Test Professionals Meetup in Tauranga

“Great things happen when good people get together,” is a phrase I’ve been using a lot lately, and it pretty much sums up the vibe at the November Tauranga Test Professionals meetup. For this last event of 2022, the plan was to move away from the traditional three-presentation format. Instead, the event was formatted as an open forum discussion: two key questions to kick off topics to discuss while networking, plus a survey. No structure.

And it worked!

Attendees filled out a survey meant to determine their predictions for the upcoming year. The survey was anonymous, simple, and had a couple of fun questions thrown in, too. At an average of just over a minute to complete, the survey indicated some strong themes regarding 2023 projections – increasing project workload, increasing expectations on team productivity (meaning a team increase), and a strong shift to automation. Paradoxically, the sense was that acquiring resources (in a tight market) would not be much harder; some even thought it would be easier.

Overall, the Tauranga community were parochially very bullish about the sunshine hours for 2023 (as expected) and had mixed views on UK Prime Minister churn – noting that some answers were provided prior to the resignation of Liz Truss.

For the open forum discussion, all 23 attendees were asked two questions:

• For 2023, where would you like to see the domain of testing head towards / focus on?
• For 2023, as a test professional, what are you personally planning to work on / heads towards?

Compilation of Pictures from the Tauranga Test Professionals Meetup

The aim was for people to offer enough information to initiate discussions that would last the bulk of the evening's meetup. There was 100% contribution from those attending – pretty impressive when we acknowledge that not all people like public speaking. This created a wonderful opportunity for attendees to network with others in the testing community. The discussion also brought forth some key topics:

• Investment in testing techniques – particularly TDD and BDD
• Automation (and some concern around the proliferation of automation tools in the market)
• Concerns around the impact of agile-based teams and consistent test delivery (consistent testing practices) and a focus on resolving these
• Certifications
• A desire for the business (defined as both the user community within organisations and the management teams) having a focus on the value of testing as an enabler for better customer experience and ensuring better delivery by having quality present right at the start of initiatives

These topics and the resulting discussion give a good lead into potential topic areas for the 2023 schedule of Tauranga Test Professionals Meetups. A huge thanks to our event provider Trustpower for the venue and to TTC for the ongoing support and sponsorship. Our next meetup for the region is scheduled for late February 2023 (to be confirmed).