KeyNote

Debugging the mind: Teaching developer to think like tester

Katja Obring

For years now, we’ve been hearing a lot about the tester’s mindset. While it remains as important as ever, I believe it has evolved. It has shifted from being the role of one person in the team who explores the application to find edge cases, thinking like a slightly deranged user, to a role that involves teaching this mindset to others. This includes developers, to help them write better unit and integration tests; product owners, to consider the unintended consequences of insufficiently bold ideas; and delivery leads, who may be hesitant to allocate time for proper test setup in the CI/CD pipeline.

SPeaker Bio

After 20 successful years in the software industry, I now teach teams and individuals shift-left testing strategies and leveraging DevOps practices to achieve speedy delivery with predictable quality. My tenure at companies such as Linden Lab (Second Life), Disney Online, Infinity Works, and Accenture has reinforced my belief that most technology challenges are fundamentally about people. Therefore, my focus is on developing processes and nurturing relationships that support high-performing, contented teams. I emphasise that effective testing is a critical component of quality engineering that will speed up your delivery, and not slow it down