As many other events switched to remote edition this year due to the global pandemic. The positive side, many conferences around the globe become more accessible to everyone in the earth.
I got the chance to speak at Test Leadership Congress this month, my participation covered how can we build the tester mindset and break silos at work by building CoP and using gamification in learning …
I really enjoyed the experience. It was an opportunity to learn and meet conference folks.
With the same occasion, I interviewed 11 participants to share their takeaways and their experience from this congress.
#1 Jenny Bramble (@jennyodesthings) from North Carolina, USA
- Tell us about your background and from where you joined Test Leadership congress?
I joined up from two locations this year–my industrial studio loft in downtown Durham and my friend’s huge house in the country! This is really fun because the environment makes a huge difference in how relaxed I am and how much attention I’m paying. At my apartment, it’s really easy to think ‘oh, I’ll put this talk on and wash dishes’, but at my friend’s house, I feel like I can put my feet up, relax, and really immerse myself in what’s happening.
2. “Test” and “Leadership” is the main title of the congress, what did you expect from this event and why did you want to take part of it ?
I’m a speaker at TLC this year! Do you want to know a secret? I’ve been trying to get into this conference as a speaker for 3 years!! It’s one of the few conferences in the tech world that focuses on technical leadership and the only one that focuses on test leadership. I felt like once I had a talk that would fit in at TLC, I would be able to really consider myself a leader in the community.
3. Did you enjoy the remote mode although there are no direct interactions between speakers and attendees?
YES!! I know it feels like there aren’t direct interactions, but honestly, I think virtual conferences give us a lot of room for interactions like a physical space doesn’t. Have you ever wanted to ask a speaker a question, but no one noticed your hand up in the Q&A or there wasn’t time, then you went to look for them later, but they’re eating lunch and you don’t want to interrupt? Or, maybe you have a hard time approaching people you don’t know well.
Virtual conferences give you the chance to ask your question whenever you want, AND you can engage on Slack later! It takes some of the social anxiety out of asking questions.
As a speaker, I like to have chat up while I talk so I can see if someone doesn’t understand or if they have a really good thought about what I’m talking about that I want to share with everyone.
- What was your favorite moment?
I’ve really loved seeing everyone talk about what they’ve learned. On Twitter, with sketchnote, in chat…it’s really amazing to see so many people impacted by this conference. I love seeing the different angles that people take on talks as well. It’s really cool to see what different people walk away with.
5. What are your new learnings and takeaways?
That we need space to be human! Part of being a leader–especially these days–is that we have to recognize and realize that things are different and we need to make space for people.
6. A last word for the global testing community
Remember to breathe.
#2 Astrid Winkler @AstridWinkler4 from Switzerland
- Tell us about your background and from where you joined Test Leadership congress?
My name is Astrid. I am currently working as a Project Lead for an advertising company in Switzerland. I am primarily responsible for end-to-end success of multiple campaigns and customer engagements are under my umbrella.
I am a skilled project manager with excellent people skills and I am also proficient in stakeholder management. I love to work as a freelance journo and content
writing is my passion. This passion also led me to this conference and made me dive deep into new topics.
2. “Test” and “Leadership” is the main title of the congress, what did you expect from this event and why did you want to take part of it ?
I am a total newbie in testing but not to the topic of leadership, since I am the Project Lead myself. I was curious to understand the world of software testing and also see how leadership differs from domain to domain.To write meaningful reports for the conference, I tried to attend as many sessions as I could. I expected useful insights into the testing field and also on the leadership in QA domain. I must say I was not disappointed.
In the beginning I was unsure if I would understand all the topics related to testing and the concepts, but with time, by reaching out to people, asking questions and searching on the internet, I figured things out. It was interesting but not difficult to understand. I was excited to get as much knowledge as I could. I love to learn new skills and this conference was a great opportunity for that, so I participated.
- Did you enjoy the remote mode although there are no direct interactions between speakers and attendees?
As far as I can tell, yes I did. The speakers had enough time to answer the questions. In presentations typically it happens that the time runs out and many questions are left unanswered and here as far I could see everyone was able to get their answers. In my case for writing my articles, I had the chance to take screenshots and use them for my reflections on the sessions.
