03 Apr 2024
This article was translated from the original testimonial given by Patricia Osorio Aristizábal, Founder of TKASE, Colombia.
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In 2020, we were invited by Kyle A Siemens of Brightest to be part of a group of reviewers for the syllabus of a new course created by specialists, which at the time was known as Agile United.
We took part in this group of reviewers and were able to contribute with some observations. From the beginning, its contents caught our attention because of its particular and disruptive approach, different from the usual references. I admit that at the beginning it was not an easy task, as its contents proposed a change of perspective and a change of paradigm. Today we are proud to say that we have done our bit. Later, in 2023, we came across Agile United with the Certified Practitioner in Agile Testing (CPAT) course and with the help of Guino Henostroza (www.qualizens.com); I took part in a new experience. This time, we ran the first version of this course in a live (online) format from Colombia, for a team located in Panama City. This time, the experience was very different, because we started our preparation for the certification and for the execution of the course from an initial proposal of contents that motivated us to study, learn, and develop new skills based on the concepts, practices, and techniques that we found in this course.
Since 2002, we have been part of the testing community in Colombia as testers, test team leaders, and knowledge managers. Since 2007, we started as international trainers of renowned courses, so I can honestly say that the Certified Practitioner in Agile Testing (CPAT) course is completely different from what we know. Once again I would like to stress its disruptive and modern approach. It is absolutely relevant for any team working in software engineering with an Agile Mindset.
When I refer to a different approach, I mean that, in this course, the agile mindset is predominant and we come to understand Rumsfeld's statement: "There are things we know, i.e. the facts. There are things we know that we don't know, so we ask questions. But that doesn't mean we discard our intuition and our power of exploration, for what we don't know that we know or don't know". It's a bit crazy, isn't it? This course brings a vision to the work team so that they can approach the quality aspect as a responsibility of the whole team, using principles and techniques that are closer to the development of each person's critical thinking. It fosters the development of argumentation and reasoning skills that bring value to the team. The course includes aspects that enable the team to create the outline of software engineering projects. And of course, the general outline of the product that promotes a holistic view of the product. I remember how much fun I had not only in preparing for the course, but during the course itself. When we applied techniques such as the "nightmare headline" to specific cases as a way of identifying product risks. Likewise, I remember our participants' expressions when they told me: "During the whole week we have been talking about the technique we applied in the previous session, looking for alternatives to apply it. Today we came with the expectation that we are going to learn today". In conclusion, the contents of this course offer an approach that allows us to add value to software projects and products from a different point of view.