tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33241517636720935222024-03-05T20:02:44.421+02:00 Dragons OutKari Kakkonenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13792692413878679098noreply@blogger.comBlogger80125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3324151763672093522.post-14423281218446889222024-01-29T16:18:00.000+02:002024-01-29T16:18:17.669+02:00AI creating Dragons and testing stories<p>In recent times, it seems like the whole world has gone crazy trying to use Generative AI (Artificial Intelligence). These LLMs (large language models) can create content based on user prompts. </p><p>Now I tried the LLM Brave Leo (Mixtral) to create a Dragons Out -like story for me. Although it was just experimental, the results are quite impressive. I used just three prompts. Finally, I tried to get a picture of all this - a fourth prompt. It didn't work, but I got a description, which I used in a prompt of a picture generation AI, Deep AI. </p><p>Did you learn something from the below? I think an LLM can help with quality like this. But the picture was quite disappointing to me. Anyway, I think I'll write my own stuff also in the future and ask Adri for more fantastic illustrations.</p><h3>Me:</h3><div>What is RPG?</div><div><h3>Brave Leo:</h3></div><p>RPG stands for "Role-Playing Game." It is a type of game where players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting and engage in activities to develop their characters. This can be done through various mediums, including tabletop games, video games, and card games.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Me:</h3><p>Give me a RPG (Role Playing Game) scenario where knights attack a dragon from three sides with aid of archers.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Brave Leo:</h3><p>In this RPG scenario, the brave knights of the Round Table have been tasked with defeating a menacing dragon that has taken residence in a nearby mountain cave. The dragon is known for its fierce fire breath and impenetrable scales.</p><p>The knights, along with their loyal band of archers, devise a plan to attack the dragon from three sides. The archers take their positions on the surrounding cliffs, hiding behind rocks and trees, ready to rain arrows down on the dragon as soon as it emerges from the cave.</p><p>The knights, meanwhile, approach the cave's entrances, swords and shields at the ready. They know that the dragon's scales are too tough to penetrate with a sword, but they hope to distract it and keep it from causing too much damage.</p><p>As the dragon emerges from the cave, the archers unleash a barrage of arrows, aiming for its eyes and any vulnerable spots. The dragon roars in anger and tries to take to the sky, but the knights charge forward, using their shields to deflect the dragon's flames and keep it grounded.</p><p>The battle rages on, with the knights and archers working together to wear down the dragon's defenses. In the end, their teamwork and bravery pay off, and they are able to defeat the dragon and save the kingdom from certain doom.</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">Me:</h3><p>Summarize how the previous scenario can help to explain how software testing works.</p><h3>Brave Leo:</h3><p>The RPG scenario of knights attacking a dragon from three sides, with aid of archers, can be used to explain how software testing works in several ways:</p><p>1. Collaboration: Just like the knights and archers worked together to defeat the dragon, software testers must collaborate with developers, designers, and other team members to ensure that the software is of high quality.</p><p>2. Multiple Perspectives: The knights and archers approached the dragon from different angles, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Similarly, software testing requires multiple perspectives, including functional testing, usability testing, performance testing, and security testing, to ensure that the software is robust and reliable.</p><p>3. Continuous Improvement: The knights and archers learned from each attack, adjusting their strategy and tactics as needed. Similarly, software testing is an ongoing process, with testers continuously evaluating and improving the software to ensure that it meets the needs of its users.</p><p>4. Risk Management: The knights and archers knew that attacking the dragon was a risky endeavor, but they took calculated risks to ensure their success. Similarly, software testing involves identifying and managing risks, such as potential bugs or security vulnerabilities, to ensure that the software is safe and secure.</p><p>In summary, the RPG scenario highlights the importance of collaboration, multiple perspectives, continuous improvement, and risk management in software testing, demonstrating how these concepts can be applied to real-world scenarios.</p><h3>Me:</h3><p>Draw me a picture of dragon and knights fight representing software testing</p><h3>Brave Leo:</h3><div><div>"I'm an AI text-based assistant and can't draw, but I can describe a text-based representation of a dragon and knights fighting, symbolizing software testing:</div><div><br /></div><div>"A dragon (bugs) and knights (testers) engage in an epic battle (testing process). The knights, armed with shields (test cases) and swords (code reviews), relentlessly fight the dragon, reducing its strength (fixing bugs). The battlefield is filled with both the knights' determination and the dragon's ferocity, symbolizing the constant struggle and eventual victory in software testing."</div></div><div><br /></div><div><h3>Deep AI:</h3></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0hOtezhAtt6oRgq217xgvHXjx1qPGSfec5QXDSsXI_4sc1s2EOgASBVAiQ2rcj4O6-jXmCT_F7RAmK6e-NZuAwhyh2NXN0KvX9uDnTJjO2A-zHvJ1EBQFbvpMhr1jJrazCK3zgO1CexjnJB0kcPAQ6wnUoYCs5cVnOegzMIE8VMsfxA8furnJrjuYNWiO/s512/deepai.org.dragons-testing-pic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="512" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0hOtezhAtt6oRgq217xgvHXjx1qPGSfec5QXDSsXI_4sc1s2EOgASBVAiQ2rcj4O6-jXmCT_F7RAmK6e-NZuAwhyh2NXN0KvX9uDnTJjO2A-zHvJ1EBQFbvpMhr1jJrazCK3zgO1CexjnJB0kcPAQ6wnUoYCs5cVnOegzMIE8VMsfxA8furnJrjuYNWiO/s320/deepai.org.dragons-testing-pic.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div>Kari Kakkonenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13792692413878679098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3324151763672093522.post-2315018719361569122023-12-22T12:05:00.001+02:002023-12-22T12:05:55.012+02:00Translations in the works<p>The year 2023 flew past. I spent plenty of time on the software testing leadership handbook <a href="https://www.act2lead.net/">ACT 2 LEAD</a>, which I completed and published with my fantastic FiSTB colleague Marko Rytkönen. With that, we hope to raise awareness of software testing in the non-testing parts of any organization, as their decisions greatly affect software testing. However, I haven't forgotten the Dragons Out books and the need for children's learning.</p><p>The free PowerPoint presentation, Dragon Lesson in Software Testing, available under a Creative Commons (i.e. free) license, keeps getting more languages. At the time of writing this, it is available in 22 languages. The latest addition is the Arabic language. For that, numerous thanks to Mohammad Khlouf and Taha Othman/YouNovel. I also mention recent translations of Portuguese, Korean, Japanese and Czech. And then several translations are underway - thumbs up for the volunteers doing them. The translation projects include Hindi, Hebrew, Slovakian, Danish, Swedish, Romanian, and Norwegian.</p><p>But how about the book Dragons Out. We actually have a translated manuscript in German, all done and reviewed. Currently, we are looking for a publisher. Some proposals are out, but if you have your favourite German publisher contact, you can still pass that to me, please.</p><p>Of course the book is available in English, Finnish, French, and Polish already. In hardcover, softcover, e-book, and audiobook formats. Many formats. Get your copy and recommend to others: <a href="https://www.dragonsout.com/p/order-dragons-out-book.html">https://www.dragonsout.com/p/order-dragons-out-book.html</a></p><p>I've had joyous moments talking to children, too. I've delivered the Dragon Lesson in Software Testing to children and enjoyed the insights about testing, the joy of learning about bugs, and amazingly clever drawings of dragons, knights and castles with analogies to software testing concepts. I'll mention a great session in Wroclaw, Poland, for Polish Children (thanks to Lucjan Stapp for simultaneous translation!). And I'll also mention the super session at Knowit (my workplace), where during a "Bring the Children to Work Day", I worked with children in Helsinki directly and had helpers in the cities of Tampere and Turku over a Teams connection working with the children there. The children also got to take the Dragons Out book home in the end. All in all, the work with children has been really rewarding.</p><p>With that, I'd like to wish everyone Happy Holidays!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgLlCiipV1A3AESXHec3wvr9WjKNMmMSDX5iOHPt7PhmPGZJcfxisRIB56ZnI5WqgdP__PHhXaD9IxYtfMa2UmHw3VU6BpQr9W50icK3xSdnQUBQ3uQnHCjCRB8hOacPM0iYbrOmKHHPkLXfVRslsH1M841gxjRND2ORily0YN7qHjyNGDqIm9sm1cJYJP/s1600/dragons_so_me_yellowbeard_ENG.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgLlCiipV1A3AESXHec3wvr9WjKNMmMSDX5iOHPt7PhmPGZJcfxisRIB56ZnI5WqgdP__PHhXaD9IxYtfMa2UmHw3VU6BpQr9W50icK3xSdnQUBQ3uQnHCjCRB8hOacPM0iYbrOmKHHPkLXfVRslsH1M841gxjRND2ORily0YN7qHjyNGDqIm9sm1cJYJP/s320/dragons_so_me_yellowbeard_ENG.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Kari Kakkonenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13792692413878679098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3324151763672093522.post-75363652063643594432023-09-27T14:34:00.004+03:002023-09-27T14:44:49.247+03:00Dragons Out book events and ACT 2 LEAD book coming out<p>Many things happening. I keep promoting the Dragons Out book and software testing to schools and people in general, but I've also been very involved in a new book for leaders in organizations, ACT 2 LEAD.</p><p>First, what's new with Dragons Out. I recently had a chance to exhibit at a teacher trade fair Päijät-Hämeen mentoripäivä 2023. (see the pic at the end). It was great to be invited there again and have my book and free teacher materials exhibited to many teachers! There, and also generally, I have offered to come to speak for free at schools. I can manage such visits a few times per year, even though I have a busy schedule. Any takers? Classes 4-9 are the most suitable audience. Sign up <a href="https://www.dragonsout.com/p/testausta-kouluihin-vieraileva-opettaja.html">here</a>.</p><p>Over the past few years, I've also exhibited at the US Book Show, the Frankfurt International Book Fair, the American Association of School Librarians Book Fair, the Finnish Book Fair and ITK-fair Finland, to mention a few.</p><p>There's the biggest book fair in Finland coming up on 26-29.10.2023, the Finnish book fair (<a href="https://kirjamessut.messukeskus.com/">Kirjamessut</a>). I'm exhibiting at the stand of the publisher of my 2nd Finnish edition of the Dragons Out book, the BoD (Books on Demand). I'll be at the BoD stand personally for some time to give some autographs on Sunday morning. Head to the book fair, find the BoD stand and my book there, and buy a few copies for Christmas presents! Or get them online <a href="https://www.dragonsout.com/p/order-dragons-out-book.html">here</a>.</p><p>Dragons Out book translations in German and Hungarian are proceeding. They'll be published in due time!</p><p>Second, the other thing I've been working with. I wrote ACT 2 LEAD handbook about software testing leadership with my FiSTB colleague Marko Rytkönen. The book was edited by the publisher Ketterät Kirjat Oy during the summer of 2023, and it's now in the publishing pipeline. The publishing party is planned for October 23 - mark your calendars. It will be a hybrid event in Finnish, as the book will first be published in Finnish. We plan to have an English edition next year. In this ACT 2 LEAD book, I also got to practice expressing testing thoughts as simply as possible but from a totally different angle than with the Dragons Out book. This ACT 2 LEAD book is meant for the CxO level, and they really need to have the core things about testing spelt out - busy people. The book reads well for anyone who's interested in testing and specifically test leadership, so also for other managers, testers, students etc. We've set up a website specifically for ACT 2 LEAD book, check it out <a href="https://www.act2lead.net/">here</a>. And you'll learn what this ACT 2 LEAD acronym is all about : ). And there's bit about the book project in Finnish <a href="https://www.dragonsout.com/p/marko-ja-kari-testauskirja.html">here</a>.