Of course, having the chance to meet all these lonely people in person would have been a great experience as well. But for now I wish all of us good health. This too shall pass and we will meet again.
- What was your favorite moment?
This might sound crazy but waking up for the session by Amy Jo at 3 am was an absolutely great moment. Not because I had to wake up and motivate myself in the middle of the night but the feeling of satisfaction after the session was over knowing how much knowledge I would have missed otherwise and how the session was totally worth it.
5. What are your new learnings and takeaways?
I believe we are never done learning, every day we have the chance to learn something new. So for me, each and every session had a lot of learnings and takeaways.
I got very inspired to start creating customer personas for my current work and I am currently creating them. I am very excited and I am looking forward to the result.
I got my bag heavy, full of knowledge. It’s good that the conference is happening remotely and I don’t have to fly, otherwise I would need to pay for extra baggage while traveling back (giggles).
6. A last word for the global testing community
I don’t want to miss the chance to shout out a huge thanks to Anna for this great opportunity and chance to participate in this year’s conference. She really did an amazing job together with everyone else involved.
Again as a newbie who attended her first Testing Congress ever, I have to say it is great to know about all these amazing people i.e. testers. They are the ones who really care about the customer’s needs from the software.I use software everyday and it is so evident that my needs as a customer are usually well taken care of by testers already. It was an amazing experience to have a look behind the curtain and see how testers think, operate, struggle and also excel and make the softwares useful for humans. You guys are my Heros and I would stand by that. Let’s see how and when our ways might cross again. I am already curious and looking forward to the next congress to see you all again.
#3 Beth Marshall from Leeds, UK
- Tell us about your background and from where you joined Test Leadership congress?
I am a senior test lead based in Leeds, I’ve been testing for around 12 years.
2. “Test” and “Leadership” is the main title of the congress, what did you expect from this event and why did you want to take part of it ?
I expected a lot of inspirational talks from a global cohort of speakers and I wanted to learn some new techniques and be inspired to try something new.
3. Did you enjoy the remote mode although there are no direct interactions between speakers and attendees?
yes, it means I can attend more talks
- What was your favorite moment?
I really enjoyed Emna’s talk on communities of practice and also Simon Priors talk on modern test leadership. Learning how others have implemented things really helps to visualise how you would do the same.
5. What are your new learnings and takeaways?
I have learnt how to implement a community of practice, and had a lot of existing beliefs clarified by Simons talk too, which is really just as valuable as learning something new.
6. A last word for the global testing community
Keep being welcoming and honest, virtual events are the way forward, I hope to attend many more and maybe even speak at one someday!
#4 Amrith(@aks_phoenix) from Melbourne Australia
- Tell us about your background and from where you joined Test Leadership congress?
I am a Quality Engineer with 6+ years of experience working for startups and large scale projects.. I love building automation frameworks to test product quality. I also like taking leadership for testing and quality initiatives.
My dear friend Emna is a speaker for TLC and offered free tickets for enthusiasts on Twitter after we answered a question.
2. “Test” and “Leadership” is the main title of the congress, what did you expect from this event and why did you want to take part of it ?
I expected talks and conversations about how one can lead as a tester within an organisation and improve quality of process and practices.
I wanted to learn about people’s experience in a leadership role so that I can use these in my work and see the results first hand.
3. Did you enjoy the remote mode although there are no direct interactions between speakers and attendees?
Yes, I was pretty happy with the format of the conference. We could still ask questions to the speaker in chat so that was very useful. In the future I am happy to attend an online event.
- What was your favorite moment?
When I was early to a session and had a good chat with the host and the speaker.
- What are your new learnings and takeaways?
We should all strive to pursue leadership
Testing and Leadership are both rewarding
Buy in from bosses is a must
Listen listen and listen some more
Be an advocate of your leadership
Communicate your plan with the team for increased collaboration
6. A last word for the global testing community
We are on the right path in terms of collaboration and working together
It won’t be long until we get the recognition we deserve
You are very valuable to a team as a tester
#5 Csaba (@WhitehatQa) from (Novi Sad) Serbia
- Tell us about your background and from where you joined Test Leadership congress?
