Once Upon A Time in Software... Learning automation is a quest for valiant QAs. This talk gives you a road-map of how QAs get started, how developers can help, and why it's a good idea. I'll also talk about the post-battle tavern-debrief of how to give good feedback, and how to safely walk into Mordor.

This talk is the story of a learning quest, what I've discovered along the way teaching QAs to write test automation in Java, C#, and JavaScript, and my own journey of picking up new languages for fun, like Elixir. It is aimed at QA testers who want to broaden their testing skills, and at developers who want to help them get there. No prior coding knowledge is required for the QAs.

As a QA, you will leave with reasons why automation can make you more awesome, steps to get started, and a list of exercises to work through.

As a developer, you will leave with ways to help testers start into automation, how to give good feedback, and why this will help your team deliver a better product.

Outline:
Once Upon A Time in Software (why you should try automation)
The Reluctant Hero: But I don't want to be a developer!
One does not simply walk into Mordor (QAs taking the first steps)
Power-ups, dragons, wizards, and gold (How developers can teach, exercises to start with)
The post-battle tavern-debrief (Good feedback and coaching to improve)
Happily ever after, for everyone