Bach Brother's Rapid Testing Intensive
When I was at StarWest in October of last year I had the good fortune of running into James Bach at the end of the day. I participated in a Rapid Software Testing class with his partner in crime Michael Bolton the prior day and sneaked into James’ Critical Thinking class earlier this day. He was approachable so I asked what books he recommended for aspiring testers (an easy opening), then when he’d be giving another talk on Rapid Software Testing in the US. I told him I liked the videos of his open lecture’s (I’ve blogged about them here and here) and somewhere during the discussion he mentioned a plan to setup a rapid software-like testing session near his home in Washington.
That testing session has been announced as the Rapid Testing Intensive taking place from July 23rd at 6:30pm through July 28th at noon on Orcas Island, Washington. I’m continuously trying to convince the company I work for the session is well worth the expense to go in person. There are two options, join in person or join online. I’d prefer physically being there instead of virtually for the easy of communicating and the overall experience.
The one day Rapid Software Testing session at StarWest was very inspiring but also brief. As Michael put it… the Rapid Software Testing course is normally a week long that gets crammed into three days and for StarWest is crammed into one day.
I’m not quite sure what to expect of the testing intensive but from what I can tell my goal for attending would be to practice using the rapid software testing methodologies with those who created it. I’m interested to see how they put their “modern theory of testing” into action so I can take it back to my company and apply it.
All of the Rapid Software Testing materials are available free online. It’s one thing to read the materials and practice what you absorb but its quite another to work with those who built the method/theories to put everything into practice. The day I spent at StarWest in the Rapid Software Testing class was great but we were only able to cover a small amount of the material.
I’ll need to do a few things in preparation:
- Review the Rapid Software Testing material we covered in class
- Read the material that we didn’t cover (lots)
- Review Session-Based Test Management
- Figure out the testing tools I’ll need
- Maybe start on the BBST coursework?
- Plan the travel details!