Speaker Index

Jason Arbon is the CEO of AppDiff.com, focused on automagically identifying differences in mobile app UI, UX, and performance. Jason is also the creator of the new mobile web search and discovery app mobo (herecandy.com). Jason was formerly the director of engineering and director of product at Applause.com/uTest.com, where he created the App Store data analytics service and led overall product strategy to deliver crowdtesting to top app teams via more than 100,000 community members. Jason previously held engineering management and innovation roles at Google and Microsoft. He coauthored How Google Tests Software and authored App Quality: Secrets for Agile App Teams.

Adam Auerbach is the Technology Director for Advanced Testing and Release services for Capital One Financial Corporation, a diversified bank with 65-million customer accounts worldwide and more than 900 branch locations. Adam is responsible for Capital One’s enterprise performance and automated testing departments as well as enterprise release management. Since joining Capital One, he has provided leadership for the agile transformation of their quality assurance group and led the enterprise adoption of DevOps and ATDD. Before joining Capital One, Adam was with Chase and other financial and insurance companies, in various leadership positions focusing on quality and agile practices.

With more than eighteen years of software testing experience, Jon Bach has held technical and managerial positions in companies including Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft. As director of Live Site Quality for eBay, Jon is dedicated to building “end-to-end” tests (activity flows) in eBay’s core sites to discover important bugs that threaten its core business. He and his brother James created Session-Based Test Management, a method to manage and report exploratory testing. Jon frequently speaks at the STAR conferences and usually can be found wearing a ball cap, hanging out in the conference hallways, encouraging others, and sharing best testing ideas and patterns.

Mike Benkovich brings it all—energy, laughter, and a contagious passion for coding—with him. In a career that has taken him from minion to business owner, from database administrator to developer, from author to evangelist, Mike has seen it all. In more than twenty-five years of working in the technology industry, he has been part of the latest waves to sweep the industry. Whether delivering MSDN events live or webcast presentations, on the developer resource site BenkoTips or his blog, Mike brings enthusiasm for tools and an energy for the search to find a better way. Follow Mike on Twitter @mbenko.

Tester, consultant, and trainer Michael Bolton is the coauthor (with James Bach) of Rapid Software Testing, a course that presents a methodology and mindset for testing software expertly in uncertain conditions and under extreme time pressure. A leader in the context-driven software testing movement, Michael has twenty years of experience testing, developing, managing, and writing about software. Currently, he leads DevelopSense, a Toronto-based consultancy. Prior to DevelopSense, he was with Quarterdeck Corporation, where he managed the company’s flagship products and directed project and testing teams—both in-house and worldwide. Contact Michael at [email protected].

David Bradley has more than twenty-five years of experience in the software industry. Before becoming a professional tester at Citrix in 2007, he worked as a software engineer on a variety of embedded and distributed systems, primarily for the defense sector. As the senior test process lead for the Desktop and Application Group at Citrix Systems, David has been involved in successfully delivering multiple test projects using graphical test planning (GTP). As a proponent of its use, he regularly provides talks and training on GTP to teams worldwide, challenging and changing their views on testing.

Todd DeCapua is a senior product marketing manager at HP, focused on network virtualization and service virtualization. In addition, He is an innovation coach with the HP Software Innovation Team and chief technology evangelist with the HP Software Thought Leadership and Evangelism Team. A seasoned software professional, Todd has more than twenty years of experience in IT applications development, IT operations, product marketing, product management, channels operations, and business development.

Tom Chavez has more than twenty years of experience as a manager and product manager in the software development tools field. Today, Tom works in product management at SOASTA, the leader in performance analytics. He has worked across Silicon Valley at industry leaders including Apple, Sun, PalmSource, and Intuit delivering tools for Mac, Java, PalmOS, Linux, and Android development and testing. Tom is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and meet-ups. Follow Tom on Twitter @TomChavez.

A consultant, lecturer, author, and test manager, Rick Craig has led numerous teams of testers on both large and small projects. In his thirty years of consulting worldwide, Rick has advised and supported a diverse group of organizations on many testing and test management issues. From large insurance providers and telecommunications companies to smaller software services companies, he has mentored senior software managers and helped test teams improve their effectiveness. Rick is coauthor of Systematic Software Testing and is a frequent speaker at testing conferences, including every STAR conference since its inception in 1992.

Mike Duskis got his start as a programmer, hacking video games as a child in the ‘80s. Immediately after high school, Mike sold his first custom-built business software product and launched a play-by-mail gaming company. He went on to gain a broad and deep appreciation of the software development process by playing nearly every conceivable role on projects ranging from children's entertainment to safety-critical medical devices. Based in Boulder, Colorado, Mike currently plays the QA manager role for 10–4 Systems, the world's first marketplace for capacity to move freight.

