🐤 Day 16: How would you test a testing conference?

📆 30 Days of Testing
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Welcome to Day 16 of 30 Days of TestBash! :wave:

Strap on your risk helmet and let’s explore things to consider when testing something that you might not have lots of information about.

I thought it would be fun and interesting to ask, how would you test a testing conference?

Let’s assume you’re organising a testing conference and you’ve been asked to test it. We’re going to also assume that this isn’t something you’ve done before – yet maybe you have (nice one!).

  • Where would you start?
  • How do you define what value this testing conference aims to bring to its participants?
  • What things might threaten the value of the testing conference? What are some potential risks?
  • What questions could you endeavour to answer to explore potential risks?
  • What oracles can you use to help you judge the quality of the testing conference?
  • What heuristics would help you come up with test ideas?

If you like, feel free to start with one of these exploratory testing charters, set a 30-minute timer and capture all the thoughts that come into your head. Stop and share whatever you’ve documented on this thread. :slightly_smiling_face:

Explore the risks associated with delivering a testing conference to reveal a set of questions we could explore further

Gather information about what makes a high-quality testing conference and critique the findings in a positive way

Explore a specific feature of a testing conference to discover helpful information related to risks and opportunities

Enjoy!

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It’s so simple using the testing concept of Cem Kaner:
Testing is learning about a product, if you haven’t learned anything new/interesting you’ve wasted your time.

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In the past I wrote a blog post about this sybject:

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What happens if all people go into the conference hall?

What happens if 80% or more decide to hang out outside?

What happens if presentation PC dies out? Do we have a backup?

What happens if the speaker needs more time to conclude the talk than expected?

What happens if some speaker is not available? Do we have some fillers ready?

In short, I would like to do a risk-storming session with my organizing team.

I would also connect with other conference experts, such as @dianadromey, and learn from her experiences.

My focus would be creating a checklist of possible topics and then using them as charters to proceed.

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Emily O’Connor shared some thoughts on this before attending TestBash.

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My first test is (always) “how accessible is it?”.

(Glad to report that things were generally very good on the accessibility side at Test Bash 2024, IMO.)