“There were numerous lectures on the topics of software testing, team organization, and cooperation, Appium, geolocalization, API testing, UX testing, automatization of negative tests, and there was also a lot of talk on TestOps and DevOps,” says Radmila. She found two lectures particularly useful. “Test Flow: Improve Yourself with Mental Training”, focused on helping QAs use other life skills and knowledge in order to be better at their jobs and more successful in their professional lives, while “Moving from GUI to API Testing: Challenges Faced & Lessons Learned”, was more of a personal experience of a tester and her professional challenges. Jana also praised the “Test Flow” presentation held by Ard Kramer, “Ard introduced us to certain mental tools and exercises which can help us to focus, motivate and gain the confidence needed in our job, which is rarely spoken of. Through real-life examples, he presented us with the Goal-driven Testing which is an excellent solution for testing on big projects and implies splitting the work into smaller units and setting up daily goals in order to concentrate better when deadlines are approaching. This gives us an overview of our constant progress, and through this awareness, our confidence and motivation are raised, which is relevant for both individuals and teams.”
Radmila saw this conference as an opportunity to speak with lecturers about the problems and dilemmas they were facing in everyday work. “Some of the advice and ideas we received, we already got to implement. The conference served as an inspiration for some of our long-term plans, and I believe that every QA engineer can benefit from conferences of this kind, and so can other colleagues from other departments, and those who operate in other technologies.”
Jana emphasized that the conference was not as focused on technical knowledge, as it was on defining the QA role in the software development cycle. She noted, “There was a lot of talk on ‘soft skills,’ which are necessary not only for QA engineers but other roles as well. Professional communication and motivation were addressed as well. The audience got to learn more about the notions of ‘Continuous Testing’ and ‘DevTestOps’ which are becoming crucial to the process of quality assurance. The overall impression is that all of these topics cover various areas and aspects of our work, and in a way, the conference rounded up our role and relevance and showed the potential of the QA process development.”
