At Agile Testing Days 2024, I offer a full-full day tutorial, ‘The Disappearance of J. T. Womblegast — A Git Tutorial‘ (on 19. Nov.). As the name suggests, the tutorial is about working with Git. But it’s also a mystery journey about the disappearance of some J.T. Womblegast who strangely left nothing but a Git repository containing hints about this … retreat.
Of course, other topics are possible. If you’d like to take this opportunity and have any questions or suggestions, talk to the conference organisers (or me directly).
Note: I denote this as day zero since the conference starts counting the conference days, with ‘day one’ being the first day after the tutorial day.
As every year, the Agile Testing Days start with a tutorial day. I chose ‘Breaking into AI and Machine Learning’ by Tariq King. The tutorial followed a top-down approach. We did not have to (re-) learn linear algebra and the like before getting started. Instead, after a brief introduction to the topic, we could work on an example task: Classifying irises. A CSV file containing typical attributes of various flower species was used to create a model that could classify a flower as one of the species the model was trained on. Tariq introduced this as the ‘Hello world of AI’.
We saw how overfitting a model can cause issues when a model is used with new data it wasn’t trained on. This happens when the model matches the test data (nearly) perfectly, which usually causes larger misclassifications when new data is put into the model.
We also learned how models can be trained on images to classify them. This is the next step since it requires processing much more data.
Then ChatGPT was introduced. While I am still a bit sceptical about some of its output since it’s known to (for example) ‘hallucinate’ citations for scientific papers. Yet, I am impressed with what can be achieved when it’s provided with enough data and prompts tuned to its needs.
In the first keynote, Maaike Brinkhof wrapped the experiences in her software testing career in the story of a role-playing game. In this setting, she met increasingly hard-to-conquer ‘bosses’. Inspiring, entertaining – and providing input for the following keynotes. In other words, It opened my mind for the conference to come.
Day 1 – No Overnight Sucess & Sociocracy
In the day’s first keynote, Kristel Kruustuk presented her thoughts about ‘10x Software Testing‘. My takeaway was this: You don’t become a ’10× tester’ overnight. Instead, it requires persistence and regular training. This matched nicely with my personal experience and is linked to one of my sessions this year.
The next session I attended was CraigRisi’s ‘Becoming an Open Sourcerer‘. He explained what teams should consider when they use open-source software. He also discussed the advantages and potential disadvantages of using open-source software. Finally, we learned about contributing to open-source projects. While contributing code changes is likely the most common way to contribute, providing documentation is another essential aspect, as are providing and improving bug reports and even (automated) tests.
Consent means “Good enough for now, safe enough to try”
John Buck, Agile Testing Days 2023
As a tester, I’m unsure how to use this to debug management, and I will admit that I haven’t tried it yet.
Day 2 – Workshop & Infotainment
I missed the first keynote of the day since the next scheduled time slot included my workshop ‘Fun with U̡̟ͩ̊̏ͬͯni͑c͐̀͢od̲̎ͅḕ̶̩͙͆‘. Much to my pleasure, it was well attended, and folks were surprised at how bad some software is with processing Unicode. As Maaike tweeted:
Biggest lesson so far at the Unicode workshop: good luck in life with computers if your name contains diacritics #agileTD
After collecting my workshop material and winding down, I attended the keynote ‘Everyone is a Leader‘ by Zuzi Šochová. I liked how easy it was to follow along and the message that everyone can be a leader – at some time, for some topic. Leadership doesn’t have to be assigned but can be assumed temporarily when it makes sense.
The following two keynotes were mindblowing! Dr. Rochelle Carr requested the audience to ‘MOVE THAT WALL‘. This talk was loud and inspiring and made me think about which walls I have that I may want to move – or tear down entirely.
‘Don’t go breaking my code‘, by Lena Nyström & Samuel Nitsche, was a keynote in a musical or rock opera format: Loud, entertaining, and fun. It also explained where and why testers and developers have different points of view. Not only that, they also demonstrated ways to get along with each other better.
