This morning (November 22, 2013) I had the opportunity to be involved in a very unique discussion. SkillsMatter hosted the Agile Testing & BDD Exchange in London. The format of this particular conference was to have a series of sessions that featured two or more presenters teaming up to cover a particular topic.
Chris Matts (@papachrismatts) was one of the speakers, and when he looked around for people to pair with, he decided to take a truly different approach. He reached out to five people, none of whom were going to be in London today and asked them to be part of a conversation via Skype. I was one of the fortunate five to be asked. I consider myself fortunate because I was able to share the “stage” with the likes of Chris, Jake Calabrese (@jcalabrese), Jeffrey Davidson (@JeffreyGoodReq), Leslie Morse (@lesliejdotnet), and Olaf Lewitz (@olaflewitz). I should note that the speaker bios really don’t do everyone justice, but then again Chris took a little bit of artistic license when he wrote them.
From this side of the Atlantic, things seemed to go fairly well. We all joined in on a Skype call that Chris projected on the screen at the conference. It was basically a panel discussion with Chris asking the first couple of questions then opening it up to the audience.
We had some great discussion, several thumbs up, a candle or two, and some oddly placed stuffed animals. Along the way I realized how lucky I am to know Chris, Jake, Jeffrey, Leslie, and Olaf and have the types of conversations that I had this morning. Not to mention how lucky I was to be living in a time when I can have such a conversation in London less than an hour after taking my daughter to school in Iowa.
I suspect my description wouldn’t really do the conversation justice, so here it is – BDD & the Business Analysts – in all of it’s slightly Orwellian glory.
