I was at the 19th annual EuroSTAR (Software Testing and Analysis) conference this past week.  This years conference was held in Manchester in the UK.  A city that surprises – very pretty with many of teh old buildings preserved.  Home of the 2 famous football clubs.  I see next year the conference is in Amsterdam in Holland.  It moves to a different European city each year.  It was a great week – and a marvellous opportunity to get out of the office and get some think-time driven by outside influences – and to meet old friends of course.

The first thing I noticed was the energy of the Program Committee.  The conference program is selected by a team drawn from the European Testing Community – and through an independent review process, they select the content to be presented.  That means that no one can pay to speak – not even the main sponsors – which is interesting and very positive.  Back to the 2011 Program Committee – led by Geoff Thompson from the UK – Geoff’s team put on a mini show each morning called “Good Morning Manchester” at the conference.  It was a fun way to look back and forward on the conference – and to help the delegates make the most of their investment.  Novel and appreciated by all.  The other members of the team were Derk Jan de Grood, Valori, The Netherlands, Graham Thomas, UK and Morten Hougaard, Pretty Good Testing, Denmark.  It looked like they put in a lot of work – but really enjoyed themselves.  I bet their program will be scored highly.

Here are some of the sessions I attended:

• Opening Keynote – Richard  Sykes from the UK.  A great walkthrough the advent of cloud computing and the associated changes.  He predicted the demise of may successful companies!  His suggestion that “The New Testing – would be Business Assurance in the Virtual”  - a very good insight.
• Work Life Balance – Mette Tonder from Denmark.  A very brave talk in the “People Track” on her battle with work stress and how she overcame.  Mette used her real life story and the models she found helpful.  An unusual but relevant talk for many.
• FEAR – Psychology in the Pursuit of Quality – Rik Marselis from Holland. Very interesting talk with models – also in the People Track.
• Keynote 2 – “The Testing Phase is Dead” by Gojko Adzic from Serbia.  A great talk on why Gojko feels that the “Testing Phase” will disappear from the software lifecycle!  I liked this quote  – “Managers who ask for control really want visibility.”
• Keynote 3 – James Whittaker – Engineering Director at Google in the US.  What a great speaker and so edge’y and provocative!  Also predicted in some ways the end of traditional testing.  You have to hand it to these testing folks who attend these talks – lots  to think about, when experts like James question their profession!
• Situational Leadership Styles on Test approaches – Wim Decontere from Belgium.  Some really interesting leadership models (e.g. Hersey and Blanchard) presented that can apply to general management as well as testing of course.  Also presented was Kolb’s Learning Cycle.
• Chasing Quality in Cloud Computing – Kees Blokland from Holland. 
• Implementing Change: Methods, People and Processes – Torben Hoelgaard from Denmark.
• Social Software Development: the Writing is on the Wall – Mathew Aniyan from Microsoft in India.  A really good use of the “facewall” concept as applied to management of projects.
• Boundaries of User Experience Test Automation – from Julian Harty of eBay in the UK.  Gave links to lots of cool free automation tools.
• Growing to the next level of Test Organization – from Tim Koomen of Holland.  Good talk on moving to the “test factory” from Tim.
• Keynote 4 – Power to the People – from Daryl Elfield of Deutsche Bank.  Gave a very open and frank account of the world wide efforts at the bank to improve quality and performance, where he reported 20,000 people in IT, 13,000 changes a month go live to systems and almost 50% are emergency or unplanned.  Wow!
• Keynote 5 – Create Customer Value with Agile Testing – Ben Walters an American working with Microsoft in India.  Ben said we should not expect “predictive planning” but should get used to “adaptive planning”!
• How to apply Lean to Test Management, Ban Waste and Gain Efficiency – from Bob van der Burgt of Holland.  A full room.  Great from Bob as we have come to expect.  Bob explained that the earliest references to “Lean” were in 1765 with a French General!  In the bar late last night Bob gave me the name of this General – but of course I forget!
• Dashboards: Real Time Test Information for Managers and Teams – from Michael Bolton of Canada.   Michael is always great value for money.  Very opinionated and vocal in an extremely positive way.
• Keynote 6 – Quality in use: the beating heart of the customer experience – from Isabel Evans of the UK.  Passionate and insightful from Isabel as ever.  Isabel reported on quality improvement in a company that delivers “accessibility” products for people who are almost or actually blind or who have learning difficulties.  What a great idea.

I assume all of these papers and presentations will eventually be made available in the EuroSTAR Community. I know delegates have access to them today.

I also went to the Test Lab – where we had the chance to pair up with a stranger and test some software – and learn from each other – see different approaches to testing.   I was there for the testing of “Mindful tools and tools for the mind”.   134 real bugs were reported against 4 real software products!  I also see the Test Lab delegates tried to take down the EuroSTAR conference web site! 

I do not always spend time in the Expo … but this year I spend a few hours walking around the various stands.  Many testing and IT service companies.  Many different models: off shore, near shore, global delivery, hybrids, etc.  Lots of cloud testing services – buy what you need when you need it.  A book store. The training vendors. Certification outfits. Tool vendors.  I liked one in particular – Brandt – a tool vendor that allows you to run a set of tests (manually) on one system and the same set of tests are run on other targets at the same time where the results are seen on multiple screens (e.g. testing a release on different browsers, different languages, different service packs, etc.) - a very pragmatic approach – making manual testing way more productive.

Thursday night …  The conference formally closed with a Gala Dinner and prize giving at a wonderful historic location in Manchester – “The Monastery” (a centuries old Franciscan monastery).  The combination of the Chamber choir, the wonderful historic old church setting, the prize giving and the good company made it a memorable evening.  Julian Harty was a very popular winner of the EuroSTAR European Testing Professional of the Year 2011.  Also announced was the 2012 Program Chair … Zeger van Hese.  The show rolls on.

Another great conference from and by the European Testing Community.  Lots to consider.  Time well spent.