Past Events

Three days of Rapid Software Testing and a day of consulting in-house for a corporate client. read more…

A one-hour presentation on Test Framing for the Software Quality Discussion Group's lunchtime meeting in Calgary, Alberta. read more…

A three-day public offering of the three-day Rapid Software Testing class in Calgary, Alberta. read more…

I was in Oslo, Norway, for three days of the Rapid Testing class and two days of consulting with a corporate client. read more…

EuroSTAR 2010 continued with track sessions and the Test Lab. My account of the proceedings starts here. read more…

At my fourth consecutive EuroSTAR conference, EuroSTAR 2010 in Copenhagen, Denmark, I presented a half-day tutorial on test framing, the skill of linking risk, oracles, coverage, and tests—and your account of them—in a coherent logical framework. The EuroSTAR slides and paper nan be be found here. There's an updated version more … read more…

After a two-day Rapid Software Testing class, I gave a keynote presentation (Testers: Get Out of the Quality Assurance Business and a half-day Exploratory Testing Master Class at SQA Days in St. Petersburg, Russia. read more…

A three-day public Rapid Software Testing class in London, UK; organized by Electromind, with testers from the U.K., Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, and Sweden. read more…

I was delighted to be invited to speak at the London Tester Gathering, a series of monthly get-togethers hosted by the enterprising Tony Bruce, at the Shooting Star Pub in the City of London. I talked about Burning Issues of the Day. read more…

I presented a talk on two futures of testing at the offsite retreat for a corporate client in the medical field. read more…

A keynote presentation of my talk, Testers: Get Out of the QA Business! at the TesTrek conference here in Toronto. read more…

I presented a track session, Testers: Get Out of the QA Business! at STPCon. I was honoured to have Jerry Weinberg attending and contributing to the presentation. read more…

A two-day version of the usually-three-day Rapid Software Testing course at the Software Test Professionals Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. read more…

A lunchtime visit to a corporate client in Berlin, Germany, where I was privileged to speak to a handful of testers and a large bunch of programmers about testing. read more…

A one-day tutorial workshop and a keynote, Testers, Get Out of the QA Business at Agile Testing Days in Berlin, Germany. A related blog post is here. At this conference, we also had extensive discussions on certification and its discontents. Those who are interested in that topic might like to more … read more…

The first presentation of Test Framing for the Kitchener-Waterloo Software Quality Association. (There's also a blog post about test framing here.) read more…

A day of presentations, exercises, and consulting in-house for a corporate client in Belfast, Northern Ireland. read more…

A lunchtime presentation of Two Futures of Sofware Testing for Softtest in Belfast, Northern Ireland. read more…

An evening presentation of Two Futures of Sofware Testing for Software Skillnet in Dublin. read more…

I presented a public offering of the three-day Rapid Software Testing class in Dublin, Ireland. read more…

I presented a keynote address at the RIM Test Automation Conference, August 18-19, in Waterloo, Ontario. read more…

A two-hour online coaching presentation for a large corporate client. This was done as a conversation with one of their staff, and seemed very well received. read more…

At CAST (the Conference of the Association for Software Testing) in Grand Rapids, Michigan, I was asked at the last minute to do a presentation as a replacement for a presenter who was unable to attend. I did my presentation on Noticing. read more…

The Sixth Toronto Workshop on Software Testing, an invitation-only peer conference which I co-founded with Fiona Charles. This year we were privileged to have attendees from Calgary and England, in addition to our usual complement of people from Ottawa and southwestern Ontario. read more…

A public offering of Rapid Software Testing in Amsterdam, organized by Diaz and Hilterscheid, the publishers of Testing Experience magazine. read more…

Co-presented Cem Kaner's Black Box Software Testing class (with Cem himself in the lead role) to a corporate client in Waterloo, Ontario. read more…

Assisted Cem Kaner in a rare live presentation of his Black Box Software Testing class here in Toronto, for TASSQ, the Toronto Association of System and Software Quality. Check out the online courses offered by the Association for Software Testing. read more…

