expo:QA’22 in Madrid — A story
At the beginning of 2020 few believed that we’d all be hunkered down in our houses, carefully planning our route to the supermarket (in order to avoid any possible interaction) and trying to continue our day to day through the medium of our computers as if nothing had really changed. Looking back, we all know it did and the ways in which we interact daily have also morphed into different shapes and sizes.
After quite a long while of having virtual coffee breaks, remote workshops, online team building activities, things got better and sitting one next to the other while not wearing masks feels a bit safer than before.
Some of us have gone back to our offices or adopted a hybrid way of working while others saw the benefits of fully remote work and embraced it completely. One thing is certain: human interaction (as we once knew it) started seeping through social isolation cracks back into the habitual.
A lot of us however felt its lack during the multitude of lock-downs, curfews and isolation policies. Thus, when I heard that a QA-focused conference was going to be an on-site only event that would take place in Madrid, I was already thinking what to pack.
The conference advertised 5 tracks, each with its own theme or focus: are you more interested in technical topics or maybe would getting to know the latest and greatest around how to cope with anxiety or stress be something more up your alley? What about accessibility, contract testing, efficient automation, AI or API testing? Whatever your cuppa is, they got you covered.
Personal areas of interest
Being a QA Manager for around 6 years now, I’m on a constant journey to hone my management and leadership skills. Not only that but I’ve experienced first-hand the importance of being a clear communicator, giving and accepting feedback or always being there for the team through either positive reinforcements or healthy challenges (among many others).
Therefore, the talks that were led by renowned people in the industry such as Rob Sabourin, Ard Kramer, Seb Rose or Daniel Billing were of special interest to me. I also found a lot of value and insights in other talks such as Veerle Verhagen’s Out of the comfort zone, into the unknown — asking better questions without being afraid, Michal Buckzo’s 7 ways to step up as a leader, Gitte Ottosen’s Finding your way — Testing in the Scaled Agile Framework or Joaquin Suarez’s Agile Testing — process, benefits and consequences of adopting Shift Left testing and others.
A greater focus on soft skills
What we are doing today at ManoMano requires from us a great deal of technical know-how but also that we exercise our soft skills to the maximum. The era in which the tester would be at the receiving end of the SDLC has gone and we are now more embedded in all of our teams design and thought processes, supporting but also challenging them along the way.
Stay awhile and listen
I was pleasantly surprised to see that in the schedule, expo:QA was advertising a lot of talks focused on soft skills. As the term is very broad and can mean different things to different people (a lot like Quality), what expo:QA had in its talks lineup touched upon a few hot topics such as: communication-led risk-based assessments, finding our way as QA in the world of Agile Testing, anxiety and risk management, ways of stepping up as a leader or how to get more skilled at asking questions, thus sharpening your inquisitive skills.
Lessons learned and more
At the end of expo:QA I felt very inspired and felt in the flow as some might call it. I’ve reviewed the slide decks that the organisers have shared with us again after I got home in sunny Valencia and did some note taking that would help me organise my thoughts and my next actions better. I want to share some of those with you, maybe you find something of interest:
- Pertaining to a community of practitioners (whatever practice might be at its core) is key to forming a long-lasting commitment and having everyone invested not only in the companies they are working in but in helping the practice (company agnostic) reach new levels (even better if this community will have people from different disciplinary backgrounds as their experience and points of view could bring a new idea to the table);
- QAs need not be afraid of raising their voices, making their opinions heard or actively challenging the status quo — It is only by knowing our power and worth as well as our position inside of the teams we’re working with that we can create a longer lasting impact on the ways of working while keeping Quality as an irrefutable non-negotiable (sorry, it’s not on the table!). By claiming our position we will not only shed some much needed light on the importance of our work but also put more emphasis on our key value inside the whole industry;
- Our roles as QA have new dimensions — Shift-left testing, although it’s a practice that was first documented more than 20 years ago¹, is just making its first steps into notoriety inside of the industry and it’s proposing a different approach on Quality, Craftsmanship or Developer Experience. Testing is no longer a phase but an activity happening all along the SDLC. Quality is no longer the output of a limited scope of people but openly embraced as a commonly shared core value of the team. It’s part of our OKRs and sponsored by our C-Level leaders. It’s a main actor in all the conversations Engineering, Product, UX, Design or Sales departments have. Everybody is directly involved and responsible for creating built-in quality in the product. In the end, how do you want to differentiate yourself in the eyes of the end-user if not by providing a substantially better product that has built-in quality at its core?;
- Soft skills are more important than ever — Quality Assurance? No, Quality Assistance. Going hand in hand with shift-left testing, QAs need to hone their mentoring, coaching, feedback and communication skills even though they are not in a classic managerial position. Being part of the feature teams while leading by example, conducting PoCs or acting as a mediator, it is essential that we are shifting the focus of our personal journey into continuously improving our interpersonal attributes. Only by doing this we are going to (first and foremost) expand our own skill-set that the teams, the products and by extension the company will benefit greatly from.
And a bonus one from me…
- Always start with WHY — Simon Sinek’s disruptive book and talks continue being instrumental in the approach we are driving nowadays in the software world. Especially when taking into consideration a long process of cultural change like shift-left is, it is paramount we are getting people onboard our Quality-driven product mission by making our WHYs transparent, visible and easily accessible. Because we’re talking about changing some of the long established beliefs around QA as a whole, having potential ambassadors or early adopters is of great help. And we will only be able to have them part of our long term mission if their WHYs match with ours. The cultural change doesn’t necessarily need to be an arduous one if we correctly approach it from the ground up.
Wrapping up
All in all, participating at this year’s expo:QA has been a source of tremendous personal inspiration and has helped me not only learn new things but also helped me move more into that zone where actively challenging your own way of working is not only beneficial but it’s a desired practice one should routinely exercise in order to make sure they (and their craft) are still relevant within the myriad of topics and initiatives that are pioneered nowadays. Thus, taking advantage of the momentum is key.
As a last thing, feeling part of the QA community is invaluable and it’s a feeling worth chasing not only cross-companies but also as a topic you’d surely want to explore inside your own company.
We ❤️ learning and sharing
If you’d like to get in touch on any of the subjects above or about QA in general, I’m always reachable through my LinkedIn profile. Drop me a line! Whether you had a similar or totally different experience, I’d love to hear about it.
Oh, and by the way: we are hiring in France and Spain.
[1]: Larry Smith (September 01,2001). Shift-Left Testing https://www.drdobbs.com/shift-left-testing/184404768
