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Conference archive

Conference Schedule

Sunday, April 19

Registration—7:30am–5:00pm
7:30 am to 5:00 pm
Continental Breakfast—7:30am–8:30am
7:30 am to 8:30 am
Multi-day Training Classes Begin—8:30am–5:00pm
8:30 am to 5:00 pm
Python® for Testers
Kristoffer Nordström
8:30 am to 5:00 pm

This is a course for testers who are frustrated by the laborious and manual work that makes up day-to-day test work, anyone who has tried or wants to try scripting and programming in order to help them focus more on the sapient test activities and let the computer do the repetitive work. During the course we will work with a strong focus on practical knowledge and learning by doing with much hands-on coding. This so that attendees can work independently with Python after the course. A large amount of exercises are built to give the opportunity to build simple but powerful tools using Python, which gives a deeper understanding of the opportunities that the language offers.

Leading SAFe—SAFe Agilist (SA) Certification
Brian Hicks
8:30 am to 5:00 pm

Designed for organizational leaders and change agents, this two-day course introduces the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) and provides the tools necessary to lead an enterprise agile transformation using the lean and product flow principles of SAFe.

Fundamentals of Test Automation
Byron Katz
8:30 am to 5:00 pm

Learn to build solid test automation the right way in this two-day, hands-on course designed for professionals in development and testing roles.

Agile Test Automation—ICAgile
Mike Sowers
8:30 am to 5:00 pm

Explore the many ways automation supports agile testing in this two-day course with real-world, vendor-neutral examples of agile test automation approaches and tools. In addition, successful attendees are awarded the ICAgile Certified Professional in Agile Test Automation (ICP-ATA).

Agile & DevOps Leadership Workshop
Jeffery Payne
8:30 am to 5:00 pm
Designed for executives and organizational leaders, this highly-interactive, hands-on course will teach you what you need to know to successfully implement agile and DevOps in your organization.
Foundations of DevOps—ICAgile Certification
Tom Stiehm
8:30 am to 5:00 pm

DevOps combines development, testing, and operations and includes continuous integration, automated testing, continuous delivery, and rapid deployment practices. Because DevOps practices require confidence in nearly all changes, automated testing is an essential ingredient that is integrated into the process and relied upon for enforcement of quality gates and to ensure overall delivery quality. This two-day course will teach you how to avoid the common mistakes of DevOps implementations and to leverage DevOps best practices. Test professionals, operations engineers, developers, project managers, and business owners will all benefit from this curriculum.

 

Implementing BDD and TDD
Byron Katz
8:30 am to 5:00 pm

Providing practical experience with the techniques of Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) and Test-Driven Development (TDD), this hands-on course for developers, analysts, and testers covers business and team effects, participant roles, difficulties and traps, and more.

Agile Tester Certification
Jenna Charlton
8:30 am to 5:00 pm

Agile software practices are being employed within many development organizations worldwide, and as a result, many testers struggle to understand the agile development process and their place in it. In Agile Tester Certification, both novice and experienced testers learn the fundamentals of agile development, the role of the tester in the agile team, and the agile testing processes. Learn technical and team skills testers need for success in the world of agile development, as well as the techniques of Test-Driven Development (TDD), Acceptance Test-Driven Development (ATDD) and Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) during this two-day course. All participants are expected to have experience in or knowledge of agile development fundamentals.  

Lunch—12:00pm–1:00pm
12:00 pm to 1:00 pm
Training Classes Continue—1:00pm–5:00pm
1:00 pm to 5:00 pm

Monday, April 20

Continental Breakfast—7:30am–8:30am
7:30 am to 8:30 am
Registration—8:00am–5:00pm
8:00 am to 5:00 pm
Multi-day Training Classes Continue—8:30am–5:00pm
8:30 am to 5:00 pm
Lunch—12:00pm–1:00pm
12:00 pm to 1:00 pm
Registration Desk Hours—Closes at 5:00pm
5:00 pm to 5:30 pm
Speed Networking—5:15pm-6:00pm
5:15 pm to 6:00 pm
Community Dinner—6:15pm-8:00pm
6:15 pm to 8:00 pm

Tuesday, April 21

Continental Breakfast—7:30am–8:30am
7:30 am to 8:30 pm
Registration—7:30am–5:00pm
7:30 am to 5:00 pm
Tutorial Python for Testers: Testing RESTful APIs NEW
Kristoffer Nordström
8:30 am to 4:30 pm