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLDYQdChR4pCJ6zK8aVCV8J_1IpAvokQYgmS2LBQju_KITmvv5Iaji01TfHZyaB2Z2uUnXl7is39Vjo0DIcsXYm-cTwof886m670IFajXD-G7yRHWaYSkQnr7ymZZmRbBKCYs7DJwQozEgLvdsQNF9SaZ99UzV--PELknLgeC-UB9SxaZTxPcrkMe75lKd/s1824/2023-p%C3%A4ij%C3%A4th%C3%A4meen-mentorip%C3%A4iv%C3%A4t1.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1824" data-original-width="1368" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLDYQdChR4pCJ6zK8aVCV8J_1IpAvokQYgmS2LBQju_KITmvv5Iaji01TfHZyaB2Z2uUnXl7is39Vjo0DIcsXYm-cTwof886m670IFajXD-G7yRHWaYSkQnr7ymZZmRbBKCYs7DJwQozEgLvdsQNF9SaZ99UzV--PELknLgeC-UB9SxaZTxPcrkMe75lKd/w300-h400/2023-p%C3%A4ij%C3%A4th%C3%A4meen-mentorip%C3%A4iv%C3%A4t1.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Kari Kakkonenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13792692413878679098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3324151763672093522.post-44556548979517852732023-08-04T20:00:00.000+03:002023-08-04T20:00:29.138+03:00Portuguese version of Dragon Lesson in Software Testing<p>Time flies. I've been busy with another book project, a test leadership handbook with my FiSTB colleague Marko Rytkönen. More news about it later, but I can leak some news that the cover is by my Dragons Out illustrator, the fabulous Adrienn Széll. Also, the translation efforts of the Dragons Out book and the free Creative Commons licensed Dragon Lesson in Software Testing presentation proceed. And I did some summer reading campaigning - fun and useful reads are always good, but especially in summer, right?</p><p>The Portuguese version of the Dragon Lesson in Software Testing has now been published. Teresa Fernandes took the challenge and translated it. Filipe Nuno Carlos did the review. I'll let everyone here learn a bit of testing in Portuguese:</p><p><span id="docs-internal-guid-04e0f7c5-7fff-d620-7bc6-2a522fb57652"></span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0 0 0 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="line-height: 1.284; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 18pt; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>Testar = Experimentar, verificar e testar com diferentes valores, ordens e formas para compreender se alguma coisa funciona ou quão bem funciona. </i></span></p></blockquote><p>I'm more than happy that we have one more language in the set of 20+ translations of the free presentation. So many schoolchildren can now learn a bit of software testing in their own languages. Portugal and Brazil are the major users of this translation, of course. You can find the Portuguese version and other 20+ translations <a href="https://www.dragonsout.com/p/presentation-for-teachers.html">here</a>.</p><p>As for translations of the Dragons Out book, the German translation is nicely in editing and review. Also, the Hungarian translation is in the works. And obviously, people can already enjoy the English hardcover, softcover, ebook and audiobook, the Finnish 1st and 2nd editions of the book and ebook, the Polish edition and the French edition.</p><p>Summer reading. My best hint - get the free Audible trial period and listen to the Dragons Out audiobook there! Or get the book from a library or buy it home. Here is the list of places to buy the books <a href="https://www.dragonsout.com/p/order-dragons-out-book.html">https://www.dragonsout.com/p/order-dragons-out-book.html</a> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho8AgsyTbvTvkBylVQ_H91P6tyNkg5WoGskAXDsmJNS9BYMkFV1IeNfppo8nZwaJlpUZ2DS9Z6MufOJ84Z2lSEQKZxQe3u2xlMcQVGzm7cKrz0vZv4IWsJjSzSGm3iVySaq2HNKs2rYJ-GMKTHwIlFzdMdiArfUAngC6g_4pEJf6puM2oHJwfMV292HM7g/s1600/dragons_so_me_cho_ENG.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho8AgsyTbvTvkBylVQ_H91P6tyNkg5WoGskAXDsmJNS9BYMkFV1IeNfppo8nZwaJlpUZ2DS9Z6MufOJ84Z2lSEQKZxQe3u2xlMcQVGzm7cKrz0vZv4IWsJjSzSGm3iVySaq2HNKs2rYJ-GMKTHwIlFzdMdiArfUAngC6g_4pEJf6puM2oHJwfMV292HM7g/w400-h400/dragons_so_me_cho_ENG.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Kari Kakkonenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13792692413878679098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3324151763672093522.post-4658163643130206892023-04-20T17:37:00.001+03:002023-04-20T17:43:37.178+03:00Polish students testing session<p>On my visit to the ISTQB General Assembly in Wroclaw, Poland, a chance to talk to Polish students came up. The organizing party SJSI (Polish Testing Board) was kind enough to organize a few classes from local Wroclaw schools to attend my Dragon Lesson in Software Testing. I presented my Polish slides in English while my ISTQB colleague Lucjan Stapp translated my talk into Polish. Students were very motivated and enthusiastically answered questions, even in English.</p><p>The group consisted of two school classes, 7th and 8th grade, brought to PTB office by two lovely teachers. So, the students were 14-15 year-olds, which fits nicely with the ideal reader profile of the book, as has been proven many times earlier. I was glad to get a confirmation once again. Children (or rather teenagers) of this age are quite familiar and fluent with different software, of course mostly games on their mobile phones. In the testing exercise, most of them tested their favourite game, but I also saw picture editing apps, mobile phone user interfaces itself, and websites. And they found serious shortcomings, bugs, and slowness in those apps! Great!</p><p>Many exercises combined imagination to connect a testing concept (tester, software, defect) into a fantasy picture. So they got to work their brains and then use their artistic skills. Even though the time in each exercise was limited, and the advice was to make the intellectual connection between the testing concept and the drawings and use less time in perfecting the drawings, some students still had time for amazing drawings. Below I share a few of them. More of their drawings are here in <a href="https://www.dragonsout.com/p/reader-drawings-lukijoiden-piirrokset.html">reader drawings</a>, published with their permission.</p><p>I would challenge teachers and testers in different countries to invite me to visit a local school. The <a href="https://www.dragonsout.com/p/presentation-for-teachers.html">material</a> (free, Creative Commons) exists in 20 languages. When I travel for some other reason, it makes sense to also couple a school visit with such a journey.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXGichHteOIafXVFYyuuuczv6BQEFj-3pTin-ItNQCnNXXtzj3uOBYW7LfL3jNZWvQ9KCe8fFIKqXFx8ZcKOVPUvFqasGYa0VzMCwmBB2KEuGDVH8Wo5uMUJzV1IxyaFg_R59SYvmUZcMdfnOnNMIXwivzQMxS_127nCR9ObhGnEGH1F4ZiBznuLjiYg/s6000/IMG_0676.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="6000" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXGichHteOIafXVFYyuuuczv6BQEFj-3pTin-ItNQCnNXXtzj3uOBYW7LfL3jNZWvQ9KCe8fFIKqXFx8ZcKOVPUvFqasGYa0VzMCwmBB2KEuGDVH8Wo5uMUJzV1IxyaFg_R59SYvmUZcMdfnOnNMIXwivzQMxS_127nCR9ObhGnEGH1F4ZiBznuLjiYg/w400-h266/IMG_0676.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmsZp1CnCOd_DZpFhJtxR9dnXForal4Pfdvx1m6KA6W4tTNWgJawoyC8KOxc-UAcMFDPW0ZhRbS7tg3wm7A7KNpHSfdZmNWJX71RrtthCr5uU4PHpU89EfqZdc7L9YuYoMIfd2HLbSs5q-WDZvFCuuJjOUZQR8-VKCb000Uqpba3YKd-PUhzj8bUCVew/s6000/IMG_0654.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="6000" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmsZp1CnCOd_DZpFhJtxR9dnXForal4Pfdvx1m6KA6W4tTNWgJawoyC8KOxc-UAcMFDPW0ZhRbS7tg3wm7A7KNpHSfdZmNWJX71RrtthCr5uU4PHpU89EfqZdc7L9YuYoMIfd2HLbSs5q-WDZvFCuuJjOUZQR8-VKCb000Uqpba3YKd-PUhzj8bUCVew/w400-h266/IMG_0654.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2GG7fiC4h45_9g80tVEBhoY94Fq20PuO4TczyIPmLCJa9qnjkP9eD8GLl3m5KCcyzF-uJ86n5SQYoePVBNaAgCWqkeDg2VF4jxdz0EGRFmnanQAaXdLeh6yKySDFmQgIbPguMzof6jBZlauPgz6FMyqbL6-AFaJuCnwFCiQ4aknXWidY7VO10llt3XQ/s6000/IMG_0644.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="6000" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2GG7fiC4h45_9g80tVEBhoY94Fq20PuO4TczyIPmLCJa9qnjkP9eD8GLl3m5KCcyzF-uJ86n5SQYoePVBNaAgCWqkeDg2VF4jxdz0EGRFmnanQAaXdLeh6yKySDFmQgIbPguMzof6jBZlauPgz6FMyqbL6-AFaJuCnwFCiQ4aknXWidY7VO10llt3XQ/w400-h266/IMG_0644.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVJM2h8E0PCDI273U8qUZIoit4N6lkIEW5AI-AcQoATLXO_PMLVBqcfnxxdfU37MKWUPlDuwFC316bmVeIESRm755zwtOOP7Do2GoMLMJREvFhwgkK6Bsxio9uTxEXsxYBzQvA28XIE21xzlXTtMxIRIAqkXtGhAPiT6jmAU6bj-EOseQd8IvImwv7Wg/s6000/IMG_0673.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="6000" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVJM2h8E0PCDI273U8qUZIoit4N6lkIEW5AI-AcQoATLXO_PMLVBqcfnxxdfU37MKWUPlDuwFC316bmVeIESRm755zwtOOP7Do2GoMLMJREvFhwgkK6Bsxio9uTxEXsxYBzQvA28XIE21xzlXTtMxIRIAqkXtGhAPiT6jmAU6bj-EOseQd8IvImwv7Wg/w400-h266/IMG_0673.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgur4lj2BQp7cgjCQQbbX8-fORH25jB6kRQJLm-SWCDi8YMSBpvjSWlzng-YGfjvP7v4oflokIanyhxYU3Blf6y42J2N1XXa8RWBYWQX0yZk31RCUJ2nuZelcGc_ZbGopvYkBicLeO798TvnisG7u2n2faWGKFIYC5VdxOIqthltJRtUu-NvLXfZV_1Mw/s6000/IMG_0689.JPG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4000" data-original-width="6000" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgur4lj2BQp7cgjCQQbbX8-fORH25jB6kRQJLm-SWCDi8YMSBpvjSWlzng-YGfjvP7v4oflokIanyhxYU3Blf6y42J2N1XXa8RWBYWQX0yZk31RCUJ2nuZelcGc_ZbGopvYkBicLeO798TvnisG7u2n2faWGKFIYC5VdxOIqthltJRtUu-NvLXfZV_1Mw/w400-h266/IMG_0689.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div>Kari Kakkonenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13792692413878679098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3324151763672093522.post-1228769710090124412023-03-14T09:01:00.000+02:002023-03-14T09:01:45.394+02:00Dragons Out eBook in French campaign price<p>First of all, dear readers, I'm happy to announce that the Dragons Out book in French (Ouste, les dragons ! Un livre sur les dragons, les chevaliers et les tests de logiciels) is now available as an e-book! And there's a campaign price of 4,99€ until April 17, 2023. Now, dear French-speaking fans of Dragons Out, there's no other alternative than to get the book! You can buy the e-book or printed book <a href="https://www.bod.fr/librairie/ouste-les-dragons-kari-kakkonen-9782322084951">here </a>at the publisher's website or just google for your favourite book store.</p><p>There's some planned exposure to the book planned for 2023. It will be presented in a surprising way at the main French software testing conference <a href="https://www.cftl.fr/category/jftl/">JFTL 13-14.6.2023</a>. Go there and embrace the surprise! There are other French-speaking events in numerous countries, of course. Let me know if you'd like to see me or the book feature at your event - let's see what we can make happen. </p><p>I'm also thinking of recording the Dragon Lesson in Software Testing in French, too, to support French schools. The <a href="https://www.dragonsout.com/p/presentation-for-teachers.html">slides </a>are already in French, of course, translated by Olivier Denoo. Merci beaucoup, mon ami!</p><p>Dragons Out book is rising on the list of 100 best software testing books of all time - currently, place 3. Wow, now that is an achievement, I think : ) See here <a href="https://bookauthority.org/books/best-software-testing-books">https://bookauthority.org/books/best-software-testing-books</a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpugJIFPqVkUJJdS_nkC1X5k7j70IVhcu-MG4nSnw8kTvacGG4MRzqGY7uBWBbRI_uLT7FMPiI8IU4tS0ewredgMc2uGDdXleapok9yrXR1MS7dpgBsyKPuVFiiS6pwvVcTfzxDmJ3jVJn_K4j0SPVP-5WS7TzgiS6qX57wg9V1jnZiD4lyuCnKHfIoQ/s1301/French-front-back-cover.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="820" data-original-width="1301" height="404" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpugJIFPqVkUJJdS_nkC1X5k7j70IVhcu-MG4nSnw8kTvacGG4MRzqGY7uBWBbRI_uLT7FMPiI8IU4tS0ewredgMc2uGDdXleapok9yrXR1MS7dpgBsyKPuVFiiS6pwvVcTfzxDmJ3jVJn_K4j0SPVP-5WS7TzgiS6qX57wg9V1jnZiD4lyuCnKHfIoQ/w640-h404/French-front-back-cover.PNG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Kari Kakkonenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13792692413878679098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3324151763672093522.post-84293062966421436602023-02-17T08:58:00.004+02:002023-02-17T08:58:28.712+02:00Dragons Out in French <p>We've been working on the French edition of the Dragons Out book. My good friend and colleague Olivier Denoo translated the book into French some time ago. Now the time was right to publish it through BoD. My amazing illustrator Adrienn Széll adapted the Finnish layout to French. As always with layouts, there are several rounds of checks and fixes to get the flow of text and pictures right. Actually, the process resembles software testing a lot!