Due to the general, global economic woes I missed out on going to CAST this year even though I was scheduled to speak. I did however complete the paper I was going to talk on. The paper isn’t on the CAST site yet along with all the other ones yet, but in the meanwhile, you can download it here.

Here is the introduction:

*It used to be that the when you joined an organization, you were there for most, if not all of your career. For better or worse, those days are largely over. Jobs and employees are increasingly mobile and more staffing is being done on a per-project base. Due to this pattern of changing stakeholders, the only thing that stays constant is you. This means that today?s testers need to manage their careers, their image, and in fact their entire brand more closely than prior generations.

There is no secret formula for success, but there is a well trod path through the brambles if you look closely. This paper sheds some light on the path and explains some of the waypoints along it; discovering your issue, communicating your message, assembling your tribe, becoming a microbrand and the maintenance of it.*