2. Bio
• Team Lead ofTesting at 1-800 Contacts located in
Draper, UT.
• 10 years of industry experience and has a passion for
developing skills in testing.
• Active in local software craftsmanship and testing
meetups.
• @n00btester.
4. What Problem Am I Trying Solve:
How do I train testers efficiently and with great skill?
Or
How do I help create experts?
5. What Is Practice?
• “Repeated exercise in or performance of an activity
or skill so as to acquire or maintain proficiency in it.”
• Oxford Pocket Dictionary
6. Why Practice?
• Why is practicing a benefit?
• What are some examples of practice?
• Examples of “naïve” practice in real life:
• Walking
• Driving a Car
7. Capability & “The Gift”
• Mozart
• We are capable of more than we think
• The Gift:Adaptability
9. • 4 seasons in a year
• 12 months in a year
• 52 weeks in a year
• 7 days in a week
• 24 hours in a day
• 60 minutes in an hour
• 60 seconds in a minute
• 31, 30, or 28 days in a month
412527246060313028Source:TellingAin’tTraining, 2002
12. Purposeful Practice Exercise:
• 2 min
• Create the 3 most important charters based on what
you think are the most important goals for someone
interested in attending the ConTEST NYC
Conference using the website.
• Goal: Charter should contain a specific feature for focus and
highlight a specific risk
13. Purposeful Practice Exercise:
• Simple Example:
• Test Buy Now Feature to buy a ticket
• Better Example:
• Use the four Buy Now options to verify ticket prices are correct with
different discounts and fees for a NewYork resident
14. Deliberate Practice:
• Must be deliberate – requires full attention and
conscious actions
• Develops skills that have already been established with
effective training techniques
• Training should be overseen by a coach or teacher
• Produces and depends on effective mental
representations
• Building or modifying previously acquired skills by
focusing on aspects of those skills
15.
16. Deliberate Practice vs Purposeful
Practice in Testing
• Skill Identification
• CoachingTechniques
17. How to create an inventory of skills and
skill acquisition
• WHOSE
• http://whose.associationforsoftwaretesting.org/index.php?title=Ma
in_Page
• Tester Skills
• http://www.satisfice.com/rst-appendices.pdf
18. Expert Performers:
• These are some of the individuals I consider as
Expert Performers:
• Rob Sabourin
• Anna Royzman
• Perze Ababa
• Simon 'Peter' Schrijver
• Tony Gutierrez
• Matt Heusser
• Michael Larsen
• Justin Rorhman
• Richard Bradshaw
• Dan Billing
• Alan Page
• Scott Barber
• Dawn Haynes
• Lee Copeland
• James Bach
• Michael Bolton
• Griffin Jones
• Paul Holland
• Huib Schoots
• AND MANY OTHERS
*These people listed have had some impact on my own learning and skill improvement and
are people “I” consider an expert in some way.
19. The importance of Feedback during
practice
• You can do this on your own, but you may want the
feedback from a person who has the skill you are
looking to acquire.
20. Why we need to create mental models
• EXERCISE!!!! – 2 min
• As a car connoisseur, I would like to have a picture of
a car so I can show others what a car looks like.
• AcceptanceCriteria:The car should have 4 wheels
and tires, at least 2 doors, windows, hood, and look
like a car.
22. How to Practice
• Create a specific goal for skill improvement
• Get feedback on your performance for the skill
• Build upon foundation skills to build into higher
level skills
• Get out of your comfort zone!
23. How to impact the culture where you work
• Start small – create practice opportunities
• Obtain buy-in
• Be a role model
