WTST 13 2014

13th WORKSHOP ON TEACHING SOFTWARE TESTING
(WTST 2013)
JANUARY 24-26, 2014
MELBOURNE, FLORIDA
at the HARRIS INSTITUTE FOR ASSURED INFORMATION

TEACHING ADVANCED COURSES IN SOFTWARE TESTING

The Workshop on Teaching Software Testing is concerned with the practical aspects of teaching university-caliber software testing courses to academic or commercial students.

This year’s Workshop on Teaching Software Testing is focused on designing and teaching advanced courses in software testing. For this year only, WTST is comprised of two parts:

  1. The “traditional” WTST will focus on teaching software testing. This workshop will be familiar to previous WTST attendees and those familiar with LAWST-style workshops.
  2. The Domain Testing Workshop will be held for five days immediately after the traditional WTST. Participants will pilot a new course built around The Domain Testing Workbook. Details will be announced as they become available. Please complete a separate registration if you are interested in attending the extended Domain Testing Workshop.

You may attend either or both components of the Workshop on Teaching Software Testing.

The “advanced” course goes beyond the survey, even the deep and thoughtful survey, to help the student develop important practical skills or deeper  cognitive skill and insight when working with difficult theoretical concepts in software testing.

How do we design such a course? What could/should such a course reasonably include?

As one example, we (Fiedler & Kaner) are currently designing a course focused on a single testing technique, domain testing. Built around a 500-page textbook, the course gives students a series of hands-on exercises in class and challenging take-home assignments, along with an extensive set of demonstration videos walking through the application of the technique (and the reasoning behind it) to several very different products.

What other courses of this caliber exist? What courses should exist? How should we promote them?

The other examples that we’re aware of are built around difficult projects, with significant levels of instructor coaching. We know that there are more, we know that people are thinking about creating more, but we think people are struggling independently, without enough peer support, in figuring out what to include, how to present it, what student activities will support learning at this level, and how to market it (either to university students or practitioners). Our primary goal at WTST 13 is to provide (and get) some of this support.

How do we recognize those who have attained higher levels of mastery?

Credentials provide formal recognition to people who know more and know how to do more, better. We believe there’s strong interest in the credentialing of software testers, but traditional credentialing schemes are besieged by criticisms – both fair and unfair. We believe there is value, and we think there is potentially very strong interest, in credentials that attest to more specific skills or knowledge: this is what this person knows or can do. Advanced courses would play a role in such a system. How can a fractured field provide credentials that we can all (or most of us) accept as credible? In industry? In academia?

As at all WTST workshops, we reserve some seats for senior students who are strongly interested in teaching and for faculty who are starting their careers in this area or beginning a research program connected with teaching this type of material.

There is no fee to attend this meeting. You pay for your seat through the value of your participation. Participation in the workshop is by invitation based on a proposal. We expect to accept 15 participants with an absolute upper bound of 25.

The hosts of the meeting are:

Confirmed attendees include:

Name Affiliation Presentation
Cem Kaner Florida Tech and Kaner, Fiedler, & Associates, LLC Designing an Advanced Software testing Technique Class
Rebecca Fiedler Kaner, Fiedler, & Associates, LLC Instructional Design for Developing Expertise
Andy Tinkham Magenic Facilitator
Scott Allman Complex Systems Management, LLC
Janaka Balasooriya Arizona State University Design and Teaching of a Senior Year Software Quality Assurance and Testing Course (CSE 464/598)
Rex Black

Rex will provide an overview of the ISTQB Advanced syllabus as well as share information about the ISTQB program generally. In addition, he will introduce attendees to the ISTQB Advanced Exam Guidelines, found here: http://www.istqb.org/downloads/finish/7/128.html. Time permitting, he will review one or more Advanced sample exam questions located at: http://www.istqb.org/downloads/viewcategory/46.html.

ASTQB New ISTQB Advanced Syllabi: A Career Ladder for Test Managers and Testers
Jennifer Brock Fidelity National Financial
Reetika Datta Fidelity National Financial
Casey Doran Florida Tech
Scott Fuller Florida Tech
Keith Gallagher Florida Tech
Dan Gold Fidelity National Financial
Doug Hoffman Software Quality Methods and Association for Software Testing
Nawward Kabbani Florida Tech & Fidelity National Financial
Chris Kenst Avaya
Michael Larsen Association for Software Testing
Jacek Okrojek Rule Financial
Carol Oliver Florida Tech
Rob Sabourin Amibug
Mike Sowers SQE

TO ATTEND AS A PRESENTER

Please send a proposal BY DECEMBER 1, 2013 to Cem Kaner <[email protected]> that identifies who you are, what your background is, what you would like to present, how long the presentation will take, any special equipment needs, and what written materials you will provide. Along with traditional presentations, we will gladly consider proposed activities and interactive demonstrations.

We will begin reviewing proposals immediately. We encourage early submissions. It is unlikely but possible that we will have accepted a full set of presentation proposals by December 1.

Proposals should be between two and four pages long, in PDF format. We will post accepted proposals to http://wtst.org.

We review proposals in terms of their contribution to knowledge of HOW TO TEACH software testing. Proposals that present a purely theoretical advance in software testing, with weak ties to teaching and application, will not be accepted. Presentations that reiterate materials you have presented elsewhere might be welcome, but it is imperative that you identify the publication history of such work.

