My presentation from the excellent Test Atelier in Leeds on the 9th of May. Part experience report along with a couple of test challenges. There's even a joke and a bonus joke at the end. Enjoy and I'm happy to take any feedback or questions.

1. COLLEAGUES TO
COMMUNITY
Or; How to convince people that sharing is a
really good thing
Ady Stokes
Test Atelier
9th May 2017
Start
with a
joke

2. A joke
• Tester walks into a bar:
• Orders: 1 beer
• Orders: 0 beers
• Orders: 9999999999 beers
• Orders: 1.3 beers
• Orders: 0.1 beers
• Orders: NULL beers
• Orders: !”£$%%^^^& beers
• Orders: “” beers
• Orders: akdjlfjlsd beers
• Orders: a lizard
• Orders: ;DROP TABLE BILL
• Tries to leave without paying

3. • Background in Audit and designing Management Systems
in manufacturing (early testing exposure)
• ISO 9000-2000 Certification
• Testing roles since 2004 in a financial environment
• Who doesn’t love regulations!
• In agile teams since 2009
• I don’t raise bugs, I describe behaviour
• Played cricket for 38 years
• Love reading and doing anything that stimulates thought
• Tolerate social media
• @CricketRulz
Me in brief

4. Goals
•Hear about our journey
•Try some things we tried
•Gain some ideas to take away
•Be inspired to have a go or
help us grow (more at the end)

5. 2015 New job, new objective!
He wanted me to;
Engage with testers to create a
community as part of my role
Instil a ‘professional’ attitude
Raise base skill level
Where to start?
Start here 
The Challenge
‘Some’
Enlightenment
Thank you
Chris

6. Initial thoughts
•Help!
• Participant driven
• Who?
• Structured
• Prioritised Backlog
• Discussions
• Presentations
• Lightning talks
• Testing challenges / kata’s
• Enabling people to learn and share
• Give it a name
Thank you
Joel and Laura
“You’ve spelt
it wrong!”

7. The concept and first attempts
• First session 12th
January 2016 to set
the scene and share
the vision
• First challenge to
capture interest and
get folks to come
along
• BRIBARY WORKS!
• START WITH A
CHALLENGE

8. Interactive session ahead
CHALLENGE
Here’s a hand-out
Queue glamorous assistants 

9. Credit to http://softwaretestingfundamentals.com/software-testing-exercises/
Your challenge, what’s wrong? – 10 minutes… go!

10. The challenge results
• Even though it was more of a bug/defect hunt or
observation test than a true learning experience and a bit
on the old side, it was a fun way to introduce the concept
of test challenges
• Generated high levels of participation, possibly due to the
competitive nature of the challenge, even without a prize!
• Had the bonus effect of generating discussions around
the findings and what was and wasn’t a bug/defect and
how to confirm either way
• Who found more than 15?
We found 24

11. We found, for those competitive ones
1. Minimise only half of line present;
2. Maximise has line at bottom not the top;
3. Red x missing part of X;
4. Google tab is in bold
5. Untitled tab has either missing open
bracket or additional closed bracket
6. Untitled tab has square top edges as
opposed to the Google tab which are
rounded off
7. Random down arrow on right of tabs
8. History and Help have the same keyboard
shortcut indicated;
9. Web does not have a link;
10. News is higher;
11. Shopping is missing an S;
12. More isn’t capitalised
13. More has an up arrow next to it instead of
a down
14. Google breadcrumb has an (i) in front
15. There are two pipes between iGoogle and
Search settings
16. The Google logo has the shadow missing
from the second O
17. Two grabs on right scroll bar
18. Search box is missing the left end
19. Font used is inconsistent
20. Language is spelt wrong
21. Google Search, Google has extra O
22. I’m feeling button should be lucky, not
unlucky
23. There are two Done at the bottom of the
browser window
24. There are two down scroll arrows on the
slide bar on the right
Hand out with all the answers is
available at the door after
WHAT NEXT? BACKLOG OBVIOUSLY!

12. Creating a backlog – risk based approachUrgency
Later
Soon
Now
Scared Comfortable Relaxed
Importance
Account
Variances
Heuristics
What are
other teams
doing?
Test Result
Recording
Categories emerged during the session
What should
a PO do?
Twofold
purpose, share
and discuss
risk based
approach and
create backlog
Shared
knowledge
Product
knowledge
Process
knowledge
Testing
knowledge

13. Creating a backlog – risk based approachUrgency
Later
Soon
Now
Scared Comfortable Relaxed
Importance
Account
Variances
Heuristics
Requirements
Live IssuesWhat are
other teams
doing?
Test Result
Recording
After the session most had an owner and vehicle for sharing
(presentation, lightning talk, blog, discussion etc.).
Automation
Test
Execution
A/B Testing
Spec by
Example
Legacy
Code
What should
a PO do?
Test
Analysis
Thought
Techniques

14. Interactive session ahead

15. •A woman fired a shot at a man with
her gun but the man did not die. List
the possible reasons for the man not
dying.
• There are numerous possibilities above and this exercise
should help a tester identify possible test scenarios/cases.
• We have 5 minutes to identify what assumptions you
would make, what questions you would ask? What
information do you need?
Your challenge – 5 minutes
Your thoughts?

16. A few possibilities
• A woman fired a shot at a man with her gun but the man
did not die. List the possible reasons for the man not
dying.
• Variables; actors; inputs; states; influences etc…
• Bad aim
• None lethal hit (wound, graze etc.)
• Protection (Bullet proof vest or glass, behind a wall)
• Bullet was none lethal (Water, Paint, Blank)
• Imaginary gun
• Distance (too far away)
• Already dead

17. The journey continues
• Guest speakers
• Test conference attendance fed back in blogs/sessions
• I stole ‘Testability and Toast’ 
• Online TestConf (PractiTest)
• Stand alone sessions
• Look at other / outside influences
• Maintaining momentum!!!
• Summer Test Challenge – All UK sites!
It’s about the journey,
not the destination
Thanks to Clem
Pickering and
Mike Grinwood
You don’t get owt for nowt!

18. We need you! Sales pitch time 
I mentioned Guest speakers
Please get in touch if;
• You have something you want to share
• You have an idea you want to try
• You want to practice presenting
• Travel and lunch costs can be arranged 
It’s about the journey,
not the destination
Getting things done is about attitude

19. Ayn rand
“The question isn't who
is going to let me;
it's who is going to stop
me.”
So what about those goals then?

20. Goals – Met?
•Heard about our journey
•Tried some things we tried
•Gained some ideas to take away
•Be inspired to have a go or help
us grow? PLEASE! 
@cricketrulz or adystokes@sky.com

22. My definition of the Testing Mindset
“What could happen
given every possible,
practical scenario?”

23. My favourite quote
“Testing is an infinite process
of comparing the invisible
to the ambiguous
in order to avoid the unthinkable
happening to the anonymous.”
James Bach

24. Another joke
A tester walks by a group of managers
who are trying to measure a flagpole.
‘What’s the problem?’ the tester asks.
‘We can’t find a way of measuring the
pole.’ says a manager.
The tester walks over, pulls the pin out
and lays the flag pole on the ground.
‘Now all you need is a tape measure!’
the tester smiles and walks on his way.
‘Typical bloomin tester!’ says the
manager. ‘Ask for the height and they
give you the length…’
http://softwaretestingfundamentals.com/software-testing-jokes/