Odds are you have REST APIs in your organization, connecting different services, front ends, and back ends—and it’s a fair chance you have to test them as well. There are commercial and free tools out there that allow you to construct your own REST API calls, but the drawback of using any such tool is that inherently it will limit you in its application, and some of them with the added licence cost to boot. But REST APIs are easy to work with, and combined with the simplicity and strength of Python, you can quickly get started writing your own automated checks. Learn how simple it is to...Read more

Tutorial Zen and the Art of Agile Test Management Preview NEW
Robert Sabourin
8:30 am to 4:30 pm

Successfully leading teams on projects that consistently meet time, quality, and budget constraints is a critical skill set of the test manager. But when transitioning to agile, the test manager is often left out in the cold, with the argument that there is simply no need for them anymore. But this role is not obsolete; the test manager remains critical in both agile transitions and agile team creation, development, and evolution. Rob Sabourin will show how the test manager can become an influential advocate and trusted advisor to product owners, stakeholders, and agile team...Read more

Tutorial Using Heuristics to Test and Solve Problems NEW
Fiona Charles
8:30 am to 4:30 pm

In the fast-moving world of agile and DevOps, smart testers use heuristics to identify focus areas and quick-start their test ideas. Variously defined as “fallible methods for solving problems” or “rules of thumb,” heuristics are essential tools for thinking agile test practitioners. When you construct a test around a model like “follow the money,” you are working with a heuristic that can be useful in some contexts but irrelevant or even detrimental in others. A key to using heuristics successfully is to do so consciously. If you aren’t aware that you’re using a heuristic model, it can...Read more

Tutorial Getting Hands-on with Agile Technical Exploratory Testing NEW
Alan Richardson
8:30 am to 4:30 pm

Have you ever worried you’re not going deep enough with your testing because you are working from stories and acceptance criteria? Do you want to learn and practice testing and exploring web applications from a technology perspective? This workshop will help. By working with applications, browser-based games, and APIs that are specifically designed for testing, we will learn how to incorporate technical exploratory testing into our agile processes. You'll get hands-on experience with tooling to help work with web applications, such as HTTP proxies, dev tools, and API GUIs. Learn how to...Read more

Tutorial Introduction to Selenium
Byron Katz
8:30 am to 4:30 pm

Knowledge of Selenium, the industry-standard tool for testing web applications, is a much sought after skill in today’s world of test automation. If you want to learn Selenium, then this full-day tutorial provides a great start. Byron Katz shows you how to build test automation using Selenium. But he doesn’t stop there. He uses his years of experience to show you how to build automation that is clean, robust, and easy to maintain. He introduces other tools that work with Selenium to help manage the data used to drive your tests, evaluate JavaScript-heavy applications, manage your test...Read more

Tutorial How to Be a Master Communicator without Saying a Word Preview NEW
Rob Lambert
8:30 am to 12:00 pm

We are always communicating, whether we are saying anything or not. Nonverbal communication is not just the “extra” communication that is present when we speak—it’s a communication form in its own right. Being able to observe nonverbal communication, control how we do it, and respond appropriately to others’ nonverbal cues are key skills in being effective at work. You will be able to spot when people are uncomfortable during interactions, when people are engaged, when discourse is about to turn into conflict, who has a strong relationship with whom, and whether you are resonating...Read more

Tutorial Automation Development on the Agile Express Preview NEW
Chris Loder, Karen Holliday
8:30 am to 12:00 pm

Automation frameworks take time. They rack up countless lines of code and become products in their own right. How do you balance building and advancing your automation framework with the parallel need to advance your test automation coverage? In this interactive session, everyone will be given a role to play, such as Framework Developer, Product Owner, or Management—think murder mystery meets software development! You’ll participate in mock sprints, negotiating with your teams about what you will deliver. Will it be more test cases or better reporting? Process improvement or...Read more

Tutorial Cypress 101: JavaScript Test Automation NEW
Angie Jones
8:30 am to 12:00 pm

Cypress, a JavaScript end-to-end test automation tool, has generated a lot of buzz recently. Many developers prefer Cypress over other test automation tools because of its speed, convenience, and ease of use. In this workshop, we’ll use Cypress to create automated tests. In writing these tests, you’ll learn how to use Cypress to interact with web elements, add Cypress assertions to tests, create page objects, use Cypress’s built-in wait strategies and customize them as needed, group tests and execute them in parallel, as well as make and verify API calls. With JavaScript becoming the top...Read more

