Monday, January 31, 2011

Why testers should attend software testing conference?

4 weeks ago, I received a tweet from @sbharath1012 with early bird registration details to unite participants for software testing conference in India, Chennai on 29th January 2011. It is all about the Bug.deBug test community. In next few fractions of seconds I started to share this tweet to my co-testers, they seem to be exciting about it. This time I'm glad to see all my co-testers were interested to attend Chennai testing conference, unlike few of my co-testers who was reluctant earlier in Aug 2010 for Bangalore testers meet up. They might have rejected because of geographical delimits I guess ;) but this time everyone was prepared to meet other testers to confer & learn. Yes, that’s when I started to realize the change in Indian tester’s mindset.

Mindset-change to confer has begun:
The time when rest of the testing community would probably be having a long day sleep on a Saturday morning, my co-testers like @GreatApeTested, @senthil_k_v , @aparulprasath, @siva_qa@ponkm and I were all set to participate in testing conference at Tidel Park Auditorium . The registration process started to begin even before the scheduled time 0900 AM IST to manage the crowd. Yes, I was able to see more than 200 passionate testers waiting in a long queue to enter into the conference hall. That’s an amazing big crowd of the first ever meet of Bug.deBug testing event isn’t?

Events scheduled to trigger testers thinking hats:
The time when the volunteers of Bug.deBug council was pushing each esteemed guest speakers to meet the start-and-stop time with the minute hoarding as per their planned-scheduled, I was thinking wont each speaker continue to share their test experience throughout the day, I know it’s an impossible claim :) . Each tester-speaker was unique in the way they had grown up from a beginner to expert level. It was a great forum for every one of us to learn how they grew, and what problems they faced during their daily-test-activities and how they resolved to become a successful tester today. The elite speakers showcasing the presentations can be viewed from the below links for FREE.

1. Vipul kocher, President, Indian Testing Board, presented on “Present problems and future solutions"
Notes from Shiva Mathivanan: Time is a terrible teacher, so am I. The future of testing lies on we thinking innovatively and let code do its best. Technology is the slave, Idea is the master. Ask yourself are you a better person today than yesterday BUT ask how better are you? Is the question we must ask ourself.

2. Narayan Raman, CEO, Tyto Software presented on "Economical, Robust Web Automation using Sahi "
Notes from Shiva Mathivanan: Sahi a free download test tool, works well with Ajax, web 2.0, Agile methodologies. Sahi records on all browsers

3. Pradeep Soundararajan, Director, Moolya Testing, presented on "Notes from a problem solving tester consultant"
Notes from Shiva Mathivanan: Pradeep's speech was too short to me. I felt he should have spoken for much longer time :). It had so much of humour, fun & learnings.

4. Ruturaj Doshi, QA Lead, Eual Experts India Ltd, presented on "Smarter ways of doing Selenium Automation(Functional Test Automation) "
Notes from Shiva Mathivanan: Great explanation of functional test automation.

5. Anuj Magazine, Manager, Products (Globalization Services), presented on "The Emerging Trend of Cloud Computing and Software Testing "
Notes from Shiva Mathivanan: Cloud is a metaphor for Internet. More information is provided in slides.

6. Ajay Balamurugadas, Senior QA Engineer, EFI India Pvt. Ltd, presented on "I am the Bug Hunter"
Notes from Shiva Mathivanan: Mindmap, MerryHadALittleLamb. Test for yourselves. Finding bugs is one of the information you provide to stake holders. Get to know/understand who we are? Why are we here?

7. Praveen Singh, Founder, 99 tests presented on "Testing at Startups "
Notes from Shiva Mathivanan: 99tests is an inspiring website to participate and win prize during weekends for passionate testers.

Testing Tips: 
All the testers were requested to stick testing tips for the rest of the testers community to get learnt. I have placed my three tips onto the sticky board. I know its hard to find mine in the snap shot :). And the best testing tip was awarded with great books. 'Lessons learnt in software testing by Michael Bolton' and 'Six Thinking Hats by Edward de Bono'. I was worried that my testing tip was not up for the it. :(. During the testing event a donation box was kept to help our tester friend. We still have time to help him. Please do help chandru, thanks!


