A recap of the week of the fourth edition of TestingUY

If I could describe last week in one word, it would be intense. With TestingUY on Monday and Tuesday, the Rapid Software Testing course Wednesday through Friday by our keynote speaker, Michael Bolton (internationally acclaimed author and a co-creator of the Rapid Software Testing Methodology), and exploring Montevideo Monday through Saturday with him and others, it was jam-packed but also highly beneficial. In this post, I will do my best to summarize all of what was TestingUY 2017, Latin America’s largest testing conference, and the most relevant aspects of the entire week.

TestingUY Conference 2017

The conference took place over the course of two days, May 15th and 16th, at the Antel Tower in Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, which is where Abstracta’s nearshore QE center is located (a burgeoning hub for software QE). We had a record number of attendees with over 300 people coming to the workshops and/ or sessions not only from Uruguay, but also Argentina, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Cuba, Perú and Paraguay. Last but not least, there was one Canadian, Michael Bolton himself!

Day 1 Highlights: Workshops & Roundtables

In the AM, we had 5 workshops for testers:

• Verifying Security During Functional Testing
• Quality Plan: Clear Goals, Guaranteed Success
• API Testing Using Chakram
• Automation of Non-functional Quality Attributes Using Xamarin
• Test Capsules

We also had five foundations that teach testing share their experiences and challenges: Nahual, CADI, Forge, TesTEA, and IntegraT.

In the afternoon, we held three roundtables (panel-like discussions) with 12 experts from different organizations including Michael Bolton about the testing industry, testing in software development companies, and testing education. After each round table, there was time for an open Q&A session with Michael Bolton. One of the most memorable moments of the afternoon was when Bolton performed a rap (see image below) emphasizing that testing cannot be automated, but checking is indeed automatable!

Day 2 Highlights: Sessions

On day two, attendees had over 12 sessions to learn from industry leaders on topics ranging from exploratory testing to test automation to software testing in DevOps and performance testing. At the end of the day, Michael Bolton gave a brilliant keynote speech, “A Ridiculously Rapid Introduction to Rapid Software Testing,” which I can say with certainty, blew everyone away, and deepened the love that many of us have for testing.

The photos, videos and materials of the various talks, discussion panels and workshops will be available later on the TestingUY site, as well as a video summarizing the complete experience.

Acknowledgements

As an organizer of the event and on behalf of Abstracta, there are several people whom we’d like to thank:

• To Michael Bolton for having come to Uruguay and for all his energy and motivation spread out through all of the different activities that happened over the course of the week. He kept making us think even as we went out for dinner, challenging ourselves with different games and riddles, in order to exercise our deductive, interrogative, and critical thinking power.
• To ANII for the economic support through its “Tools for Innovation” program that made it possible for us to bring Michael to Uruguay.
• To Antel, for lending us a new home for the event in Montevideo, which brought it to a more professional and higher level.
• To all of our our sponsors.
• To the exhibitors, participants and everyone else involved in one way or another, you are what makes this the most important testing event in Latin America, and the fact that this was the fourth year that we could make it that way.
• To Sara from Abstracta, Claudia from Infragistics, Guillermo from GeneXus Consulting and Gustavo from CES, with whom we organized the event, thanks to all of your hard work is why this event turned out so well.
• To the rest of collaborators, like Alejo, Micaela, Cecilia, Joanna and many more, that gave a hand in the days leading up to and during the event.

Organizers of TestingUY 2017

We are proud to have worked side by side with these other IT companies in Montevideo to make the event happen!

Rapid Software Testing Course

The Rapid Software Testing course, created by Michael Bolton and James Bach, was taught in the Infragistics offices from Wednesday to Friday, for about 8 hours a day, covering theoretical, controversial, practical aspects of testing, etc. Bolton combined didactic aspects, including tests on small systems he made himself, to dice games and similar activities, so as to develop critical thinking, provoke questions, and to eliminate assumptions and ambiguity.

We learned quite a bit from this course, to say the least!

#TestingUY

Last but not least, here are some of the best moments from the week and TestingUY, captured via the hashtag, #TestingUY, on Twitter.

Thanks @ANIIuy for your huge contribution in making it possible to invite @michaelbolton to #testinguy! Couldn’t have done it without you! pic.twitter.com/CYoyw4VgLC

— TestingUy (@testingUY) May 23, 2017

There is no cloud, it’s just someone else’s computer #testinguy #bubblebursting @lalmeida88 #perfmatters pic.twitter.com/aPVeY0PaWS

— Abstracta (@AbstractaUS) May 16, 2017

“Testing is Learning About a Product” by @michaelbolton #testinguy cc @testingUY pic.twitter.com/1ss2SAclxg

— Gabriel Ledesma (@gafaled) May 16, 2017

#testinguy @michaelbolton Keynote @testingUY pic.twitter.com/HOrT7mp62l

— David Giordano (@3dgiordano) May 16, 2017

Playing set game with @michaelbolton in his last dinner with him and the @testingUY team. Result: I won every match 😛 😉
Have a safe trip! pic.twitter.com/pwgfJIMpM2

— Federico Toledo (@fltoledo) May 21, 2017

Rapid Software Testing course with @michaelbolton organized by #testinguy at @infragistics #uruguay pic.twitter.com/GE9cwekFgY

— TestingUy (@testingUY) May 18, 2017

Overwhelmed by the enthusiasm and friendliness of the Uruguayan testing community. This week has been a delight; thank you! @testingUY

— Michael Bolton (@michaelbolton) May 19, 2017

Finally, this photo (small, yet still worth a thousand words) makes us chuckle because it is PROOF that Michael Bolton was in Uruguay, thanks to the mate, a tea drink, which we enjoy everyday and everywhere in Uruguay!

For more information about TestingUY and the meetups it hosts throughout the year, visit www.testinguy.org or follow @TestingUY on twitter.

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