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Testing, Agile and DevOps - their roots and evolution

Testing has been around for a long time, but has changed a lot over the years. Agile and DevOps are “the new kids on the block” but are fast becoming mainstream. What are the roots of the changes and popularity of new approaches and how have they evolved over the years? What prophets were around years ago who foresaw current trends? In this presentation, Dorothy Graham leads you through some of her early experiences in testing and early encounters with precursors to Agile and DevOps. We look at why Agile has “taken off” and why DevOps is a hot topic today, and what the role of testing has been, is now and perhaps should be in the future.

Evil FizzBuzz

Group workshop on Team Craft and Continuous Delivery

You will work as part of a team to deliver a working program based on a popular coding exercise that, done alone, is very simple. But this exercise will be broken down into 5 individual requirements, and you will need to coordinate as a team - working individually or in pairs - to deliver the complete solution with each pair only allowed to code their part of the whole. You'll use version control and do Continuous Integration to pull the parts together, and - very importantly - YOU MUST NOT BREAK THE BUILD. In a time limit of one hour, 90% of teams who attempt Evil FizzBuzz fail. You'll have 1 hour to build your team, choose a technology stack, shave some yaks, agree on a design and implement it so that you can demonstrate a working program that passes a simple acceptance test to your 'customer'. You'll need more than Code Fu to master Evil FizzBuzz. Teams can be 5-10 people and a mix of individuals and pairs, depending on the size of the overall group.

Keynote - Flow. The worst software development methodology in history. Ever

Ever since we started writing code in the fifties of the previous century, managers and project managers have tried to discipline and structure the way we work. However, no matter how many consultants and coaches are hired to implement increasingly complex process frameworks and methodologies, developers and testers always come up with new simplistic approaches.

During this talk, Kim and Sander will feal with Flow: the worst software development methodology in the history ever, taking inspiration from the worst principles and practices from methodologies such as waterfall, RUP, Scrum, Kanban, Lean, BDD, LeSS , SAFe, Spotify and of course everything continuous. Don't let project failure take you by surprise, be certain!

Cynefin for XPers

Whenever we do anything new, we make discoveries. Sometimes those discoveries speed us up, but more often than not they slow us down. The more innovative we are, the more we discover, and the higher the risk and uncertainty - so how can we lead, manage and work in a way which embraces that uncertainty and lets us make discoveries early and safely?

In this talk, Liz introduces the Cynefin framework to help make sense of different types of situations and how to approach them: the obvious ones, the complicated ones which require expertise, the complex ones in which outcomes emerge, and the chaotic ones that we're usually trying to avoid. Find out how the simple concepts can help us counter our innate human desire for predictability, enabling change and innovation; not just in software development, but in every aspect of our lives.

Keynote - Flow. The worst software development methodology in history. Ever

Ever since we started writing code in the fifties of the previous century, managers and project managers have tried to discipline and structure the way we work. However, no matter how many consultants and coaches are hired to implement increasingly complex process frameworks and methodologies, developers and testers always come up with new simplistic approaches.

During this talk, Kim and Sander will feal with Flow: the worst software development methodology in the history ever, taking inspiration from the worst principles and practices from methodologies such as waterfall, RUP, Scrum, Kanban, Lean, BDD, LeSS , SAFe, Spotify and of course everything continuous. Don't let project failure take you by surprise, be certain!

Introducing Selenium 4

Selenium 4 is coming! The team have been working hard since the last 3.x release to add new features and improve the experience of developing with Selenium. In this talk, we’ll walk through updating an existing java Selenium test suite and scaling it up to run on Grid 4 hosted in the cloud. Not only will you see how easy the upgrade will be, you’ll also discover the new features added in Selenium 4.

Quality not Quantity - Getting value out of test automation

Test automation is becoming more and more popular as part of a software testing strategy. However, there is a danger of using test automation incorrectly. If the wrong tests are automated, then the time and resource spent developing these tests is wasted and very little value is gained. If the right tests are automated, then the value gained from test automation can exceed the cost of developing the test.

But how do we decide which tests are best to automate?

In this talk, I will show how I try to get the most value out of automated testing by identifying problems with the current test strategy. Tests which are most likely to solve this problem are the ones chosen for automation.

Following this, I will suggest various metrics that could be used to demonstrate the value and progress that has been gained from the introduction of automated tests. Demonstrating value is important as support for test automation development will be lost unless there is proven value.

Keynote - Sustaining Remote-First Teams

Curious about how to build and sustain a ‘remote-first’ culture? At Tes we have more engineers working from home or travelling than sitting at a desk in our London office. Over the last few years we adapted our engineering practices to support small teams working in close collaboration over distance. This talk will cover how we organise cross-team initiatives to sustain this way of working.

