Some problems which prevent us from performing at our best can be difficult to tackle as part of a normal team retrospective. The issues can be big or complicated or perhaps be outside the team’s direct sphere of control. By working more strategically with retrospectives on both team and organisational level, it is possible to address these problems much more effectively and efficiently. The positive impact on quality can both be directly and indirectly. As the agile team becomes more mature it improves its ways of working on many aspects including quality and engineering practices. But it also addresses problems due to collaboration issues, lack of trust or other cultural aspects which in the end can affect the quality of the solutions in a negative direction. In this presentation, Mette Bruhn-Pedersen introduces the concept Strategic Retrospective and shows some of the possible benefits based on a case from Denmark.

Scaled Agile Framework(R) is one of the most popular frameworks used by enterprises to become agiler not just on a team level but on all levels.
SAFe(R) as a framework describes many good practices to build-in quality, but when it comes to the actual implementation in large organisations there is a need for better guidance for people in test departments who work like testers, test analysts, test
coordinators, test managers to name a few.
Mette Bruhn-Pedersen will share some of the practices she has introduced to help tackle typical testing challenges when scaling agile. It is especially problems with planning, coordinating and executing testing between agile teams.
The presentation includes a very basic introduction to SAFe(R), but prior knowledge about the framework is an advantage.

As testers and test managers we face many challenges as part of our work. Perhaps you recognise one of the following:

·      Working with unclear or missing requirements

·      Working to extremely tight deadlines

·      Not permitted to deliver with the right quality

·      Perceived as a necessary evil

When working under pressure small problems have a tendency to grow. If left unresolved small problems may turn into fierce conflicts detrimental to effective collaboration and a productive work environment.

In this talk Mette will introduce some models, which she has found very useful to cope with difficult situations and conflicts. One of the models is called the conflict escalator. It describes how conflicts may develop and gives some easy to recognise characteristics, so you can intervene and de-escalate before things get out of hand.

This is a motivational talk with a touch of methods for personal development.