A webinar to help promote the EuroSTAR testing conference: "Testers: Get Out of the Quality Assurance Business". read more…

A two-day public class in two parts: A Rapid Introduction To Rapid Software Testing and Critical Thinking for Testers, for the Southwestern Ontario Software Quality Group. read more…

An in-house presentation of Rapid Software Testing for a corporate client in Waterloo. Because of a crowded schedule, we'll be doing the free fourth day later. read more…

For the Calgary Software Quality Discussion Group, the first public presentation of "Testers: Get Out of the Quality Assurance Business". read more…

Rapid Software Testing, in a three-day public offering in Calgary, AB, sponsored by Lynn McKee and by Wayne Stark of Integritas Solutions. read more…

An afternoon with the Scottish Testing Group in Edinburgh. I presented Two Futures of Sofware Testing, Six Short Talks About Software Testing, and a new version of Burning Issues of the Day. read more…

The London Tester's Gathering in the basement at the LVPO Bar in Soho, London, UK. I talked about (and heartily recommended) Leviathan and the Air Pump, a history of an epic scientific dispute that reflected the tensions between experiment and philosophy. read more…

A three-day public offering of Rapid Software Testing in London, England, May 11-13. This one is sponsored by Stephen Allott at Electromind. read more…

"I Wouldn't Have Seen It If I Hadn't Believed It: Confirmation Bias in Testing", a track session at the STAR East Conference, Orlando, Florida. read more…

The 14th Workshop on Performance and Reliability in Montreal, Quebec. read more…

Questioning Best Practices—a half-day tutorial at the Kitchener-Waterloo Software Quality Association's third annual Targeting Quality Conference. read more…

A three-day session of Rapid Software Testing, plus a day of free consulting, for a corporate client in Colorado Springs, CO. read more…

A three-day public offering of Rapid Software Testing in Berlin, Germany, sponsored by Testing Experience. read more…

A three-day public offering of Rapid Software Testing, and a keynote talk on Testing, Checking, and Tools at the Conference on Free Testing Tools, sponsored by the Norwegian Computer Society, in Trondheim, Norway. read more…

A keynote talk on testing vs. checking at the Conference on Free Testing Tools, sponsored by the Norwegian Computer Society, in Trondheim, Norway. read more…

A meeting with a number of testers in Moscow, Russia, where I described, explained, and demonstrated Rapid Software Testing. read more…

I gave an interactive talk, "Why Is Testing Taking So Long" at the Markham meeting for TASSQ, the Toronto Association of System and Software Quality. read more…

The 2010 Workshop on Teaching Software Testing, in Melbourne, Florida. This year the subject was what to teach programmers about how to test at the implementation level. read more…

A session of Rapid Software Testing with a corporate client in St. Louis, MO. read more…

Burning Issues of the Day, a mini track session presentation at EuroSTAR 2009 in Stockholm, Sweden. read more…

An Exploratory Testing Masterclass, a one-day tutorial at EuroSTAR 2009. read more…

Exploring Testing (and) Leadership, the opening plenary presentation at STC 2009, a conference sponsored by the Edista Testing Institute and QAI Worldwide in Bangalore, India. read more…

A two-day Rapid Software Testing class in Bangalore, India. read more…

A one-day session of Rapid Software Testing in Hyderabad, India. read more…

A one-day session of Rapid Software Testing in Chennai, India. read more…

A one-day session of Rapid Software Testing in Mumbai, India. read more…

A day of corporate consulting with a client in the Washington, DC area. read more…

A session of Rapid Software Testing with a corporate client in Baltimore, MD. read more…

TesTrek, a QAI-produced conference right here in Toronto. I participated in the Managers' Workshop on Monday. This included two impromptu talks Test Process in 20 Minutes and Automation in 20 Minutes. I also presented Two Futures of Software Testing on Wednesday. read more…

At the Software Test and Performance Conference, Boston, MA, a keynote address, Lessons Testers Can Learn from Astronauts. In addition, three track talks: Noticing, A Rapid Introduction To Rapid Software Testing, and Two Futures of Software Testing. read more…