Interactive Q&A session:
Participant testers who ever raised hands was provided with microphone to shoot the uncover questions for which they found straight-forward answers from the guest-speakers. The best question was awarded with fabulous books. We all had drinks, cookies, lunch, T-shirt and participation certificate as well. On the whole, the Bug.deBug in association with non-profit society RIA-RUI did a remarkable testing event to be cherished in the hearts & brains of Chennai software testers. I'm sure the participants whoever attended cannot disagree my statement, rather they could have more interesting stories from their end unlike me to share about it. If so I would like to hear about your stories as well!

If I have missed to highlight any important factor, please comment about it!
Best Regards,
Shiva Mathivanan

15 comments:

  1. I actually attended my first conference this past summer. It was incredibly helpful- by providing me with new ideas and helping me make new connections and by getting me really excited and motivated to enact these changes. It was a great experience and I defiantly think testers can gain a lot by attending conferences.

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  2. Hope you got your money's worth in the conference. It was nice to meet you in person.

    The heuristic is Mary Had A Little Lamb and few explanations about it can be found here http://www.construx.com/Page.aspx?hid=1711 and here http://www.developsense.com/blog/2011/01/exegesis-saves/

    Hope to see you again soon!

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  3. Check out my experiences with the conference here - http://balajiponnada.wordpress.com/2011/01/31/bug-debug-conference-chennai/

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  4. Hi Shiva,
    About testers conference I must say it was a great event for me. Regarding you’re write-up I must say it’s fantastic flow about that events, that I got to remember the event again while I read. Very big thanks to you for giving second opportunity to participate in BugdeBug next to Bangalore testers meet-up. Also, you have said "Pradeep Soundararajan speech was too short to me" in your blog post. My expectation was also the same.
    Thanks,
    @siva_qa

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  5. A Fantastic write up about the event Shiva.. Thanks a lot for your support and bringing your team to the conference.

    Looking forward to meet up in all the Bug deBug conference happening in India. :)

    Great Blog on the whole. Thanks for blogging about Bug debug :)

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  6. Nice post Shiva, Thanks again to help me to participate this event, I have learned little what is testing what testing peoples do, the event which fired up me. I like the service of volunteers and coordinators who helped the participants and Thanks for the Bug debug and RIA-RUI they bring 7 Wonders to Chennai (Vipul, Narayan, Pradeep, Ruturaj, Anuj, Ajay, Praveen)

    @GreatApeTested

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  7. @Devon Smith: Good to know you too had benefited attending testing conferences. Thanks for spending time in reading & penning down your experience and thoughts.

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  8. @Ajay Balamurugadas: It was great to meet you in person to sense your passion towards testing. It was a worthy day to spend worthy time with you. I too hope to meet you again. Thanks for the heuristic links.

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  9. @Balu: I do have missed to highlight the interesting puzzle in my blog post about Bug debug testing conference, which you have covered. Thanks for sharing in your perspective of how the conference helped you and the testing community.

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  10. Hi Shiva,
    Your post is a wonderful recap of Bug debug. Thanks a bunch for bring back those moments :-)

    Its beautifully written.

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  11. @Siva: Thanks for the comment and I’m glad to assist you even further. Keep practicing the learning you get from the test conference. I wish you to achieve more success in your early start of test career.

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  12. @Bharath S: Thanks for organizing a great conference of the Testers, By the Testers, and For Testers as rightly quoted by Dhanasekar S. I look forward for more such events which always have innovation around. I'm sure will be part of it. :)

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  13. @Natrajan: Thanks for the compliment, actually you’re interest has shaped you what you are today. Work towards your goal and you can be the 8th wonder soon, be prepared!

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  14. @Krishnaveni: Your comments made me to realize my mission to capture the event has accomplished. However I feel you, Dhanasekar S & Balu have captured the conference on your own perspective and drafted it well. Kudos! :)

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