</p><p>We are happy to announce that <b>Dragons Out book can be ordered in French</b> from the French publisher <a href="https://www.bod.fr/librairie/ouste-les-dragons-kari-kakkonen-9782322084951">www.bod.fr</a>. It is priced similarly to other language editions of Dragons Out books to a low price level to be affordable to schools, parents and testers alike. It is a softback version of the book, with colour pics by Adrienn Széll in the chapters and black and white pictures in the exercises.</p><p>In a few weeks, there will also be an e-book, which will be fully translated to be scalable to different e-book readers. The e-book has a limited-time offer of less than 5 euros for the first 8 weeks since publication. Make sure to get it! I'm happy to be able to offer this great reading and learning experience to French readers in multiple formats.</p><p>The book is excellent educational material for French-speaking schools anywhere in the world. It makes a perfect companion for parents to explain to their French-speaking children what IT and software testing are. I hope to get a chance to make a school visit to a French school in the near future. Let's see how that works out!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0q1TZGZI-JrM4QjCY3y1bZo5vWlGc0RNrQP4x_cXqCgq0Pc3_HDdBtHAzRCoYxzv_jb4toFbYQowu_DXZ7OH6sAJ1TFOK8Cncwuno0hEVTJQ5LDI7jOf1G86UlUaAsQ5PlrS9TAF2v2mSB-SdJ8eGO3dWmNOEHHoAOVnZ3CLVQShVqIuk0lJN5yupmg/s757/French-cover.PNG" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="757" data-original-width="611" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0q1TZGZI-JrM4QjCY3y1bZo5vWlGc0RNrQP4x_cXqCgq0Pc3_HDdBtHAzRCoYxzv_jb4toFbYQowu_DXZ7OH6sAJ1TFOK8Cncwuno0hEVTJQ5LDI7jOf1G86UlUaAsQ5PlrS9TAF2v2mSB-SdJ8eGO3dWmNOEHHoAOVnZ3CLVQShVqIuk0lJN5yupmg/w516-h640/French-cover.PNG" width="516" /></a></div><p></p><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Kari Kakkonenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13792692413878679098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3324151763672093522.post-82609729533562996572023-02-16T10:12:00.001+02:002023-02-16T10:12:30.103+02:00Amazing feedback and school visits<p> I recently got some <b>amazing feedback </b>from a 9-year-old reader through his dad. The Dragons Out book was an exciting Christmas present that the boy started reading on his own. He did the exercises at the end of the chapters and was really thrilled about them ("I did all of those great exercises!"). Upon asking why the book was so thrilling, he answered, "It was a great book because it had true things and fantasy side by side, and the exercises were fun!". It feels so good to hear such feedback - keep it coming! The unique approach of fantasy coupled with testing works.</p><p>Remember my school visits, earlier? It is <b>again time to have school visits in Finland</b>, too. It is especially nice now that face-to-face meetings are possible, and I don't need to access the school class virtually over a Teams meeting. That works too, yes, with a teacher facilitating in the class, but it is so much nicer and more concrete to meet and teach children face-to-face.</p><p>I asked for some opinions from past school visits. Teacher Anne Kurunmäki from Töölö school says that having a software testing expert explain what software testing is was a welcome change to everyday teaching, and also it made it much easier to take on the topic as the teacher didn't need to prepare and learn the topic that much. She estimates that an hour and a half that we used is the maximum duration for this session for children in elementary school to be able to focus entirely. The children liked the exercises a lot. With the drawing exercises, it was necessary to remind children that this was a software testing class and not a drawing class, so a limited time for each drawing exercise was enough. There was no need to create perfect drawings, just convey the idea of a software testing concept as a drawing, although we saw many really excellent pictures! This session was with 7th-grade students.</p><p>Another teacher, Hanna-Maria Partanen, praises the Dragons Out books in Finnish and English, and the adjacent Dragon Lesson in Software Testing. She has used them personally with schools and has passed the information about the books and lessons to many students in her Lahti area where she is now acting as regional coordinator for school cooperation. I have cooperated with her on many occasions during her new role.</p><p>I am also excited to be at the moment in talks about having a school visit to a Polish school adjacent to my visit to an ISTQB General Assembly in Poland. Having a Polish testing expert and I together deliver a testing lesson will be a thrill. I'll tell you later what actually happened.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfqZkKbunI0i0isfF3zMNLP8F1TdxHfDryOWKcKNE5S-3cBZhknVb4Piz-vNrUcuv8RU2NQitnzvVUOKbjkCHa4j6OUoKeS4BiZS78-jj1UAkgsncib7QpTzlkN4jdNnKs3bz9HnPWVWV639rp_qirtWm3srJPcE1TMUgRmpsTOalDcwfyN-yWC954Bg/s2982/Nooa-bad-dragon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2039" data-original-width="2982" height="219" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfqZkKbunI0i0isfF3zMNLP8F1TdxHfDryOWKcKNE5S-3cBZhknVb4Piz-vNrUcuv8RU2NQitnzvVUOKbjkCHa4j6OUoKeS4BiZS78-jj1UAkgsncib7QpTzlkN4jdNnKs3bz9HnPWVWV639rp_qirtWm3srJPcE1TMUgRmpsTOalDcwfyN-yWC954Bg/s320/Nooa-bad-dragon.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Kari Kakkonenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13792692413878679098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3324151763672093522.post-56571914644178254232022-11-21T09:15:00.000+02:002022-11-21T09:15:07.126+02:00Dragons Out as audiobook and more conferences<p>Did you notice that Dragons Out! has now reached new frontiers? Not the final frontier, where no one has gone before, but an important one, where many others have gone before. : ) Audiobook! Yes, Austin Macauley has now published Dragons Out! as an audiobook. It is available at many audio services, including the most extensive audiobook service in the world, Audible - you can get the book from <a href="https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Dragons-Out-Audiobook/B0BGQK5YTM ">here</a>.</p><p>I was very happy listening to some narrator examples months ago. The audiobook project was progressing! The narrator candidates all read a 2-minute section of some toddler book, so I had to imagine what they would sound like when they read something more adventurous. The fantasy story in Dragons Out is really an adventure story - the children look for dragons and get into difficult situations where sometimes it is them and not the adults who get them out of trouble! Anyway, I thought the tone of one of the narrators would fit my book perfectly. So I chose him! Many months later I was happy to listen to Marco Villa reading Dragons Out audiobook chapters. Listening through the chapters, there were - of course - a few things to correct (forever the tester!), but it sounded great! And then, through all the audiobook production stages.</p><p>So, now the audiobook in English is there. Get it! Enjoy it! Which language next, I wonder?</p><p>The autumn also featured a trip to Morocco, where I spoke at two events. The first was the Journée Marocaine Des Test Logiciels (JMTL) or Moroccan Software Testing Day in Casablanca. No, I didn't have time to visit the famous gin joint Rick's cafe. : ) I spoke about the Dragons Out project and was happy to get good feedback and sell and sign some books afterwards. English books work quite nicely in Morocco although French books will work much better. Or Arabic of course - this request I heard several times. My publisher needs to take action towards the Arabic edition of Dragons Out!</p><p>The other event was the A4Q Test Summit in Marrakech, adjacent to ISTQB General Assembly. There I spoke about How to Become a Multitalented Tester, which was a talk of many things but also of testers becoming authors. When you write, you'll have to find clarity in your thoughts about testing, which will help in all the other testing-related tasks. The same goes for any topic of course. Authoring is an act of crystallizing your opinions into letters. You'll think it through once, and then you can rely on your views at all later stages of your life. It was good to take a skill and career view into tester life after winning all those testing awards last year. Thank you again!</p><p>Now, Christmas time is upon us again. How about getting some software testing knowledge for your kids or yourself, coupled with fun fantasy adventures? Dragons Out! makes an excellent Christmas present, in Finnish, English, or Polish - in hardcover, softcover or e-book. Or why not get more books on one go, sign up for Audible audiobook service for a year and start by listening through the Dragons Out! audiobook? Anyway, happy festivities!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-T9UxbbgXY2qkzThSK4P0N3jxk17kbnFtZX68IdcK2m0WGinPkvjbYnRqRw6elaPtT6daOS2H_XsoYAlxkQjrri4Wuv2Pi2aqozxZF0xa4QDO7vYfUm--PXsJSstp4G5Clwz9RBjt2red4j2e3mVT2bu1OciDkvg7QODfZ0qYACtJ9nDIAW20hmPPcA/s5184/IMG_6453.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3456" data-original-width="5184" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-T9UxbbgXY2qkzThSK4P0N3jxk17kbnFtZX68IdcK2m0WGinPkvjbYnRqRw6elaPtT6daOS2H_XsoYAlxkQjrri4Wuv2Pi2aqozxZF0xa4QDO7vYfUm--PXsJSstp4G5Clwz9RBjt2red4j2e3mVT2bu1OciDkvg7QODfZ0qYACtJ9nDIAW20hmPPcA/w400-h266/IMG_6453.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Kari Kakkonenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13792692413878679098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3324151763672093522.post-57247044819806608932022-09-16T11:57:00.002+03:002022-09-16T14:42:51.974+03:00Dragons Out Second Edition in Finnish available as Softcover and eBook<p>In this post, I discuss some recent and near-future events and places where Dragons Out is featured, and also I present the 2nd edition of the Finnish book!</p><p>I'm extremely happy to have cooperated with my illustrator Adrienn Széll again - this time we made a few tweaks to the Finnish Dragons Out book and published the second edition at the same time as a softback and ebook. The publisher for these books is BoD. The second edition includes the same attractive cover as the English version. There are some layout changes and a few typo-fixes, too. Publishing books is like testing; no matter how many reviews or tests you do, there's always some bug slipping through : ). Nothing major, though.</p><p>The second edition, as a paperback, is affordable for schools to be used as a textbook to accompany math or coding books. Please see the introduction on how the free presentation and the book can work as course material <a href="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1EbmmMKHbEPgfXUxuK4-9teP4fDSXTJgd/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=103439115969335021711&rtpof=true&sd=true">here</a>, recording <a href="https://youtu.be/fFxyXZue5H4">in Finnish</a> and <a href="https://youtu.be/QEMk-8EmExQ">in English</a>.</p><p>The eBook has a discounted 4,99€ price for the first month or so - get yours before the price goes up!</p><p></p><p>Obviously, the book makes great reading for any parents and children, too, like the first edition. And for all the adults who read it for their own joy! I remember with warmth all those readers joining my testing courses who said they read my book as a good introduction to the topic.</p><p></p><p>And the eBook - that is something. You can now read the book also as an eBook, using your favourite ways to buy, rent, stream, or borrow ebooks. This is the future - easy access to books anywhere.