It’s been a while since my last post. I’ve got no real excuse other than the last 4 months have felt more like 4 weeks.
So, as promised 4 months ago, a few words about CITCON Brisbane 2009.
Firstly… the format of the conference.
The “open spaces” format is quite effective. It seemed to inspire a lot more discussion than a more typical presentation format.
Given that topics are defined based on input from the attendees, I found that there was rarely a case where we weren’t discussing something that was of interest or value to me. In contrast, there were a few occasions where discussions diverted from the “agreed” topic to other matters. The general rule in these cases is that everyone has the right to walk out and sit in on another session… and I did on a couple of occasions.
In terms of content, we discussed everything from BDD to cloud based testing solutions. Believe me, even if you’re fairly confident about your position in the testing world, you’ll learn something new at CITCON. It’s worth mentioning that the conference is opensource-centric, so don’t expect to hear much about .Net. That’s not to say you cant talk about it, just that its probably not at the top of everyone’s list.
Regardless, most of the examples shown at CITCON aren’t technology specific and the same patterns can be applied in your organisation’ technology of choice.
Overall, CITCON was well worthwhile. The opportunity to share experiences with other testers was invaluable. CITCON is the perfect forum to raise and discuss the challenges we regularly encounter in our roles. Even if you don’t think you have much to contribute, you’ll be surprised at how much you actually have in common with other testers.
In closing, I should mention that I was really impressed by the number of organisations pushing the envelope in terms of test automation. The fact that most of these organisations were relatively small was inspirational… proof that you don’t need a big budget to implement a successful test automation strategy (I’ll talk more about this later).
If you have the opportunity, CITCON is well worth your time.
For info on the 2010 event in New Zealand, go to: http://citconf.com
Glad you liked it!
The languages/technologies represented tend to vary both by year and by geography. We’ve had a few locations that have had a relatively strong .NET presence and others where it weak. But as you say, most of the discussion isn’t particularly tied to a specific technology anyway.
Anyway, thanks for the kind words and hope to see you again at a future event!
Jtf