CAST 2014

Whenever someone asks me what I do for a living, I tell them that my job is to take software from idea to release as efficiently as possible. I provide this service for multiple teams as a time, without writing a single test case. But in my journey to here, it made me question what the role of a tester really is. My conclusion was that testing is not a role - it is an activity. My role therefore is to embed that activity in the software development process, shortening the feedback loop between creation and verification as much as I can. In this talk I will explain what this involves, why it's awesome and what it means for you as a tester, a software developer, a software engineering manager, and for the budding entrepreneur who's thinking of building a startup in the next couple of years.

The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), one of the world's preeminent schools of art and design, is also the leader of the STEAM educational movement. STEAM is an acronym created by adding an A for Art into STEM, the term representing the US government's current emphasis on education in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathmatics. STEAM has become the basis of two resolutions by the House of Representatives, asserting the importance of art and design to innovation and economic growth.

Join Dr. Strohecker in learning how STEAM relates not only to curricular content, but to a set of methods and a way of thinking. Hear how creative work relies on personal curiosity and often involves exploration of materials and failure as not only inevitable, but welcomed for the potential to inspire new directions. STEAM work involves not only testing hypotheses, but ongoing questioning of assumptions. It includes not only analysis, but synthesis: not only solving problems, but creating solutions.

Like millions of other Americans, Ben Simo visited HealthCare.gov in search of health insurance for a member of his family. And like millions of others, Ben found a frustratingly buggy website that was failing to fulfill its purpose: to educate people on the new health insurance law and help people purchase health insurance. After a few failed attempts at creating an account, Ben put on his tester hat and turned on his web developer tools as he continued his pursuit to get information about insurance options. Ben soon discovered a chain of security vulnerabilities that exposed users of the system to unnecessary risk.

After finding the HealthCare.gov customer service people unequipped to recieve reports of security vulnerabilities, Ben began blogging his discoveries. This spawned a storm of public attention in the midst of the political hot topic of the day. In this storm, Ben gathered a variety of public labels including "security researcher", "web expert", "methodical IT guru", and "not too bright". Ben's reports even came up in congressional hearings, in which the Secretary of Health and Human Services referred to Ben as "a sort of skilled hacker". Ben's reports helped bring attention, and eventually fixes, to problems that suggested a systematic lack of care and understanding of information security. Join Ben as he shares his experience, the issues he has found, and the lessons we can learn from HealthCare.gov.