Do You Want to Move Testing Forward?

The Association for Software Testing (AST) is holding its tenth annual conference this year. The Conference for the Association for Software Testing (CAST) will be held in downtown Grand Rapids, Michigan on August 3-5, 2015. Ten years is a cause for celebration in my book, and we are throwing a party. I say "we" because I am part of the Board of Directors and the President of AST, and therefore this conference is a big part of what 2015 will be shaping up to be for me.

The theme of the conference this year is “Moving Testing Forward”, and to that effect, I want to reach out and encourage my fellow software testers, programmers, quality advocates, or whatever area you see yourself, to put in a proposal for this year’s conference.

My belief is that the best way to move testing forward is to do so with more voices, and CAST is well known for being the conference where new and unique voices are heard. Several great speakers have developed over the years, and CAST has been quoted as being where many of them first had the opportunity to present. We want to encourage that approach further, so I am sending out a personal call to those software testers who might still be on the fence.

- Maybe you are a relative newcomer.
- Maybe you have not spoken in front of a large group before.
- Maybe you work in an industry and an environment where you think “oh, nobody would be interested in hearing what I have to say”.

Let me assure you, that last one is categorically false. In my opinion, the best talks and presentations are not built around theories or tools. They are built around real world experiences, the good, the bad, the occasionally ugly, and the often unintentionally hilarious.

I had the pleasure of having dinner last night with a couple of friends, both involved in various levels of software delivery, including software testing, and the stories we were sharing, and frequently laughing about, came from our core experiences, what we have witnessed, and what we have learned from those experiences. As I listened and participated with my friends, I mentally ticked off six or seven talk ideas and said “wow, these stories, and the lessons learned from them, would be so great if we could get them out to more people”. I have a pretty good feeling that several of these conversations will become talks at CAST, but the main point I want to encourage is that “your real world experiences make for great talks!”

The Call for Participation for CAST 2015 ends on January 31, 2015. That’s a little under ten days from now. I’d like to encourage all of you, if you are able, to propose a talk for CAST. How are you moving testing forward? There’s a very good bet that what you are doing (or perhaps wish you were doing, or perhaps not doing) will be of great value to your fellow software testers. We encourage people from all arenas, all experiences, and all backgrounds to come share in each others ideas and approaches. There will be a lot of fun things happening at CAST 2015. We want you to be part of it :).