An agile methodologist, practitioner, and coach, Bob Galen ([email protected])helps guide companies in their adoption of Scrum and other agile methodologies and practices. Bob is a principal agile evangelist at Velocity Partners; president of RGCG; and frequent speaker on software development, project management, software testing, and team leadership. He is a Certified Scrum Coach, Certified Scrum Product Owner, and an active member of the Agile and Scrum Alliances. Bob published Scrum Product Ownership–Balancing Value from the Inside Out.

Sushmitha Geddam is a Big Data test architect with the Data Testing Centre of Excellence of Cognizant’s Quality Engineering & Assurance practice. In her eleven years of IT industry experience, Sushmitha has delivered multifaceted enterprise business software projects in the investment banking, telecom, healthcare, and insurance domains. At Cognizant, she is responsible for developing internal talent and for providing the TCoE with delivery oversight, thought leadership, and best practices.

Pamela Gillaspie is a founding mother and managing test engineer at TestPlant, maker of the eggPlant range of test-automation tools. At TestPlant, Pamela does functional testing of load-testing tools, integration-testing of mobile-testing tools, and a little bit of everything in between. Above all, she appreciates the opportunity to help shape the tools of her trade. Pamela is a co-organizer of the Boulder QA Meetup Group and an active member of the Software Quality Association of Denver. She would love to hear from fellow testers on Twitter @PamelaGillaspie.

Andreas Grabner is a performance engineer who has been working in this field for the past fifteen years. Andreas helps organizations identify the real problems in their applications and then uses this knowledge to teach others how to avoid the problems by sharing engineering best practices. He was a developer, tester, and evangelist for Segue Software, builders of the Silk Testing product line. Later Andreas joined Dynatrace where, for the past eight years, he has helped organizations worldwide test applications, better understand the technologies behind their apps, and improve the entire development process. He shares his expertise on blog.dynatrace.com.

Matt Griscom has twenty years of experience creating software including innovative test automation, harnesses, and frameworks. Two degrees in physics primed him to seek the big picture in any setting. This comprehensive vision and love of solving difficult and important problems led him to create the MetaAutomation pattern language to enable more effective software automation for quality measurement. He started his MetaAutomation blog in 2011, but in 2014 Matt published the ground-breaking and definitive description of the MetaAutomation pattern language in book form. Matt loves helping people solve problems with computers and IT. Email Matt at [email protected].

Dave Haeffner is the author of Elemental Selenium (elementalselenium.com), a free, weekly Selenium tip newsletter read by thousands of testing professionals. Dave also is the creator and maintainer of ChemistryKit (github.com/chemistrykit), an open-source Selenium framework, and author of The Selenium Guidebook (seleniumguidebook.com). He's helped numerous companies implement automated acceptance testing including The Motley Fool, ManTech International, Sittercity, and Animoto—implement automated acceptance testing. A founder/co-organizer of the Selenium Hangout, Dave frequently speaks about automated acceptance testing at conferences and meet-ups.

Dawn Haynes is COO, principal trainer, and consultant for PerfTestPlus, Inc., and a former director of the Association for Software Testing. Dawn’s unique blend of experience, humor, and effectiveness at providing tools and techniques that help students at all levels generate new approaches to common and complex software testing problems has resulted in her international recognition as an elite trainer of testers. She provides consulting services and is a frequent speaker at testing conferences, local groups, and intimate gatherings of testers. Dawn has more than twenty-eight years of experience supporting, administering, developing, and testing software and hardware systems—from small business operations to large corporate enterprises.

The managing director and head of the testing practice at Doran Jones, Paul Holland has twenty years of hands-on testing and test management experience, primarily at Alcatel-Lucent where he led a transformation of the testing approach for two product divisions, making them more efficient and effective. As a test manager and tester, Paul focused on exploratory testing, test automation, and improving testing techniques. For the past five years, he has been consulting and delivering training to companies such as Intel, Intuit, Progressive Insurance, HP, Raymond James, and General Dynamics. Paul is one of three teachers of the Rapid Software Testing course. Follow @PaulHolland_TWN

An agile tester, trainer, and coach, Griffin Jones provides consulting on context-driven software testing and regulatory compliance to companies in regulated and unregulated industries. Recently, he was the director of quality and regulatory compliance at iCardiac Technologies which provides core lab services for the pharmaceutical industry to evaluate the safety of their potential new drugs. Griffin was responsible for all matters relating to quality and FDA regulatory compliance including presenting the verification and validation (testing) results to external regulatory auditors. He is currently a host of the Workshop on Regulated Software Testing (WREST). Reach Griffin at [email protected].