I ended the day by spending time at the Agile Testing Days Book Fair, organised by Tobias Geyer and Maik Nogens. Thankfully, I got the books I was looking for: Zuzi Šochvá’s ’The Agile Leader’ and John Buck’s ‘We The People’. They were even kind enough to sign the books for me. Thank you!
Day 3 – Conflict Resolution, Micropowers & Judgment Day
In the morning keynote ‘A Fighting Chance – Learning the Art of Conflict Resolution‘, Alex Schladebeck presented pitfalls to avoid when dealing with conflict and good ways to deal with them. Planned as a pair keynote, the second speaker, Sophie Küster, couldn’t be at the conference. Sophie, you were missed, and we all hope you’re back next year! My key takeaway: Noticing that someone perceives a conflict goes a long way to mitigating it. – Especially if the affected parties know about the pitfalls, such as saying, ‘You always/never do XY’.
After this, Eveline Moolenaars and I prepared our talk ‘Micropowers: Learn to Speak Up and Be Heard‘. This was about our shared experience of recovering from cancer and its treatment and how that helped us to start asking for help – and helping others. We found the term ‘superpower’ intimidating and came up with the term ‘micropower’. We defined this as an ability one can trust that helps to act when we see things that should be changed.
In the morning keynote, ’A Fighting Chance – Learning the Art of Conflict Resolution’, Alex Schladebeck presented pitfalls to avoid when facing conflicts and good ways to deal with them. Planned as a pair keynote, the second speaker, Sophie Küster, couldn’t be at the conference. Sophie, you were missed, and we all hope you’re back next year! My takeaway: Noticing that someone perceives a conflict goes a long way to mitigating it. – Especially if the affected parties know about the pitfalls, such as saying, ‘You always/never do XYZ’.
After this, Eveline Moolenaars and I prepared our talk ‘Micropowers: Learn to Speak Up and Be Heard’. This was about our shared experience of recovering from cancer and its treatment and how that helped us to start asking for help – and helping others. We found the term ‘superpowers’ intimidating and came up with the word ‘micropower’. We defined this as an ability one can trust that helps to act when we see things that should be changed.
The keynote ‘Wait! That’s Not Tested’ by Heather Reid introduced the idea that not all things need to be tested. We need to consider time, cost and risk when testing software. And since there is never enough time to test everything anyway, we must make bets. This connects nicely to John Buck’s definition of consent: ‘Good enough for now, safe enough to try’.
The keynote, ‘The Rise of Generative AI: Judgment Day’ by Tariq King, was the perfect ending to the official program since it nicely connected to my tutorial day. He presented content (paintings and music) in pairs: One an original from a human artis, the other one created by AI is the style of that artist. The audience was tasked to tell which one was the original and which one the ‘copy’. – I found it shocking that we, the audience, did not perform particularly well.
My overall impression of the Agile Testing Days: It was a very well-planned conference, with sessions that connected ideas and concepts. I am already looking forward to Agile Testing Days 2024 – and have many ideas for proposals already.
Thank you to everyone I have met and talked with this year. I hope to see you again in 2024.
I arrived the day before the conference started and went to the gym & pool area first. After a 5½ hour drive through changing weather conditions (snow, fog, hail, sunshine, rain, more snow, sleet, and finally some more sunshine), this is just the right thing for me to shake off the stress.
I very much enjoyed this well organised tutorial. Ben presented several way to find problems and then solve them. This included some role playing and games. What I appreciate: We got all the material needed to use the games in our projects as well as his ebook ‘Impediments – Problem? What Problem?’. That’s going to be so useful when applying the exercises in my projects – or playing the game with my teams (when I will meet teams in person).
The day was made even better, since I received the confirmation that I am booked for my next project. This is especially nice, since I have worked with the team already and like it a lot!