Tutorial Building an Environment of Trust NEW
Jim Remsik
8:30 am to 12:00 pm

The best time to build trust is long before you need it. Therefore we need to understand how trust is fostered. In this workshop, we’ll experience through activities, stories, and have a discussion on how trust can be both built and broken. You will learn the components of an environment of trust and techniques to help facilitate trust in your connections.Read more

Tutorial Conquer Imposter Syndrome and Unleash Innovative Agility Preview NEW
Billie Schuttpelz
8:30 am to 12:00 pm

With business agility, we talk about innovation and failure. What we don’t talk about are the head games and internal dialogues that hold us back. Imposter syndrome is the chronic self-doubt we feel despite our competence and success. What if the key to epic business agility is embracing the concept that people are more innovative when operating in their authentic voice? If that’s the case, then we should strive to create a psychologically safe space to discover our authentic voices, so we can unleash our innovative ideas. Billie Schuttpelz will help you realize whether imposter...Read more

Lunch—12:00pm–1:00pm
12:00 pm to 1:00 pm
Full- and Half-Day Tutorials Continue—1:00pm–4:30pm
1:00 pm to 4:30 pm
Tutorial Design Thinking for Agile Teams: Change Your Approach Preview NEW
Jennifer Bonine
1:00 pm to 4:30 pm

Design thinking is a human-centered process for creative problem-solving that focuses on the people you're creating for, which leads to better products, services, and processes. Utilizing the design thinking approach made popular by Amazon, Apple, and other large software companies, learn how to modify your whole agile strategy and approach around a technique that can speed your time to success and failure. Learn how to get to a proof of concept and prototyping sooner, for faster feedback from customers and buyers. This workshop will explore what the design thinking approach is...Read more

Tutorial The ARE Approach to Testing AI Preview NEW
Raj Subrameyer
1:00 pm to 4:30 pm

AI-based applications are everywhere, and it has only made the job of testing them more complex. There are numerous approaches to testing these systems, but one is going to be more relevant than others in the future: the ARE approach, or AI-based, risk-based, and exploratory testing. Raj Subrameyer will discuss how to practice these test techniques. First, he will demystify AI by covering the basics of what deep learning, machine learning, and neural networks really mean, as well as how to train and test AI models and make them learn from real user flows. Then, he will discuss the...Read more

Tutorial A Tester’s Introduction to Test-Driven Development NEW
Pat Maddox
1:00 pm to 4:30 pm

Although agile developers write tests as part of their work, they frequently overlook opportunities to benefit from the unique skills and perspective that testers bring to the team. Testers are all too often treated as a safety net for the developers, rather than being given the chance to help shape the software. This workshop will familiarize testers with test-driven development so they can work more closely with the developers on their teams and contribute earlier in the development process. We will begin by exploring the differences between code-first and TDD approaches, using an...Read more

Tutorial Continuous Testing Using Containers Preview NEW
Melissa Benua
1:00 pm to 4:30 pm

Containers: Every manager thinks they want them, but few teams have experience in knowing what to actually do with them. Used thoughtfully, containerization of your services can transform the way your organization thinks about testing. Gone are the days of maintaining X different compute environments with Y different configurations. Imagine instead spinning up just the code you need, on the machine type it needs, and only for as long as you need it. In this technical, interactive tutorial, Melissa Benua will walk through what containerization means for an agile codebase attempting...Read more

Tutorial Demystifying AI-Driven Test Automation NEW
Tariq King
1:00 pm to 4:30 pm

Software vendors and practitioners are using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to create a new wave of test automation tools. Such tools leverage autonomous and intelligent agents to explore, model, reason, and learn about a software product. But how do these testing robots really work? Is this technology any good? And can we really trust it to validate software? Tariq King will introduce you to the world of AI-driven test automation and discuss its benefits, challenges, and limitations. Learn how test bots use AI and ML technologies to mimic human testing activities...Read more

Welcome Reception—4:30pm–5:30pm
4:30 pm to 5:30 pm

Wednesday, April 22

Morning Yoga/Morning Run—6:45am-7:30am
6:45 am to 7:30 am
Networking Events— Lean Coffee (7:30am-8:30am) | Couch Sessions (All Day)
7:30 am to 8:30 am
Registration—7:30am–5:00pm
7:30 am to 5:00 pm
Continental Breakfast—7:30am–8:30am
7:30 am to 8:30 am
Keynote Leveling Up: Playing the Automation Game
Angie Jones, Applitools
8:30 am to 9:45 am