Securing the web with AI

In today’s web not a week goes by without a large data breach or a website being hacked. Unlawful access to our online information can be prevented by encryption, 2FA and IP detection, but often this isn’t enough. Additionally tools like 2FA can be difficult to configure or understand for the initiated, leaving many at a disadvantage - security should be a right, not a privilege.

This session explores some interesting and experimental ways that AI could be used to improve security and protect users on the web.

Using existing AI tools like Azure Cognitive Services we’ll look at ways facial or voice recognition could be used as part of 2FA to make security more accessible to end users, including code examples in .NET and JavaScript. Then we’ll investigate some simple methods to find patterns in user behaviour, such as login times and mouse behaviour, to detect anomalies and take action.

Finally, we’ll see how machine learning can be used to identify fraudulent text or photoshopped images within webpages and warn users of scams before it becomes an issue.

Code examples will be given in a mix of .NET and JavaScript.

The Good, the Bad and the Avoidable SQL Practicies

Code quality matters!

You probably have worked with SQL queries before. What was the experience like? Have you ever looked at a piece of SQL and thought... G! that's ugly! Have you seen a query that worked just fine in development but annoyingly not in production, or it used to work for a while, but then started timing out without any change or a warning?

This session is for you! Let's take a hard look at SQL code quality. I will show you some ugly queries and teach you how to transform them into good, clean code, that not only looks right but also performs well.

It's not me, or you…it's both of us: why your messages aren't getting through

How many times have you tried to explain something to your team…to only have blank faces stare back at you? Has someone asked you to do a task…but what you end up doing turns out to be not what they wanted? Is one team being effective…while another is lagging behind? Using social science models as our guide, we can see why teams can have problems communicating – especially in certain stages of a project's lifetime – and what we can do to address this.

We'll start by looking at the Shannon Weaver communication model (1949) and what it tells us about the different phases of successful communication. With this model we'll be able to address exactly where problems can be found between individuals, and how messages can be interpreted inaccurately or sometimes even lost all together. You'll find that the responsibility of effective communication relies on all participants, and not just those receiving the message. After identifying common problems, we'll discuss some potential solutions for you to try implementing with your own teams.

But is good communication enough in tough times? By looking at Tuckman's team development model (1965), we'll be able to evaluate why even the best communication practices can fail depending on what stage of development a team is currently in. But…we can do things to address this! We'll look at how communication methods will need to be adapted when teams face tough times, and how comparing the Tuckman and Shannon Weaver models together can better inform our understanding of each.

Attendees should come away with some insight in to what goes in to successful communication, the lifecycle that teams go through, and what methods can be used to address common problems we may find with these. Ultimately, an agile approach to both is what will ensure happy successful teams.

There’s an Imposter in this room!

Do you ever feel like you’re not as talented or as successful as others? Do you feel that you have tricked others into believing that you are more capable or knowledgeable than you are? I’m here to tell you that you’re not alone in these feelings, that you are highly successful person who is impacted by Imposter Syndrome. Using my own experiences, I will be helping you take off your Imposter mask and break out of the Imposter syndrome cycle.

Embracing Change: From Tester to Quality Coach

Even today, there exist development teams in which the whole burden of product quality falls on testers' shoulders. This can cause from delays of deliveries to fights within the team about severe bugs deployed to production. By converting a tester into a quality coach, the quality load can be distributed, helping everybody in the team work better.

NoSQL + SQL = MySQL

Learn how to use a modern API to control your database. The simplified CRUD interface in MySQL offers easy development but still offers full functionality in reporting. This will also bridge the gap to powerful reporting in NoSQL use cases. We will discuss example code to access relational and NoSQL data via CRUD interface. See the power of combining the best of both worlds.

Improving System Resiliency via Chaos Engineering

Advances in Cloud technology means systems are becoming increasingly more distributed and complex. Large monoliths are being split up into microservices, we're depending on more remote services and Functions as a Service (FaaS)/Serverless are becoming increasingly common. The very nature of distributed systems mean they're far more prone to failures than similarly-scoped monoliths; this makes predicting or preventing possible failure modes increasingly more difficult.

In this talk we'll look at how we can harness Chaos Engineering, a discipline pioneered by Netflix, to better understand our systems, their failure modes and how we can use this information to improve system overall resiliency and reliability.

Implementing agile with millennials?

We’re starting to work with the first generation of people who have never worked first-hand in a waterfall software development environment. We’ve built product engineering teams in Manchester and heavily recruited from this cohort. Through plenty of trial and error, we've learned what works and what doesn’t work in terms of recruiting, growing and motivating teams containing a significant number of people from this generation. Come and hear our story.