Hi! While the covid situation is still on, the people from my company are still working from home. I follow the talks from my ”home office”. It is still a great opportunity to spend more time with family, but on improving some new skills, too. There are many events, many people in the congress, who are able to share their thoughts and experience with the community.
2. “Test” and “Leadership” is the main title of the congress, what did you expect from this event and why did you want to take part of it ?
As long it contains “Test” and “Leadership” in it, I expect both, and their combination. I got what I expected, even more. Thanks to Emna, I am part of it. As all the experienced testers, we are moving our knowledge and abilities to a higher level. At this time, I feel that I have to upgrade my leadership skills. Even if I already had a chance to monitor others and help them in their work, there are always many areas to be improved.
3. Did you enjoy the remote mode although there are no direct interactions between speakers and attendees?
Yes, definitely. Ok, it is not the same when you are speaking to anyone and following the gestures, reactions (even subconsciously), but I saw that this way many more people have the courage to ask. The internet could trick people and so on, but even like that we are able to communicate to each other. This remote way gives more courage to people to ask or to share their thoughts. Many more people are there to add more value to the community. On the other hand, there are lean coffees, round tables, there are still some kind of live/in person communications.
- What was your favorite moment?
Unfortunately I can’t decide. I was not able to attend all of the sessions which I wanted to, but there were too many thoughtful and quality sessions. They mainly supported aspects, which are not mentioned too much every day. From every session I learned at least one valuable lesson. I hope there will be accessible recordings.
5. What are your new learnings and takeaways?
There is a lot. I will mention only some thoughts: “May sound funny but take breaks.”, “Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.”, “The team members do not have the same understanding of the team values”, “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”, “Quality is value to some person, at some time, who matters”., “Quality matters more than ever”, “Books can not contain all the knowledge” and so on.
6. A last word for the global testing community
First of all, I am grateful to Emna who gave me the chance to be a part of it 🙂
I would say to the community the next words: Keep up the good work, work on extending the Community of Practice, be a valuable part of it. Work on your skills, consider yourself as on your most precious project, plan it, form it, develop it, test it, react to changes and never stop your self development.Also, if you want to found out a little portion of the congress, check these links:
#6 Antonella (@AntzScaravilli) from Spain
- Tell us about your background and from where you joined Test Leadership congress?
I joined from my home office in Barcelona, which has now become one of my favorite places in the world! My iPad joined me as well, and we made some sketchnotes together. If you’re curious to see the rest, you can visit @therookiesketchnoter on Instagram.
2. “Test” and “Leadership” is the main title of the congress, what did you expect from this event and why did you want to take part of it ?
I was expecting exactly what was delivered: insightful talks about how to be a leader of a testing team. Although I’m not the leader of mine, I believe there are different ways to lead (not necessarily having the role in your title and payslip). Also, I might lead a team again some day and having the opportunity to learn in advance might give me the chance to do a good job.
3. Did you enjoy the remote mode although there are no direct interactions between speakers and attendees?
Absolutely! I usually get quite anxious when attending “traditional” congresses, so the remote mode works really well for me. Also, I think that the fact that there was a Slack channel for each presentation was the perfect way of allowing the attendees to engage with other attendees and the speakers. One more plus, the way the schedule was planned. Genius!
- What was your favorite moment?
It’s too soon to tell, since the congress is not over yet.. However, I can say that Jenny Bramble’s talk “Building Automation Engineers from Scratch” went straight to my heart, not only because the topic hits close to home but also because of Jenny’s energy and passion! Also, I loved being able to see you (Emna) in action!
5. What are your new learnings and takeaways?
Once again, it’s too soon to tell. Some of my takeaways are validations of things I already believed in, for example: that leading a team or a CoP takes lots of patience and perseverance (but that it’s highly rewarding), and that sharing knowledge is the key to evolution.
However, one new takeaway is the term “humanual testing”! I love it and I will definitely start using it!
6. A last word for the global testing community
Thank you for sharing your knowledge and passion and thank you for being so contagious (this might be a poor choice of words given the circumstances, but you know what I mean).
#7 Mariia Hutsuk (@MariiaHutsuk) from Potsdam, Germany
- Tell us about your background and from where you joined Test Leadership congress?
