Lynn McKee

Be the change that you want to see in the world – that’s Lynn. She can easily convince people to change the way you think or the approach of testing for the betterment. She is the kind of person who enlightens people by her thoughts and methods in the Testing world. Her amazing energy, positive attitude, motivational talks, convincing skills and her ways of conveying ideas through games and fun would be an asset to any company she works for. I hope she continues to impart her innovative and best in class software testing methodologies to many more companies in the Testing industry.

Lynn is a passionate, driven, competent, and highly intelligent leader. Her energy is infectious and her commitment to quality is unparalleled. While I worked with her, she provided me and my teammates continuous feedback and a significant amount of mentoring. Her knowledge of quality assurance practices and processes is unquestionable. Alongside that knowledge, she brings a unique ability to tailor approaches so that they fit in with the needs and culture of the organization. This was especially evident to me during our implementation of Data Warehouse and Business Intelligence solution. During the early phases of the project, she was able to merge concepts from traditional functional testing methodologies into an approach that helped a large, complex, and difficult project deliver a high quality solution.

Working with Lynn was a wonderful learning experience. She played a vital role in setting up testing team at WestJet in a short period of time. She successfully implemented continuous process improvements and other quality initiatives at WestJet which led to enormous improvements in the quality of deliverables. Her tips and tricks in collecting various metrics and measurements and also to co-ordinate with the teams remotely located was something a unique skill. It was not only WestJet testing team who was benefited with Lynn’s leadership but also a great learning to the teams from other organization who worked with her. She is also a very good people manager. She was very well appreciated by our team members as well as our management for her professional business approach, commitment and timely involvement.

Lynn brings great passion to the craft of software testing. Her drive to create and support the Calgary POST workshop has created a wonderful event that truly encourages learning and discussion.

Lynn is one of the best managers I’ve had. She cares a lot about the people she works with and her positive attitude is unparalleled. She doesn’t sweat the small things and when something needs to be done she’s always up to the challenge. She has taught me to see testing in so many different ways even when I think I’ve seen it all. She is a great advocate of Context Driven Testing and just overall an invaluable person to have in the organization.

Lynn makes testing fun and approachable from any perspective. Not only is she an excellent speaker, she motivates you to really question why you’re testing the way you are. Her care and passion of growth for her team is unparalleled in the industry. Working with Lynn was such a pleasure and am already missing her!

Lynn’s energy and excitement readily shows her passion and love of testing. She is a fantastic teacher and leader. I highly recommend attending any of Lynn’s workshops – I am always amazed at her ability to think on her feet and motivate her audience.

Lynn is a well rounded Quality management professional, mentor, coach and an able leader. Highlights of working with her are:

* She is inspiring and imbibes tremendous respectability with every roles and responsibility in the QA management hierarchy.
* Pragmatic and confronts QA related issues and expedite ideal and meaningful solutions.
* Creative and passionate towards delivering caveat to the cause of Software testing.
* Strong proponent of innovative QA approaches and philosophies to validate Business drivers, needs, risks along with technical solutions rather than traditional QA metrics base.

It would be great pleasure to cross paths in the broader QA world at all times.

Lynn gave me the confidence to sit in front of a CIO as a Test Manager and stating without a doubt that I am not in the business of approving releases but I am in the business of providing information to the stakeholders in order for them to make an advised decision on whether the software is or is not ready to move to production. For that I thank her.

Lynn is one of the best managers I had who naturally serves as an inspiring mentor for the whole staff. Lynn is highly technical and with a background of years of IT experience worth as an educator, Lynn exhibits strong interpersonal skills and a unique capacity for empathy. These qualities most notably translate in her ability to motivate a team to care about its project and be invested in the project’s success. Lynn is the go-to person for conflict resolution and problem solving; though she’s never one to draw attention to herself, Lynn’s positive attitude and the respect for others feel toward her are palpable.

Lynn is THE BEST QA manager I have come across in my career as an QA Analyst. At WestJet, she firmed up the QA practices, integrating QA with the development team. She established the vision and mission for the QA team. She expanded the team by hiring a mix of junior and senior QA resourses. All along, she has been a great mentor to the QA team. She is very passionate about QA and she successfully created high visibility for QA in the organization. Her energy and enthusiam is highly commendable. She is an asset to any organization she works at.