In addition to being a world-renowned automation engineer, Angie Jones is also a game designer. She created a competitive fashion game that has all the essential elements that keep players coming back for years. In this talk, Angie will share the key aspects of game design and how she has utilized them to help her succeed at test automation. These aspects include establishing goals, following rules and best practices, dealing with various challenges that will arise, and identifying the feedback that your automation project is providing. You’ll discover key strategies to help shape your...Read more

Networking Break in the Expo—9:45am–10:15am (Visit the Expo—9:30am–2:00pm)
9:45 am to 10:15 am
Concurrent Session Slicing Kubernetes with Raspberry Pi, Monitoring, and Chaos
Jonan Scheffler, TimescaleDB
10:15 am to 10:45 am

Do you ever feel like your systems lack unnecessary complexity? Do they just need more overengineering? This is the talk for you. Jonan Scheffler will detail the creation of a Raspberry Pi–based desktop Kubernetes cluster in an attempt to overcomplicate the already complex world of stateless web application deployment. He’ll walk through building an observability platform using open source tools like Prometheus, Grafana, and Jaeger to keep a close watch on our tiny fragile microservices, and then break them intentionally for our own amusement. Follow along as we exact our revenge on those...Read more

Concurrent Session Implementing ATDD from Scratch in a Large-Scale Agile Project Preview
Raj Subrameyer, ChaiLatte Consulting
10:15 am to 10:45 am

ATDD (acceptance test-driven development) is often used synonymously with BDD (behavior-driven development) and TDD (test-driven development), but the main distinction of ATDD is its focus on collaboration. Developers, testers, business representatives, product owners, and other stakeholders work together to come up with a clear understanding of what needs to be implemented. Raj Subramayer will discuss how his team embraced ATDD to solve problems such as a lack of clarity in requirements, frequent scope creep, no visibility into the...Read more

Concurrent Session Fixing Your Scrum: Practical Solutions to Common Scrum Problems
Ryan Ripley, Independent Consultant
10:15 am to 12:15 pm

A ScrumMaster's work is never done. The development team needs your support, the product owner is lost in the complexities of agile product management, and your managers and stakeholders need to know what will be done, by when, and for how much. Learn how experienced ScrumMasters balance the demands of these three levels of servant leadership while removing organizational impediments and helping their Scrum teams deliver real value. Ryan Ripley will show you how to bring life back to your Scrum events by leveraging the full intelligence of your...Read more

Concurrent Session The Intersection of Testing and DevSecOps Preview
Luis Casillas, CIT
10:15 am to 10:45 am

No one likes having a movie spoiled by learning about the ending before they see it, but you’ve seen this one before, and your customers need to know how it turns out. All software systems have the potential for bugs, issues, and errors, and discovering them before your users do requires collaboration from everyone involved. Luis Casillas will share his experiences living at the intersection of testing and DevSecOps, and help you prevent your thriller from becoming a horror show!Read more

Concurrent Session Planning Release Dates in an Agile World
Karen Holliday, Upland
10:15 am to 11:30 am

The agile team is in place, the list of sized features are in the backlog, bug fixes are defined, and the release begins. But now the client and the rest of the business want a release date—and they want the release delivered on that date! How can you commit to a fixed date within an agile environment? Karen Holliday will guide you through planning an agile release. She’ll discuss the Agile Triangle and how you can benefit from using different planning techniques, walking you through her favorite two approaches: fixed-date and fixed-scope. You’ll...Read more

Concurrent Session JACKPOT! - Successful Automation for Testing Embedded Systems
Jim Trentadue, Aristocrat Technologies
11:00 am to 11:30 am

Testing slot machines can present its own challenges as a constant mix of testing software, hardware and server. There are complex algorithms, machine responses, payout percentages, and fault tolerances. By fusing a combination of an API & UI-based automation approach, this can all come together. This case study that will illustrate how to use a Keyword methodology into UI-based recordings across both Windows & Linux systems to maintain global singularity. There will be an architecture review of how the new API library was built with the Keyword library, then finally tied in with...Read more

Concurrent Session Exploring Inclusion: Personas, Accessibility, and Meeting User Need Preview
Jenna Charlton, Coveros, Inc.
11:00 am to 12:15 pm

