"Anti-Boxing: How to Thrive and not just Survive in QA”

Rahul Verma, QA Architect, McAfee India (An Intel Company)

Introduction

I am writing this introduction and other contents as a direct address to you, the readers of this page. That is the first box I want to break, which says that tutorial introductions should be formal.

As testing knowledge base is growing, our profession is becoming more and more confusing. So many terms, so many views. Expectations are ever-increasing. I have put together this presentation with various thoughts from my experience. I have tried to put together things which we would rather discuss over gossips in breaks, with our close friends. But I also wanted to have practical testing exercises and not just gyan. What has resulted is a tutorial which is unconventional. There are no definitions, no types of testing. For a change we will discuss on testing itself. For a change, we will discuss on thinking. I could be wrong about a lot of things which I say. But then you have to be there to prove it! You have to put forward your perspective to help me in realizing that. When you choose to attend, please wear your “Debate/Argue Hat”. You are going to need that.

There are various boxes that we have created for ourselves and others. Some of them include:

  • The Team Player Box
  • The Bias Box
  • The Expert Tester Box
  • The Best Stuff Box
  • The Tester Type Box
  • The Experience Box
    And so on...

In this tutorial, through various stories from my testing experience and from the world around us, I discuss on acknowledging that these boxes exist and what is their impact on testing. For a chosen few of them, there would be exercises for you through which you would possibly realise the value of anti-boxing.

The examples discussed would touch various areas of testing like test designing, reviewing, test metrics, bug logging, certifications, testing experience, test automation and testing various attributes of a software like functionality, performance, security and usability.

Methodology

Presentation, Brainstorming, Questioning, Debating, Exercises

Key Benefits

This workshop has managed to change the thinking of only a handful of testers so far out of about 100 testers who have attended it. Most of them enjoyed attending it, others felt intimidated and a few testers who were dissatisfied with testing profession went back with renewed pride about their profession and what they should be doing next.

What would you gain? Would it change the way you test? Would it change the way you think about yourself as a tester, about other testers, about developers...? At the end of the presentation, would you belong to the third category of attendees mentioned above, whose perspective about testing was changed?

Frankly, I don’t know. Nobody can say that for sure. Can a presentation change lives? Well, it can and it can’t. So, attend at your own risk. It’s your time. If you choose to do so, make these few hours the liveliest hours you have spent in any training by participating.


Intended Audience

Testers, Managers, College Graduates, Students, Quality Leaders


Audience Pre-requisites

An open mind. We all carry one. It just needs a little dusting. Choose to be yourself for my session and respect other souls.

Content flow

  • Setting up some expectations ( and breaking some )
  • The Bias Box
  • The Blame Box
  • Case Study: 3 Idiots
  • The Measurement Box
  • Case Study: Meet The Spartans, Plan 9 From Outer Space
  • The Good-Guy Box
  • Why Questioning and Opinions Matter?
  • Practical Exercise on Structured Questioning
  • The Best Stuff Box
  • Acknowledging Perceptions
  • Importance of Context
  • The Tester-Type Box
  • Exercise
  • The Certification Box
  • The Heroes Box
  • Concluding Thoughts

Speaker's Profile

Rahul Verma, QA Architect, McAfee India (An Intel Company)

I am a software tester by profession and passion. I have chosen to focus on the art and craft of software testing as an individual contributor.

In my current cross-team role as QA Architect in McAfee Labs, the research organisation of McAfee, I coach, mentor and consult for multiple teams in the areas of testing, test automation, interviewing and Python.

I conduct workshops on agile testing, web performance testing, web security testing and Python. You can find much more about me and my work at my website Testing Perspective - www.testingperspective.com . I have presented at various Indian Testing Conferences as well as Google Test Automation Conference and CONQUEST Germany. I am a regular columnist for Testing Experience Magazine and the President of ITB’s Bangalore Chapter. I am also one of the authors of ISTQB Foundation Level Syllabus and a member of working party for the advanced courses.

I have authored How Would Pareto Learn Python and co-authored Design Patterns in Python. Both these books are available for free on my website.