I am a software developer by education and QA by vocation. Nowadays I work as a Quality Engineering Manager in Zattoo. I joined the Test Leadership congress from Potsdam, Germany. I got to know about it from Emna and even won a ticket in her challenge.
2. “Test” and “Leadership” is the main title of the congress, what did you expect from this event and why did you want to take part of it ?
I expect from this conference stories and sharing experiences from people in leadership positions. I hope to get inspiration and new knowledge.
3. Did you enjoy the remote mode although there are no direct interactions between speakers and attendees?
I really like this format of conference. It is very easy to combine the conference and work because of the amazing schedule. During the conference I did not feel some distance or lack of contact. During such format speakers showed their pats, their rooms and a bit of their private lives. When I see that speakers are also humans it makes speech very special: like we are friends and I am invited for a private visit. Such talk inspires me more than “from stage”.
- What was your favorite moment?
I had it during a talk “Building Automation Engineers from Scratch” by Jenny Bramble.
I am a software developer by education. I was thinking that IT is not for me until I found a testing field. Jenny inspired me to rethink the statement “coding is boring”. She is so true, theory in University and practice are so different. I am going to play coding games to check again if I would like it.
What are your new learnings and takeaways?
Mine main takeaway is, that person should do what he/she likes… It is the main ingredient of being successful. I got additional confidence that I want to focus my career further on the management path.
I took a lot of learnings from the talk “Too Fast Too Furious: A story of being the first time QA manager” by Priyanka Halder. She shared so many hints regarding how to give feedback, or formula how to become a good manager. I was looking for such hints.
Also during Emna’s talk “What Can Testers Do to Build Their Tester Mindset and Break Silos at Work?” I recognised the importance of having fun and playing games. Now I am thinking about what games I can play with my team and how to make it virtual!
6. A last word for the global testing community
Go to conferences! Nowadays there are so many online opportunities. Of course during an 1 hour speech you would not gain new skill, but you would get inspiration and direction to move forward by yourself.
#8 Geosley Andrades(@geosley) from Mumbai, India
- Tell us about your background and from where you joined Test Leadership congress?
I am an Associate Engineering Manager with Cornerstone OnDemand.
I have 12+ years of experience in the IT Industry. Started my career as a tester and ever since testing has always been close to my heart. I got to know about the Test Leadership congress when I was invited as a speaker and my experience being associated with it has been really wonderful.
“Test” and “Leadership” is the main title of the congress, what did you expect from this event and why did you want to take part of it ?
I believe Test and Leadership are two critical skills you need if you strive to be a polished Individual not just a tester or a leader by designation. The reason I wanted to be a part of it was primarily to hear from other like minded individuals and masters in their craft.
- Did you enjoy the remote mode although there are no direct interactions between speakers and attendees?
Yes I did enjoy the remote mode.I believe remote mode is the new normal of attending conferences at least till the pandemic settles down. It also gave me an opportunity to be a part of this conference being back home in India cutting down my travel cost which made me not to think twice.
- What was your favorite moment?
My favorite moment was when I was given an opportunity to be a speaker at the conference something I dreamt a few years back. And with all the feedback I received after my talk was just an icing over the cake which boosted my confidence as a speaker.
5. What are your new learnings and takeaways?
No matter how much you know about a particular topic there is still a considerable percentage of knowledge another speaker can add on to. My key takeaway is that learning is a continuous process and knowledge ever flowing.
6. A last word for the global testing community
Stay United. Learn the art of real testing. Spread the message of this wonderful craft. Don’t keep the knowledge to yourself because sharing is caring. Never stop learning as life never stops teaching. Stay positive and continue to work hard because a day will surely come when you will realize your true potential.
#9 SRINIVAS KADIYALA (@srinivasskc) from Bangalore, India
- Tell us about your background and from where you joined Test Leadership congress?
I am currently working as “Principal Exploratory Tester” with Moolya Software Testing Pvt Ltd.
I have 8+ years of experience in Testing. I joined the Test Leadership congress from Bangalore, India. I got to know about it from Ajay Balamurugadas.
