How to pitch and value testing properly in the age of DevOps

30-minute Talk

Based on the examples and techniques shown in the session, people will be able to tweak or adapt how they are reporting on the "why testing" and "what value does it deliver" questions.

Timetable

12:05 p.m. – 12:45 p.m. Tuesday 10th

Audience

Newcomers or experienced testing veterans will find useful examples to improve their pitching skills

Key-Learning

  • Focus more on "why" we do testing instead of "how" we do it.
  • Pitching (selling) testing is not a bad thing if done properly!
  • How to communicate the value that testing delivers.

In this new age of DevOps and agile, testing should be a cornerstone of the modern way of building applications. However, most of us still feel that we are treated like second-hand citizens. One of the root causes of this is that we as testers are not good salespeople; we are bad at pitching why testing is important and what value it delivers.

In this session, I’m going to give you some techniques and examples that will help you in understanding how to turn this around. One of these is based on Simon Sinek’s golden circle and how this relates to pitching testing better. Another one is how to adapt your message so you can appeal to your target’s rational, emotional or gut feelings. The aim of the session is to get you thinking about the way you currently pitch testing in your company and how this can be improved.

A few warnings do apply to this session; Some people might call some of these techniques manipulation, I like to refer to them as influencing; Most of the techniques shown can and should be practiced at home on your own family.

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