Day 1
I found Lily Higham’s talk ‘Testing the BBC World Service‘ exciting, since she explained how her team has to cover an incredibly large number of systems, languages and devices. One important insight: ‘Test with real devices’. Also remarkable: She noted how the BBC has to deal with being blocked in some countries and how, in some cases, professional smugglers help spreading the news anyway. No details about this were shared for a good reason. We were advised against trying the smuggling ourselves.
During the OpenSpace on this day we shared some information about Mastodon – and what to consider when joining it. My point of view: Two things are important:
The server you chose
The account name
While I didn’t use them in the Open Space, here are slides I prepared just in case:
For easy reference, here are the links used in the slides:
As is a tradition by now the first day ended with a themed costume party. This year the ‘dress code’ was ‘Fairytales’. This is also the Award Night to celebrate MIATPP (Most Influential Agile Testing Professional Person) of the year, this time won by Janet Gregory. Congratulations!
Day 2
On this day, I missed quite a few sessions I wanted to attend, since I held a workshop “Fast Feedback Using Ruby”. With about 10 people attending it was just the right size to help with the many things that can (and will) go wrong in a workshop where coding is a major part. Being (maybe over-) prepared helped a lot: While I had some material prepared to be downloaded, I knew (from experience in an earlier year) that conference WiFi may – or may not – work well. I now bring my own WiFi, so I have a back-up in case the conference one doesn’t work so well. I also had the downloadable material on a tiny small local web server – and a USB stick. Yes, I was over prepared, very likely.
The day ended with the first ‘AgileTD book fair‘ and the ‘Digesting Poets Society‘. I had the pleasure to present ‘Software People … Work From Home — Insights & Experiences From Planet Earth‘, a free ebook to which contributors from (so far) 28 countries and 33 authors provided text about life during the pandemic. Only while I was talking to some of the new readers, I realised that this wasn’t a writing task for me (I still have to add my contribution), but a project management job. Organising so many people from so many countries was – and still is – some work, but oh what a pleasure, too.
Day 3
What I remember from this day most of all, is what Stéphanie Desby shared with me about her break from – and return to working in tech. I find it super interesting what leads people to leave tech, at least for a while, and then come back. As I had to leave tech for while myself, that’s probably no too surprising.
An Afterthought
I remember that in some (pre-pandemic) years, the conference covered the whole week, either with 2 tutorial days, or 4 conference days. While I thought the conference should move back to this longer format, now I’m not so convinced anymore. 4 full days with a LOT of input, talking and, yes, having fun, is demanding.
That said: I am already looking forward to the Agile Testing Days 2023! 🦄🌈
After a 10 year break I made it to an in-person Ruby conference again: Euruko 2022 in Helsinki. For travelling, I chose the Finnlines ferry from Travemünde to Helsinki. That’s travelling without a hurry, since each trip takes 30 hours. At the time of this writing, I’m sitting in the ship’s café looking out over the Baltic Sea into the sunshine, just south of Oland and slowly approaching and then passing Bornholm. There are worse places to write a post. 😁
Sunrise over the Baltic Sea Photo taken onboard the Finnmaid, while approaching the port of Vuosaari, Finland
Thankfully there’s a gym, a sauna (if a Finish line after all) and lots of nice places to take a seat watch the waves pass by. I even met the fist few other attendees on the ferry already!
Even before reaching Helsinki, Leo Kiisi one of the organisers, sent an invitation to join the sauna – including access to the open water. We met in the evening and had a great time as several attendees and a speaker joined. It was a fantastic way the end the first travel day, relaxing, refreshing and overall remarkable.
The opening Keynote was recorded and presented by Matz, and he busted several myths and claims that were made about Ruby. What surprised me most, is his take on type systems: He explained that (at least some) type systems are Turing compete. which means that the type system alone is already complex enough to encode any algorithm or program. 🤯 — Whether that’s desirable or not is another question. 😉
Wiktoria Dalach told us about how security aspects can be handled, by categorising the infinite space of possible issues into only thee categories:
Confidentiality: How to keep secrets secret
Integrity: How to be sure that we get what we expect
Availability: Ability to access our information always
What we’d need do do ourselves: Select the aspects from these categories that are most important to us — and them work on them.