Three sessions at STAR West, Anaheim, CA, October 5-9: Tester's Clinic: Dealing with Tough Questions and Testing Myths; Using the Secrets of Improv to Improve Your Testing; and The Skill of Factoring: Identifying What to Test. I also participated in a panel discussion hosted by Ross Collard, with James Bach, more … read more…

A re-presentation of my talk on noticing skills at the Kitchener-Waterloo Software Quality Association. That's skills of noticing, rather than how to notice particular skills, which is a somewhat different topic. read more…

An online Webinar on exploratory approaches in Agile projects, with Chad Wathington from ThoughtWorks. My slides for the Webinar are are here. read more…

Working with a local client to present Rapid Software Testing and four sessions of follow-up work, in Toronto, starting August 31 and continuing through the fall. read more…

A workshop on "Why is Testing Taking So Long?" at Agile 2009, Thursday, August 27. The really interesting thing at the conference, for me, was the next day: a lightning talk on testing vs. checking. The story is in this blog post, and a series of blog posts on the more … read more…

An in-house session of Rapid Software Testing and a day of hands-on testing, consulting and coaching with a client in northern Calfornia. read more…

An in-house session of Rapid Software Testing and a day of hands-on testing, consulting and coaching with a client in northern Calfornia. read more…

At the CAST Conference in Colorado Springs, CO, a one-day tutorial workshop with Fiona Charles called Testing Your Testing: Determining Risks, and solo, an interactive version of User Acceptance Testing: A Context-Driven Perspective. Some notes are available upon request. I also enjoyed facilitating a couple of sessions. read more…

A public session of Rapid Software Testing, in London, England, UK, sponsored by ElectroMind. read more…

Professional development: participated in Jerry Weinberg's workshop, Designing Experiential Exercises and Simulations, presented with Esther Derby June 22-26 in Albuquerque, NM. read more…

A presentation of my keynote address, Two Futures of Software Testing (here's one version of it) at the June 17 BCS SIGIST Conference in London, England. Later that day, two pseudo-lightning talks (they were longer than five minutes). The first was on the subject of emotions as triggers to recognizing more … read more…

At the STAR East conference, produced by Software Quality Engineering in Orlando, FL, I gave a keynote address on Testing and Noticing. I also gave a half-day experiential workshop on Difficult Testing Questions and How to Answer Them, and a track session called Insource or Outsource Testing: Understanding Your Context. read more…

The QAI QUEST Conference in Chicago. I gave a full-day workshop called Exploratory Testing: Design, Execute and Learn, and a track session billed as Exploratory Testing: Recording and Reporting. If you're interested in the topic, you may also be interested in a 2007 paper, An Exploratory Tester's Notebook. read more…

A keynote presentation and a track session at the Triangle Information Systems Quality Assurance 2009 Testing Conference is in Chapel Hill, NC. read more…

Rapid Software Testing, a full day of hands-on testing, consulting, coaching, dining, and chat with managers, plus two half-days attending and presenting at the company's Quality Summit. read more…

A three-day session of Rapid Software Testing, plus a day of consulting, coaching, and hands-on testing with a corporate client in Madison, WI. read more…

The annual Workshop on Teaching Software Testing, a peer conference in Melbourne, FL. read more…

Rapid Software Testing—two sets of classes over five days, for testers, test leads, and managers—at a corporate client in Richmond, BC. read more…

Rapid Software Testing—three days, plus a day of consulting and coaching for a corporate client in Kanata, ON. read more…

Six Short Talks About Software Testing, for VX Company. read more…

EuroSTAR 2008 in Den Haag, the Netherlands, at which I presented three sessions. The first, on November 11, was an experiential tutorial on Critical Thinking for Testers. The second, on November 12, was a double-track experiential session on Heuristics: Solving Problems Quickly. The third on November 13, was a track more … read more…

The day-after-AYE experiential workshop on teaching experiential workshops, presented by Jerry Weinberg and assisted by Esther Derby. read more…

