Possible Discounts for Conference Adjacent Engagements!

I am booked to speak at several international conferences during the remainder of this year where I have availability immediately before and/or after to conduct consulting/training for companies or groups local to the conference. Any cost savings I realize by extending my trips (as opposed to making completely separate trips) will be passed on to paying clients. I'm looking forward to working with the folks who take advantage of this rare opportunity.

Specifically, I am available to the "first signed" clients for the following dates in the following locations:

• September 9-13 and/or September 18-20; in/around Prague,Czech Republic (before/after Agile Prague)  
• October 7-11; in/around Sydney, Australia (before iqnite)
• October 22-25; in/around Waterloo, Canada (after Targeting Quality)
• October 28-November 1 and/or November 11-15; in/around Malmö, Sweden (before/after Øredev)

If you are even mildly interested in engaging me during one of these blocks, please email me immediately. I expect them to fill quickly.

If you are not sure of what services I offer, you can check out the PerfTestPlus website, or take a look at my most commonly requested and (reportedly) valuable offerings below. There are, of course, other services I'd be happy to provide. If you don't see what you are looking for, please contact me and ask.

10 Take Aways from STP Summit on Agile Transitions

I had the pleasure of hosting the fourth Online Summit, delivered by Software Test Professionals: Agile Transitions.  The online summit format consists of 3 sessions each for 3 consecutive days.  The sessions for this summit were:

• What is Agile and What's it Got to do With Testing? – Scott Barber
• How "Agilists" vs. "Traditionalists" View Testing – Robert Walsh
• Keys to Transitioning to Agile Testing: Lessons Learned from the Trenches – Bob Galen
• The Secret to Successful Agile Test Automation – Lisa Crispin
• Culture & Inter-Focus Area Interactions – Selena Delesie
• Avoiding Agile Perversion – Lanette Creamer
• Excelling as an Agile Tester – Henrik Andersson
• The Lone Tester In an Agile World – Michael Larsen
• Top Take Aways  – Scott Barber  
• Speaker Panel – Scott Barber, Robert Walsh, Lisa Crispin, Selena Delesie, Henrik Andersson, Michael Larsen

One of my duties as host was to try to summarize the most valuable nuggets of information from across all of the presentations into a "top take aways" list.  This is what I came up with:

Scott's Top 10 Take Aways from:

Agile backlash series...

From SearchSoftwareQuality.com:

Agile backlash series: Exploring Agile development problems and solutions

 I think Jan Stafford did a great job on this series.  I don't agree with every opinion from everyone interviewed, but I wouldn't expect to.  I think it's fair, honest, insightful, and (best of all) focuses on experiences, challenges, and ideas about overcoming challenges instead of theory, marketing fluff, and excessive exaggeration.  :)

Of course, I'm always happy when someone is willing to publish quotes of mine like the following excerpts from Why Agile should not marginalize software testers:

"SSQ: You come in frequently to integrate testing into Agile development. What kind of problems do you see organizations having when integrating testing?

Scott Barber: The first thing that I hear about is, ‘What do we need testers for if we’re doing Agile? Isn’t everyone in Agile a generalist?’

Thoughts on Agile & Agile Testing

This past weekend, I finally made time to start reading Agile Testing: A Practical Guide For Testers And Agile Teams, Lisa Crispin & Janet Gregory, Addison-Wesley (2009).  I made it through the first two chapters before life called me away.  After I put the book down and starting going about accomplishing a mundane series of errands, I realized that I was feeling disappointed and that the disappointment had started growing just a few pages into the book.  Not because of what the book had to say, what it said was pretty good – not exactly how I would have expressed a few things, but thus is the plight of a writer reading what someone else has written on a topic they also care and write about.  What was disappointing me was the fact that the stuff in those chapters needed to be said at all.

You see, as Lisa and Janet were describing what Agile Testing and Testing on Agile Teams was all about, and explaining how it is “different” than “traditional testing”, my first thought was: