STPCon Spring 2012 – New Orleans, LA

The Sheraton New Orleans Hotel & Resort was host to the Software Test Professionals Conference Spring 2012 which took place March 26 – 29, 2012. With the Canal Street entertainment spots offering many outside networking opportunities for attendees, the conference offered 50 breakout sessions and 5 workshops designed to educate testers in their quests to define strategy, develop leadership skills, optimize performance, drive automation initiatives and apply agile techniques and processes. Keynotes by industry leaders were complemented by a keynote delivered by Jay Rifenbary who offered an entertaining hour of advice on work/life balance.

Conference Program: Tracks, Sessions, Speakers & Presentations:

Track: Leadership Perspectives for Testers

Understanding the business side of testing is as important as amplifying our approaches and techniques. In this track you will learn how to effectively lead diverse test teams, communicate with stakeholders, and advocate for testing. This track includes topics related to building test teams, leading business testers, handling the challenges of remote teams, communicating the value of testing, and using metrics in the decision making process.

Track: Test Strategy and Design

Before you begin testing on a project, your team should have a formal or informal test strategy. There are key elements you need to consider when formulating your test strategy. If not, you may be wasting valuable time, money and resources. In this track you will learn the strategic and practical approaches to software testing and test case design, based on the underlying software development methodology. This track includes topics related to developing a test strategy, test estimation, risk management and data management.

Track: Performance Testing

Performance Testing is about collecting data on how applications perform to assist the development team and the stakeholders make technical and business decisions related to performance risks. In this track you will learn practical skills, tools, and techniques for planning and executing effective performance tests. This track will include topics such as: performance testing virtualized systems, performance anti-patterns, how to quantify performance testing risk, all illustrated with practitioners’ actual experiences doing performance testing.

Track: Test Automation

Which tests can be automated? What tools and methodology can be used for automating functionality verification? Chances are these are some of the questions you are currently facing from your project manager. In this track you will learn how to implement an automation framework and how to organize test scripts for maintenance and reusability, as well as take away tips on how to make your automation framework more efficient. This track includes topics related to test automation architecture, continuous integration, agile automation, and what other tasks you need to perform after you have designed your framework and scripted your test cases.

Track: Agile Testing

More and more software development organizations are “going Agile.” This track will help participants understand how they can fit traditional test practices into an Agile environment as well as explore real-world examples of testing projects and teams in varying degrees of Agile adoption. This track will include topics related to challenges in Agile testing, utilizing Agile testing techniques, coaching an Agile test team, and using games to internalize Agile principles and practices.

Track: Mobile Testing

The rapid expansion of mobile device software is altering the way we exchange information and do business. These days smartphones have been integrated into a growing number of business processes. Developing and testing software for mobile devices presents its own set of challenges. In this track participants will learn mobile testing techniques from real-world experiences as presented by a selection of industry experts. Topics in this track include techniques for mobile testing, the latest trends affecting mobile testing and a framework to manage mobile testing.