</p><p>The books are rolled out to all bookstores and libraries. You can even get both the Finnish paperback and eBook on Amazon. I'm thrilled! My Amazon Author page starts getting quite crowded : ) - <a href="https://amazon.com/author/karikakkonen">check and see</a>. But closer to Finnish readers is of course the BoD webshop. To buy the Finnish paperback, go <a href="https://www.bod.fi/kirjakauppa/dragons-out-kari-kakkonen-9789528001997">here</a>. And to buy the Finnish eBook, go <a href="https://www.bod.fi/kirjakauppa/dragons-out-kari-kakkonen-9789528079767">here</a>. I keep the purchase channels for all the editions and translations of my Dragons Out books available on my website <a href="https://www.dragonsout.com/p/order-dragons-out-book.html">here</a>.</p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAKgXsGv8HCT_IVTtzE9Tw6s1oc8-vhaNea1gDY_BnN6RH-DTZI5i1J6WXInEkk80nuUm_IG7fJ6dBzWov4YR6Ez0PNHqCxkD-pxWmICnFYu4I4p1eqmydIbjG7DBQ1-VoXoa_Qx4CMSf2KaiGsxg2pI8GuJ6lpJT30evS8vjEOuLGpLCuRKcDhE1ijw/s2783/finnish%20softcover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2783" data-original-width="2088" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAKgXsGv8HCT_IVTtzE9Tw6s1oc8-vhaNea1gDY_BnN6RH-DTZI5i1J6WXInEkk80nuUm_IG7fJ6dBzWov4YR6Ez0PNHqCxkD-pxWmICnFYu4I4p1eqmydIbjG7DBQ1-VoXoa_Qx4CMSf2KaiGsxg2pI8GuJ6lpJT30evS8vjEOuLGpLCuRKcDhE1ijw/w240-h320/finnish%20softcover.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><p>I'll be at a teacher trade fair ITK-messut Oct 5-7, 2022, presenting these books and ideas. See you there? Or at a testing conference Testing Assembly Sep 22, 2022. See you there?</p><p></p><p>Another thing - my talks to schools in Finland are now available at <a href="https://kirjailijavierailut.lukukeskus.fi/kirjailijat/kakkonen-kari/">Lukukeskus</a>. This is not only a great way to book me to talk about software testing and fantasy. It is also promoting children's literacy, creating reading interest among children with interesting topics, stories and characters. I'm proud to be supporting Lukukeskus in their task of literacy education.</p><p>On the international front, I had the joy of visiting the video chat of two of my idols - Janet Gregory and Lisa Crispin. They have made an enormous impact on the world with their Agile Testing books. Check out my visit to the video chat <a href="http://bit.ly/3AmIehG">Donkeys and Dragons</a>. It was so much fun to talk with them.</p><p>Finally, I'll share with you that it was superb to talk about How children learn testing at a testing conference Testit 2022 in Malmö. It was also very rewarding to arrange a book signing event with Knowit. I'd like to compliment my colleague Håkan Ramberg for agreeing on the photo of handing out his copy of the Dragons Out book!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjoZDJ9eRD-r7yBzJup1drCKW0etayQqOUis5IfLQqHOGoXfcEfSiJ0w8fFDGOBJY5GRY6vilDPysqkbuOQ911BnJboTdS0otVxoc6FIu3lWjPWE7S0DBgUPkdxdO3Pbde9BwM9Q3cjgMv9EnLdUaCrQhiSFnKiVITNV3s3hrDW8FbCsFjCgctrQKOzA/s1901/book-signing.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1847" data-original-width="1901" height="311" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjoZDJ9eRD-r7yBzJup1drCKW0etayQqOUis5IfLQqHOGoXfcEfSiJ0w8fFDGOBJY5GRY6vilDPysqkbuOQ911BnJboTdS0otVxoc6FIu3lWjPWE7S0DBgUPkdxdO3Pbde9BwM9Q3cjgMv9EnLdUaCrQhiSFnKiVITNV3s3hrDW8FbCsFjCgctrQKOzA/s320/book-signing.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><br /><p><br /></p>Kari Kakkonenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13792692413878679098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3324151763672093522.post-44103131699699740462022-09-02T12:28:00.000+03:002022-09-02T12:28:44.734+03:00On the best testing books ever list! and more!<p>This summer, probably the greatest success in the Dragons Out! software testing book for children and adults matters is the fact that the Book Authority listed the Dragons Out! book as one of the Best Software Testing Books of All Time. And <a href="https://bookauthority.org/books/best-software-testing-books">place 8</a>, currently. Wow, I'm humbled and honoured. This is very good news. I hope you can share the news with testers and teachers worldwide!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCubowFiegnn3mJLzD0UPIuhv2RczYcR5v3J8OZkLrbAlxWNm6OM5Gy1PJd2iEmurNe_B_9qwsbIoSHRtM6cWSHKgwaoFf4AuywPOSk4b3yRZZRzWRWbx30Io_z7pP9sU2j9kN34JvKkItiyOz2M7F9giBhOzUPG-23osIFwL4F9lHhvVjZfSLJSj1Jw/s200/best-software-testing-books.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="200" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCubowFiegnn3mJLzD0UPIuhv2RczYcR5v3J8OZkLrbAlxWNm6OM5Gy1PJd2iEmurNe_B_9qwsbIoSHRtM6cWSHKgwaoFf4AuywPOSk4b3yRZZRzWRWbx30Io_z7pP9sU2j9kN34JvKkItiyOz2M7F9giBhOzUPG-23osIFwL4F9lHhvVjZfSLJSj1Jw/s1600/best-software-testing-books.png" width="200" /></a></div><br /><p>I can also tell you that during the summer, the Dragons Out! audiobook production in English has taken enormous steps. I prooflistened through all recordings, asked for some changes, and listened through the corrections. It sounds good and works out very well as an audiobook. Now the next production steps on the way to publishing the audiobook are taking place. I'll update more once I hear more.</p><p>And then we have the Polish edition of the Dragons Out! book. It was translated by SJSI (The Polish Testing Board) with Lucjan Stapp in the lead. The publisher is PWN, which has a wide offering of books for schools and children. The Dragons Out! has a good home in Poland. You can buy the Polish book from the PWN webshop <a href="https://ksiegarnia.pwn.pl/Smoki-fora-ze-dwora,961185040,p.html#aboutAuthor">here</a>. This is the first published translation after the Finnish and English editions - a great step! The French, German, Hungarian and Chinese translations are in various stages, too. Stay tuned for great news about publishing those editions.</p><p>We celebrated with my illustrator Adrienn Széll the Polish edition as an important step in helping children around the world to get access to software testing. Adri's dragon illustration and my stories make a great, approachable concept for teachers, parents, and children to utilize in their learning. Success consists of small steps leading in a good direction!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvyoRByPTjYk0DLQTf1YARcraWMicxvgFibzI3CtO5tmeqyduIXcQwPrT3Ig-2uEKyVuR8hkNm-N8wqxLDMWyVAA0b11nX7j5FBphtFQpXxjzbTjAgARTrl4hgFwRVmlBpsxFA2j78wqbdPdZTp-_jSTNnUU6--LbtbBrpy32N3bo_EysHWIUwViljkA/s4032/kari-adri-polish-book.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2268" data-original-width="4032" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvyoRByPTjYk0DLQTf1YARcraWMicxvgFibzI3CtO5tmeqyduIXcQwPrT3Ig-2uEKyVuR8hkNm-N8wqxLDMWyVAA0b11nX7j5FBphtFQpXxjzbTjAgARTrl4hgFwRVmlBpsxFA2j78wqbdPdZTp-_jSTNnUU6--LbtbBrpy32N3bo_EysHWIUwViljkA/w400-h225/kari-adri-polish-book.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>Other, even more approachable ways to give children access to software testing worldwide are, of course, the translations of the free Creative Commons licensed training materials called Dragon Lesson in Software Testing. They are all collected on this page <a href="https://www.dragonsout.com/p/presentation-for-teachers.html">https://www.dragonsout.com/p/presentation-for-teachers.html </a> At this time, there are 19 language versions of the materials, the latest addition being Japanese! Thank you, Kenji-san, for the translation!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo6n50HqWHCWfsjH8b6Cgog1kkbJvt6KnLT_E6HgxUlCw8zkDl7eMLe-kvaNhK5LdWl9Rgo373td-g9NZRwrzwUJ3yQt0b-jZryI9ZAxp9gS1o0z2rV_8c5IYhgnV5oO65Hop63ApYF8nJV9NsLIRFZyxsDqX_mpBpz0uitxG-UXbEe96xmg1wO6OL7g/s1000/Japanese-CC-DragonLesson.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="563" data-original-width="1000" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgo6n50HqWHCWfsjH8b6Cgog1kkbJvt6KnLT_E6HgxUlCw8zkDl7eMLe-kvaNhK5LdWl9Rgo373td-g9NZRwrzwUJ3yQt0b-jZryI9ZAxp9gS1o0z2rV_8c5IYhgnV5oO65Hop63ApYF8nJV9NsLIRFZyxsDqX_mpBpz0uitxG-UXbEe96xmg1wO6OL7g/w400-h225/Japanese-CC-DragonLesson.PNG" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Kari Kakkonenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13792692413878679098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3324151763672093522.post-83836405984103749092022-06-19T15:43:00.000+03:002022-06-19T15:43:06.358+03:00Happy conference visits and good conversations<p>The last few months have been a barrage of conference visits, some online, some physically. I was extremely happy to discuss with the audience during and after the talks. In some, I was a speaker, in some an exhibitor and in one a volunteer! Anyway, Dragons Out fantasy theme to teach children some software testing works. People like it and recommend it to others. I'll have to buy some more books for my conference talk book sales. You can always check where to buy the books <a href="https://www.dragonsout.com/p/order-dragons-out-book.html">here</a>, or just google Dragons Out.</p><p>The success of the conferences is great but I'm actually even happier that the free Creative Commons presentation Dragon Lesson in Software Testing attracts many volunteers to translate it into local languages for the joy and use of local teachers. To date, the presentation <a href="https://www.dragonsout.com/p/presentation-for-teachers.html">https://www.dragonsout.com/p/presentation-for-teachers.html</a> has been published in 18 languages. It exists in Finnish and English written by me, and there are Chinese, Czech, Dutch, French, Georgian, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, Spanish LATAM, Turkish and Vietnamese translations. There are more languages in the works by more volunteers. This is the power of the testing community! Together, we can help all the teachers in the world in their vital task of creating citizens with IT skills with the ability for critical thinking, creativity, diverse thinking, and yes, coding and testing skills.</p><p>I regularly get questions about the translation of the book Dragons Out! to different languages. Some people would like to help in translating, some just read the local version of the book, or get it for their kids in a local language. I've been happy to tell about the ongoing work on French, German, Hungarian, and Polish versions and more in the pipeline. With some languages, I need to have further discussions with my English publisher Austin Macauley Publishers. But it is just a matter of time before we'll have many local versions available.</p><p>About the conferences, I participated as an exhibitor in a teacher trade fair and conference called Päijät-Hämeen seudun mentoripäivät, which brought lots of teachers together. It was great to hear of the ongoing enthusiasm in the teacher world. I talked at German Testing Day online and had a wonderful, energizing experience of half an hour of Q&A with more and more fantastic questions. In Finland, I talked at Teknologia 22 fair, at Tivia Stage. It was great to see the audience! In Dublin, adjacent to ISTQB General Assembly, there was Dublin Global Test Summit where speakers were invited to give their presentations in a nice recording studio. The delivery of my Insights from Children talk was so much fun. Next talk was in Live2Test online conference – another excellent online experience. I do like talking online. It gives a feeling of talking to many more people than otherwise possible. But, of course, physical conferences are a different ballpark. So much energy, so great to see faces, so fantastic to interact with the audience. My next talk was at a physical conference, Nordic Testing Days in Tallinn. That event is always a super event in terms of interaction and now after so many corona-restricted months (or years to some participants), the amount of energy milling about was amazing. I enjoyed thoroughly speaking to the 400-person conference crowd. I’ve run also some company-specific courses and talks, also good learning and interaction happening in them.</p><p>Finally, I took part in the EuroSTAR as a volunteer to run the famous Test Lab experience with Razvan and Jackie. It was great to be in EuroSTAR after winning the EuroSTAR Testing Excellence Award last year. This felt a lot like contributing back to the event that has honoured me with this most prestigious award in Europe. We ran different software for conference participants to test in numerous ways, we organized challenges and games to make people get new insights into testing. I was able to run the drawing exercises and dragon games from my book Dragons Out. Even though I had seen many children in classes and many conference participants do these exercises over past two years, this time the conference-goers had so good time with the exercises that it also made me feel so much joy and, proudness, I suppose. Thank you EuroSTAR participants, you are the best!