Having worked with Lynn at both WestJet and AESO, I can vouch for both her knowledge of QA best practices as well as her unbridled enthusiasm. Lynn was instrumental in setting up the QA Centre of Competency at the AESO which resulted in higher quality products being released to production. I would welcome the opportunity to work with Lynn again anytime.

I was fortunate to work along side Lynn while at the AESO. In her capacity as QA Competency Lead, I was one of the project managers that was able to tap the resources and strategies that she brought to the table. I can honestly say that there was an obvious and observable difference that her competency group made on projects. I can also say that you rarely meet leaders that are so passionate about what they do and the teams they support. Lynn fought for and earned respect throughout the organization, and has a loyal following of QA resources that are better for her support and leadership.

Lynn worked with us on the implementation of the Compensation Module of SuccessFactors. I would highly recommend Lynn as she brought deep expertise in the area of our testing strategy with a focus on delivering a quality solution. Lynn brings a high level of professionalism and enthusiasm in addition to a keen ability to relate to business requirements and systems solutions. I would highly recommend Lynn, and would partner with her again in the future.

I have been impressed over the last several years with both the amount and quality of the effort that Lynn has put into the the local testing / quality assurance community, and indeed the profession. Software Testing Workshops such as POST require a lot more effort than anyone ever expects. The benefit they bring to the testing community, our clients and our employers spreads farther than most people realize. I am glad to have this continuing opportunity to work with Lynn.

Lynn is one of those rare leaders who is not only a fantastic leader of people, but also a leader in her chosen field. She has a passion and an energy for her people and for Testing, and this shows in her work. She is an advocate for the craft of Software Testing and the Testing/QA industry is better with her in it. On a more personal note, I’ve learned a great deal from Lynn in the time I’ve worked with her and I look forward to our paths crossing again in the future. She knows exactly when and how to motivate people and create the space for them to grow and be successful. I would not be the leader that I am today without her guidance and mentorship, and I thank her for that.

Having the opportunity to work with and learn from Lynn has been such a wonderful experience. It is very rare that you find someone that you cannot wait to learn more from. When Lynn teaches the entire room is captured. Lynn’s knowledge and drive toward Context Driven Testing allowed my team to test in a new way. I feel that this has fundamentally changed who we are and has made us better advocates for our stakeholders. It was inspiring to learn from her and I look forward to any opportunity to work with Lynn in the future.

Leaders like Lynn McKee do not come along very often, Lynn is a true visionary within the field of software testing and an inspirational speaker on the subject of Context driven and Agile related testing, both essential within today`s software development and project delivery arena.

I feel privileged to have worked with and be coached by Lynn while at Shaw Communications. Lynn is adept at encouraging and growing her team members into additional roles and responsibilities via trust and empowerment, all for the good of the individual and the project. I would recommend Lynn to anyone that wants and needs their Software tested quicker and better than ever before.

Lynn is one of the best among all managers I have ever worked with. She is very proactive and energetic person, has the ability to make good, sometimes bold decisions. Her proficiency and intelligence makes Lynn to view solutions instead of problems. She is an advocate of Context Based Testing and Testing Vs Quality Assurance. She brought up a better testing culture to the organization. She has a very positive attitude towards work. It’s an authentic pleasure working with her as she is an open minded strategist.

The POST peer conference is a great opportunity fort those in the Calgary area (any beyond) to get together, discuss and share ideas related to software testing and software development in an environment that actually takes the “confer” part of conference seriously. As a LAWST style conference, participants get to ask questions, and discussion goes until the discussion finishes. Lynn and Nancy (Kelln) have put together a terrific forum that encourages others to participate (as a Californian, i found the trip to Calgary wholly worth it, and learned a great deal from the time I was there). Go, participate, learn from your peers. I think you’ll find it time well spent.

Are you in #testing and feeling dispassionate? Just talk to @lynn_mckee for 5 mins and I assure your motivational levels will reach 100%.