Matt Heusser’s Blog
Testing at the Edge of Chaos
Trip Report – San Mateo
I just got back from a conference in San Mateo, California, followed by a short stay in Salem, Oregon. Here’s my version of the skinny, in no particular order.
(A) STPCon was great. I got to run into Michael Bolton, Rob Sabourin, finally meet Doug Hoffman and BJ Rollison, and make a few new friends. My biggest complaints were with myself. I did not plan to stay for the whole conference, and I presented so much material that I didn’t get to see many of my peers present. What I did see, however, was spot-on – particular what I heard of Rob Sabourin’s keynote on Scrum.
(B) Both the Grand Rapids International Airport (GRR) and the Portland International Aiport (PDX) have free wireless. Minnepolis/St. Paul and San Francisco, on the other hand, charge just enough that it isn’t worth it. This is good news if you are flying into GRR for the Great Lakes Software Excellence Conference – www.glsec.org – for which planning is finally getting started for 2008. (Sorry – the Call For Papers is not yet public.)
(C) I bought a copy of “Fast Company” for the plane. Long-time readers know that I enjoy it’s sister magazine, Inc, mostly for the inspiring writing. I’ve always been a bit put-off by Fast Company; I don’t quite “get” the concept of a magazine and it feels weird. No, I mean it literally feels odd. Still, I needed reading material for the plane, so I bought an issue to sample. It was good, but not in the way I expected. First off, the magazine is not printed on cheap paper, but instead on 100% recycled paper, which explains the odd feeling. Second, I got two actual real ideas that I intend to take action on, directly from the magazine. For me, that is both unusual and valuable.
(D) Nothing spells success for lightning talks than a comedy of errors. We had problems with the presentation equipment, with getting a mac to project, with powerpoint templates and getting automatic, timed slide advancement working. Not only was it a total blast for the audience (and interesting for the organizers!) it was a great lesson in the ways automation can go wrong.
My favorite part of the lightning talks: Jason Huggins, creator of the selenium test framework, is showing how he tests a google orb. (A google orb is a continuous integration light that lights up red or green based on weather the build passes or fails.) He explains that he lights the bulb, then uses the macbook’s digitial camera to take a picture of it, then his test software analyzes the pixels in the picture to determine if the bulb lit up the correct color.
Michael Bolton’s Response was priceless:
“Couldn’t you just look at it?”
(E) I really, really don’t like traveling. The enclosed spaces (planes, hotel) leads to air circulation problems and noise pollution. Flying leads to lots of essentially wasted time and tends to hurt our relationships with actual, well … people. At the same time, my old traveling regime will have to give way a little bit so I can focus on testing for Socialtext and, well, being a father to my children.
My current problem is a glut of opportunity. I simply can’t do all the good things that are coming my way. The net result is that I will plan to be a little scarce at conferences for the rest of 2008-2010. That may mean more writing or blogging, or maybe something else, but I’m going to cut down on the traveling. If you want to step up to fill the void in the Continental United States, please let me know; I know of several program chairs looking for speakers.
In other news, The original spot for Google Test Automation Conference 2008 was Hyderabad, Indian, but management just announced a venue change to Seattle, Washington, set for an October conference date. I was hoping to use GTAC to get out to the sub-continent of India, an excuse I am still looking for. From here, it looks to me like a trip to India that might become my one big traveling conference in 2009.
STPCon Draws near ….
I’ll be spending the weekend (or, at least, a lot of it) prepping for the Software Test&Performance Conference in San Mateo, California. If you’ll be there, please shoot me a note, we’ll find a few minutes to talk and maybe run through some testing challenges.
If you can’t make it, I still have something for you – my article “Where Do I Go From Here?” On career management software testers appears in the April Issue of Better Software Magazine. While it is a subscription based magazine, I am allowed to give out copies of my article as a PDF.
Want more? You can can follow the link above for a free issue of the magazine, and a subscription link if you want more after that.
WOTD Wins formal support
The Software Division of the American Society for Quality, the Agile Alliance, and the Association for Software Testing are all formally supporting WOTD.
At this point, I expect to have have modest amounts available to defray travel expenses. We’re still working on a policy for it, and it will be first-come, first serve basis.
So far, key participants include the the president of ASQ’s Software Division, the president of the Association for Software Testing, and a co-author of the Agile Manifesto.
Isn’t it about time for you to apply?
WOTD – Update
Calvin College is hosting WOTD, and they have offered the website a permanent home – here.
This supersedes the original CFP; I’m moving my blog entry to refer to it.
Even if you can’t make it, here are some ways you can help WOTD:
1) Blog about it; link to the CFP. (Perhaps for background, some of the old stuff on Creative Chaos? )
2) Don’t have a blog? Send out the link to any email discussion lists or user’s groups you belong to.
3) Don’t belong to any groups? Send it to your friends and colleagues who are interested in doing software development better. Two groups I am especially interested in seeing represented: Customers and Product Owners.
4) Don’t have any friends?