</p><p>I'd like to share recordings of my present talk. You can enjoy the talk in English <a href="https://www.facebook.com/A4Q.Alliance4Qualification/videos/689275152305859">here</a> (recorded at Dublin Global Test Summit) and in Finnish <a href="https://vimeo.com/715455504/ac97e6cfea">here</a> (recorded at Teknologia 22 fair). You can see all my talks, slides, recordings, and news <a href="https://www.dragonsout.com/p/news-coverage-of-dragons-out.html">here</a>.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCF2B1bd8kB6s2AEyowjkrKe4dB1FWSQm-en57lgp8KGPRe_51hQWVVYAzjCJfM3QADCb2CltpppMY4FucxwbEPDS3WIwRZZwvzXgmEFsggA7mMDsxi_gzBUOQBm_rvSuqOBILgwuDclOCf-Zu_DvgiKTxI5Dnw2DWwZYiILo9LhjmqBoyh4Lw9U4Y5Q/s920/Teknologia22-talk.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="475" data-original-width="920" height="330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCF2B1bd8kB6s2AEyowjkrKe4dB1FWSQm-en57lgp8KGPRe_51hQWVVYAzjCJfM3QADCb2CltpppMY4FucxwbEPDS3WIwRZZwvzXgmEFsggA7mMDsxi_gzBUOQBm_rvSuqOBILgwuDclOCf-Zu_DvgiKTxI5Dnw2DWwZYiILo9LhjmqBoyh4Lw9U4Y5Q/w640-h330/Teknologia22-talk.PNG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div>Kari Kakkonenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13792692413878679098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3324151763672093522.post-16244640164524316702022-04-11T09:54:00.001+03:002022-04-11T14:55:18.008+03:00Tester of the Year Kari Kakkonen and softcover campaign<p>I'm most pleased about finally <b>winning </b>Finland's <b>Tester of the Year Award</b>. Thank you to all who voted! This award especially looks back to the previous year, so it took a specific look into what happened in 2021. It also observes the careers of the candidates. And I did a lot: the Dragons Out book was rolled out in Finnish (Dragons Out! - lohikäärmeistä, ritareista ja ohjelmistotestauksesta), published and rolled out in English (Dragons Out! - a book about dragons, knights and software testing), and the donation campaign to schools was brought to a conclusion and handed to the Minister of Education in Finland. Obviously, my long career in software testing paid its part. But I do think that finally, the Dragons Out book project gave enough reasons for people to vote for me! Thanks again.</p><p>Dragons Out initiative to teach software testing to children with such a unique approach has definitely been proven sound. EuroSTAR Testing Excellence Award last year and now the Tester of the Year Award. It is a great book! What next? </p><p>For those who don't yet have the Finnish edition of Dragons Out book, I'm happy to inform you that you can now get a <b>softcover version of the Finnish edition of Dragons Out book for 17€</b>, including VAT and shipping to Finland, by using code SMAUG in the preorder pages of my publisher Avain, <a href="https://avain.net/tuoteryhma/tulossa/1875496?product=9789523044067">here</a>. The softcover will be published on Aug 1st, 2022. So, get your copy or why not get a copy to everyone in your company or in your school : ). The book also works as a coursebook in schools for classes 5-9 - see my webinar about how it can best be used, in Finnish <a href="https://youtu.be/fFxyXZue5H4">here</a>.</p><p>Also, it is worthwhile to take a look at the increasing number of translations of the Creative Commons licensed free Dragon Lesson in Software Testing PowerPoint. It's now available in Chinese, Czech, Dutch, Finnish, English, French, Georgian, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Spanish LATAM, Turkish, and Vietnamese. More translations are in progress.</p><p>The book itself is currently being translated in various stages into Chinese, French, German, Hungarian, and Polish. I'm really looking forward to those!</p><p>Winning Tester of the Year Award brings lots of good news. Check out some of them here:</p><ul style="background-color: white; color: #757575; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><li><a href="https://www.tieturi.fi/blogi/testaus-sydamen-asiana-jo-kolmenkymmenen-vuoden-ajan/" style="background: transparent; color: #2196f3; text-decoration-line: none;">Testaus sydämen asiana jo kolmenkymmenen vuoden ajan</a>, Tieturi 6.4.2022</li><li><a href="https://www.tivi.fi/uutiset/vuoden-testaaja-on-valittu-hyvia-ohjelmistoja-ei-synny-ilman-testausta/b345c2a4-23d4-47c3-b993-741707fc8517" style="background: transparent; color: #2196f3; text-decoration-line: none;">Vuoden testaaja on valittu – “hyviä ohjelmistoja ei synny ilman testausta”</a>, Tivi.fi 4.4.2022</li><li><a href="https://tivia.fi/uutiset/uutiset-3/vuoden-testaaja-2021-on-kari-kakkonen-1605" style="background: transparent; color: #2196f3; text-decoration-line: none;">Vuoden testaaja 2021 on Kari Kakkonen</a>, Tivia 4.4.2022</li><li><a href="https://www.tmmi.org/news/" style="background: transparent; color: #2196f3; text-decoration-line: none;">TMMI BOD MEMBER KARI KAKKONEN VOTED TESTER OF THE YEAR</a>, TMMi Foundation, 1.4.2022</li><li><a href="https://www.knowit.fi/uutiset/kari-kakkonen-on-vuoden-testaaja-2021" style="background: transparent; color: #2196f3; text-decoration-line: none;">Kari Kakkonen on Vuoden testaaja 2021</a>, Knowit.fi 30.3.2022</li><li><a href="https://www.sytyke.org/testausosynuutiset/vuoden-testaaja-2021-on-kari-kakkonen/" style="background: transparent; color: #2196f3; text-decoration-line: none;">Vuoden testaaja 2021 on Kari Kakkonen</a>, TestausOSY 30.3.2022</li></ul><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA2BOkH8XTCdY9lG8klM-IfrX4J6wFaH9Kx8DZ2hUOGMeNtycH_NWDDhkJf1YDAVQJP-QKsjmWdSxHog-YJWJtDzbsA9TGThua3lc-3bpwZPW0FBqCXYkpdJXxK1v1bzjO1AeiCm3epMqZdK4mUU50LHY9tE_9K4d6ia_oioFMcNhVcwjM7Msa6LRJoQ/s1080/Kari-vuodentestaaja.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1080" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA2BOkH8XTCdY9lG8klM-IfrX4J6wFaH9Kx8DZ2hUOGMeNtycH_NWDDhkJf1YDAVQJP-QKsjmWdSxHog-YJWJtDzbsA9TGThua3lc-3bpwZPW0FBqCXYkpdJXxK1v1bzjO1AeiCm3epMqZdK4mUU50LHY9tE_9K4d6ia_oioFMcNhVcwjM7Msa6LRJoQ/w640-h360/Kari-vuodentestaaja.png" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Kari Kakkonenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13792692413878679098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3324151763672093522.post-49520086416627889712022-03-07T09:40:00.001+02:002022-03-07T09:41:54.577+02:00School coursebook use, voting Tester of the Year, and other news<p>First of all, it would be great if you could support me in winning the <b>Tester of the Year 2021 award</b> in Finland. I think the rollout of Finnish and English Dragons Out software testing books greatly justifies the win : ). I already won the EuroSTAR Testing Excellence Award last year, but I'd very much like this Finnish award, too. You can help by <b>voting</b> - just click <a href="https://link.webropolsurveys.com/Participation/Public/5c426131-974e-4ca8-898e-017711c844e7?displayId=Fin2495555&fbclid=IwAR1UpvRYBQmVgn82TbbvjGHX6Bwdw7Jzvi6hDeVTHODbqQ2tJmbBIHrYGUo">here</a>, find my name (Kari Kakkonen) and select it, and then scroll down to click "lähetä" (send).</p><p>Then, I'd like to give you an update about how schools use the Dragons Out book and its <a href="https://www.dragonsout.com/p/presentation-for-teachers.html">free support material</a> to teach software testing. It is primarily used in math and coding classes but also in other classes. Listen to the recordings of the webinar on how the book and free resources work in schools in <a href="https://youtu.be/fFxyXZue5H4">Finnish</a> or in <a href="https://youtu.be/QEMk-8EmExQ">English</a>. The webinars detail my advice and the best practices gathered from teachers who've already used the book as teaching material. The time to think about the Dragons Out book as a sourcebook is now, as most schools will soon need to order books for the next school year starting in autumn 2022. </p><p>To cater for the Finnish schools' budgets, there is a new softback version of the Finnish Dragons Out book. You can preorder <a href="https://avain.net/tuoteryhma/tulossa/1875496?product=9789523044067">here </a>at the Avain website for 17€/book including VAT and shipping to Finland, using discount code SMAUG. The book will be published on Aug 1st, 2022, shipping in August. This edition is recommended as a coursebook for software testing for schools in Finland (grades 4-9). Still, anyone can use the discount code and buy the softback version. Use it!</p><p>The English book was also released as a softback version along with the hardback version of it. That would be my recommendation for English speaking schools. Buy it <a href="https://www.austinmacauley.com/book/dragons-out">here</a>.</p><p>Concerning the free Dragon Lesson in Software Testing presentation, I'm thrilled that the volunteers have added to the number of translations available <a href="https://www.dragonsout.com/p/presentation-for-teachers.html">here</a>. Currently, there are Chinese, Czech, Dutch, French, Georgian, German, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Spanish LATAM, Turkish, and Vietnamese translations. In addition, Arabic, Danish, Greek, Norwegian, Serbian, Slovak, and Swedish are in the works and more under discussion.</p><p>There's a new logo for my company Dragons Out Oy. Enjoy it below! Thanks, Adri, for this great illustration, too! Also, check the new feel on my website at <a href="http://www.dragonsout.com">www.dragonsout.com</a> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgYIKoPJSbBNBLBzkKaiCABlC2vOX-lEcfQhOtFLEu_zVJe8GpIhNkpcpHD418nwIQki2yjmCntNLtiWsnH0brmdQkqLIk-kUD87zVYUcAQYagm86K4jIqAteqNlZMD3Swl8XJZhDe5aaa456uZNAZxWLMx57l4OS370KIMV3Qm74mSLrxKsR-37yJyfw=s1666" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1419" data-original-width="1666" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgYIKoPJSbBNBLBzkKaiCABlC2vOX-lEcfQhOtFLEu_zVJe8GpIhNkpcpHD418nwIQki2yjmCntNLtiWsnH0brmdQkqLIk-kUD87zVYUcAQYagm86K4jIqAteqNlZMD3Swl8XJZhDe5aaa456uZNAZxWLMx57l4OS370KIMV3Qm74mSLrxKsR-37yJyfw=w200-h171" width="200" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Kari Kakkonenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13792692413878679098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3324151763672093522.post-46021636055820455362022-01-05T13:32:00.001+02:002022-01-05T14:16:19.441+02:00Publishing in English done, new ventures starting<p>The year 2021 is over, and 2022 is starting! For Dragons Out Oy, 2021 was the "English publishing year". Dragons Out! book English Edition was launched on July 30th, 2021 and delivered to those who preordered the book over the next few months. Next in line, there are translation projects, other interesting Dragons Out initiatives, and of course, lots of marketing and school cooperation.</p><p>So, after many reviews, the English edition of Dragons Out! - the book about dragons, knights and software testing, was published on July 30th, 2021. It was a soft launch due to the holiday season. The deliveries rolled out to all those who preordered in the next few months. Covid-19 pandemic played its role making the delivery times extremely unpredictable. It didn't help that the EU treatment of UK deliveries due to Brexit changed on July 1st. Some shipments would go through in a few days, and some would take a few months. To my understanding everyone, who preordered the book through me during the past two years, now has their book(s). Let me know if you still haven't received your book, and let's fix the situation!</p><p>Dragons Out e-books are available through big e-commerce websites, like Amazon. Dragons Out audiobook is in production at my publisher Austin Macauley - it was also part of the publishing deal. I've already chosen the narrator voice out of many samples.</p><p>I was able to present physically in six events during autumn 2021. Pandemic was easing up that time, and respecting corona safety requirements, and with the full set of vaccinations, I was happy to meet people face-to-face, get some non-verbal feedback, see the smiles of the faces of enthusiastic readers (or just eyes with the masks...), and sign books with a special dedication. Now that the pandemic is back in full scale with the omicron variant let's see when the next face-to-face event will be. Anyway, several online conferences are scheduled, again! </p><p>Concerning school cooperation, I will again give guest lessons at a small number of schools this spring. It was great to discuss with many teachers in the teacher trade fair ITK in December and get new connections and ideas! There's also plenty of interest for a softback version of the Finnish book. Let's see about that!