Adarsh Pandit told us about ‘The Technical and Organizational Infrastructure of the Ruby Community’ – and drew parallels to the transportation infrastructure differences he found between California (where he lives) and Finland. I understood that the difference is mainly that in the US transportation seems to optimise the number of cars the system can handle, while in Finland it’s more the number of people and how they can get from A to B. We also learned how individuals (and companies) can support the Ruby community:
Contributing to the language implementation(s) and its libraries: The code is still being optimised, bugs a fixed etc. All think work needs to be done by someone. Thank someone could be you.
Support Ruby Central/Ruby Together with money: In the end services such as Rubygems (and its website & repositories), Bundler etc. require hardware to run on and that costs money. These projects are also improved and that involves investing time and/or money as well. BTW, you can support RubyTogether at https://rubytogether.org.
An amusing point Adarsh made: He said that Finland seems to have the happiest people and at the same time the angriest music. (Note: Finland has the highest number of mates rock bands per capita worldwide).
Vesa Vänskä explained how to move ‘From massive pull requests to trunk-based development with Ruby’ – and reminded us of Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt’s observation:
I say an hour lost at a bottleneck is an hour out of the entire system. I say an hour saved at a non-bottleneck is worthless. Bottlenecks govern both throughput and inventory.
Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt
Be sure to check out the talks on the conference site; I believe, at least some talks were recorded and will be available in the next few days. As always, I thoroughly enjoyed the conference days, meeting many new people, the great food at the lovely location.
I’m already looking forward to the next Ruby conference I’ll attend. It may be the next EURUKO and the community voted for Vilnius, Lithuania.
The other day a discussion about the review process of the Agile Testing Days developed:
Reading feedback on my conference proposal has been a rollercoaster. Up: They noticed that I had written "his" once instead of a gender neutral form – valid point, something I can improve. Down: It was a bloody typo and should have been "this" 😭 #SpeakerLife#AbstractsAreHard
— Tobias Geyer (he/him) (@the_qa_guy) May 19, 2022
Since I contributed to this thread and was a reviewer for this years programme, here’s my take. It’s my personal view and other reviewers may well have other aspects they focus on.
The conference offers a list of ‘hot topics’ which changes each year. If a proposal fits to this list it’s a plus, since this is a step towards a consistent conference programme.
I prefer proposals that catch my interest, without telling too much about the topic. – If a proposal already expels everything well, time may be better spent in another session.
A well written abstract text, that is easy to understand (for me) is a plus, too. This includes avoiding typos and grammatical mistakes. We all make them, and even the best spell checkers can’t catch all issues. But still, some proposals are really hard to understand due to language problems. Don’t let that get in your way of getting accepted. My tip: Get feedback by a native English speaker before (!) submitting. Many well known testers and speakers offer help and it is worthwhile accepting this help.
Understand what the fields in the proposal form are meant for. Fill them to provided the information that is asked for, Avoid repeating the same text in different parts for the form. Change the wording at least a bit. In some cases the title, sub headline, main statement and key learning(s) contained exactly the same or very similar text. To me as the reviewer this is a little bit boring, and doesn’t help me understand what the session is about.
Sometimes, repeating is worthwhile: It helps to understand what is important. Use this tool carefully.
Some questions may guide to writing a good proposal:
Will this help the reviewer to give me a high rating?
Am I giving enough information to inform a potential attendees decision to come to my session?
Am I giving too much information?
Is this a good fit for the conference this year?
