Reducing Test Case Bloat version 2.1, and Speaker Training for Lanette
Last night I presented for QASIG. It was a wonderful group, a good sized crowd, and I got the best introduction I've ever had.
Next month I'll be heading to StarEast where I'll be a moderator. It was awesome to get an introduction from Jon Bach because I now have an example of what sort of introduction I'd like to give the speakers. One that lets people know who the speaker is, what they are about, and one that gives them a confidence boost to start out the talk. I feel like people were more engaged and had more questions because of how he introduced me. It set the tone for what we were going to talk about as a group, not just a "sit back and hear the blabber" type of thing.
Doing this topic again gave the the chance to totally revise my slides. I took out most of the text and put in pictures that made me smile and reminded me of what I wanted to say about bloat without words. This was good for the talk. I think that the talk I did last night was some better than the one I did for PNSQC, mostly because the slides were better, and I'm learning and improving as I get experience speaking. If I could go back and remove some "Umms" I would. Also, I'd have slowed down my pace in the middle some. I was going a bit fast on some of the most important points. What else? Well, there may be video to share!! It is going to take a few weeks to get here, if I can post it at all, but I'll put it here on the blog if it arrives.
Next month I'll be heading to StarEast where I'll be a moderator. It was awesome to get an introduction from Jon Bach because I now have an example of what sort of introduction I'd like to give the speakers. One that lets people know who the speaker is, what they are about, and one that gives them a confidence boost to start out the talk. I feel like people were more engaged and had more questions because of how he introduced me. It set the tone for what we were going to talk about as a group, not just a "sit back and hear the blabber" type of thing.
Doing this topic again gave the the chance to totally revise my slides. I took out most of the text and put in pictures that made me smile and reminded me of what I wanted to say about bloat without words. This was good for the talk. I think that the talk I did last night was some better than the one I did for PNSQC, mostly because the slides were better, and I'm learning and improving as I get experience speaking. If I could go back and remove some "Umms" I would. Also, I'd have slowed down my pace in the middle some. I was going a bit fast on some of the most important points. What else? Well, there may be video to share!! It is going to take a few weeks to get here, if I can post it at all, but I'll put it here on the blog if it arrives.
Slides - I added clip art to slide 2 for extra irony since my font dropped out in the PDF.These slides are far different from the First Version and I think sort of shows how I am evolving as a presenter. I'm becoming more me. Less serious. I'm having more fun! It's quite awesome! I'm so thankful for all of the people who've been helping and giving me feedback and opportunities to practice.
One other thing. After presenting I had a wonderful time! I do wish that I'd had a seat sooner though. I have nerve damage in my leg, so I can't stand up for 3 hours and expect to be ok. I was in a crazy amount of pain last night and this morning, so if you see me out presenting please come chat me up, but let's have a chat sitting down! I get so excited about talking about testing I forget about important things, like that I need to sit down so I won't be in too much pain the next day. I'll put that on my "to improve" list for next time to work on too.
Those of you who were there, please feel free to leave me feedback. I really appreciate it and will try your suggestions.
One other thing. After presenting I had a wonderful time! I do wish that I'd had a seat sooner though. I have nerve damage in my leg, so I can't stand up for 3 hours and expect to be ok. I was in a crazy amount of pain last night and this morning, so if you see me out presenting please come chat me up, but let's have a chat sitting down! I get so excited about talking about testing I forget about important things, like that I need to sit down so I won't be in too much pain the next day. I'll put that on my "to improve" list for next time to work on too.
Those of you who were there, please feel free to leave me feedback. I really appreciate it and will try your suggestions.
Posted by Testy Redhead at 11 Mar 2010 
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: career test cases presenting speaking qasig testing bloat
Categories: uncategorized
Tags: career test cases presenting speaking qasig testing bloat
I think your talk really did improve from PNSQC to QASIG. You got a lot more confident, and I think that makes your message stronger. And you handled Q&A pretty smoothly, especially since some of it was comments without a clear question to respond to.
On the standing up thing, you also could try to stay seated as much as possible before the talk. Last night you were standing up beforehand.
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Congratulations superstar or better supertester.
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I couldn't make it to the presentation last night - feeling unwell. I went over our slide deck via Jon's tweet http://twitter.com/jbtestpilot/status/10333189774
awesome material, and I wish I could attend the talk
I will look forward for a video recording...
@esaarem (srm)
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I really enjoyed your talk Lanette. The turnout just shows you that people are concerned about this topic. Thank you for the insight and information!
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Hi Lanette, seems like I missed a great Tolkien-inspired talk - you should come speak at Eurostar one time
Liked the quotes (especially the skydiving one), the pictures AND the content, thanks.
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I am glad that you had a wonderful presentation that night at QASIG. Well, it wasn’t just you who had all the fun. I was in that group to whom you have presented and by looking in your eyes I could understand that you were having a great time back then. And not just you, I too was having a nice time listening to all the valuable information that you were willing to share with us and I am glad this article got my eye so that I could write this!
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