these are the notes I worked off of for a presentation. (Not slides that were projected.)

1. Intro

2. Story 0
Why are you
here?

3. Story 1
What is a QA
professional?

4. Notes/ key points
Quality assurance is about making sure we are building the right product
from the very beginning. We do that using processes people and tools.
QA's role is partially to put good processes into place - repeatable
success.
But the more important role is influencer - influencer of
*people*. Now let's put these two things together, people and
processes. ...

5. Story 1A
Process vs people

6. Notes/ key points
"""worked in my environment"" .. Process is important - but process is
predictable and reliable.
People are more important - because people can change so easily - what
they're thinking, whether or not they're going to support an idea, how
hard they're going to work, what's important to them & what their
priorities are .. Especially when you have bad leadership. But even great
leadership can't compensate for the human wildcard.
“
You don’t have an environment to yourself. It takes collaboration to
make things/ ideas work in everyone’s environment.

7. Story 2
Agile Manifesto IS
QA

8. Notes/ key points
I remember when agile started to emerge - (2002) - there was a lot of
resistance in the QA field - it was perceived as eliminating the need for
QA & rigid testing. But look at the manifesto. Each of those points
screams QA…. (THINK DEMING!)
"1- Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
2- Working software over comprehensive documentation
3- Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
4- Responding to change over following a plan

9. Story 3
Building
Influence

10. Notes/ key points
" How do you build influence? By building trust. You’ll find lots of
answers in the world for how to build influence. But here’s the
essential one people miss.
Here's what people respond to - the familiar. Simon Sinek has a
great video about this - are you friends with everyone in
Columbus? No. But when you meet someone from Columbus in
Berlin you have a connection. Or you research what type of laptop
to buy - and then your friend says, ""naw, buy the lenovo...""
(have you heard that people don't like change? At the root of that
is that it's unfamiliar. People are uncertain about expectations or
how to do something or what the outcome will be. )
So how do we put that idea into action? ….

11. Story 3A
Find Shared
Values, Vision, Go
als

12. Notes/ key points
Shared values -
Having a common purpose is critical. Whatever it may be - producing a
product, correcting a problem - you can't build trust, influence or
momentum toward a nonexistent goal. Figure it out – what’s your
purpose?
And always be positive about it. Sure you might grippe occasionally - but
you have to defend your purpose. Don't get sucked into the negativity -
turn it around. Reassure your team that we can be successful and what
we're doing is important. (But you have to believe it. So get religion.)
Authenticity matters.

13. Story 3B
pattern matching

14. Notes/ key points
How else do you find the familiar?
Increase your knowledge set to gain better pattern matching. (you don't
stick your hand in a blender - even though you have never done it
before, you know that the outcome would be bad.) This applies to more
complex problems too.
Diverse knowledge is an important tool. Not just in problem solving, but
in developing relationships. (People & interactions!)

15. Story 3C
learn something
irrelevant

16. Every organization is different, every team is different, every person is
different, every interaction is different. (“works in my environment”)
So can I stand up here and give you a laundry list of tools and
techniques that you can plug in? I can try, and maybe it'll be useful 10%
of the time. So the trick isn't to have a prescribed way of ""this is how
you _____""
.. Same goes with agile - agile is a state, not a method. The goal is
flexibility and adaptability, improved performance, higher
satisfaction, higher quality - not use of tools.
You need to get out there and learn. Not just learning your current role -
QA is the profession that knows everything. QA are the unsung heroes in
the organization who can connect what's happening over here to
what's happening over there. (Pattern Matching.) And to be good at
that, you have to be inquisitive, knowledgeable, insatiable.. Learn about
QA. Learn about development. Learn about business. But also learn
about music, chemistry, cheese making. Volunteer with a nonprofit and
learn what they do and how they operate. Talk with children - what
solutions are you looking for? Ask a kid. They'll teach you how to think
differently.

17. Exercise
Good, better, hor
rible

18. Don't stop with the first answer you find. But don't search either.. Think. Don’t search.
When faced with a question, don't immediately jump to google. Use your brain. Use
your colleagues. Think about possible answers first. And part of being able to do that is
to learn new things daily - in pursuit of knowledge & wisdom for its own sake. (Not just
when you need a specific answer.) Learn something irrelevant!
4 volunteers…
1 – problem statement
2 – good solution
3 – better solution
4 – horrible solution
Why is it bad? What would it take to make it work? Explore the possibilities.
Collaborate.