</p><p>I've mentioned several times that the next big thing in Dragons Out is the translation projects of the actual book to more languages. I have several countries where I can translate to local languages if I find the translating party from my local contacts. For many languages, the translation rights are with my English publisher, but I have the rights for chosen countries. At the moment, the Polish publishing deal is signed between me and a Polish publisher PWN. The translation deal to Polish is signed with SJSI (the Polish Testing Board). Great! In French, we are moving in different steps: the translation deal is signed with Olivier Denoo (from CFTL, the French Testing Board), and the manuscript is already translated! We have submitted the translated manuscript to many French publishers, waiting for good offers!</p><p>Concerning translations, the free Creative Commons licensed PowerPoint presentation "Dragon Lesson in Software Testing" relies on volunteers translating the presentation. It is great to see the local communities stepping up and making this free resource available to their language group. At the moment, the presentation is published in Finnish, English, French, Dutch, Polish, Russian, Georgian, and Italian. Also in various stages of translation and review are the following languages: German, Spanish, Norwegian, Swedish, Hungarian, Chinese, Turkish, Serbian, Slovak, Greek, and Arabic. Let's hope to get these translations online soon! <a href="https://www.dragonsout.com/p/presentation-for-teachers.html">https://www.dragonsout.com/p/presentation-for-teachers.html</a></p><p>During the year, I was happy to get lots of publicity. The most significant mention, of course, was me being awarded the EuroSTAR Testing Excellence Award, the most prestigious testing achievement in Europe! Also, I was thrilled that Dragons Out! book made it to the top of the Best New Software Testing Books listing by Book Authority. And of course, it was great to hand the Diploma of Donations to the Finnish Minister of Education, Li Anderson, along with a copy of the Finnish and the English Dragons Out! book. As my employer Knowit had issued the challenge to the ICT sector to donate software testing books to schools, Knowit released the official press release celebrating the donation campaign. Over 20 companies and associations donated to over 60 schools in Finland, and there was also lots of international donation action happening! See more about Dragons Out! in the news here <a href="https://www.dragonsout.com/p/news-coverage-of-dragons-out.html">https://www.dragonsout.com/p/news-coverage-of-dragons-out.html</a> </p><p>Now, there's some talk about TV, films, games. Let's see which direction we'll go next. The journey continues!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj7eZ95C4fEdQLZpdvXHXWau726FvQVvHpI70bxVXtTFWIAOPSw4b7x3bp_Z8eKiESY91RkbPjYOciMnBQhHiR3crxGEA6btxySiZ4ljEU4VjRBPHPlvWQbm4syTxKUss2Y_VgqhNTBa7XiqhKQIZvyUe2ZljiJm7sR7yo_gWG07P3Z_3ozTPz96xlyCw=s5262" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="5262" data-original-width="3720" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj7eZ95C4fEdQLZpdvXHXWau726FvQVvHpI70bxVXtTFWIAOPSw4b7x3bp_Z8eKiESY91RkbPjYOciMnBQhHiR3crxGEA6btxySiZ4ljEU4VjRBPHPlvWQbm4syTxKUss2Y_VgqhNTBa7XiqhKQIZvyUe2ZljiJm7sR7yo_gWG07P3Z_3ozTPz96xlyCw=w452-h640" width="452" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Kari Kakkonenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13792692413878679098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3324151763672093522.post-62653248285180175302021-12-09T12:42:00.004+02:002021-12-09T12:42:53.297+02:00Alumnus of Aalto University thanks his Alma Mater<p>I got interviewed by my Alma Mater, the Aalto University, to their alumni stories article series. It was a good time for the interview now after winning the Award. The university, and student time in general, gave so much for me, some essential keys to building a life.</p><p>Aalto University published the interview in both Finnish and English.</p><ul><li><a href="https://www.aalto.fi/fi/uutiset/dragons-out-kari-kakkonen-johdattaa-lapset-ohjelmistotestauksen-maailmaan-fantasian">Dragons out! Kari Kakkonen johdattaa lapset ohjelmistotestauksen maailmaan fantasian voimalla</a>, Aalto University 9.12.2021</li><li><a href="https://www.aalto.fi/en/news/dragons-out-kari-kakkonen-employs-fantasy-to-lead-children-into-the-world-of-software-testing">Dragons out! Kari Kakkonen employs fantasy to lead children into the world of software testing</a>, Aalto University 9.12.2021</li></ul><div>Looking back to my student years and what thas happened after that, I can see a continuum that started there, found a new place in working life and in volunteer associations, and finally helped children to learn software testing. Everything affects everything, me thinks!</div><div><br /></div><div>I can thoroughly recommend Aalto University. A great place to go to study, a great place to be alumni.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiY62uOztw4jgj6g8PWVk1yNdNuMD55Ol2-3X6o4lgrfmlHcpeVMEhC3e5J14WB5naBTUu3AW3vrRA9QhNPM4JxMVZbs7tQ7rtpg2ldz6ctKSpUheEG1koqF2pzK-S65KXtK2S0RAwFNgydQw9itITYOgvHbDvgI9HyUwEUrMXnbZfRGo6kv__GOs3t2w=s1380" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="1380" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiY62uOztw4jgj6g8PWVk1yNdNuMD55Ol2-3X6o4lgrfmlHcpeVMEhC3e5J14WB5naBTUu3AW3vrRA9QhNPM4JxMVZbs7tQ7rtpg2ldz6ctKSpUheEG1koqF2pzK-S65KXtK2S0RAwFNgydQw9itITYOgvHbDvgI9HyUwEUrMXnbZfRGo6kv__GOs3t2w=w640-h278" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div><br /></div>Kari Kakkonenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13792692413878679098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3324151763672093522.post-78153362317186588752021-12-02T10:17:00.001+02:002021-12-04T22:10:35.566+02:00Dragons Out donation campaign press release<h1><span face="Arial, sans-serif">Testing books donated to schools: Republish of Knowit press release on the Dragons Out book donation campaign</span></h1><p style="text-align: left;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Link to <a href="https://www.knowit.eu/news/knowits-charity-campaign-donated-hundreds-of-childrens-software-testing-books/">original press release in English</a> at Knowit.eu corporate website.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Link to <a href="https://www.knowit.fi/lehdistotiedotteita/knowitin-hyvantekevaisyyskampanjassa-lahjoitettiin-satoja-ohjelmistotestauksen-lastenkirjoja/">original press release in Finnish</a> at Knowit.fi</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Link to <a href="https://www.knowit.fi/uutiset/hyvantekevaisyyskampanjan-kohteena-suomalaiset-koulut-ja-lapset/">donation news in Finnish</a> at Knowit.fi.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Link to Dragons Out donation campaign page <a href="https://www.dragonsout.com/p/donation-campaign.html">https://www.dragonsout.com/p/donation-campaign.html</a></span></p><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Supporting the future society’s needs: Knowit’s charity campaign donated
hundreds of children's software testing books</span></h2>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Finnish ICT
companies and associations have risen to the challenge issued by Knowit to
donate software testing books to schools around Finland. The campaign aimed to
better meet tomorrow’s ICT society’s needs by providing software education to developers
and testers of the next generations. ICT sector’s effort towards the school
world got official recognition when the donation campaign culminated by giving
a Diploma of Donated Books to the Finnish Minister of Education, Li Andersson, in
autumn 2021.</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“We have a concern that
coding schools and books alone aren’t enough. Therefore, we need to share the
knowledge with the new generation in an early phase. Writing a book around
interesting themes of testing and fantasy was already very inspiring. But the best
part was to hear the praise from children, teachers and other adults who find
the book inspiring and engaging”, comments <b>Kari Kakkonen, Director, Quality
and Competences at Knowit Solutions Oy.<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Kari Kakkonen is the
author of the Dragons Out! testing book for children. The book was published
simultaneously in Finnish and in English. The book explains software testing in
plain terms using an analogy to a full-blown fantasy story featuring dragons,
knights and children who grow into knights. Knowit and over 20 other companies
involved have donated hundreds of Dragons Out! books to Finnish schools. In
addition, ICT companies and organizations that have pre-ordered the English
version of the book have donated books for schools in the USA, China, Denmark,
England, France, Ireland, Poland, and Sweden during autumn 2021.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">VALA Group was the
first company that accepted the challenge and joined the campaign with Knowit. <b>Teemu
Pesonen, Head of Operations & QA Services at VALA Group:</b> “We feel very
deeply about software testing and were glad to be able to contribute to the
donation campaign by buying books for schools but also the children of our
employees”.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">We at Knowit want to
share and contribute with our knowledge and competence. Knowit has participated
in charity campaigns yearly and now it’s our chance to make an impact with our
actions. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">“We have a clear view
for the future needs of utilizing technology for building a humane and
sustainable future. And we also have a strong belief that companies have to
make an impact on our society to make it better. The Dragons Out! book is an
excellent way to do this. We can combine benefits of children, society and the
ICT sector”, <b>says Markus Kääriäinen, Quality and Automation Business Unit
Director, Knowit Solutions Oy</b>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">For more information,
please contact:<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Kari Kakkonen,</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> </span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Lead Consultant & Director, Training and
Competences, Knowit Solutions Oy, </span><span lang="FI" style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 107%;"><a href="mailto:xxxkari.kakkonen@knowit.fi"></a></span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">kari.kakkonen@knowit.fi +358 40 523 9004<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Markus Kääriäinen,</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> </span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Quality and Automation Business Unit Director, Knowit
Solutions Oy </span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="FI" style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 107%;"><a href="mailto:markus.kaariainen@knowit.fi"><span lang="EN-GB">markus.kaariainen@knowit.fi</span></a></span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="FI" style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> </span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">+358 40
512 4755<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Päivi Mönkkönen, Head
of Communications and Brand, Knowit Solutions Oy, </span><span lang="FI"><a href="mailto:paivi.monkkonen@knowit.fi"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">paivi.monkkonen@knowit.fi</span></a></span><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> +358 50 363 2746<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 7pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">About the author<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 7pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Mr Kari Kakkonen has
over twenty-five years of experience in software testing. His company Dragons
Out Oy promotes software testing for children. He works at Knowit as a trainer
and consultant in software testing, agile, DevOps and Artificial Intelligence.
Kari is on the Board of Directors of TMMi, and he was previously six years in
the Executive Committee of ISTQB, the largest software testing organization globally.
