Meet the Speaker: Elisabeth Hocke.
What’s your session topic?
Beginning of this year, I started out on a testing tour. I had many pair testing sessions with many different testers from all over the world, as experiment whether this is a feasible way to level up my skills. I am happy to share my lessons learned on this journey as well as tips to go on your own adventure.
Why is your topic important?*
I feel that continuous learning and self-improvement is crucial in today’s ever changing world. Personally I really enjoy to increase my skills and ways how I can provide value. But how to succeed in getting better than yesterday, every day?
Having been the lone tester in the company for a long time, I always wondered where I stand regarding my knowledge and skills as a tester. I’m not the only tester anymore, but still I wanted to become better at assessing my own skills, and especially, improving them. Learning on my own is a feasible way and can lead me that far, but I struggle doing so with hands-on topics. I rather start new things without finishing them and miss the feedback whether I’m going in the right direction. Learning in a pair or mob situation, however, already proved very valuable to me so I got myself into situations to do so with other testers. Join my talk and learn whether the testing tour solved my problem of continuously improving my skills!
What are the prerequisites should the audience have for attending your session?
The only prerequisite is to have an open mind. Although I will tell my story from a tester point of view, I strongly believe the lessons of my learning journey can be applied to many other roles.
How long have you been in this industry?
I fell into testing and agile in 2009 in a little startup building an AI middleware for game developers. I’ve come a bit around since then and saw different environments, taking over different hats, but always being a tester at heart and in practice.
What is one of those things you wish you knew when you started out in this industry?
I would have loved to know that there is an amazing community out there with great people learning with and from each other that are so inspiring, supportive, and encouraging. Also, I wish I would have had the courage to reach out earlier than I did.
Have you spoken at or attended SwanseaCon before?
Last year I had the honor to speak at SwanseaCon as well. It was a wonderful event with great people and I am really happy to have the opportunity to come back this year!
What made you want to speak at SwanseaCon this year?
The conference was really diverse last year when it came to the sessions. I really enjoyed listening to a variety of topics presented from different perspectives, all so relevant for development. Experience reports and personal learning stories are my favorite sessions and SwanseaCon provided plenty of those.
Are there any sessions other than your own which you are looking forward to at SwanseaCon?
Absolutely! This year it will get difficult as we have four tracks to choose from. I’m really curious to hear both the talks of Mashooq Badar about the “Nature of Learning” as well as Gem Hill about “Anxiety Under Test”; too bad they take place at the same time! Also, I’m looking forward to the workshop offered by Kristīne Corbus and Lisa Crispin: “Questioning requirements: improving quality for everyone”, practicing in a hands-on way to increase my skills.
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Get your tickets today to see Elisabeth Hocke and many others at SwanseaCon 2018