Valuable Retrospectives

We often curse meetings, poorly designed or facilitated retrospectives seem to simply drain people's energy without delivering any meaningful output.

This workshop will explore what makes a great retrospective, furnish you with the beginnings of a great toolbox, and take everyone through a full retrospective delivered over the course of the talk.

As a group, we'll explore the flow of retrospectives, highlighting and using useful tools that can be used in different parts of the process. This won't be exhaustive, but everyone should leave with a few extra things in their box.

While there will be slides, everyone will form themselves into groups, and will then actively participate in a full-scale retrospective example, where we will explore our relationship with meetings at our place of work. The aim is to deliver a fully interactive workshop, where everyone learns about the subject by actually doing it. The activities are carefully spaced over the talk and immediately follow the relevant learning sections.

While this talk will furnish everyone with a few example structures, the main purpose is to teach how to structure your own. Everyone should leave with the ability to build their own retrospectives from scratch, pulling in influence from what's happening within the team at that time.

Building a software quality mission statement

Software Quality means different things to different people in different contexts[1]. In this workshop we would like to explore these different meanings of software quality. We would like the participants to share their perspectives with each other and, from those, build a shared mission statement for software quality.

We will introduce techniques to get to a shared mission statement. The techniques we will be using are based on the process[2] that Cucumber Ltd. went through to create their company mission statement.

Building a software quality mission statement

Software Quality means different things to different people in different contexts[1]. In this workshop we would like to explore these different meanings of software quality. We would like the participants to share their perspectives with each other and, from those, build a shared mission statement for software quality.

We will introduce techniques to get to a shared mission statement. The techniques we will be using are based on the process[2] that Cucumber Ltd. went through to create their company mission statement.

Re-designing a service for vulnerable users in a digital age

Healthy Start is a Government scheme that helps eligible families on low incomes to eat healthily, by providing vouchers to buy vegetables, fruit, milk and infant formula. A small team is redesigning the service from the ground up by digitising the service and changing policy, legislation, operations and how the service interacts with multiple stakeholders. Our talk will cover how we are designing for the unique needs of our (often extremely vulnerable) users, as well as those of retailers.

Re-designing a service for vulnerable users in a digital age

Healthy Start is a Government scheme that helps eligible families on low incomes to eat healthily, by providing vouchers to buy vegetables, fruit, milk and infant formula. A small team is redesigning the service from the ground up by digitising the service and changing policy, legislation, operations and how the service interacts with multiple stakeholders. Our talk will cover how we are designing for the unique needs of our (often extremely vulnerable) users, as well as those of retailers.

Introduction to Containers In Practice

Bring a laptop and step into a guided tour of what containers are and how to use them in practice. No buzzwords or vague statements about accelerating delivery, just straight-up information and hands-on experience.

You'll get to build and run containers for yourself. We'll start by installing Docker and I'll aim to get you to the point where you're running your own multi-container application. No previous container experience is needed, but you'll need to be comfortable using a command-line and have a general understanding of networking concepts like ports and web servers.

If you're interested in technologies like Kubernetes, container scheduling and Gitops, the aim of this workshop is to get you from a clean slate to a declarative, multi-container application, understanding the concepts involved and setting you up to go on and explore. We won't attempt to get Kubernetes running in this workshop because of time constraints, but I'm happy to talk about my experience of using it.

Note: if you're bringing a Windows machine, please double-check the Docker installation requirements here to make sure you'll be able to get Docker running: https://docs.docker.com/docker-for-windows/install/. Older versions of Windows aren't ideal so if in doubt, and if you're comfortable running a Linux virtual machine or using a cloud machine instance, then you'll still be able to do the workshop. I'll recommend you go with Ubuntu because I'm most familiar with it for installing Docker so it'll make it easiest to support you.

You're the Tech Lead... you fix it!

Over the last couple of years, I've presented 20 tricks and tips that I've found invaluable as a Tech Lead. But in this session, I want to turn things around and look at applying some of those to solving specific issues that are common within many software development teams.

I'll be taking lessons learned from the last 2 years of a major development project and using them to illustrate my points.

We'll look at managing your BAs and PMs and how to balance their need to understand exactly how long everything takes versus your team's need to not be over-pressured by artificial deadlines. We'll see how a structured approach to analysing problems encountered in LIVE can make everyone's life easier, and how to prove whether the problem is (or is not) the fault of your software. And how to handle that inevitable case where it is.

And we'll look at the problems of implementing uniformity across multiple code-bases and multiple teams delivering multiple releases of multiple features... and where getting your tooling right can give the biggest benefits.

Amongst other things...