18th Testing Retreat was awesome

I love conferences, meeting new people, hearing their stories and get a full update on the trends in test land.  Where as many conferences are quite big, Peer conferences are small and have another dynamic. For those not really familiar with peer conferences, You can regard it as a conference that is small, attendee-driven, inclusive, structured, safe, supportive, interactive, community-building, and provides opportunities for personal and group reflection and action (this later definition according to www.conferencesthatwork.com). I think peer conferences are very nice, since it allows you to go a little deeper into the subjects than often possible on normal conferences.

source: http://borden.plaatsengids.nl

This weekend I spent in a large Farm in Drenthe (the Netherlands) for the 18^th testing Retreat. I joined this group of mainly UK thought leaders like 5 years ago, and the group has been expanded with other nationalities ever since. This weekend we gathered with 10 people from 4 nationalities, and we took al the time we needed in order to really get into topics like: Risk based testing, TBYDWTFIP, Motivation of testers, Testers career paths, Implementing changes and Test techniques and test basics, improvement models. It gave me quite a lot to process and think about…so thanks for all the participants for providing me with food for thought and of course the pleasant company.

CAT certification passed

Yesterday I heard both Egbert Bouman and I have passed our Certified Agile Tester exam. We are both are now accredited trainers for the CAT course. I think this is a nice addition to the SCRUM master training and the SCRUM battle that we already provide.

Image source: http://www.ccnaccna.org

Ask for help

Yesterday I sent my new column to the editor of Bits & Chips magazine. The column deals with asking for help since it enables us to tackle problems earlier and easier. In order to do so you need to have a good social climate in your team. A question for help should not be received with boo and bah’s. It’s not about individuals that need to know-all, the real goal is that you perform as a team.

Much has been written about successful teams. Everyone knows Meredith Belbin’s Roles and Edward de Bono with his six hats. These models provide insight into the team composition. However, they do not express the culture that exists within organizations or teams. And this determines to a large extend,  whether team members actually dare to pop the help question.

Nice surprise this week is the column by Naomi Karten who writes about a similar topic. She states: ” Many people think asking for help is a sign of weakness. They’re wrong, though. Asking for help is actually a sign of strength, an indication that you’re willing to admit you can’t know everything and do everything yourself.”

My column will not be released this week, but Naomi Karten’s blog is available at the Techwell site.

Certified Agile Tester

Yesterday, we completed the train the trainer course of the CAT training held in Potsdam.  The CAT training is a 4 day training that learns how testers can shine in agile context. With Agile a lot of traditional values are shifting, and I know many testers to struggle with this transition. By being able to provide this training as an accredited trainer, I (and my direct Valori colleague Egbert Bouman) hope assist many testers with becoming agile or better agile testers.

It was a tough week, with a heavy exam at day 5. But we learned a lot, exchanged a lot of experience and of course made new friends…