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Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Off to the US of A - 28, 29, 30 Jan 2009

Well, its official! I'm off to the USA on 28th, 29th and 30th of Jan 2009.
While I am there, I am hoping to do a number of things, of which I am most excited about going to Boston University and running a PEST event there on campus :)

There are a new set of scholarship students to meet - and I am hoping that these people will also be part of the internship programme in the summer. There is also a chance to meet Prof. Scolaroff for the first time (face to face), who has been so supportive of the TCL initiatives in the US.

TCL USA is a personal ambition of mine - something that I hope to see restarted in the next couple of years. We've maintained our commitment to the Mass. region and to BU in particular, because its part of our overall vision to be part of the tech community in the US. I'm not sure that the economy is going to allow us the opportunities to restart things this year - but who knows.

One things for sure, I spent an entire year without visiting the US - even for holidays - and it felt a bit weird, so I am very pleased to be heading back there so early in the New Year.

If you are around the Boston area on the 29th Jan and want to come along to the PEST event, then you can read more at: http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestions=&gid=1214687&sik=1231261321068

Things went very well at the last event we ran in Bristol and also the event at the SIGIST (thanks very much for coming along and introducing yourself Phil). I hope we can do everything as well this time!!

Sessions like PEST are brilliant in my opinion because they help bring software testing into a new phase. One where people share information and knowledge without boundaries and commit to the solving of problems and the development of all involved. We need this kind of participation in the software testing community and we need to see people move the industry forward.

Take a look at what James Bach has to say on such stuff:


We need to see software testers testing software - not just sitting around taling about it. It always seems weird to me that as testers we do stuff, we break things, we play with software, we get involved in designs and architecture and code and gubbins of all sorts and we help solve problems and we find new ways of doing things and we are part of the creative cycle that is software development but when we go to conferences there is a lot of sitting and talking and listening and slides and well where is all the doing????

Anyways, enough ranting, except to say that PEST combines a lot of stuff (practical)(theory)(coaching)(mentoring)(experience)(doing) - into one big bundle behind this motto: none of us is as smart as all of us.

Boston! Here we come!

3 comments:

Phil said...

Hope it goes well, look forward to reading about it

And it's one PEST I'd love to go to - been to Boston many times as thats where my wife is from :)

Stewart Noakes, TCL said...

It should be fun. I really enjoy it over there. People are great and there's lots to do. Boston has a sort of Europeany feel to it too, although it is also very American, but there is history and some great architecture.

Paul Darby said...

Never been there - wish I could.

Have fun!

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