A manager of software engineering at Ultimate Software, Tariq King has more than a decade of experience in software engineering and testing. Tariq provides technical leadership, strategic direction, and staff training in product development and quality assurance across the organization. He is the project lead for internal tool development, and manages a team responsible for test architecture and release management. Tariq has published more than thirty research articles on software testing in IEEE and ACM sponsored journals, conferences, and workshops. As an adjunct professor at Florida International University, he teaches courses in software engineering and project management. Contact Tariq at LinkedIn.

Jay Kremer is the director of quality assurance for the international dating service Zoosk. Previously he spent fifteen years working as a tester and program manager for Microsoft products including Azure, Windows, Windows Embedded, MSN, and Rights Management Services. Jay has designed solutions that daily impact millions of users worldwide, but he is most proud of achieving high automation coverage at Zoosk. Jay frequently writes for the Zoosk engineering blog and can be found on Twitter @ChaosLemur.

For over 15 years, Melvin Laguren has focused on testing applications in industries like pharmaceutical, identity management, and eCommerce.  At Macy's, he was involved in many of the continuous delivery pipeline initiatives taking on the additional role of DevOps and Automation Architect.  Now as the QA Automation Lead for Wrap Media, LLC, he is taking his experience in DevOps and Test Automation to design the next generation CD pipeline for Wrap Media's proprietory Platform which relies heavily on mobile.  In addition to hosting the Test Fanatics Meetup, he

Claire Lohr has been an active professional in the computer field for thirty years, with the last twenty years emphasizing software process improvement and testing. Claire provides training—design, authoring, and instruction—and consulting services for a wide variety of both government and commercial clients. She is a Lloyd’s Register trained ISO 9000 Lead Auditor and has been trained to perform Software Capability Evaluations for the SW-CMM. Claire was the chair of the Working Group for the IEEE Std 829-2008 Software and System Test Documentation, and has served on both the IEEE Computer Society’s Software and Systems Engineering Standards Committee and the IEEE Computer Society’s Standards Advisory Board.

John McConda is an experienced Software Quality Control/Assurance tester, technician, and manager. Experienced in multiple methods of software testing from rigorous validated system testing, to session-based exploratory testing, test automation, and performance. Teacher and speaker for software testing classes and conferences.

Gary Mogyorodi has over thirty-three years of experience in the computing industry. Gary consults, trains, and mentors in software testing, specializing in Requirements-Based Testing. Some of his customers include Siemens, Cendant, Rockwell Automation, Boeing, EMC, IBM, LexisNexis, RBC, H&R Block, CIBC, TELUS, CGI, FiLogix, and Home Hardware. Gary is a Certified Tester, and Advanced Level Functional Tester with the ASTQB. He has managed testing efforts, developed testing methodologies, and created standards and procedures for quality assurance and testing. Gary obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from the University of Waterloo, and an M.B.A. from McMaster University. A prolific speaker, he has delivered presentations at premier software events throughout North America.

Jaimee Newberry’s emphasis is on Human Beings—ones that work inside our companies and ones that use the things we make. She brings seventeen years of human interface design expertise, including the past five years with mobile applications emphasis to her corporate advising + coaching practice. Jaimee is driven to bring more humanity into the work we do and the products we make. She brings insight, perspective, practices, and a personal ecology proven to elevate the culture, collaboration, communication, and processes of high-performance software design and development teams worldwide. Jaimee has worked with Audi, Apple, Barnes&Noble, Disney, McDonalds, Nintendo, Zappos, and more.

Ryan uses systems engineering, cross team collaboration, along with data analytics to provide complex test environments that behave like production.
 

Nirav Patel, the QA manager of QAE for pharmacy, retail, and health and wellness divisions at Walgreens, has been in QA for more than fifteen years. Specializing in metrics-driven governance and financial control, Nirav drives the concept-to-implementation process of the transformational initiatives across his portfolio. He is an active advocate of quality engineering to drive consistency and efficiency within the practice.

Jeffery Payne is CEO and founder of Coveros, Inc., a software company that builds secure software applications using agile methods. Since its inception in 2008, Coveros has become a market leader in secure agile principles and recognized by Inc. magazine as one of the fastest growing private companies in the country. Prior to founding Coveros, Jeffery was chairman of the board, CEO, and co-founder of Cigital, Inc., a market leader in software security consulting.

After several years working as a scientist in particle physics and computational fluid dynamics, Ingo Philipp immersed himself in the multifaceted worlds of functional software testing and development. Ingo is on the product management team at Tricentis where his responsibilities range from product development and product marketing to test management, test conception, test design, and test automation. His experiences with software testing embrace the application of agile as well as classical testing methodologies in various sectors including insurance, banking, commerce, telecommunications, and energy.