The annual AYE Conference (the ninth, and my sixth), at which I was delighted to assist Jerry Weinberg with several of his experiential workshops. This conference coincided with the debut of The Gift of Time, edited by my colleague Fiona Charles and the first published book to which I've contributed more … read more…

A morning presentation for corporate client and their clients on the value of exploratory approaches to testing. The day continued with a lunchtime presentation to the client's testers and programmers, and an afternoon of discussion with a couple of key test managers. Dinner included conversation with the client's staff and more … read more…

A three-day public course of Rapid Software Testing in Umeå, Sweden. read more…

A presentation to a corporate client near Minneapolis, MN, followed by a couple of hours of conversation on test priorities and strategies in a highly regulated, high-risk context. read more…

A three-day session of Rapid Software Testing in Minneapolis, MN, sponsored by the Twin Cities Quality Assurance Association, plus an address (Six Short Talks About Software Testing) on the last day to the TCQAA's monthly membership meeting. For a few members of the board, I also provided an evening's worth more … read more…

STAR West 2008, at which I presented a tutorial (Difficult Testing Question and How To Answer Them) and a track session, a requested repeat of last spring's session on test coverage. I also had the pleasure of some development work on the Rapid Software Testing course with James Bach, and more … read more…

A consulting assignment in which I was asked to observe, analyze, and report on my client's testing and development processes. This was a fairly inspiring occasion; one of the first times that I've even seen a development organization make excellent use of metrics. They used metrics for inquiry, not for more … read more…

A one-day workshop entitled "Exploratory Testing: Design, Execute, Learn" at the QUEST 2008 conference, Toronto, Ontario. read more…

Four days of onsite consulting for a corporate client in Provo, Utah. This was a refreshing opportunity to present some of the material from the Rapid Software Testing course, but also to have more free-ranging discussions about testing with the company's testers and test managers. read more…

Six Short Talks About Software Testing, a special presentation for a corporate client in Toronto, Ontario. read more…

Rapid Software Testing three-day course, plus a day of consulting and coaching for a corporate client in Toronto, Ontario. This is the second time this client has had me teach. Clients often use our exercises for interviews and training after the course, so a lot of the participants this time more … read more…

When Two Plus Two is Wrong (a half-day workshop) and Numbers vs. Narratives (a keynote address) at the Software Testing Australia New Zealand (STANZ) conference in Wellington, New Zealand and Sydney, Australia. I also gave a full-day tutorial, Critical Thinking for Testers, in Wellington. read more…

I acted as Conference Chair for the Conference for the Association for Software Testing (CAST) 2008. Keynotes included Jerry Weinberg, Cem Kaner, Rob and Anne Sabourin, and Brian Fisher. I also presented Testing and Music: Parallels in Practice, Skills and Learning, which I co-authored with Jonathan Kohl, and assisted Jerry more … read more…

The fourth Toronto Workshop on Software Testing, which I co-organized with Fiona Charles (Fiona did most of the heavy lifting this year). This year's topic was Deception and Self-Deception in Software Testing. read more…

Rapid Software Testing in a three-day private session for a corporate client in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Nice to be at home for a change! read more…

Rapid Software Testing, a three-day public course sponsored by Sogeti Spain, in Barcelona, Spain. read more…

Six Short Talks about Software Testing, for the Toronto Association of System and Software Quality. read more…

A three-day public session of Rapid Software Testing, sponsored by ENEA in Stockholm, Sweden. read more…

While in transit to Sweden, I had the good luck to be able to attend LEWT, the London Exploratory Workshop on Testing, a peer conference organized by James Lyndsay (and many thanks to him). read more…

Two talks at STAR East: Angels and Devils of Software Testing (with Jonathan Kohl) and Understanding Test Coverage. read more…

I appeared at the inaugural Conference for the Kitchener Waterloo Software Quality Association, where I presented Why I Am Not (Yet) Certified, followed by a half-day Testing Clinic. read more…