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Harnessing the Power of Learning

Size of the software industry doubles every five years, meaning that half of us have less than five years of experience. How do those with little experience get up to speed while working with team of more seasoned professionals? With the pace kids learn before someone kills their enthusiasm, how long does it take to train a 15-yo to be more valuable tester than a 40-yo? What would it take to give a 40-yo the curiosity of a 15-yo?

In this talk, we share our lessons learned while working together in a team, sharing tasks for a year. We show you a variety of induced learning approaches and their impact: learning while pairing, learning while doing (with / without immediate help), learning in school, learning on industry courses, and learning by reading. In particular, we will share our lessons of the importance of early and continued pairing for enhanced learning and establishing basic testing skills. This is our shared story, with the 15-yo and the 40-yo. Can a year of learning be enough to outperform a seasoned tester?

Key Takeaways:

  • How to create a mix of learning approaches to grow someone's knowledge and skills while working
  • What knowledge and skills we recommend new testers to start from based on our experience
  • How new and old testers get easily fooled by the unknown unknowns in delivering product quality information
  • What kinds of things kill the enthusiasm and how we can bring it back to testing?