2. “Test” and “Leadership” is the main title of the congress, what did you expect from this event and why did you want to take part of it ?
I heard about Test Leadership Congress in 2018 and listened to videos recorded. I believe Test and Leadership are two important skills in everyone’s career. Like said, “When you lead by example, you make it easy for others to follow you.“
My mission is to be open to new ideas and learnings to continuously improve myself and Test Leadership Congress is a great place to learn about Testing and Leadership.
- Did you enjoy the remote mode although there are no direct interactions between speakers and attendees?
Yes, I have been doing the remote mode at work since last december. So, I am happy and enjoy attending my home and interacting with speakers through Slack and Conference Sessions.
- What was your favorite moment?
My favorite moment was attending the sessions post office work. But due to other commitments, I could not attend a few sessions. Learned a lot from every session I attended. I am eagerly waiting for recorded sessions to make my notes.
5. What are your new learnings and takeaways?
Some of these are my learnings and takeaways :
A. “Quality Matters more than Ever”
B. Kirk Walton’s – “QA to QE Transformation Maturity Path”
C. Round Table Discussion: Career Development. Just listen to this, lots of good learning to take away.
D. Problem Solving Workshop by Ajay and Jyothi. How to solve any problem in 3 steps.
E. Learning from Chaithra Rao on Insider Inc’s Transforming Test Automation Strategy.
6. A last word for the global testing community
In the last few months, I attended two conferences virtually. I encourage every tester to attend at least one conference a year, and multiple meetups in a year and Stay connected with the Testing Community. Learn the craft of Testing and Technologies using Testing. And Share your knowledge to your teams and to the community. Thanks to Test Masters Academy – Anna Royzman for conducting “Test Leadership Congress” virtually and in different timezones. It helped me to connect and learn from many people.
#10 Shweta @NavaleShweta from Spain
- Tell us about your background and from where you joined Test Leadership congress?
Thank you Emna for giving me this opportunity to introduce myself.
Due to a pandemic I am attending this conference from home.
About me I will say I figured out I wanted to get into testing in my last year of engineering. In my final year project I did some part of testing preparing test cases, analysis. And I found it very interesting. So I decided to go ahead and learn more about it. And I did a course in software testing where I learned about Manual testing and Automation testing.
The more I studied the more I found out how vast the testing field is. It’s not like after developer develops tester just clicks on button to see if its working
There is a complete test life cycle which has test design,test strategies, different approaches of testing, estimation etc. I can just go on and on to talk about it.
I’m glad I figured I wanted to get into testing. And I hope I will continue on this QA journey and learn more and more and become more autonomous and an all rounder tester.
- “Test” and “Leadership” is the main title of the congress, what did you expect from this event and why did you want to take part of it ?
I’m a curious person and always ready to learn something new. I prefer to listen to people’s mindset, as everyone has a different way of working, thinking. I would like to learn different perspectives of people which I can then combine into my own efficient way of testing. My expectation is to get out of this conference with more knowledge of various branches of testing, about scrum and leadership
- Did you enjoy the remote mode although there are no direct interactions between speakers and attendees?
Yes, I like remote mode as well. Since we don’t have to travel we save a lot of time which I prefer to utilise in doing something I like or learn something new. As currently I am living in Spain I am trying to learn spanish whenever I get a chance with the online course or Duolingo App. Spanish is a very interesting language
- What was your favorite moment?
Its hard to pick!
There are so many it’s just half way and I learned so many things
I learn ways how to become best version of ourselves
Well that’s my life’s motive I would say now.
Then I also like the Enma’s innovative game ideas for example scrum@play
I must say this is a very interesting approach to spread the knowledge of scrum and also have fun.
I am definitely going to use some of these game ideas.
- What are your new learnings and takeaways?
New things I learned:
Don’t hold yourself back.
Speak your mind out.It does not have to be a big event even if I have some suggestion which may not be related to the work at the moment I should convey my message.
