MoT Glasgow April Meetup - Modern Testing Principles Discussion @ SAS

Within the Software Testing industry, we are lucky that we have people who are looking ahead to where our industry is going, and determing how we can add value now and in the years to come. Alan Page and Brent Jensen’s A&B Testing podcast is one of the best discussions that looks at this very question.

Anyone who has listened to the AB testing podcast (https://www.angryweasel.com/ABTesting) will know of the “Modern Testing Principles”. In this meetup, we are going to explore what these are, and what they mean to us collectively and individually.

To explore the principles we are going to host a round table discussion on the principles Alan and Brent have created.

Plan of Attack
18:00 - Round Table Discussions (we will focus on principles 1-6)
19:00 - Pizza!
20:15 - Finish

In support of this, we're looking for 6 people to act as facilitators for the discussions around each of the principles we're discussing. Each facilitator would prepare by listening to the podcast episode that deals with their principle in advance of the meetup. If you're interested in being a facilitator, let me know.

Principle 1 > https://www.angryweasel.com/ABTesting/ab-testing-episode-81-business-rulz/ > Jim Boyd
Principle 2 > https://www.angryweasel.com/ABTesting/ab-testing-episode-83-accelerating-the-team/ > Tracey Baxter @tbaxter78
Principle 3 > https://www.angryweasel.com/ABTesting/ab-testing-episode-84-stories-about-changes-and-nets/ > Greg McKenna @GregMcKenna2i
Principle 4 > https://www.angryweasel.com/ABTesting/ab-testing-episode-85-the-community-principle/ > Tony McElroy @tshapedtester
Principle 5 > https://www.angryweasel.com/ABTesting/ab-testing-episode-86-not-the-customers-champion/ > Claire Anderson @ClaireIsClear
Principle 6 > https://www.angryweasel.com/ABTesting/ab-testing-episode-87-the-one-about-data/ > Alaine Miller @miller_alaine

This is in preparation for May when we will be joined via a live Crowdcast by Alan (We could not afford a return flight from Seattle!) who will talk to us about the Modern Principles finalising in a Q&A.

This meetup is part of a wider Meetup community (https://www.ministryoftesting.com/ministry-of-testing-meetups) and has been arranged by the Edinburgh meetup (thanks, Craig Wylie!). In the May webinar, we will be joining with the Edinburgh and Newcastle meetups.

Alan Page has been a software tester for over 25 years, and is currently the Director of Quality for Services (and self proclaimed Community Leader) at Unity Technologies. Previous to Unity, Alan spent 22 years at Microsoft working on projects spanning the company – including a two year position as Microsoft’s Director of Test Excellence.
Alan was the lead author of the book “How We Test Software at Microsoft”, contributed chapters for “Beautiful Testing”, and “Experiences of Test Automation: Case Studies of Software Test Automation”. His latest ebook (which may or may not be updated soon) is a collection of essays on test automation called “The A Word: Under the Covers of Test Automation”, and is available on leanpub .

This event is being hosted by SAS, who are providing pizza! We will ensure there are vegetarian and gluten-free options available.

The principles of Modern Testing are:

1. Our priority is improving the business.
2. We accelerate the team, and use models like Lean Thinking and the Theory of Constraints to help identify, prioritize and mitigate bottlenecks from the system.
3. We are a force for continuous improvement, helping the team adapt and optimize in order to succeed, rather than providing a safety net to catch failures.
4. We care deeply about the quality culture of our team, and we coach, lead, and nurture the team towards a more mature quality culture.
5. We believe that the customer is the only one capable to judge and evaluate the quality of our product
6. We use data extensively to deeply understand customer usage and then close the gaps between product hypotheses and business impact.