Papers, Presentations and People

I finished another draft of my pnsqc paper today. I still have a few tweaks I know I need to make, but I sent it off anyway so I can get feedback in parallel. I’ve had so much “day job” work lately that I’ve had a hard time prioritizing the “extra” stuff. I haven’t checked yet, but I have a feeling that the deadline for my STAR presentation materials is coming up soon as well, so I don’t think things will change. Beyond those two conferences in October, I have no travel planned for the rest of the calendar year, and I’m looking forward to some extended time at home.

I’m teaching (at MS) for the first time since November, and for the first time in Redmond in about 2 years. It’s an 18 hour course (3 hours, twice a week for 3 weeks) about the role of a senior tester. We dissect the types of things that testers with years of testing experience do to help make other testers better and improve product quality (as an aside, the topic of my pnsqc paper is on how highly-experienced testers influence product quality).

An important point to mention is that I’m having a fantastic time teaching (I really shouldn’t say “teaching” – my role in this class is more to bring up topics and facilitate discussion). Regardless – I get stuck in my EE tower sometimes and don’t get enough opportunity to talk to the people actually making money for the company. They’re all so smart and ambitions and thoughtful that I can’t help but have a good time talking to them. With all of the other stuff going on in my job right now, it’s a huge breath of fresh air and a great grounding experience.

Oops – class starts in 30 minutes. I better take a peek at what’s on the agenda.