For.e.g
If requirements for a website for elderly people says – background color should be blue. And I feel if it were real, it would be more pleasing to the eye. There is a possibility that this suggestion can make big impact
It takes 66 days to form a habit
Change your Habit..Change your Life
Difficult roads leads to beautiful destination
If you want to go fast go alone, if you want to go far go together (This one is my favorite)
6. A last word for the global testing community
I will say Keep it up. Never stop asking questions. If you get stuck just give a shout out and there are a lot of people in the world who would really help you in the way they can. So keep learning and never give up
#11 Aishwarya V (@AishwaryaVish12) from India
- Tell us about your background and from where you joined Test Leadership congress?
My name is Aishwarya V, currently pursuing my third year engineering in IT field. I am a freelance software tester since 5 years and a Test Team Lead since 2 years.
Recently, Emna had interviewed me. You can read it here: Being a Freelancer from Tester Perspective
Emna had posted a challenge in her twitter and Instagram handle and I won free ticket to the TLC 🙂 Forever thankful to you Emna!
2. “Test” and “Leadership” is the main title of the congress, what did you expect from this event and why did you want to take part of it ?
Usually, conferences focus mostly on the “Software Testing” content but we all should remember there is something beyond all this that is “Leadership” and “Management skills”. I could learn how to merge “testing” with leadership.
I was so excited to be a part of this conference as this was the first time that I was attending a testing conference and that too virtually! I never thought this would be so well planned and so informative. I really loved the events organised and would surely love to be a part of this next year too!!
- Did you enjoy the remote mode although there are no direct interactions between speakers and attendees?
Not once did I feel that I was here in India and the speakers were in different parts of the world with different time zones. I felt that this type of virtual interaction was better than direct interaction conferences as there were no cost and risks involved in travelling, we could sit at our homes comfortably and be part of the sessions. We were fresh and energetic. This made us focus and grasp more knowledge from the sessions.
- What was your favorite moment?
I’d like to quote two moments-
Firstly, my very good friend and mentor Emna Ayadi’s session on “What can testers’ do to break silos at work?” I can’t express how happy I was to hear her speaking and the content which she shared with all of us was so useful.
I am so lucky that I could interact directly with her and ask her a few questions during the Q&A live session which had so many people joining in from different parts of the world. She cleared and gave me good solutions to the queries that I had put forth.
Second beautiful moment was the lean coffee sessions where I met such amazing people with great knowledge here. I interacted with them, shared my ideas and realised that we all testers’ can go well with each other no matter which part of the world we belong to.
- What are your new learnings and takeaway?
Testing+ Leadership= Perfection
I dream to be a speaker someday and the people who must have dreamt the same few years back are my true inspiration. I learn that I should keep working hard and trust myself 🙂
Be someone who can solve a problem – break out of your mold (your role, the way people see you) to get your career advancement- Jennifer Scandariato
Identify your fears and work towards improving it 🙂
6. A last word for the global testing community
We testers all have unique testing minds which not everyone has. Help out people by sharing knowledge about testing. You never know this small gesture could change a person’s future which could in turn change his life. Do not underestimate yourself. You have much more potential than you think. Never stop here.
I quote:
You have the potential to change the world.” – Mike Lyles
Keep working hard and never give up in your life 🙂
Lastly, Be Kind and Have Courage 🙂
A special shoutout to the Test Masters’ Academy team and all the wonderful speakers out there who managed to speak virtually from different parts of the world living in different time zones. A big shoutout to all the Lean Coffee sessions’ organisers as well! 🙂 You all are the best 🙂
Conclusion
Thank you everyone for being such an inspiration and all the wonderful experience and learnings from this conference!
I’m excited that we collaborated together to write this blog, special thanks to Anna the Founder of this conference via @TestMastersAcad “A Popular Software Testing and QA conferences for leaders and practitioners.”
Anna succeeded to make this conference unique covering all time zones during 5 weeks with lots of interactive sessions.
This conference pushed me to practice sketching that I’ve been learning the 2 previous months.
You can check my learning progress via #emnanotes hashtag in Linkedin
Join my future interviews ?
With the same occasion, let me know your feedback about this new blog format in collaboration with the testing community accross the globe ?
If you want to be interviewed in future testing related events or career perspectives, or challenges don’t hesitate to get in touch via Contact Me form.
Stay in touch via twitter @emna__ayadi or linkedin Emna Ayadi
Emna Ayadi 