Testing, Software Development Catalyst

Testing is not an isolated activity. It interacts with and influences other disciplines in software development such as design, coding, release management, and deployment. As testers, our skills and experiences add value far beyond the immediate context of verifying functionality. Threats to value other than software errors exist.

Yet our discussions are often constrained to the testing space, omitting the connections to, and dependencies on, other roles and activities. Testing is an integral discipline of software development, and often plays an active and important role in bridging gaps between technical and business-focused roles, between leaders and engineers, and between makers and users.

How does the testing piece fit into the software development puzzle? How does – and how should – testing interact with other disciplines in software development? How can we most effectively add value to the software development projects we participate in?

We want to hear about how you approach integrating testing in your organization, how you build mutually beneficial relationships outside of the test group, and how you detect your influence elsewhere in the software development process. The practices we want to hear about are not limited to testing or tooling, but can include social structures. New models and theories of testing are great — along with an example of how they played out on an actual project.

We are not interested in hearing about perfect practices everyone must do, but we do want examples of how and why a certain practice worked or didn’t work in a particular environment. We want to hear where you struggled, what you plan on doing next, and what kind of environments where you would /not/ recommend the practice(s) you used. At CAST 2016, speakers will be presenting stories, workshops, and research based on their experiences surrounding how to fit testing into software development.

Please join us for our 11th annual conference at the Simon Fraser University Harbour Centre campus in downtown Vancouver, Canada, August 8-10 2016.

Call for Participation

We invite you to share your experiences and thoughts related to our theme, Testing, Software Development Catalyst . We are hoping for a wide scope for submissions, we strongly encourage and prefer proposals based on your personal experiences.

We are seeking abstracts and proposals in line with the conference theme in these formats:

Track sessions consist of a presentation of up to 40-45 minutes, plus 20-30 minutes of moderated question and discussion time. The best track session is probably an experience report from a real project. Sessions that present teaching material are also common. Other formats might be debates and panel discussions.

Workshops are two-hour long double-track sessions where the speaker will lead a discussion or conduct exercises. We’re looking for workshops that create concrete artifacts for participants to take home such as lists, mind maps, or other findings. Workshops that involve performances of software testing are even better. Please discuss the session, learning objectives, and deliverables created by students in the Key Takeaways of the submission form.

Tutorials are educational sessions held the day before CAST. The selection process for Tutorials will be announced separately.

Proposals

Proposals for CAST 2016 are now closed. We hope to announce the conference and program in March.

Speaker Compensation

Tracks and Interactive Workshop Speakers receive free admission to the CAST conference.

Important CFP Dates

December 14, 2015 – Call for Proposals Open

February 15, 2016 – Call for Proposals Close

March 7, 2016 – Initial speaker selection will be complete. Speakers/Paper Authors will be notified shortly afterwards.

A Final Word

Speaker selection is hard. One challenge is including known, experienced speakers while encouraging new and diverse voices and creating opportunities for development. AST partners with Speak Easy to help.

Please send us any other ideas on balance and speaker selection to cast_cfp@associationforsoftwaretesting.org. Thank you!