He is co-author of the Agile Testing Foundations book and an active conference
speaker.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 7pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Kari Kakkonen received
on September 30, 2021, the highest recognition about software testing world in
Europe, the EuroSTAR Software Testing Excellence Award, mainly due to the great
initiative and success of educating children about software testing through the
Dragons Out! book project.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 7pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">About Knowit<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 7pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">We are
digitalization consultants and a Nordic powerhouse for the digital business
models of the future. Our vision is to create a sustainable and humane society
through digitalization and innovation. Knowit supports its clients in the
digital transformation and stands out among other consultancy firms through its
decentralized organization and agile work methods in client assignments. The
operations are divided into four business areas – Solutions, Experience,
Connectivity, and Insight – which offer services in bespoke system development,
digital customer experiences, the internet of things, cloud, cybersecurity, and
management consultancy. Competences from several business areas are often
combined in client projects. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 7pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Knowit
was founded in 1990 and, following the acquisition of Cybercom on July 1, 2021,
has around 3,800 employees, mainly in the Nordic countries, but also in Germany
and Poland. The merger with Cybercom has created new opportunities to take on
larger and more complex assignments, primarily within the industry, tech, and
telecom sectors. In addition, an even stronger platform is created, from which
we offer digital solutions to the sustainability challenges of society. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="font-size: 7pt;">Knowit
AB (publ) has been listed on the stock market since 1997 and is currently
listed on Nasdaq OMX Stockholm Mid Cap. For more information on Knowit, please
visit knowit.eu.</span> </p>Kari Kakkonenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13792692413878679098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3324151763672093522.post-63223762162340381322021-11-18T13:32:00.001+02:002021-11-18T13:32:37.917+02:00Dragons Out! made it to the Best New Software Testing Books<h2 style="text-align: left;"><span face=""Nunito Sans", Arial, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif" style="color: #222222; font-size: 17.6px;">Dragons Out! made it to the Best New Software Testing Books</span></h2><div class="ba-post-award" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #222222; float: right; font-family: "Nunito Sans", Arial, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; padding: 0px 0px 10px 10px;"><a href="https://bookauthority.org/books/new-software-testing-books?t=yemzg2&s=award&book=1398406767" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #0069af; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: color 0.1s cubic-bezier(0.4, 0, 0.2, 1) 0s;" target="_blank"><img alt="BookAuthority Best New Software Testing Books" src="https://award.bookauthority.org/new-software-testing-books.png?b=1398406767&c=1&v=6&w=300" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: inherit; display: block; height: 274px; width: 300px;" /></a></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span face=""Nunito Sans", Arial, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">I'm happy to announce that my book, "Dragons Out!", made it to </span><a href="https://bookauthority.org/books/new-software-testing-books?t=yemzg2&s=award&book=1398406767" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #0069af; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: color 0.1s cubic-bezier(0.4, 0, 0.2, 1) 0s;" target="_blank">BookAuthority's Best New Software Testing Books</a><br style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #222222;" /><br style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #222222;" /><span face=""Nunito Sans", Arial, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">BookAuthority collects and ranks the best books in the world, and it is a great honour to get this kind of recognition. Thank you for all your support!</span><br style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #222222;" /><span face=""Nunito Sans", Arial, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">The book is available for purchase </span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/1398406767?tag=uuid10-20" rel="nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: #0069af; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition: color 0.1s cubic-bezier(0.4, 0, 0.2, 1) 0s;" target="_blank">on Amazon</a><span face="Nunito Sans, Arial, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><span style="background-color: white;"> as well as on my publisher <a href="https://www.austinmacauley.com/book/dragons-out">Austin Macauley shop</a>.</span></span></span><div><span face="Nunito Sans, Arial, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span face="Nunito Sans, Arial, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="color: #222222; font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white;">This is especially great recognition, too, because the </span>Agile Testing Foundations -book that I co-authored in 2015 has made it to the Best Software Testing Books of All Time list!</span></div><div><span face="Nunito Sans, Arial, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></div><div><span face="Nunito Sans, Arial, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjhAJsemfTgPTiwEcxvOyHhEJn2Pq59eOUvw3raWZcOYz7RzK90spUdLKLnstooBHQ0Xgpr1WQNN_jFyr0R2UdM47SiykTtD4X9xBoswKR7FXgy68iFAOOiZAF8vsaaR1O50n0cx04Dg8a8LBOdiFm_CIoqxgOFD_xLxjsRyzKL70L7cPnJykcjj4MSqQ=s819" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="819" data-original-width="528" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjhAJsemfTgPTiwEcxvOyHhEJn2Pq59eOUvw3raWZcOYz7RzK90spUdLKLnstooBHQ0Xgpr1WQNN_jFyr0R2UdM47SiykTtD4X9xBoswKR7FXgy68iFAOOiZAF8vsaaR1O50n0cx04Dg8a8LBOdiFm_CIoqxgOFD_xLxjsRyzKL70L7cPnJykcjj4MSqQ=w412-h640" width="412" /></a></div><br /><span face="Nunito Sans, Arial, Helvetica Neue, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="color: #222222;"><br /></span></div>Kari Kakkonenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13792692413878679098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3324151763672093522.post-25048828639310903892021-11-17T16:24:00.003+02:002021-11-17T16:46:39.493+02:00Lots of celebration<p>Dragons Out book in English has received plenty of good feedback from different people and countries. The people who had preordered the English edition, have now been sending their first impressions. People congratulate on the good quality, the illustration, the great idea, an interesting read. Their children like it too, both the story and the illustration.</p><p>I've received plenty of praise also based on me winning the EuroSTAR Testing Excellence Award. Many articles and news have been published. It is flattering to read about all the praise, but of course, I believe in what I do, too. I think reaching out to children to teach them testing is definitely a worthwhile topic for all the praise. </p><p>Here are some links to related articles and news</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>EuroSTAR blog "<a href="https://conference.eurostarsoftwaretesting.com/feelings-from-the-eurostar-testing-excellence-award-winner/">Feelings from the EuroSTAR winner Kari Kakkonen</a>"</li><li>Dragons Out! made it to the top of the list <a href="https://bookauthority.org/books/new-software-testing-books?t=yemzg2&s=author&book=1398406767">Best New Software Testing Books to read</a> (BookAuthority)</li><li><a href="https://www.tieturi.fi/blogi/eurostar-european-testing-excellence-award-kari-kakkoselle/" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #2196f3; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-decoration-line: none;">EuroSTAR European Testing Excellence Award Kari Kakkoselle</a> (Tieturi)</li><li><a href="https://fistb.fi/2021/10/10/onneksi-olkoon-kari-kakkonen-vuoden-2021-the-eurostar-european-testing-excellence-award-voittaja/" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #2196f3; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">ONNEKSI OLKOON, KARI KAKKONEN! VUODEN 2021 THE EUROSTAR EUROPEAN TESTING EXCELLENCE AWARD VOITTAJA</a> (FiSTB)</li><li><a href="https://www.austinmacauley.com/news/author-kari-kakkonen-wins-european-software-testing-excellence-award-2021" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #2196f3; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; text-decoration-line: none;">AUTHOR KARI KAKKONEN WINS EUROPEAN SOFTWARE TESTING EXCELLENCE AWARD</a> (Austin Macauley)</li><li><a href="https://tivia.fi/2021/10/06/kari-kakkonen-palkittu-eurostar-konferenssin-european-testing-excellence-palkinnolla/" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #2196f3; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">Kari Kakkonen palkittu EuroSTAR-konferenssin European Testing Excellence -palkinnolla</a> (Tivia)</li><li><a href="https://www.sytyke.org/testausosynuutiset/kari-kakkonen-palkittu-eurostar-konferenssissa/" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #2196f3; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">Kari Kakkonen palkittu EuroSTAR-konferenssin European Testing Excellence -palkinnolla</a> (TestausOSY)</li></ul><div>The publishing event for the English edition on 7.10.2021 was very nice too. It was yet another online event. I hope to have some sort of in-real-life celebration, too. The recent conferences and trade fairs, which take place physically, with all corona safety measures, come close to that celebration, of course. If you missed it, check out the video <a href="https://youtu.be/AZAXdSYnU3Q" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #2196f3; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">Online Publishing Party of Dragons Out English Edition</a>. </div><div><br /></div><div>I was at the Helsinki book fair two weeks ago at my Finnish publisher Avain's stand. I put up my Dragons Out! roll-up and presented my book to anyone interested. I also gave signatures. First one was this ten-year-old girl, who came around with her mother and wanted to hear about the book. She was thrilled about coding, she explained. Their school offered coding classes to children. Also she was a big-time reader and liked fantasy stories. So, seeing the book, she absolutely wanted to buy the book. I was most happy to write a dedication and sign the book for her. This was really an ideal reader!</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhCyz1WQbUGDSIPvnigzmz3p7fZFvEmPuUDNb47rpaHlHeDDOVj7U2r_LMf-8WGu5dQResv6MzsHQmJ84ypk8dM_Lgfm0ozF8j-V2Uvsx_CsSWNAR3Y3cSeCpnGqVI6gYLXkBu8UYtWPWrQuVCB15ga9C3Y2Mk6LIdvkydxJl9KvbaJNQ32OmASl_eM9g=s2048" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1152" data-original-width="2048" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhCyz1WQbUGDSIPvnigzmz3p7fZFvEmPuUDNb47rpaHlHeDDOVj7U2r_LMf-8WGu5dQResv6MzsHQmJ84ypk8dM_Lgfm0ozF8j-V2Uvsx_CsSWNAR3Y3cSeCpnGqVI6gYLXkBu8UYtWPWrQuVCB15ga9C3Y2Mk6LIdvkydxJl9KvbaJNQ32OmASl_eM9g=w640-h360" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><p></p>Kari Kakkonenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13792692413878679098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3324151763672093522.post-52665002752141680352021-10-01T12:23:00.000+03:002021-10-01T12:23:38.876+03:00European Testing Excellence Award from EuroSTAR to Kari<p>I feel very honoured, humble. I'm awarded for my work over the few decades but certainly especially for my work in the past few years with the Dragons Out book and trying to get the software testing message across to children and schools through this ground-breaking approach of fantasy book storytelling.</p><p>I feel that the world has noticed the great initiative to bring the testing message to children. Feedback from children is of course most touching. I especially remember that the son of a friend of mine said after reading my book on his own: "Mom, I want to be a software tester when I grow up!" Many adults have read the Dragons Out book, too, and describe it as fantastic! It is so rewarding to hear this praise.</p><p>The EuroSTAR conference explains on their <a href="https://conference.eurostarsoftwaretesting.com/awards/">award page</a> that "The EuroSTAR European Testing Excellence Award is the highest honour bestowed by our community. It is driven by peer nominations and is the ultimate recognition for those that continually give to the testing community." I am really humbled to learn that so many have thought of my initiative and my career as an inspiration to themselves and for the software testing community. It is also very humbling to be listed among the other giants of software testing that you can see on the award page.</p><p>My employer Knowit was of course very delighted with the award, as a lot of the testing work I've done has been for the company. They released news about the <a href="https://www.knowit.fi/artikkelit/kari-kakkonen-awarded-eurostar--testing-excellence-award/">winning</a> and also about the <a href="https://www.knowit.fi/artikkelit/kari-kakkonens-software-testing-book-dragons-out-is-out-now-in-english/">release of Dragons Out English edition</a>.</p><p>Finnish Software Testing Board FiSTB have congratulated me too and commented very correctly that the award is also praise for the whole Finnish testing community. That is so true. Nobody works alone but always in the context of and together with his community. My communities are many, but the main one is FiSTB. Also Finnish Association of Software Testing, ISTQB, TMMi, Agile Finland and DASA DevOps are my communities.</p><p>I thank everyone for their kind words, support and congratulations which I hold very dear.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-V_4YF55KkRTFIDL6IgP5Gp7iZBsAUfHKj5uxIBV08XzMrGsVMQgR5wuVRp-36ZbS_vRhXSEkxGpjLOzqvIK-H-LUS71ltcgybjXkyA87AurhmBYY4noSInN67i603FWGYh46vyCcFiRz/s946/Award1.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="507" data-original-width="946" height="343" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-V_4YF55KkRTFIDL6IgP5Gp7iZBsAUfHKj5uxIBV08XzMrGsVMQgR5wuVRp-36ZbS_vRhXSEkxGpjLOzqvIK-H-LUS71ltcgybjXkyA87AurhmBYY4noSInN67i603FWGYh46vyCcFiRz/w640-h343/Award1.PNG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtYx8G5X7cStfFnDv8QRe6_IQ_eesUdJTCIUQhc8Jw_oiKdIoaImux450praCkeKpF7TI65QBymoLM4Yz-URDkYG1b1OlYHOgqhU76l0zmuimylLIj0IA_lCk8jrXMnlMYdQDIx_wk4szv/s947/award2.