What was the main Russian-language conference of testers of 2015?

    The next, 17th SQA Days conference, which annually gathers professionals involved in the field of software development, and beginners who are just starting to master in the industry, is left behind. What was she like? We tried to recreate the atmosphere of the event with photographs, feedback from participants and excerpts from reports.




    SQA Days is the largest Russian-language conference in the field of software testing, gathering hundreds of QA-specialists annually. We, the organizers, are trying not only to fill it with professional reports, but also to make communication between the participants convenient during breaks, and the trip to the event itself to be a memorable event among the tough working days of the tester. And we are pleased to read such reviews that say that our efforts are not in vain:



    Roman Sheiko

    In general, I can say that I personally received everything I wanted from this conference: I told my report (first of all), talked with the guys, met new interesting people, received a boost of motivation for development in my profession. So, these 2 days of the conference and a couple of months of preparation were well spent :)






    This year the conference was held on May 29-30 in one of the best hotels in Minsk - “President Hotel”. Anyone who visited SQA Days 17 received an unforgettable experience of communicating with a testing guru and a charge of positive emotions that will last for a year of productive work. For the rest, we will restore the chronology of events of the two best days of this May.



    At first, as usual, the participants passed registration and greeted each other during the morning coffee break. The event began with a grand opening ceremony.

    Rina Uzhevko (chairman of the program committee)

    SQA Days 17 engulfed us all with an abundance of information, communication, questions and emotions. I could not feel this atmosphere at any other conference. Of course, there was a discovery, Vlad and Tatyana Orlikov talked about the organization and gave the most critical information on pressing issues. I had to speak as the head of the program committee. I was nervous, worried, but did everything right.




    All reports went in three streams in different rooms. Talking about all of them makes no sense - for this there is a conference program on the site . Therefore, we note only some reports - which, as it seemed to us, caused the greatest interest among the audience.

    In the first place, of course, you need to put a guest from the States. Rex Black made two presentations. The first, Test Estimation, was dedicated to the most important issue - how long will the testing last? The second talked about how to achieve success in the tasks, using free (that is, read, free) testing tools. Of course, on the examples of real success stories of projects carried out using such tools.

    Rina Uzhevko

    If 1 report came more out of interest in “staring at living Black”, then his second report was already more conscious. You can see the second report if you need information, and not stare at Black. In general - if you read his books - you will not learn anything mega-new from the report.


    By the way, taking this opportunity, we recommend you an interview with Rex Black, which he gave us before the conference.



    It is impossible not to say about our British guest Paul Gerrard, who arrived in Minsk with a report on How to Test the Internet of Everything . This, perhaps even a philosophical report, talked a bit about what to expect for testers from the “Internet of Things” and the “Internet of Everything”.

    Natalya Rukol from Moscow, as part of a 40-minute sectional report entitled "Rake of the tester," revealed the main problems that specialists may encounter during their work, and the most common mistakes they make.

    Rina Uzhevko

    4 succes story about personal experiences with rakes. Natasha’s pitch is excellent as always. The report conveys a rather simple idea, which I began to convey in my article about perfectionism - do not be afraid to make mistakes - otherwise, just do not learn anything.




    The completion of the first section was the report of the guest from Ukraine Alexandra Volkova "10 principles of automation that I will not betray . " The conference visitors liked the work for its carefully thought-out structure and depth of the topic disclosure - they liked it so much that it won first place among all reports.

    Rina Uzhevko

    Alexandra Volkova talked about the "principles" of the automation, it was like a commandment. But nevertheless, the report is good, and took 1st place in the polls.
    By the way, the prizes for the best report this year were a robot vacuum cleaner and a set for a happy IT leisure in the form of an Xbox 360 + Kinect. We hope this is a good incentive for those who this year did not intend to speak to read their report next year.




    One cannot but say good words about section C. The main difference of the third section was the presentation format: if in the first half of the day section reports and master classes lasting 40 minutes predominated, then section C was mainly devoted to blitz reports. The speakers were tasked with just 20 minutes to highlight the main problems of the selected topic and highlight the most significant points.



    At the end of the first day of the conference, a grand QA party awaited the participants. But to talk about it is a thankless task, it is better to see once than hear a hundred times.





    Alexey Fedorov

    I’m constantly asked here how the SQA Days went . I noticed that I’m not talking more about reports, which, by the way, were many, were good, but not about formatted things.
    Having looked at what is happening at EuroStar, I saw that they have a lot of non-formatted activities: morning jogging in the park, dinner in the restaurant, an excursion to the museum. Those. there is an opportunity (not free :)) to touch the conference, even if there is no way to get there. (So, by the way, I met Paul Gerrald). So I got an idea that it would be great to do something similar on SQA Days.
    And so, the coolest one that supported me without question. Natalia Savastiuk organized 2 anti-conferences before the meeting, Igor Bondarenkoc picked up the prepati at the bar, Vladislav Orlikov ,Tatsiana Orlikova , Polazhenko Sergey ordered flipcharts. At the conference, Kirillova Ekaterina hosted games and discussion on the sidelines. After the conference, Alena Drozd organized a tour of Minsk. This is just what remained under my control, and he left immediately :) I know that there were also tours of the castles, a summer test workshop, which was actively supported by Sergey Atroschenkov , Rina Uzhevko , Andrey Myasnikov , Alexei Vinogradov . Not everything worked out, for example, almost nobody needed flipcharts and there was little discussion on the sidelines, but still it was very cool.
    Thank you all very much! If someone has ideas for non-format events at SQA Days, you know who to contact to make them format :) And they will definitely help you, it’s tested!


    Thanks to everyone who was with us at SQA Days 17 and see you next year. Come, it will be interesting, we promise!

    The next SQA Days conference will be held November 27-28, 2015 in Moscow.

    Photos from the conference can be viewed on the fb and in vk :

    Overview video:


    All presentations are already available at the following link: www.slideshare.net/VLDCORP/presentations
    Video recordings of reports will soon be available here: vimeo.com/orlikov

    You can learn more about the conference on the official website: www.sqadays.com

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