CAST 2018

The language we use when describing our testing is important to understanding our craft. This workshop is geared toward clarification of the soft skills of our testing practices. We will share best outcomes to document new talking points which we can apply in our evolving careers as testers.


“What I talk about when I talk about testing” is a workshop geared toward testers and non-testers alike. It will be a short presentation followed by a group discussion. We will share scenarios and situations we have encountered where we had to describe our work, or elaborate on our processes.
This will be an overview of the non-technical side of software testing - the soft skills we bring to the agile process, and the communication and perception challenges that we sometimes face in our careers.

How do you describe the testing that you are doing to the stakeholders on the project? How do you respond to questions in a job interview? How do you interact during discussions with recruiters, or with account people who are selling your skillset to a client? How do you quantify what you do in order to sell yourself and software testing accurately? The language we use is very important in a craft that is often misunderstood.

It’s important to explain that it’s not just what we DO as software testers, it is equally important to show how we interact with other development team members. We need to describe how the testing process often goes much deeper than just ‘checking’ if the software behaves according to requirements. We possess soft skills that are just as important as our technical skills. But how do we convey that?

We will have a group discussion about our interactions with the following individuals and uncover a list of good practices:
* Project Stakeholders
* Product Owners
* Developers
* Scrum masters and project managers
* Account & sales people
* Talent acquisition / Recruiters