Sunday 30 June 2013

I attended an agile open space 2013 in Tenerife. #aos2013

Recently I attended an agile open space.

It was organised by agile Canarias and agile Spain and held in Tenerife at the CDTCA.

It started on Friday night and was held over Saturday and topped off with a party on Saturday night.

Friday was a good start, there was a bit of a explanation on what an open space was then people presented their ideas.


There was a wide range of topics such as pair programming to impact mapping to changing minds.



I don't speak Spanish and I must admit I felt a little out of place as the announcements and the like were in Spanish and although they were repeated in English initially, that soon stopped.

Not so odd if you consider you're in a Spanish country, little bit odd if you consider there was a push for more international attendees.

I think the push (and therefore the use of English) may have been news to some of the attendees though and it seemed like it may have also been news to some of the organisers.

I'm glad I went but I must admit at the time I felt awkward being there.  I was one of about 3-4 that aren't able to speak Spanish so I suppose it was awkward all around.

I attended a session on changing minds which was facilitated by Laura Morillo and a user story workshop facilitated by Juanma Gómez.

In the change session we discussed a number of things ranging from changing manual testers mindset to use (some) automation to how to change colleagues' minds to try new things.

In the user story workshop we talked about things like size of stories, what kind of details should be in them and different approaches.

Juanma in action


I was lucky to be able to run my own session which was on responsibility.  We talked about things like team vs personal responsibility, taking responsibility vs being told you're responsible and blame.

I enjoyed the session and I hope the attendees did too.

I met passionate people who are looking to help each other and improve.  Good times.

Here are some other blog posts about #aos2013:
http://www.carlosble.com/2013/06/agile-spain-o-espana-agil/
http://juanmagomez.wordpress.com/2013/06/23/reinventaos-2013/
http://www.adictosaltrabajo.com/tutoriales/tutoriales.php?pagina=aos2013

And here are some photos.

And here are some random photos I took of Tenerife.





Explaining testing: Context

 

Friday 14 June 2013

Weeknight Testing: Is ATDD perceived to be the next silver bullet?

The next Weeknight testing session is on the 19th June at Skillsmatter
We will hold a workshop to demonstrate:
  • why software investigation is needed even if you have acceptance criteria.
  • the difference between checking off acceptance criteria and investigating the software with exploratory testing sessions.
  • how you can strengthen your acceptance criteria checks with information gathered through exploratory testing sessions.
Bring a laptop.

Register here

Explaining testing: 6 months of coding before talking to testers then 1 week to test 'everything'.


Explaining testing: New test ideas 2


Monday 10 June 2013

London #TesterGathering - Wed 26th June - The Shooting Star

The June London Tester Gathering will be on Wednesday 26th June at The Shooting Star.

Address:
125-129 Middlesex St, London E1 7JF

The plan:
We have a room from 6:00pm onwards

Talks:
"Headless BDD" - Shashikant Jagtap

"Title TBC" - Oliver Bernard

Sponsorship:


   
RSVP

Hope to see you there.

Cheers and Kind Regards

Tony Bruce.