BWST – A testers only workshop

There are many reasons why BWST is very close to me. To start off with

  • BWST was started by my guru Pradeep Soundararajan.
  • BWST is a true tester’s meet/conference/workshop organized by the testers for the testers. There is no boring, to fill in presentations or business angle to it.
  • BWST is one such meet which almost any tester could afford to participate.
  • BWST uses k-cards which provide an opportunity for all attendees to share their thoughts with the presenter.
  • BWST is for testers from all ages, experience, designations, geographical locations, etc.

And the list goes on.

Right from the day Pradeep announced BWST-2 on his blog, I had the date marked in my calendar. But as the date to BWST-2 got closer, my schedule at office went haywire. We were working late nights, weekends, holidays. My doubts on attending the BWST-2 grew with each passing day. At some corner of my mind I still felt I might just make it but then every email at office narrowed my chances.

2 days before BWST-2 - I sent an email to Pradeep and Santosh on my current situation and expressing my doubts on attending the BWST-2. I felt miserable as well as annoyed at myself at the thought of not attending BWST-2. As I expressed earlier BWST is very dear to me since there is no such workshop in Bangalore (I am aware of), which could provide so many takeaways for a tester in a day.

Friday a day before BWST 2 - At office I was on a mission to attend BWST-2 the next morning and my team mates wanted their weekend. We were hunters who had not tasted meat for a while now (build postponed again and again). We had clear missions on what to look for and targeted the areas we felt at risk based on the communication we had with our developers and customers.

Friday night - Smsd Pradeep at around 9pm confirming my participation at BWST-2, we had succeeded in our mission. We found very important information which required a lot of effort from our dev team J

Today when I write this post I ask myself was BWST-2 worth it?

I might kill myself for asking this question. Hell YES!

BWST-2 exceeded my expectations from what I had from BWST-1. Check the posts from Parimala and Pradeep on the various presentations and discussions that went on.

I present you the interesting quotes/questions/comments from BWST-2.

Testers talk a different language neither English nor some other language.

If your estimation is right, you might be wrong.

When we say “good things done” its “good things” for “us”.

Go to Gemba.

Your estimate depends on the quality you want.

Are 33 diseases in a human body good enough to be healthy?

Notion of finding vs notion of fixing.

Severity of the bug varies on the context.

3-strikes out – if the product can live with the bugs after 3 strikes, that’s ok to not fix them.

How can we scientifically conclude that a part of application is hardened?

Measurements are good but what is your goal?

No time to analyze the result after automation.

Define metrics which are relevant to individual projects.

Nodding heads for yes or no - Indian style.

Noun and Verb, Q-patterns, unified test design techniques.

Years of Experience in hours.

Comments

Santhosh Tuppad said…
@Sharath,
I liked the summary.

NOTE: Spelling mistake in Pradeep Soundararajan's name.

Thanks,
Santhosh Shivanand Tuppad
April 22, 2010 at 3:55 PM
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