Ministry of Testing - Cambridge

Come along in October to hear two excellent speakers: * Doug Sillars: "Mobile Performance - What is slowing down your mobile App or Website?" * James Thomas: "When Support Calls" (preview of SoftTest keynote) Drinks and Food kindly sponsored by Citrix! Parking available at parking spaces assigned to Citrix, either outside (preferably), or in the top floor of the car park. == Doug Sillars: Mobile Performance What is slowing down your mobile App or Website? == Mobile apps and websites are now the predominant ways that users interact with brands. Research has shown that slow sites and apps lose customer engagement. Despite this, most mobile sites and apps have performance issues that can be easily resolved once diagnosed. In this talk, I will walk through steps to diagnose network performance bottlenecks in mobile services. We’ll discuss real world examples, and how they were resolved. Attendees will leave this talk armed with the tools to test, diagnose and resolve the top network performance issues that affect mobile today. === About Doug === Doug is is a freelance mobile performance expert, having helped thousands of developers speed up their mobile apps and websites. A Google Developer Expert and the author of O’Reilly’s “High Performance Android Apps,” Doug has spoken at developer conferences in the US and Europe, and blogs regularly at dougsillars.com. He is currently working as a freelance digital nomad, traveling with his family in Europe. == James Thomas: When Support Calls == Testers are said to be advocates for the customer, but when do most testers come face to face with a real-life customer? I don’t mean internal stakeholders, but the people at the sharp end of things, the ones actually using the software. Rarely, I find. Which is why it can be a SHOCK! to be asked to participate in a customer support call. It’s an unusual situation, there’s pressure, the customer is watching, something needs fixing, and there’s a deadline ... of yesterday. Gulp. But don’t worry! You’re on the call because a colleague values your input. Perhaps you’re great at analysis, or lateral thinking, or problem-solving. Maybe you have deep knowledge of your product, or the whole ecosystem, or the historical angle. You could be there for questions, or answers, or honesty when you don’t have either. These kinds of tools from your testing toolbox are valuable on support calls and in this talk I’ll say how and why. I’ll also give an intro to customer support, talk about how to prepare for calls, what to do during and after them, and - importantly - what you can take away personally, for your product, and for your team. Key takeaways: * understanding of customer support and its similarities to testing * actionable advice for when support calls you * benefits for you and others of being involved in support === About James === James is one of the founders of Linguamatics, the world leader in innovative natural language-based text mining. Over the years he’s had many roles in the company, including tech support where he built a team from scratch. He is currently the test manager, a position in which he strives to provide an environment where his testers have an opportunity to do their best work. He’s on Twitter as @qahiccupps and recently published his second book, When Support Calls, with the Ministry of Testing. == Sponsor: About Citrix == At Citrix, we focus on a single driving principle: making the world’s apps and data secure and easy to access. Anywhere. At any time. And on any device or network. We believe that technology should be a great liberator. Freeing organizations to push the limits of productivity and innovation. Empowering people to work anywhere and at anytime. And giving IT the peace of mind that critical systems will always be accessible and secure.