The document discusses the importance of soft skills for testers and suggests various exercises to enhance these abilities, such as puzzles, improv activities, and lateral thinking strategies. It introduces the 'six thinking hats' method by Edward de Bono to approach problems creatively and emphasizes the benefits of collaboration through improv exercises. It encourages a mindset of exploration and creativity without the fear of failure.

1. Improv and Discussion
exercises (for Testers)
STC Meetup Cambridge 08/09/2015
by Karo Stoltzenburg | @karostol | LinkedIn

2. How come?
A Tester can make really good use of …
● excellent communication and collaboration skills
● thinking outside the box
● a creative mindset
● flexibility and ability to adapt
● taking in different angles, viewpoints
● empathy, putting oneself in somebody else’s shoes

3. Now what?
These are rather soft skills ….
how can we train them?

4. Exercises, everywhere
● Puzzles (‘Spot the Difference’, Situation Puzzles, Logic
Puzzles)
● Improv activities and Improv games
● Lateral Thinking and problem solving strategies
● Testing Challenges / Software Testing Exercises
… train different skills, both in individual and group exercise.
Let’s look at Lateral Thinking and Improv in more detail.

5. Lateral Thinking
● Term coined by Edward de Bono (1967)
● basic focus is on solving problems
● in an unconventional, creative way
● by applying certain strategies, methods, techniques
● e.g. the group discussion technique:
‘Six Thinking Hats’

6. Six Thinking Hats: What for?
● Look at problems from a variety of angles
● Challenge and explore your brain’s distinct thinking
directions
● Get some inspiration on thinking tactics
● Collaborate within the group

7. Six Thinking Hats
● BLUE: “manage, control, order, goals, objectives”
● WHITE: “the facts, just the facts.”
● YELLOW: “brightness, optimism. Value & benefits.”
● BLACK: “judgement. Why might it not work?”
● RED: “intuition, emotions, feelings, hunches”
● GREEN: “creativity, possibilities, ideas”
● BLUE: “manage, observe, order, conclusions”

8. Applying the ‘Six Thinking Hats’ exercise
● Group discussion exercise
● Six different flavors (“hats”) of distinct thinking directions
● Select a topic
● All discuss applying one thinking flavor at a time
● Time boxed
● You’re done when you have applied all flavors

9. Improv exercises: What for?
● Focus on being in the moment, awareness
● Train listening and communication skills
● Train storytelling, empathy, imagination
● Collaborate within the group
● Equal out individual dynamics in groups
● Create possibilities without fear of failing
● “Improv is innovation”

10. Improv exercise (I): “Yes, and ….”
● Tell a affirmative story, as group.
● First person starts with a sentence, and all following add
on to it applying “Yes, and …” to bring the story forward:
○ A: “Once upon a time, there was a castle.”
○ B: “Yes, and the castle was on a mountain.”
○ C: “Yes, and from the mountain you had a great view.”
● … and so forth. Up until a shiny story is told.
● Key is to collaborate, engage in the story

11. Improv exercise (II): “Conducted Story”
● Tell a coherent story, as group.
● One Person starts, and halts mid-word where the next
person picks it up, seemingly seamlessly.
○ A: “Once upon a time in the We--”
○ B: “--lington region, there was a big, loud cr----”
○ C: “--adle of filth concert taking place ar---”
● … and so forth. Up until a story is told.
● Listening is key. Engage, accept and go with the flow.

12. Some key points
● There is no winner in (improv) exercises
● Enjoy the feeling of exercising your brain
● Enjoy thinking outside the box, going crazy
● Are not afraid to fail
● If you are stuck, feel free to say “pass”
● Don’t ponder, engage

13. Thanks!
● Any questions?
● Interested in trying it out?

14. Some further reading ….
● Pradeep Soundararajan: Testing exercises, found everywhere
● Malcolm Gladwell: Blink
● Edward de Bono (Lateral Thinking, Six thinking hats, …)
● Lindsay Lavine: Yes, and... improv techniques to make you a better boss
● Hugh Hart: Yes, and ... 5 more lessons in improving collaboration and
creativity from second city
● Emma Armstrong: Be deliberate about improving your testing skills
● Soap UI: Testing Katas, sqa.stackexchange entry on testing katas
● Software Testing Club, Forum: How to practice testing?
● Karen Tilstra: Two words that can change the world: yes, and. (TEDxOrlando)

15. (Full links)
● http://www.softwaretestingclub.com/forum/topics/how-to-practice-testing
● https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1SK_qNLx5U
● http://testertested.blogspot.co.uk/2007/01/testing-exercises-found-everywhere.html
● http://www.red-gate.com/blog/deliberate-improving-testing-skills
● http://www.soapui.org/testing-dojo/testing-katas/what-are-testing-katas-.html
● http://sqa.stackexchange.com/questions/624/developers-have-code-kata-to-practice-skills-what-test-equivalents-are-there
● https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puzzle#Types_of_puzzles
● http://www.fastcompany.com/3024535/leadership-now/yes-and-improv-techniques-to-make-you-a-better-boss
● http://www.fastcocreate.com/3042080/yes-and-5-more-lessons-in-improv-ing-collaboration-and-creativity-from-second-city
● https://dschool.stanford.edu/groups/k12/wiki/3091c/Improv_activities_for_Design_Thinking.html
● http://awkwardsquad.tripod.com/id15.html
● https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blink_%28book%29
● https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_de_Bono
● https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lateral_thinking
● https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Problem_solving#Problem-solving_strategies
● http://www.testing-challenges.org/Testing+Challenges
● http://softwaretestingfundamentals.com/software-testing-exercises