Inclusive design and unified design systems are the best ways to ensure applications are inclusive to all users from their inception. But how do you test for inclusion, and where do you start? Meeting the needs of all your users may seem like a daunting task, but it doesn't have to be. Using personas and leaning on our knowledge of exploratory testing techniques, we can start to create testing experiences that help ensure we're truly meeting the needs of all our users. Jenna Charlton will discuss barriers that impact your user experience...Read more

Concurrent Session Fixing Your Scrum: Practical Solutions to Common Scrum Problems (continued)
Ryan Ripley, Independent Consultant
11:00 am to 11:30 pm

A ScrumMaster's work is never done. The development team needs your support, the product owner is lost in the complexities of agile product management, and your managers and stakeholders need to know what will be done, by when, and for how much. Learn how experienced ScrumMasters balance the demands of these three levels of servant leadership while removing organizational impediments and helping their Scrum teams deliver real value. Ryan Ripley will show you how to bring life back to your Scrum events by leveraging the full intelligence of your...Read more

Concurrent Session Building Compassionate Teams: A Sustainable Path to Scalability
Archana Rajan, Financeit
11:00 am to 11:30 am

Growing pains on a team are a real thing. How do you hire the right person? Once hired, how do you train them? How do you keep them aligned, not just on the product, but also on team values? How do you build trust within the team? How do you encourage autonomy and engagement? All of this takes time and money, but you need to try to show value early on and get buy-in from management and the executives. Join Archana Rajan as she takes you on her journey of scaling her team from one to 20 people over the course of five years, all while reducing risk...Read more

Concurrent Session Planning Release Dates in an Agile World (continued)
Karen Holliday, Upland
11:00 am to 11:30 am

The agile team is in place, the list of sized features are in the backlog, bug fixes are defined, and the release begins. But now the client and the rest of the business want a release date—and they want the release delivered on that date! How can you commit to a fixed date within an agile environment? Karen Holliday will guide you through planning an agile release. She’ll discuss the Agile Triangle and how you can benefit from using different planning techniques, walking you through her favorite two approaches: fixed-date and fixed-scope. You’ll...Read more

Concurrent Session Testing The Limits of Agile with Design Research
Andrew Maier, UserFriendliest
11:45 am to 12:15 pm

Agile has proven itself invaluable to the world of software development. Yet it's impossible to author one of agile's foundational artifacts, a user story, without first understanding its protagonist—the user who desires the new capability you’re building. What can we do to identify with this customer? We can test the limits of agile. Andrew Maier will introduce two types of design research—generative research (such as user interviews) and evaluative research (such as usability testing)—and show how they inform the stories we author and the...Read more

Concurrent Session Exploring Inclusion: Personas, Accessibility, and Meeting User Need (continued)
Jenna Charlton, Coveros, Inc.
11:45 am to 12:15 pm

Inclusive design and unified design systems are the best ways to ensure applications are inclusive to all users from their inception. But how do you test for inclusion, and where do you start? Meeting the needs of all your users may seem like a daunting task, but it doesn't have to be. Using personas and leaning on our knowledge of exploratory testing techniques, we can start to create testing experiences that help ensure we're truly meeting the needs of all our users. Jenna Charlton will discuss barriers that impact your user experience,...Read more

Concurrent Session Fixing Your Scrum: Practical Solutions to Common Scrum Problems (continued)
Ryan Ripley, Independent Consultant
11:45 am to 12:15 pm

A ScrumMaster's work is never done. The development team needs your support, the product owner is lost in the complexities of agile product management, and your managers and stakeholders need to know what will be done, by when, and for how much. Learn how experienced ScrumMasters balance the demands of these three levels of servant leadership while removing organizational impediments and helping their Scrum teams deliver real value. Ryan Ripley will show you how to bring life back to your Scrum events by leveraging the full intelligence of your...Read more

Concurrent Session Expanding TDD to a Whole Test-Driven Organization
Joe Leo, Def Method
11:45 am to 12:15 pm

Software engineers have long used the practice of test-driven development (TDD) to better inform decision-making, reduce total development time, and write well-crafted, elegant code. But this approach can benefit more than just software engineers; sales teams, product managers, QA specialists, and release engineers can all employ TDD. What if your entire organization operated with a “red, green, refactor” philosophy? The sales team could write tests for their hypotheses about what potential customers want, product managers could write tests to...Read more

Concurrent Session Everything We Learned about Automation, We Learned from Saturday Morning Cartoons
Chris Loder, Upland InGenius
11:45 am to 12:15 pm

