Thoughts from the week

I'll post this tomorrow, but currently I'm somewhere over the northern US or southern Canada returning from a week in the Boston area. I spent the last week talking to testers from Groove and Softricity. Technically, I was delivering training, but all I really did was talk about testing all week. I don't claim to be an expert in testing, but I think I do know enough to give most testers something new to think about, or a new way to think about something they already know about, and I think I was able to achieve that.

I don't typically blog about classes I teach, but this last week is worth saying something about. Simply put, I had a great experience, and it was probably one of my favorite weeks of teaching since I quit teaching in the public schools 15 years ago. The fact that I enjoyed the past week has nothing to do with any feats I pulled off - I was just impressed with everyone I talked to. Given that MS has acquired these two companies relatively recently, I think the testers may have been a little worried that some flunky from "corporate" was going to come and tell them how to do their jobs (I'd probably feel the same way). Instead, I just talked about the testing they were already doing, and gave them a few new things to think about. I always worry when I teach experienced testers that they will get bored and not challenge themselves and say "we already know this". Instead, they pretty much dove into and dissected every scenario I gave them. I love to see people think and challenge themselves, and I was impressed with the effort they put into courses. I drove them pretty hard  with six to six and a half hours of class a day and a minimal number of short breaks, but they kept on working and listening - even when I was tired and a little fried at the end of the day.

Another unique (and cool) aspect of the week is that I saw nearly the entire test team at Groove (plus two testers from Softricity). It's not often that you get a chance to have influence over an entire organization like that, and that certainly added to my satisfaction this week.

That said, about a week away from home is about all I can handle, so I'm looking forward to touching down in Seattle and sleeping in my own bed.

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• Anonymous
  November 18, 2006
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