Schedule and Events



March 26-29, 2012, Software Test Professionals Conference, New Orleans
July, 14-15, 2012 - Test Coach Camp, San Jose, California
July, 16-18, 2012 - Conference for the Association for Software Testing (CAST 2012), San Jose, California
August 2012+ - At Liberty; available. Contact me by email: Matt.Heusser@gmail.com

Friday, January 20, 2012

Meetup in NYC - Next Week!

I'll be in New York City Next week; there is a software testers meetup including a dinner sponsored by the Financial Services Special Interest Group (SIG) of the Association for Software Testing (AST).

Gosh, that's a mouthful. I guess the "Financial Services SIG of the AST" reads easier.


In other news, the first two grants from the AST Grant Program have gone out, to support sending a moderator to the POST 2012 Workshop in Calgary and the PEST 2 Peer Workshop in Estonia.

Between New York City, Test Coach Camp, CAST, and STPCon, 2012 is starting to look like a busy year.

See you around?

Thursday, January 19, 2012

Back from Vacation, Plus More Articles!

It's been a little quiet around here at Creative Chaos lately.

Let me tell you a little bit about what's been going on behind the scenes.

First, I just got back from a twelve-day vacation - driving to Galveston, Texas, to take a cruise with the family on Mariner of the Seas. From Galveston to Cozumel Mexico, to Grand Cayman, to Jamaica, then back to Galveston, then another two days in the car back to West Michigan -- all without a laptop, iPad, or wireless connectivity of any kind.

The vacation was great. First of all, Cozumel Mexico has a place called "Paradise Beach." So you can literally walk off the boat, grab a taxi, and say "Take me to Paradise" ... and they will.

Grand Cayman has Paradise Restaurant, but you can walk to that right off the boat; it's about four blocks. No need for a Taxi.

On Jamaica, I bought a Hawaiian Shirt. Don't ask me if that makes it a Jamaican shirt, because I don't know.

Still, while I was away, things kept moving forward. Here are a few of the highlights:

Test Coach Camp Gets Serious!

We've got twenty-four people who have either applied, or been early accepted into Test Coach Camp; the next round of acceptances will be in early February. If you want to go to TCC 2012 in San Jose, now's the time to get your application in.

The Open CAST CFP Process Heats Up!

There are currently 68 pages labelled "proposal" on the CAST 2012 wiki, either track or emerging topics. The track talk deadline has passed, and, as I'm not on the 'classic' program committee, that's about all I know to say -- but you can still submit for emerging topics, a format that will be moderated by Pete Walen and I. If you have questions about ET, feel free to drop us an email or twitter DM - or you can email CAST2012.proposals@gmail.com for a invitation to the CAST wiki.

Articles and Podcasts!

I might not have been around to promote them, but a few articles did come out while I was gone, including the Changing Seasons that explored my learning experiences at Socialtext.

I've also dong a few things in my IT Knowledge Exchange Blog that you might enjoy; both a series on living the independent technologist lifestyle, and a few blog posts about truth, fiction, and science-fiction in technology.

Here are the Posts on Going Independent:


Over the next few weeks there will be a two-part interview with my friend, Corey Haines, who took a journeyman tour and now basically tours full-time, along with possible interviews with Rosie Sherry of SoftwareTestClub and others.

The trends-and-myth posts are a little lighter, but still valuable, include one on Citogenesis -- the process by which myths are created, and a second one examining the logical consequences of Artificial Intelligence, compared to, say, The Singularity.

Plus we have pre-recorded Podcasts, that Michael Larsen has been diligently putting up while I was gone, and as I am about to disappear again, he has offered to fill in during the month of February. (A free registration is required.)

I'm currently working on an article for CIO.com on inspections/code review, a piece for TechWell that reexamines the Boutique Tester, and I'm about to head off to New York City for a small training engagement.

Whew.

The best news?

There's more to come.