Do you remember sitting in front of the TV as a kid, enjoying your favorite Saturday morning cartoons? Chris Loder will lead an interactive discussion on what lessons we learned from those cartoons and how they apply to our everyday work in automation. Wait until you hear what we’ve learned from the likes of Scooby Doo®, Wile E. Coyote®, and many other favorites! Like Bugs Bunny®, maybe we too “should have taken that left turn at Albuquerque” and done things a little differently. And like the animators in Spider-Man® didn’t redraw every background and instead reused the animation cells, we...Read more

Lunch in the Expo—12:15pm–1:15pm
12:15 pm to 1:15 pm
Keynote Breaking Down Boxes for Accessibility
Kevin Jones, Blind Computer Accessibility
1:15 pm to 2:00 pm

Last year, Domino’s Pizza appealed to the Supreme Court to hear the argument that their website and mobile application did not need to be accessible to users of screen-reading technology. This shut out more than 3 million users in the US alone. Some may think of accessibility as just a matter for a few individuals, but when we think outside boxes—or, better yet, break them down—we see not individuals, but a society full of people with different perspectives and abilities. With a wider worldview, we begin to understand and appreciate how we can improve the experience for everyone by...Read more

Concurrent Session Act like an Engineer, Think like a Designer
Chemia Davis, Ocean Spray
2:15 pm to 2:45 pm

Most careers require years of training to be successful. Doctors, lawyers, engineers, and artists all spend many years training to become great at what they do. But what happens when the rules change and what worked in the past is no longer enough for the new challenges you face? That’s exactly what happened to Chemia Davis, an engineer and project management professional, when she entered the world of innovation and design thinking. Suddenly, all of the things she had worked so hard to avoid in the early part of her career—risk, mistakes, and...Read more

Concurrent Session Effective Agile Interactions Using Improv Sessions
Jessie Shternshus, The Improv Effect
2:15 pm to 3:30 pm

Most development projects rely on the assumption that the environment in which it is built is stable. However, software development environments are highly complex, in constant flux, and thus unpredictable—not because of the software itself, but because of the people creating it. The most important factor for an agile team is their ability to communicate effectively. Understanding how to interact with your internal and external team can make or break the agile process. This interactive workshop will have you using applied improv exercises on...Read more

Concurrent Session Learning to Say No
Fiona Charles , Quality Intelligence
2:15 pm to 3:30 pm

Although we’d like to always be able to say yes, there are times when saying no actually serves our projects, our teammates, and our stakeholders best. Software practitioners can be subject to many conflicting or unreasonable demands. A manager may insist we work on several projects simultaneously, making it impossible for us to do good work on any of them. There may be enormous pressure to work long hours, which will jeopardize our health and the quality of our work. We can even find ourselves pressured to do things that conflict with our...Read more

Concurrent Session The Agile Playbook: A Catalyst for Real Agile Culture Change Preview
Cindy Peterson, Peerless Partners, Janel Wellborn, Peerless Partners
2:15 pm to 3:30 pm

Are your teams looking to improve and evolve your agile practices but struggling to convince your leaders of what or why you need to change? Or perhaps your leaders decided to embark on a “transformation” to implement agile, but folks on the ground don’t know what that really means or how their daily work changes. It’s the Agile Playbook to the rescue! This simple yet incredibly powerful tool allows you to translate theory into everyday practices that are tailored to the realities of your organization. It captures how you intend to make...Read more

Concurrent Session A Tester’s Introduction to TDD in Ruby Using RSpec
Pat Maddox, 8th Light
2:15 pm to 2:45 pm

Although agile developers write tests as part of their work, they frequently overlook opportunities to benefit from the skills and perspective that testers bring to the team. Testers are all too often treated as a safety net for the developers, rather than being given the chance to help shape the software and its development. This workshop will familiarize testers with the test-driven development (TDD) approach, so they can work more closely with the developers on their teams and contribute earlier in the development process. You’ll explore the differences between code-first and TDD...Read more

Concurrent Session Humanizing Data to Tell Stories That Matter
Jim Remsik, Flagrant
3:00 pm to 3:30 pm

Like the trope of the native people trading their valuables away to colonizers for something seemingly worthless, we participate in systems every day that are optimized to extract value from us and give us relatively little in return. When we learn about the systems in play, they become apparent everywhere. Once you’re empowered with the ability to recognize these systems, we place ourselves and those around us in a much more powerful position where we can change them. Jim Remsik will show how you can use data to visualize a world and bring it to...Read more