Man, that stinks. No really, that stinks.
How can you meet new people? I know this great peer conference in August …
Technical Debt – Workshop
I am pleased to announce the first Workshop On Technical Debt (WOTD) will be held August 14/15 on the Campus of Calvin College in West Michigan. The event is organized by Mr. Steve Poling and myself, and will be facilitated by Mike Kelly, president of the Association for Software Testing. We will hold a social the evening of the 13th.
This is not an exhibition conference with hundreds of attendees and prepackaged speeches. That kind of training certainly has a place, but this workshop is different. It is a chance for a dozen people to roll up our sleeves, talk about what happens in the real world, share experiences, ideas, and lessons learned. Every “attendee” will be a participant, expected to be bring ideas and challenge, critique, and improve the ideas of others.
This is a chance to be personally involved in increasing the software development body of understanding. To increase the state of the art – and – possibly – influence the practice.
Oh, and It’s going to be an absolute blast.
And free. Yes, that’s right, I see no reason to charge for this workshop. I will not be able to cover your travel or food expenses, but we are working out a few sponsorship deals to *help* a little bit with those expenses.
Now, all participants are expected to present something for discussion; that can be a lightning talk, experience report, one-page position paper, case study, simulation … it doesn’t matter. The first draft of The Call for Participation is up on the website.
As I mentioned earlier, seating will be limited to 15 (at most, 20) participants and is by application and invitation only. Details on how to apply are available in the CFP.
Are you in?
Lighting Talks Web Page Up -
I am now officially in recruiting mode for lightning talks to ST&PCon, and have added a web page about lightning talks – here.
Greased Lightning (Talks)
Lightning Talks are ten five-minutes talks in a sixty-minute slot. As a speaker, I enjoy them because they sharpen my mind. There’s no time for an introductory joke, no long agenda, no 15 minutes of “body” with 15 minutes of Q&A at the end. Nothing to hide behind. You get to make one point, make it well, and get off the stage. If you’re full of it, the audience knows pretty quick. Then again, if you do a bad job, it’s over quickly.
As a learner, I enjoy lightning talks for, well … pretty much the same reasons. Plus, there’s the chance to learn five or six things in a one-hour slot. Things that must be easily defensible and easy to implement, because they have to be explained in five minutes.
I will be moderating lightning talks in San Mateo, California in April for the ST&P Conference. That means I need speakers – and that means, (maybe), you! I’m afraid I cannot offer you a conference discount or freedbies; you’ll have to speak for it’s own benefit. But, if you want to try speaking by dipping your toe in the pool, or you are speaking at the conference but have the one odd thing in the corner that’s itching you – please, drop me a line.
Note: I am using the term with written permission from Mark Jason Dominus, who introduced lightning talks at YAPC in 2001. If you are looking for more information on lightning talks or ideas, here are a few web pages:
About Lightning Talks – Dominus
Giving Lightning Talks – Mark Fowler
Here’s an interesting lightning talk on YouTube: Sellenium Vs. Web Driver
Again, I’d love to hear from you. If you’re interested in giving at lightning talk at ST&P, please, send me an email.
Agile Alliance Test Tools Workshop
Elisabeth Hendrickson recently hosted the Agile Alliance Functional Test Tools Workshop in Portland, Oregon. I am impressed by both the idea and the attendees – Ben Simo, Brian Marick, Gerard Mezaros, Jim Shore … it’s am impressive list.
While the stars did not align and I could not attend, the good news is that conversation is continuing over the internet.
First, there is the AA-FTT yahoo discussion group, which is open to the public.
Also, the lightning talks were video recorded that they are available on google video right here.
If you’d like to pick one to start with, Brian Marick’s “Let Them Eat Cake” is especially interesting.
There’s something going on here with the way we use terms like “Test” and “Requirement” that causes confusion and misunderstanding. Fundamentally, various groups, like the traditional test community, the “Agile” Developer Community, the Scrum People, and so on, are looking for different benefits from testing. Thus, in conversations, we “miss” each other or leave unsatisfied. Brian even did a second lighting talk that touches on this.
Perhaps that’s a post for another day.
Overheard at GLSEC …
Anytime I hear that “Failure is not an option”, I think to myself that it’s true. Failure is probably not an option … it is assured.
— Michael Bolton
See you in San Francisco …
Well, almost. I will be in San Mateo, California, April 15-17th, for the Software Test&Performance Conference.
My conference talks will be on “Evolution, Revolution and Test Automation”, “Reinventing Software Testing(*)”, “So you’re doomed”, and, of course, lightning talks.
If you haven’t worked with the folks at BZMedia before (the people behind STPCon and EclipseWorld), you might want to consider it. They are currently seeking authors and speakers on software performance testing topics. This will be my first STPCon, so I will certainly let you know how it goes.
In other news, It’s just about time for GLSEC. So, if you’ll excuse me, I gotta go prep …
–heusser
(*) – Thanks to Sheri Valenti for that third title. I can only hope that my talk will be worthy of it.
