TestBash Smash
Short story is that TestBash may be my new favorite testing conference. Great venue (no, fantastic venue), well-organized, and excellent variety and diversity across the different presentations. I was reflecting while walking the streets of Philadelphia this morning and realized that almost every talk was experiential – filled with stories of problem solving and discovery.
For those who know me, let me put it this way. I don’t think I rolled my eyes even once! (except the time when Nancy asked how many of us were context-driven testers).
I also met so many people I’ve only known on twitter (so many, in fact, that I can’t list them), and a large handful of new people I follow now too.
As for my talk, it seemed well received for a talk that (in title) could be scary to a lot of testers. Honestly, I don’t think the talk would have worked as well with a less sophisticated group of testers. It’s really easy to take an idea like testing without testers and look at it with no critical thinking and dismiss it entirely – but folks seemed to get how it could work (and I, of course, was unafraid to talk about how it can fail miserably.
“This is bullshit!” – yeah!! So glad to hear how removing testers sucks. @alanpage #TestBash Philly pic.twitter.com/9TfNHcvAWX
— MelTheTester (@m_eaden) November 11, 2016
I used a ping pong metaphor to describe the inefficiencies in typical test-dev relationships, and I hammed it up a bit figuring if I was going to look stupid, I’d go all in. It went a little better than I expected, and I owe Angie Jones an apology:
Since @alanpage was up right before I was, I asked him to not pull out his A game. He agreed but then proceeds to play ping pong on stage! ? https://t.co/FsmIF0MyBM
— Angie Jones (@techgirl1908) November 11, 2016
To my credit, Angie – I don’t have an A game. I barely have game, so I just wing it and see what happens. This time, ping pong worked – I was fortunate and lucky.
Overall, a very good experience, and a conference I look forward to attending again someday.
Your presentation was fantastic – if that’s “barely having game” I’d hate to think what the rest of us would have to live up to.
I think one of the reasons so many of the presentations were so well-received is because they were experiential, and all of us have been there in some way or other. It helps a lot – particularly when, like me, you’re the only tester in the organization – to see that others have the same kinds of challenges and that they find ways to solve them.
Very much enjoyed getting a chance to chat with you in such a comfortable setting. I agree that Testbash seems to have figured out how to host “an inclusive testing community” conference just about perfectly. As for me, I hope that we meet again sooner rather than later.