Testival 2022 review

Testival 2022

After a two-year break due to the pandemic, the Testival conference finally took place, this year on September 9 and 10, in the Old Bakery in Osijek. This year's conference broke some records, the biggest one being attendance. There were 135 people at the event. For comparison, the previous largest Testival Conference was in the neighborhood of 70 people. This shows how the testing scene has grown in Croatia and how much people missed in-person events

We are proud that, as a platinum sponsor and host of the conference, we contributed to the organization in all segments and made this event possible.

As is usual for the Testival conference the first evening was spent pitching and voting on topics for sessions. After voting finished everybody proceeded to mingle with some drinks and freshly cooked “Fiš”. The organization team counted the votes and formed the schedule for the conference's second day. There were 5 tracks with 4 timeslots, which means a total of 20 sessions. The topics ranged from: “How to test a tester?” to: “What will the future of QA look like?”.

The sessions worked in a way that the topic proposer made an introduction and started the discussion, and after that, the other participants joined in the conversation.

I attended the following sessions:

How to test a tester

This session was an opportunity for those who participate in the candidate selection to exchange experiences and practices from their companies, but also for those who would like to start a career in QA because they were able to get a first-hand insight into what the selection process looks like and what is important for someone who wants to work in QA.

How much testing is enough testing?

Of the sessions I participated in, this one was the most attended, which shows that this question bothers most testers. The topic started a lively discussion and opened up new questions: whether requirements should be strictly adhered to during testing, what if requirements are not defined, should we communicate with developers during testing, how to communicate the need to delay the release and who is responsible for it.

How customer data can help shape test strategy

In this session, the participants discussed whether they have some data from customers, what kind of data it is and how to use it in testing. This could depend on the project, but sometimes customer data is not available to the tester due to certain regulations and data protection, but even in that case, you should look for some kind of summary data that does not contain sensitive information.

Educating yourself

In this session, everyone agreed that it is impossible to survive in QA, and the IT world in general, without constant learning and knowing the trends. Participating in the Testival conference is already one of the ways to achieve this. The participants shared the sources from which they learn: blogs, video platforms, books, and websites.

Discussions were very informative and everybody learned a lot. The sessions are always an amazing opportunity to meet people from the testing world, exchange experiences, and knowledge, and also hear about something that you never heard before.

During the day we also had two keynotes, by Mirza Šišić and Marie Drake.
Mirza talked about the importance of community and Marie did a comprehensive overview of accessibility testing.

One of the unique events at Testival is also the lightning talks where everybody gets 5 minutes on the stage in front of everyone to share anything that they want. The topics were different, from learning chess to books and useful tools recommendations.

Between sessions, the participants had the opportunity to continue the conversation, and socialize in a relaxed atmosphere with food and drinks in the courtyard.

In the end of everything, I can say that it was worth participating in the organization of this conference. The experience of the organization itself was a valuable experience, and the conference fulfilled the desired goal: reactivating the community, getting to know the participants, exchanging knowledge and experiences, all that in a relaxed atmosphere and with a lot of fun. In the conversation with the participants after the conference, I received positive feedback, especially from those who attended the Testival for the first time and liked the informality of this type of conference.

Here are some impressions:

I applied for this year's Testival as a volunteer, because I am interested in quality control in the IT industry as a career path. I saw volunteering as an opportunity to get to know the team organizing the conference and active members of the community and to be useful to them. As I had active duties, I was able to attend only two debates, but I chose them well. Even though I don't have much experience at the moment, I liked the format of the conference in which I had the opportunity to hear the experiences of not only the lecturers but also the other attendees of the discussion. In the discussion entitled "How to test a tester?" I was able to get a much better insight into what is required of a QA job candidate. Apart from me, the participants were mostly team leaders, so I had the opportunity to hear a lot of useful details. In the second discussion "How to train a non-QA person?", a similar topic was discussed and I heard different approaches that team leaders use when training workers. Since I am new to QA, this event served as an insight into further education and tool selection. The conference was great, I met a lot of people who have the same interests as me, and volunteering was a great experience that I definitely plan to repeat. One of the best things is the friendliness of the people in the community. Thank you all for a great experience.
Domagoj Špiranec, volunteer and 3rd year FERIT student

As a person with no experience in the IT and QA field, I saw the conference as a great opportunity to gather information on the best way to educate QA/testers. As I have already started on my own with education and reading relevant literature, I voted for topics that mostly deal with the beginnings of a career in QA as well as education in the field itself. After the conference, I can say that I got a much broader insight into the term QA itself, as well as what exactly it encompasses. I am extremely glad that I had the opportunity to talk to people who are experts in the field and had the opportunity to educate people who, like me, had no previous experience, and to receive guidance and suggestions for literature and materials to continue my journey toward IT.
Tatjana Jaroš, conference attendee

Participating in Testival 2022 will remain a very fond memory for several reasons. First of all, this is the first time I have encountered this type of conference where the participants are content creators. I was surprised how many participants were active in starting topics and discussions, which was a good incentive to include those with less experience and introverted individuals. The discussions were constructive and provided new insights and solutions to the problems we all face in this field. It was also the first time I participated in the organization of such an event, which was very demanding, but with a good team of people, in my opinion, it was very successfully implemented. After everything, I can say that I found out how good organization, open communication, and team spirit can achieve a lot, and I am very happy that I was a part of everything, both as a participant and as an organizer.
Sanja Kovačić, organizer