Country Ambassador for Agile Testing Days 2012

A while ago I was asked to become one of the Swedish country ambassadors for the Agile Testing Days 2012 conference. I said yes, because I think it’s a great conference. As country ambassador, I help in promoting the conference. I chose to do it, because I think it’s a good conference and I already recommend it to my friends.

Last year, I gave quite a technical talk (slides here). When I came up with the idea for this year’s session, I was very excited about how the testing profession affects the developer’s, and how much cooler the latter becomes (and vice versa, of course). In fact, I found ten qualities, or skills, that a modern developer needs to cultivate in order to have a very exciting time at work, to contribute fully in an agile cross-functional team, or just to stay competitive in the job market. What’s special about those skills is that they expand the boundary of the profession, introduce variety, and contribute to creating software of truly high quality in a professional manner.

While not getting very technical this time, I hope that I can share this enthusiasm with the audience and point towards some exciting areas in which there’s stuff to learn. Ok, there might be one or two technical slides, but what I want the audience to feel is: “That’s cool! If we did this, we would be so much more productive/faster/happier. I want to learn this!”

Let’s see if I can pull this off.

Why do I like this conference then? I attended it last year and I was very happy about all arrangements. Compared to many other conferences, it wasn’t a big one, but the organizers managed to put together quite a list of speakers. In the end, it’s the speakers that make the conference. In 2011 speakers like Lisa Crispin, Janet Gregory, Gojko Adzic, Esther Derby, Liz Keogh, and Johanna Rothman gave talks. I somehow missed Lasse Koskela’s and Jurgen Appelo’s sessions, which I regret, but I’m quite sure there were reasons for it.

This year I’m quite excited about Sigge Birigsson’s, Ola Ellenstam’s, David Evans’, and Matt Heusser’s sessions, just to mention a few.

I’m also quite fond of conferences that are not about moving thousands of people from a big room into smaller rooms past some refreshments tables. If it’s really crowded you seldom get the chance to meet other attendees or talk to the speakers.

So, check out the conference program this year, and hopefully we’ll meet in Potsdam.

One response on “Country Ambassador for Agile Testing Days 2012

  1. Hi Alexander,

    Would you mind sharing your ATD presentation’s slides?

    Thanks,

    Robert.

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