By submitting your proposal, you agree that, if we accept your proposal, you will submit a scholarly paper for discussion at the workshop by January 15, 2014. Workshop papers may be of any length and follow any standard scholarly style. We will post these at http://wtst.org as they are received, for workshop participants to review before the workshop.

TO ATTEND AS A NON-PRESENTING PARTICIPANT:

Please send a message by DECEMBER 1, 2013, to Cem Kaner <[email protected]> that describes your background and interest in teaching software testing. What skills or knowledge do you bring to the meeting that would be of interest to the other participants?

HOW THE MEETING WILL WORK

WTST is a workshop, not a typical conference. It is a peer conference in the tradition of The Los Altos Workshops on Software Testing (http://lawst.com). Our presentations serve to drive discussion. The target readers of workshop papers are the other participants, not archival readers. We are glad to start from already-published papers, if they are presented by the author and they would serve as a strong focus for valuable discussion.

In a typical presentation, the presenter speaks 10 to 90 minutes, followed by discussion. There is no fixed time for discussion. Past sessions’ discussions have run from 1 minute to 4 hours. During the discussion, a participant might ask the presenter simple or detailed questions, describe consistent or contrary experiences or data, present a different approach to the same problem, or (respectfully and collegially) argue with the presenter. In 20 hours of formal sessions, we expect to cover six to eight presentations. Some of our sessions will be activities, such as brainstorming sessions, collaborative searching for information, creating examples, evaluating ideas or work products. We also have lightning presentations, time-limited to 5 minutes (plus discussion). These are fun and they often stimulate extended discussions over lunch and at night.

Presenters must provide materials that they share with the workshop under a Creative Commons license, allowing reuse by other teachers. Such materials will be posted at http://wtst.org.

Our agenda will evolve during the workshop. If we start making significant progress on something, we are likely to stick with it even if that means cutting or time boxing some other activities or presentations.

LOCATION AND TRAVEL INFORMATION

We will hold the meetings at

Harris Center for Assured Information, Room 327

Florida Institute of Technology

150 W University Blvd

Melbourne, FL 32901

Airport

Melbourne International Airport is 3 miles from the hotel and the meeting site. It is served by Delta Airlines and US Airways. Alternatively, the Orlando International Airport offers more flights and more non-stops but is 65 miles from the meeting location.

Hotel (updated Nov 12, 2013. Please note the location has changed)

We recommend the Hilton Melbourne Rialto Place located at 200 Rialto Place, Melbourne, Florida, 32901.3092. It is the closest hotel to the airport and to the meeting site.

The Hilton offers a special rate of $79 (Friday and Saturday) or $99 (Sunday through Thursday). Please contact Neil by phone (321-768-0200 X 7117) or email (nclark(at)hiltonmelbourne(dot)com) to ask for the special WTST rate.

Tax is an additional 11%. All reservations must be guaranteed with a credit card by January 3, 2014. If rooms are not reserved, they will be released for general sale and reservations can only be made based upon availability.

For additional hotel information, please visit the hotel website at http://www3.hilton.com/en/hotels/florida/hilton-melbourne-rialto-place-MLBMHHF/index.html

OUR INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AGREEMENT

We expect to publish some outcomes of this meeting. Each of us will probably have our own take on what was learned. Participants (all people in the room) agree to the following:

  • Any of us can publish the results as we see them. None of us is the official reporter of the meeting unless we decide at the meeting that we want a reporter.
  • Any materials initially presented at the meeting or developed at the meeting may be posted to any of our web sites or quoted in any other of our publications, without further permission. That is, if I write a paper, you can put it on your web site. If you write a problem, I can put it on my web site. If we make flipchart notes, those can go up on the web sites too. None of us has exclusive control over this material. Restrictions of rights must be identified on the paper itself.
    • NOTE: Some papers are circulated that are already published or are headed to another publisher. If you want to limit republication of a paper or slide set, please note the rights you are reserving on your document. The shared license to republish is our default rule, which applies in the absence of an asserted restriction.
  • The usual rules of attribution apply. If you write a paper or develop an idea or method, anyone who quotes or summarizes your work should attribute it to you. However, many ideas will develop in discussion and will be hard (and not necessary) to attribute to one person.
  • Any publication of the material from this meeting will list all attendees as contributors to the ideas published as well as the hosting organization.
  • Articles should be circulated to WTST-2012 attendees before being published when possible. At a minimum, notification of publication will be circulated.
  • Any attendee may request that his or her name be removed from the list of attendees identified on a specific paper.
  • If you have information which you consider proprietary or otherwise shouldn’t be disclosed in light of these publication rules, please do not reveal that information to the group.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Support for this meeting comes from the Harris Institute for Assured Information at the Florida Institute of Technology, and Kaner, Fiedler & Associates, LLC.

Funding for WTST 1-5 came primarily from the National Science Foundation , under grant EIA-0113539 ITR/SY+PE “Improving the Education of Software Testers.” Partical funding for the Advisory Board meetings in WTST 6-10 came from the the National Science Foundation, under grant CCLI-0717613 “Adaptation & Implementation of an Activity-Based Online or Hybrid Course in Software Testing”.

Opinions expressed at WTST or published in connection with WTST do not necessarily reflect the views of NSF.