Here are my notes from most of the sessions of day one of this year’s TWST. The IP Agreement all participants agree to technically lets me publish them all, but one participant requested I abstain from posting theirs. If they have a change of heart, then the post will be updated. Notes from day two will surface in the next week or so.

Paul Carvalho

  • Prefers to hire new grads
  • New tester training has three parts: domain, system, testing skills
  • When reviewing SBTM sessions, the magic number of tester’s work to review seems to be 2. Any more testers and the review process become more time consuming than the actual testing
  • Change reviewing assignments among the group on a weekly basis
  • When looking at a graph, ask ‘what is the story behind the graph’
  • Trends in graphs give like to bigger possible questions

Michael Cookson

  • Managers (at IBM) are measured on their mentoring of minions
  • GROW model – Goal, Reality, Options, Way forward
  • If you do coaching in a prescribed manner, all the time then it will fail
  • Forced coaching doesn’t work
  • Often we are coaching, even when we don’t realize it
  • Look for the motivation behind the goal
  • Don’t take on the problems of the person you are coaching / mentoring
  • It is important to understand ‘why’ someone likes something. Maybe some life event, maybe they are good at it, etc.
  • Can use the GROW model for teams as well as individuals
  • To origins for a coaching relationship: the person approaches you for help, or you see that they need help