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="947" height="338" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtYx8G5X7cStfFnDv8QRe6_IQ_eesUdJTCIUQhc8Jw_oiKdIoaImux450praCkeKpF7TI65QBymoLM4Yz-URDkYG1b1OlYHOgqhU76l0zmuimylLIj0IA_lCk8jrXMnlMYdQDIx_wk4szv/w640-h338/award2.PNG" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Kari Kakkonenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13792692413878679098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3324151763672093522.post-36895227617162827812021-09-28T19:31:00.000+03:002021-09-28T19:31:09.545+03:00Dragons Out English edition publishing party<p>It is time for a publishing party for the English edition of the Dragons Out! book! The Covid-19 is still out there, making meetings a bit challenging, although slowly possible. As for the publishing party of the English Dragons Out!, maybe the pandemic is even an opportunity. We are now used to meeting and even celebrating online, and because Dragons Out enthusiasts are spread in many countries, it is even suitable to have the celebration online, in Teams.</p><p>So, get those bubbly bottles close by, glasses chilled, dress up to your best party gear and show up at my publishing party on Oct 7, 2021, at 16-17 CET. Send me an email kari.kakkonen at dragonsout.com if you don't already have the invitation email directly. I'll be certain to have a bottle of champagne to open at the session.</p><p>There were many preorders of the books and those preorders have been shipped to those kind souls who supported the book project by preordering books and even donating them to schools. Many more have bought the books since they were published, in Finnish and English respectively. Oh, by the way, to celebrate the publishing party, my publisher Austin Macauley has issued a discount code AUTHOR0921 you can get 25% off the paperbacks at <a href="https://www.austinmacauley.com/book/dragons-out">https://www.austinmacauley.com/book/dragons-out</a>. This code is valid until 30th November 2021.</p><p>The book project has after almost three years reached its main goal: getting the Finnish and English books published. There are a number of important side-products e.g. a Creative Commons licensed free presentation for teachers in multiple languages. The number of translations by the volunteers keeps growing! There are numerous book translation projects in talks. There are plans for a learning game. And for the next books.</p><p>Anyway, come to hear a brief presentation from me, a word from my publisher and my illustrator, ask questions about writing a book... and yes, raising that glass in celebration!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXmOkx61kFFY8WrEYFlcn92YiD95NX61plhfIEt6apJWUfwoGc6qWPqhUbWIHQaH63BZQ_dmyo95ZmTn5j3zGeBL6dWdSYIWFimxS52xTa5V5nKh9XTIUIkGmAqbSX5IrSr9O5FQoC8KKZ/s2048/Ch03-04.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1448" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXmOkx61kFFY8WrEYFlcn92YiD95NX61plhfIEt6apJWUfwoGc6qWPqhUbWIHQaH63BZQ_dmyo95ZmTn5j3zGeBL6dWdSYIWFimxS52xTa5V5nKh9XTIUIkGmAqbSX5IrSr9O5FQoC8KKZ/w452-h640/Ch03-04.jpg" width="452" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Kari Kakkonenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13792692413878679098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3324151763672093522.post-36539247592127374102021-08-18T13:17:00.001+03:002021-10-22T10:48:43.546+03:00Dragons Out! webinar, translations, celebration<p> A lot of interesting things are happening around the Dragons Out! book. These are interesting times for me and all the stakeholders in the Dragons Out! scheme.</p><p>Tomorrow August 19, 2021, I'll speak about the Dragons Out! book in the Exactpro webinar. This is going to be an interesting one, as I'll be discussing experiences and learning gathered in the past half a year, building on the presentations I delivered earlier. I also will have interesting interactive exercises! You can register for the free webinar <a href="https://exactpro.com/events/external/exactpro-webinar-kari-kakkonen-author-dragons-out">here</a>. It is 16.00 CET so it will fit the schedule of many people.</p><p>I am planning to have an English Edition Publishing Party, online via Zoom in a few weeks. More about that then the time comes.</p><p>Already, I and my illustrator Adrienn Széll celebrated the publishing of English Edition privately, marvelling at the look of the new book (the author copies were the first to be delivered). You can join in our joy of finally getting the book published by looking at the below picture of us with the book!</p><p>You may remember I have called for volunteers to translate the supporting presentation (PowerPoint) to as many languages as possible. At this time, I'd like to draw your attention to the webpage that has all the different translations <a href="https://www.dragonsout.com/p/presentation-for-teachers.html">https://www.dragonsout.com/p/presentation-for-teachers.html</a>. Remember that the presentation works as a stand-alone 1-2 hour presentation about testing for any teacher to use in their classes. The experience becomes better with the book, obviously. Anyway, testing is accessible to more teachers with this presentation. Right now we have already the French version (thank you Olivier Denoo!), the Dutch version (thank you Tanja Vos and Nina de Lille!), the Polish version (thank you Lucjan Stapp / SJSI), the Russian version (thank you Pavel Sigov / Exactpro), and the Georgian version (thank you Exactpro). More are in the works.</p><p>The book deliveries for those who preordered are in the process, and the books should arrive shortly if you don't yet have them! Thanks once again to all who preordered as you made this book project financially possible!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvyg4ZfYhflw0hh2n_YADAATLSIVyBecqNjk7e6dchREwllnQyzLtJr0bDTCWqTmu21WFQIa5TC0c0Wv_srxoXaEV09Ln08SMvKrI_9pgijTtZgSuOJS0hT9ndwJ7etGxR4cL03Ec22m8N/s2048/Kari+and+Adri+-+square.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="2025" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvyg4ZfYhflw0hh2n_YADAATLSIVyBecqNjk7e6dchREwllnQyzLtJr0bDTCWqTmu21WFQIa5TC0c0Wv_srxoXaEV09Ln08SMvKrI_9pgijTtZgSuOJS0hT9ndwJ7etGxR4cL03Ec22m8N/w632-h640/Kari+and+Adri+-+square.jpg" width="632" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Kari Kakkonenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13792692413878679098noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3324151763672093522.post-45997893223572577652021-07-30T14:31:00.001+03:002021-07-30T14:31:42.396+03:00Happy Day - Dragons Out! in English published today!<p>And here it comes, after what feels like a long journey of countless publication process actions. The Dragons Out! book is published today on July 30th, 2021. I can't describe how happy I am to be able to share this book with all the English readers in the world. It works for children and adults, for non-native and native English speakers. </p><p>Dragons Out! - a book about dragons, knights and software testing - is meant to be a fascinating, introductory book to the world of software testing. You get to read appalling fantasy stories about knights battling dragons, and children helping the valiant knights. While you read the stories, I also explain what they mean in the world of information technology and software testing. It is often easiest to learn by comparison. </p><p>There are interesting exercises about software testing, some involve drawing and some actual testing. There's also the supporting material for teachers here <a href="https://www.dragonsout.com/p/presentation-for-teachers.html">https://www.dragonsout.com/p/presentation-for-teachers.html</a> and online resources for the readers here <a href="https://www.dragonsout.com/p/tips-and-exercises-for-readers.html">https://www.dragonsout.com/p/tips-and-exercises-for-readers.html</a> </p><p>Once again, I'd like to extend my thanks to all those who enabled this journey of writing the book and helping the children in the world to learn about software testing. Especially I'd like to thank all those who preordered the book from me over the past two years. I think of you with great thankfulness. There will be some publication events in near future, but more about those later. Anyway, consider yourselves invited!</p><p>My publisher Austin Macauley has generously agreed on a special publication discount. Go to their webshop <a href="https://www.austinmacauley.com/book/dragons-out">https://www.austinmacauley.com/book/dragons-out</a> for orders of Dragons Out book! and use the special 25% off discount code off Paperbacks. This code will expire on the 30th of September 2021. Use code AUTHOR0721 at checkout. </p><p>Finally, please join me in my joy! The picture below will hopefully transmit some of that feeling!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXGe5Ug-36l0Q4bC4X2tuYK62mvM2K4tEEDkMAKT6j5fizRw__9u1Ta36unOTODJjPc53CD0giVcFjLPgtLWB7WN3Si44w1-7zoig0ixdJDPkjpDTLTp0HE3jxKOfizwMqpEaDtNxFurdD/s2048/kari-publishingday2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1474" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXGe5Ug-36l0Q4bC4X2tuYK62mvM2K4tEEDkMAKT6j5fizRw__9u1Ta36unOTODJjPc53CD0giVcFjLPgtLWB7WN3Si44w1-7zoig0ixdJDPkjpDTLTp0HE3jxKOfizwMqpEaDtNxFurdD/w460-h640/kari-publishingday2.jpg" width="460" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Kari Kakkonenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13792692413878679098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3324151763672093522.post-28182967188802759292021-07-29T15:20:00.003+03:002021-08-03T19:23:29.746+03:00English edition of Dragons Out! published tomorrow July 30, 2021!<p>The time for waiting is almost over! I'm so thrilled to get "Dragons Out! - a book about dragons, knights and software testing" published in English tomorrow, on July 30, 2021. The book is available at <a href="https://www.austinmacauley.com/book/dragons-out">https://www.austinmacauley.com/book/dragons-out</a> for purchasing. If you like to utilize a publishing offer of 25% off for softbacks of Dragons Out!, use the code AUTHOR0721. You can also buy the book from Amazon, Barnes & Nobles, Waterstones and a great number of other international bookstores!</p><p>I've processed orders for those kind people, companies and associations, who supported me early in the book project and preordered the book from me. I can't thank all of you enough! You'll get your books soon.</p><p>I've set up social media pages for my Dragons Out Oy company / the book. Please, go ahead and like them, and spread the word:</p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><a href="https://www.facebook.com/DragonsOutOy" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/DragonsOutOy</a></li><li><a href="https://www.instagram.com/dragonsoutbook/" target="_blank">https://www.instagram.com/dragonsoutbook/</a></li><li><a href="https://twitter.com/DragonsOutOy" target="_blank">https://twitter.com/DragonsOutOy</a></li><li><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/dragons-out/" target="_blank">https://www.linkedin.com/company/dragons-out/</a></li><li><a href="https://www.amazon.com/author/karikakkonen">https://www.amazon.com/author/karikakkonen</a></li><li><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/karikakkonen">https://www.goodreads.com/karikakkonen</a></li></ul><div>Obviously, I will be most thankful if any of you will review the book on any book website you happen to use, e.g. <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/">https://www.goodreads.com/ </a> You know, it's just clicking the number of stars you like to give to the book.</div><div><br /></div><div>As the author, I got the first complimentary copy of the book. It feels so good to have it in my hands. You'll get that same feeling soon, too. I can't wait for the deliveries to happen and getting your feedback! See the picture of the book, below.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZccpuKuocRSnnY06RQf-dB4D4SJzf8sFyi3_WX7IZcQfdyFmfCNJWcU3Cf4yXC3D8YBdbXqRg2MB6X5qGMPC4iYEe91VX9x6rApUcaH8R1Yj5igL6wt8qRxfSa7EV24A56-JhMIhUK03E/s2048/English+book.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1152" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZccpuKuocRSnnY06RQf-dB4D4SJzf8sFyi3_WX7IZcQfdyFmfCNJWcU3Cf4yXC3D8YBdbXqRg2MB6X5qGMPC4iYEe91VX9x6rApUcaH8R1Yj5igL6wt8qRxfSa7EV24A56-JhMIhUK03E/w360-h640/English+book.jpg" width="360" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><o:p></o:p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>Kari Kakkonenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13792692413878679098noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3324151763672093522.post-81247632739340635512021-07-13T18:01:00.001+03:002021-07-13T18:42:33.654+03:00Dragons Out in English now at publisher webshop and preorder deliveries under way<p>My English publisher Austin Macauley has now opened their webshop <a href="https://www.austinmacauley.com/book/dragons-out">here</a> for orders of Dragons Out book! They have announced a special 25% off discount code off Paperbacks on our website. This code will expire on the 30th of September 2021. Use code AUTHOR0721 at checkout. </p><p>I am closing the preordering capability of the hardback version of the English Dragons Out book at my own web site at this time.</p><p>For further purchases of the English Dragons Out book, published on July 30, 2021, I would invite you to use my publisher Austin Macauley's webshop <a href="https://www.austinmacauley.com/book/dragons-out">here</a>.</p><p>We will be soon delivering the books to everyone who preordered and paid for the Dragons Out hardback books from me. The plan is to have them shipping in early August. I have been reconfirming the mailing addresses from everyone, and currently, I have responses from most people. If you haven't confirmed your address to me in July, please do it now.</p><p>Once more I would like to extend my thanks to all those who preordered either my Finnish or English Dragons Out -book, making it possible for me to create the Dragons Out as the fantastic piece of art and knowledge that it is. Your support during the book project is invaluable. Soon you get to enjoy the fruits of the cooperation - the book that will tell a fantasy story and teach some software testing! I sincerely hope your loved ones, yourself and any of your stakeholders will enjoy the book as thoroughly as I have in writing it.</p><p>My Author page at Austin Macauley is <a href="https://www.austinmacauley.com/author/kakkonen-kari">https://www.austinmacauley.com/author/kakkonen-kari</a>.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitRlJTcBozQWplRxmVSTEZLvS8L5pzTSBFA0n6d8_l0ZMPtgbeNBDltIzM0SZnW32Px7OKD8jxcuYNOYVxAnzPMoktV1SKxTPqj07br5gEPf5XPgnfQ-TH3goZnoxFEfytGB3tTDaseZjJ/s819/Cover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="819" data-original-width="528" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitRlJTcBozQWplRxmVSTEZLvS8L5pzTSBFA0n6d8_l0ZMPtgbeNBDltIzM0SZnW32Px7OKD8jxcuYNOYVxAnzPMoktV1SKxTPqj07br5gEPf5XPgnfQ-TH3goZnoxFEfytGB3tTDaseZjJ/s16000/Cover.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Kari Kakkonenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13792692413878679098noreply@blogger.com0