A leaving personal note: It took me years to get accepted at the Agile Testing Days, even for what was then called a ‘consensus talk’. In the very early years the proposals weren’t very well written, in some years I failed to match the overall conference theme. And then it clicked, I asked for help, gave workshops, a tutorial and, in 2019 even a keynote. For me it was worth the effort.
This day impressed me most by the three key notes and discussing the effects of corona and working from home with Anne Colder.
Thursday
The first keynote of the day was Ard Kramer’s “How to nudge your way through agile testing”. Ard presented six ways to nudge people to make a decision in a certain way – probably a way that we want them to go. In a very consistent way he made the distinction between doing something (the nudging) and the ethics of doing it.
It’s so important to aware of these techniques, because then we can more consciously decide whether or not to follow the nudging.
These are the six kinds of nudging he explained:
Default options
Commitment through consistency
Anchoring
Decoy effect
Zeigarnik effect
Activate unconscious behaviour
The name Zeigarnik effect was new to me, although I read about the way it works somewhere on the net. Basically it states that one can remember an activity that has been interrupted (not not completed) more easily at a later point in time.
“The Tester’s Learning Toolkit” was the second keynote, presented by Vera Baum. Supported by incredibly great graphics Vera explained the various levels of experience people may have.
Wow! We are amazed by the incredible keynote of @VeraLittleTree we just had. This talk was about the difference stages of a testers careers and what kind of teaching and learning might help to gain knowledge, and how to apply that to different situation. #agileTDpic.twitter.com/K2qjvJE0mg
She explained how we can develop from level to level, and why it may not be the best approach to let experts teach novices.
The last keynote of the day – and the conference – was Vernon Richards‘ “What does the ‘Coach’ in ‘Quality Coach’ mean?”. He introduced 6 styles of leadership and how they can be applied in the context of software quality. I loved his way of giving examples his experiences in applying them.
With this highly interesting and super entertaining keynote ended the official program of the Agile Testing Days 2021.
In the evening, I discussed the effects of having to work from home with Anne Colder, leading to another contribution for the ebook “Software People … Work From Home“. Stay tuned. 🙂
This ended a truly brilliant experience of the Agile Testing Days. It was so great to finally meet real testers in real live, discuss software related topics during breakfast, lunch and dinner… as well as in between.
Thank you! Thank you to everyone I spoke to, especially the organisers who ran an incredible conference!
We discussed a good number of topics, such as how to get folks to try new ways, ways to practice testing and the role of testing/testers. I like this way of quickly covering a broad field of topics, to give people input to work with. I recommend tying this format, if you haven’t done so yet.
See for example the Wikipedia article about the ‘Triple Botton Line’ for more details. I find that these aspects are all incredibly important and also believe that we, the community of software people, have a shared responsibility to help achieve improvements in all three areas.
The second keynote on Wednesday was João Proença‘s “Limitless within our boundaries”. He explained nicely how limiting options can improve creative work. His example were his Band that got completely stuck, when they experienced the possibilities of a music studio for the first time. It’s the same in most other contexts, including software development. I very relaxed presentation style and body language. I found it super nice that he reminded me, that I recommended submitting a session to the Agile Testing Days – and I am really, really glad I did.
4 years ago yesterday! A few days after @S_2K got me convinced over breakfast that I should submit my first talk at #AgileTD 🙂 https://t.co/rLF3EoMyYL
The session “Resistance is futile” by Anne Colder & Jantien van der Meer, was about how to facilitate changing behaviour. The session was Star Trek themed and I am luck I survived in my red shirt. 🙂 Details about the model of “The Rider, the elephant and the path” are, for example, available at https://www.creativehuddle.co.uk/post/the-elephant-and-the-rider. I like the way they explained the model as well as the exercises to illustrate how it can be used.
The last session I attended as Søren Wassard‘s “Digesting Poets Society”. A very nice, relaxing and emotional bonus session about another way to get creative: Poems. We mostly heard English poems, but also one from a Welsh author, recited in Welsh by a Welsh (and no other than Bruce).
