostgaard is presenting in the same time slot as Julie (damn you Ruud, my first major conflict!!) with Measured Perception of Quality. The video replay will have to do.
One of the hot topics in the Twitter-sphere over the past 12 months has been the publishing of the ISO 29119 standards. So it would be a major oversight to not be in the room to hear two of the main protagonists behind this work – Stuart Reid and Anne Mette Hass. I have to fess up and say that I haven’t paid hard cash for the standards, but I have gathered as much background as I can in order to make my own judgements. Hopefully, this will be fiery debate with supporters and detractors alike flocking to this session after lunch on Wednesday.
If there is one session I will climb over bodies to be in the room for, it’s Michael Bolton‘s No More Exploratory Testing on Thursday morning. This is another tough call, because I have a massive conflict with Esko Arajarvi discussing Cognitive Biases.
I’ll also be attending all the Keynotes, hanging out in the Test Lab, loitering near the Soap Box, lounging around at the Couch Sessions and gorging on the Test Coffee (I’ll obviously be pretty wired after that one). I’ll also be endeavouring to interview loads of speakers and delegates to get the inside goss on what’s hot and what’s not.
As I said at the outset, this is the first in a series of Blog posts for EuroSTAR 2015. I will also be producing Daily Program Previews & Reviews during the Conference as well as a few one-off posts based upon my personal liaisons.
I will endeavour to make it to every corner of the MECC in order to bring you the biggest and best coverage of any EuroSTAR to date. I am also hoping to bring my Testing Robot to assist me in my travails (international border control and customs permitting).
See you in Maastricht.
About The Author
Colin is this year’s community Reporter winner. He is a former software developer, now software tester. He currently lives in Melbourne, Australia and provides consulting services through his own company. He has been writing his “iTesting” Blog for over 3 years and has a presence on Twitter as “ColintheTester”. Colin has been a EuroSTAR presenter on three occasions and has also spoken at dozens of other conferences around the world.
Colin will be providing daily updates on the TEST Huddle blog throughout the conference.
