What's New

WTST 7 starts Friday, January 18, 2007.

The pre-WTST dinner runs 7:00-8:30 pm on January 17th at the Ariake Restaurant, 4916 Babcock NE, Palm Bay. Guests are welcome, but please let us know in advance.

About WTST

The Workshops on Teaching Software Testing (WTST) are concerned with the practical aspects of teaching university-level and advanced professional development courses on software testing. WTST meetings include academics and practitioners. Some participants have greater expertise in software testing, others in education, psychology, or the broader areas of software development. What we have in common is that we want to learn from each other how to be more effective in teaching a field that involves many complex cognitive tasks.

The main session is a three-day participatory workshop. We also often host an optional tutorial the day before the workshop.

The typical workshop covers seven to nine presentations across 22 hours.

• In a typical presentation,a speaker talks for 10 to 90 minutes, answering basic clarifying questions. A "talk" might be a traditional lecture, a demonstration or some other activity.
• Participants then discuss the "talk" for as long as they choose. In past sessions, discussions have run from 1 minute to 3 hours. During a discussion, a participant might
  • ask the presenter simple or detailed questions
  • describe consistent or contradictory experiences or data
  • present a different approach to the same problem
  • present or describe an alternative activity to the one demonstrated
  • query the educational or test-theory-related or test-practice-related assumptions underlying the presentation
  • or (respectfully and collegially, but assertively) argue with the presenter

Workshop presenters typically provide a somewhat-scholarly paper. Some of these look like traditional journal articles; others are clearly works in progress. The intent of the workshop is not archival scholarly publication of already-discovered results. The intent is to use results of experience and research to stimulate discussion, new insight and experimentation that in turn yield archival-quality scholarly publications.

To preserve the quality of discussion, WTST is size-limited, to 20 participants. Fewer than half of these can be presenters; the others are expected to actively participate in discussion. We review proposals in terms of their contribution to knowledge of how to teach software testing. Proposals that present a purely theoretical advance in software testing, with weak ties to teaching, will not be accepted.

• Presentations are selected from proposals that typically run about 4 pages, and describe the intended content and activity as well as the background of the presenter.
• Other participants are selected from proposals that rypically run 1-2 pages, describing the background of the participant and her or his objectives (why s/he wants to attend). Selection of participants is based on intuition about what would make a good mix of skills and attitudes in the room. Some participants are teaching their first testing course. Some participants are doctoral students.

There is never an attendance fee to come to WTST. From 2002-2006, we have been able to use funds from the National Science Foundation and private donations to subsidize hotel expenses of all participants and airfare of presenters. We do not expect to be able to subsidize travel expenses from WTST 6 and beyond.

WTST is hosted by Cem Kaner and James Bach. Beginning with WTST 5, Scott Barber is the faciitator of WTST.

Funding for WTST 1-5 has come primarily from the National Science Foundation , under grant EIA-0113539 ITR/SY+PE "Improving the Education of Software Testers." Opinions expressed at WTST or published in connection with WTST do not recessarily reflect the views of NSF. WTST 3-5 have been hosted by Florida Institute of Technology. WTST is often co-sponsored by the Association for Software Testing.