Chaotic Neutral: QA Roles and Alignment
9:15 - 10:15 Student Alumni Room
QA is often seen as an outsider in the software development realm. Testers are known for breaking things -- and complaining about what doesn't work. Why that's a good thing -- and why it's perceived as a bad thing. How we can embrace our role of bringing chaos and become a hero in the quest to deliver quality software.
I will talk about the different roles we play as testers and the different perspectives we can bring, all while comparing the quest for quality software to a fantasy roleplaying adventure game.
We will attempt to learn together:
How QA gets put in a silo & how to break out of that silo.
Why we should embrace our outsider perspective.
And how to gain acceptance as a valuable part of the software development team while doing it.
Attendees will also develop their own character class, choose their alignment, and decide which attributes and skills they want to develop to grow in their profession.
As an instinctual tester, I'm a pessimist at heart. That means I'm pleasantly surprised at least half the time. I've been testing software for 25 years (not counting the time I left the industry screaming to live on a remote island) which is over half of my life. I suppose I should get some new hobbies or interests outside of work.