93: Anna Royzman: A Quality Leadership Institute

There have been many changes in the software testing industry in the last several years. Those of us who have been testers for a while know that testing is an actual professional craft; nevertheless, many folks coming out of college – and even some of our own developers – have no idea about testing techniques and tools.

If you’re anything like me you’ve probably wished there was a way to keep up with and promote the ever-changing tools and techniques needed to succeed with testing.

In this episode, you’ll discover how this is all about to change as we speak with Anna Royzman about her new organization, A Quality Leadership Institute. The mission of A Quality Leadership Institute is to become the world’s leading advocate for quality in technology. Anna has big plans for the organization, which include developing innovative programs on software testing quality and leadership for the tech community, as well as the promotion of software testing as a real discipline in colleges around the world.

About Anna Royzman

Anna is an international conference speaker, organizer and trainer. Anna is also the founder of A Quality Leadership Institute who's  mission of  is to become the world leading advocate for quality in technology. The organization will reach this goal through developing innovative programs on software testing and quality for the tech community, leadership and educational institutions.

Quotes & Insights from this Test Talk

• I'm collaborating with New York City Department of Education to teach educators on how, what this testing all about, and how to teach it. So this is a workshop that I'm going to start on April 18. And I already have, I have 35 people sign up. So teachers are interested. And once I'm done with that, then the next step would be to create a syllabus for them to take to schools. But I have want first to provide an understanding of what it is. Why testing is important. And I already have people who are enthusiastic about it.I'm doing it with NYC public schools now. And eventually I would love to have ambassadors in every city, town of the world. 
• I believe software testing is a very distinct skill set, testing, and it's a mindset. And even if you don't have a dedicated tester role, someday you'll need to perform this role at some point in the project no matter what. So you should not deny that the tester role is needed. The second question is, will there be a dedicated professional who is only doing this role? That would be ideal for me, and I'll tell you why in a bit. But I'm seeing that companies try to ignore the role of the tester, and that's also something that I want to change. Because if you don't understand that testing is a separate activity, and a separate skill set, and a separate mindset, and it needs to have strategy, then you're ignoring something really critical for your project.
• I've seen people they perceive themselves as somebody like, “oh those, you know, developers. They are little kids, and I'm taking care of them because I'm their mommy”. That's, I've seen that. And I don't think this is the right thing to do in a situation that we're at, that our, because of Agile, their tester so being better defined but also the amount of testers is shrinking. They are, a lot of companies want tester to do something else now. And you need to fight back. But you need to be proactive. You cannot just say, “oh no. It's happening to me”. You have to know that it's coming. You have to understand what is being developed right now as it subtly shifts in the industry of software development itself.
• As part of my professional development goal, I feel that testers and test leaders, and people who do not have testers but they are developing software products, they have to have a good, modern education involved testing and quality. No matter who you are, you have to understand what you're dealing with. So I created Test Masters Academy with this goal. Test Masters Academy is one of the projects of A Quality Leadership Institute. And it really fits the same goal to be a quality advocate, and introduce the quality advocacy through really innovative good education for all sorts of professions and people.
• In testing there is a lot of new developments. And one of them is Dave Snowden. He's a social scientist. And he created this model called Cynefin. And Cynefin explains the complexity of your environment. And the complexity of your environment really drives your decisions. And if you're in a very complex environment that means that there is no best practices for you, because there is conflicting things that can be equally true in a complex environment, and nobody understands the whole system. You have to create different practices.
  

Resources

• A Quality Leadership Institute
• Test Masters Academy – the newest global event on test management and leadership April 27th
• New Testing Conference – program is advised by James Bach, is on September 26th-27th.
• Cynefin – Dave Snowden's widely-cited, award-winning framework for decision making

Connect with Anna

• Twitter: @QA_nna
• Company: A Quality Leadership Institute

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