| dc.description | The CAST conference is an annual conference hosted by the Association for Software Testing, out of the United States. The theme this year was on experiences, with an intention to draw many new speakers. I submitted an application, trying to apply lessons learned in the emergency services to the test industry.
In the end, much of the presentation focused on the role of Best Practices, a term stolen from the business world, and how they impact the work we do. I advocated instead for an approach tailored on our own context and situation, and discussed methods of minimizing risk when dealing with limited information and high pressure situations.
The format is critical to understanding the outcomes of the conference. 45 minutes speaking, followed by a 30 minute question period. The audience was highly engaged and the room near full. It’s a very open setting, which shaped the format and content of the talk in what I think were positive ways. | en |
| dc.description.abstract | “For most of us, testing shares more in common with emergency response than with airplane maintenance. In a perfect world we’d check the torque on every bolt, and leave the runway with 100% certainty every flight. Most testers don’t have that luxury; we’re thrown at problems, and have to solve them as quickly as we can, with whatever tools we have. We’re expected to quickly understand new contexts, to deal with high pressure, low resources, and rapidly evolving situations. I’ll be comparing my experience as a firefighter to my experience with testing. We have to imagine the worst case: we enter a scene with little or no information, an urgency of action, and limited resources. It’s imperative to get in and out quickly, to prioritize the critical, high impact response, and to handle whatever unexpected challenges the job is going to throw at you. Every situation is different, and there’s never enough information, so how do you prepare for the unknown?” | en |