19. Story 4
QA leads the way

20. Notes/ key points
So how does QA lead an agile transformation? That was what I said I
was going to talk about, wasn’t it?
I often hear "Bring QA in early to help with quality." So QA gets invited
to meetings. And they sit in meetings and when it's their turn to
talk, say, "We still don't have [requirements|code|environment]. That is
all."
Get QA involved early means involved. QA professionals, you have to
take the lead here. No one else gets QA - you have to educate them. Be
ready to speak up and take the lead.
You’re the unsung heroes, remember? You know everything.

21. Story 4A
Step up, step
outside of your
comfort zone

22. Notes/ key points
""do you think I know what I'm talking about?....""
I wasn’t sure if this idea for a presentation would work tonight. But I wanted to take a
different approach. It worked in my environment!
Don’t be afraid to fail.
People WANT you to succeed when you get in front of them. So when you speak up in a
meeting, (#1 - be succinct - no one likes a blabbermouth) most of the time, people are
giving you the benefit of the doubt that you know what you're talking about. Especially
in a group with a leadership vacuum.
1. If you have a strong leader - talk to that person privately about allowing you to
contribute more in your area of expertise.
2. If you have weak leadership - become the leader. Everyone's waiting on
someone/anyone to step up. The only thing worse than trying and not being the ideal
leader, is sitting back while everyone watches nothing happen.
And if you don’t know what you’re talking about and other people do – ask questions.
Lead by asking, not by telling.

23. Story 5
Show the value

24. Notes/ key points
Show the value - this is last. While agile is all about value, it's first about
transition, philosophy & people. (remember that agile is not a
process, but a state of being.)
Sometimes that's a leap of faith. Whether you can prove the value or
not, you need people to follow you. Build influence and trust.
.. In truth, that’s a circle.
(PDCA, yes?)

25. Notes/ key points
Pause – questions
or comments on
the human side of
agile?

26. Story backlog
What challenges
are YOU facing?

27. Story
how to release
plan

28. Notes/ key points
d

29. Story
how to sell agile
to management

30. Notes/ key points
Ugh – this one isn’t easy – depends on a lot of environmental factors.
#1 – don’t try to sell it. Just do it.
Pretend like everything is normal. Work for 30 days, get a lot done –
show progress to skeptics.

31. Story
what is TDD?
(test driven
development)

32. Notes/ key points
d

33. Story
how does
estimation work?

34. Notes/ key points
Q: any one of these epics could be a three day class. So how do you
scope something big and estimate it?
A: define the value to the user and the fidelity of the solution. In this
session, we are just going to give a cursory answer to questions, indicate
media for further study, set people on the right path. If that’s all we’re
attempting to do, we know we can deliver *some* value in under 5
minutes. (Or we can deliver major value in 3 days.)

35. Story
how does test
planning change?

36. Notes/ key points
d

37. Story
basic agile
principles

38. Notes/ key points
d

39. Story
basic scrum
practices

40. Notes/ key points
d

41. Story
Agile tools

42. Notes/ key points
d

43. Story
Agile metrics

44. Notes/ key points
d

45. Story
Zero defects?

46. Notes/ key points
Remember the cost of quality

47. Story
What is
“technical debt?”

48. Notes/ key points
d

49. Story
measuring
velocity

50. Notes/ key points
Don't set velocity targets - velocity measures what you can realistically
do. It is a measurement, not a goal. Instead, look for ways to improve
delivery.. Use velocity to assess whether process improvement is moving
the needle.

51. Story
Quality -vs-
fidelity/grade

52. Notes/ key points
"Attractive Quality and Must-Be Quality .... Neutralization -vs-
differentiation --> neutralize fast, differentiate as soon as you
can. Neutralize 'good enough' and spend more time on
differentiation. Don't go for zero defects -> cost is too high.
Use a hackathon or bang out fixes for neutralization. (don't compromise
quality, but keep the grade low.)"

53. Story
Structuring
testing

54. Notes/ key points
•Product Teams break Epics or Features into Stories: QA helps by first
writing out some very basic conditions of satisfaction
•Once the conditions are agreed upon, QA writes the Acceptance Criteria
•Story is fleshed out by the Product Team
•Core team now has very specific criteria to make tasks and code to
•Business Rules include a certain amount of traceability to the
acceptance criteria

55. Story
s

56. Notes/ key points
d