A QA manager at Comcast Corporation, Karen Pruitt leads a global team that provides a full suite of quality assurance services for ETL, data warehousing, and Big Data initiatives that offer valuable insight into subscriber behaviors. A trained industrial engineer with nearly twenty years of information technology experience, Karen has strong ties to the telecommunications industry. She is passionate about teamwork and the use of technology to solve process challenges.

Principal consultant and a member of the core team at Agile Artisans, Jared Richardson is a process coach who works with software teams to help them build excellent software. He sold his first software program in 1991 and has been immersed in software ever since. He helped create the GROWS methodology and has authored a number of books, including the best selling Ship It! A Practical Guide to Successful Software Projects and Career 2.0: Take Control of Your Life. He is a frequent speaker at software conferences and a thought leader in the agile space. Jared lives with his wife and children in North Carolina where they, quite by accident, became backyard chicken farmers.

Anna Russo is an ALM MVP specializing in ALM TFS Software Process consulting and training. Since 2008 Anna has worked with a variety of clients to improve their software quality and processes by properly implementing Microsoft Team Foundation Server, Test Manager, and Visual Studio tools. Anna applies hands on expertise providing: install/upgrade/customize TFS server, mentor on software processes, technical training, release strategies, automated build scripts, automated testing, and building virtual lab infrastructures. Visit Anna's blog for the latest on Microsoft Testing Tools at ImprovingSoftwareQuality.com.

• Douglas is an Executive Director of Engineering at Comcast, leading the Business Services testing initiatives and development of automation frameworks for residential device validations
• He has rich and varied experience in IT and communications with 20+ years in the IT, software development, and telecommunications industries
• At Comcast, Doug has helped build multiple divisions targeted towards systems and software integration, and QA
• Doug has held several key leadership position leading Tools and software development, Systems integration, Lab Operations, and QA

Lawdan Shojaee is used to breaking boundaries. As the CEO of Axosoft, she has become one of the few women in the Phoenix Valley to head a tech company. She has a doctorate in Physical Therapy, and over 800 hours logged at the controls of a single-engine plane. She is passionate about paving the way for women in the tech, which is why her company created the viral campaign #ItWasNeverADress.

Clint Sprauve is the senior product marketing manager for HP Software Functional Testing. Previously, Clint was the director of product strategy for the Borland Solutions division of Micro Focus, where he created Borland’s mobile strategy for functional test automation. With more than twenty years of experience in the software development and quality assurance industry, Clint has served as the senior product marketing manager for the Silk Testing Solutions at Borland Software and Segue Software, and as a senior technical sales engineer for both companies. He has been an independent consultant, specializing in test management and test automation.

The director of quality at Ipreo in Raleigh, NC, Mary Thorn has a broad testing background that spans automation, data warehouses, and web-based systems in a wide variety of technologies and testing techniques. During her more than seventeen years of experience in healthcare, HR, financial, and SaaS-based products, Mary has held manager and contributor level positions in software development organizations. A strong leader in agile testing methodologies, she has direct experience leading teams through agile adoption and beyond.

Iris Trout is a quality and process transformation expert with more than thirty years of experience. Iris got her start in the quality arena at First Fidelity Bank (now Wells Fargo) where Iris began to understand the importance of standardized process and its impact on the bottom line. Most recently, Iris has been responsible for managing the development, implementation, and maintenance of quality assurance systems and activities at TD Bank. Iris is a certified CMM Lead Assessor, Six Sigma Black Belt, Lean SS, Certified ISTQB Test Manager, and ITIL.

Thomas Vaniotis has more than ten years of experience as a tester, developer, and product analyst. At NYC-based institutional brokerage Liquidnet, Thomas is the product manager for internal and external customer tools that manage multiple complex trading applications. He is interested in data-driven business analysis, customer-experience design, exploratory testing, and the theory of software creation. Thomas’ background in music and philosophy gives him a unique perspective on the world of finance and technology. He has previously spoken at STARCANADA and CAST, and tweets @tvaniotis.

Alison Wade is an accomplished executive dedicated to the business of software. For the past fifteen years, she has worked with industry leaders developing programs for software development and testing professionals.  She is the Program Chair for the Mobile Dev + Test Conference, and she plays a pivotal role in the development of the Better Software, Agile Development Practices, DevOps, and STAR Conferences. She also directs Software Quality Engineering’s highly respected training curriculum and programs. Alison strives to increase awareness of diversity in the software industry concerning both the workforce and the role of software beyond commercial products and IT departments. In 2015, Alison launched Women Who Test, a day dedicated to women in software testing, happening in conjunction with the STARWEST conference. You can find her at @awadesqe or @womenwhotest.