People & Teams

There are times in a test manager's career when the work situation becomes surreal. If you've been in situations where you think you must be dreaming, sometimes it helps to look at things from the other person's perspective. As we mature in our jobs, we can examine these situations and see how to better answer the questions we have about unexpected communications. In this session we'll look at some typical conversations and discuss alternative ways to help everyone find the true reality, then better deal with the situation. From her years of experience as a consultant and her personal encounters, Johanna Rothman shares her insights and gets you involved in discovering what's really being said in these strange conversations.

As companies focus on their core business, the option to outsource software testing becomes more and more attractive. And there are plenty of organizations out there that specialize in the practice. But implementing outsourcing can feel like an uncertain proposition. In this session, Martin Pol explains how you can effectively select, implement, and audit outsourced testing activities. He shows you step by step what needs to be done to make outsourcing work for you and your company.

Throughout the years there have been many different management approaches to testing products. Test organizations today follow the "delegation of authority and responsibility" principle. In an effort for the test manager to gain a closer understanding of all the employees, there needs to be a system that breaks down the classical structure and makes the interfaces more personal. Explore one team's successful test group approach based on the principles of a football team. Learn how to play the game and understand the roles of the players.

How can you tell if software is improving? Many QA professionals have found calculating statistics and using various metrics useful in monitoring and predicting software development progress. In this presentation, Anna Allison takes a look behind the scenes of software projects to learn how even simple metrics are useful. Learn how to effectively use metrics to report, predict, and manage your own software projects.