Concurrent Session Effective Agile Interactions Using Improv Sessions (continued)
Sean Ely, The Improv Effect, Jessie Shternshus, The Improv Effect
3:00 pm to 3:30 pm

Most development projects rely on the assumption that the environment in which it is built is stable. However, software development environments are highly complex, in constant flux, and thus unpredictable—not because of the software itself, but because of the people creating it. The most important factor for an agile team is their ability to communicate effectively. Understanding how to interact with your internal and external team can make or break the agile process. This interactive workshop will have you using applied improv exercises on...Read more

Concurrent Session Learning to Say No (continued)
Fiona Charles , Quality Intelligence
3:00 pm to 3:30 pm

Although we’d like to always be able to say yes, there are times when saying no actually serves our projects, our teammates, and our stakeholders best. Software practitioners can be subject to many conflicting or unreasonable demands. A manager may insist we work on several projects simultaneously, making it impossible for us to do good work on any of them. There may be enormous pressure to work long hours, which will jeopardize our health and the quality of our work. We can even find ourselves pressured to do things that conflict with our...Read more

Concurrent Session The Agile Playbook: A Catalyst for Real Agile Culture Change (continued) Preview
Cindy Peterson, Peerless Partners, Janel Wellborn, Peerless Partners
3:00 pm to 3:30 pm

Are your teams looking to improve and evolve your agile practices but struggling to convince your leaders of what or why you need to change? Or perhaps your leaders decided to embark on a “transformation” to implement agile, but folks on the ground don’t know what that really means or how their daily work changes. It’s the Agile Playbook to the rescue! This simple yet incredibly powerful tool allows you to translate theory into everyday practices that are tailored to the realities of your organization. It captures how you intend to make...Read more

Concurrent Session Your Tests Lack Vision: Adding Eyes to Your Automation Framework
Angie Jones, Applitools
3:00 pm to 3:30 pm

Automation has come a long way in assisting with regression testing efforts. Teams worldwide are successfully running hundreds of functional regression tests at every check-in. While this provides a great source of confidence, critical regression bugs are still missed using this approach. That’s because these tests can only assert on what their human programmer asks them to. Additional errors with functionality, UX, and usability often go uncaught using today’s most common test automation techniques. For this reason, the top companies in all sectors of the industry are turning to visual...Read more

Networking Break in the Expo—3:30pm-4:00pm
3:30 pm to 4:00 pm
Concurrent Session A Retrospective on Retrospectives Preview
Marilou Canon, Dialexa
4:00 pm to 4:30 pm

The expectation in agile retrospectives is that the entire team reflects on the completed sprint and openly discusses what went well, what didn’t go well, and what is going to be done differently in the upcoming sprint. In reality, it is common for retrospectives to turn into a blame game—or, worse yet, an hour that is reminiscent of a high school class where no one willingly participates. In order to have honest and valuable discussion, a team must be in the right mental state to both give and receive honest and valuable feedback....Read more

Concurrent Session Are You in the Agile Game or Sitting on the Bench?
Nicole Mason, Macy's
4:00 pm to 4:30 pm

Agile is a set of values and principles that lead teams to make decisions. It’s not dependent on tools, products, or one person’s point of view; it’s a collaborative effort. How are you contributing to the process? Are you a team player, sharing your perspective and considering others’ points of view? Or are you a passive observer sitting on the bench? Nicole Mason will provide you with a game plan and practice drills to effectively engage partners, share your expertise, and communicate ideas that advocate for the customer, all while being your authentic self. Get in the agile game!Read more

Concurrent Session Going Beyond the Story: Navigating Your Truth to Success Preview
Lia James, Orenda Agency
4:00 pm to 4:30 pm

As leaders, we’re encouraged to fake it until we make it. But we’re also pressured to show our authentic selves. No wonder we get lost in the story we’re trying to tell. Our story, or the perception of it, impacts so much more than our resume, LinkedIn profile, or company bio. It impacts how we lead, how others relate to us, how our teams operate, and how our career evolves. Join Lia James in an exploration of what it means to be an agile leader. Learn how to live your story—for real—to transcend your leadership style from good to agile. These tips are known to improve career...Read more

Concurrent Session Great Idea Going Nowhere Fast? Test and Learn to the Rescue! Preview
Cindy Peterson, Peerless Partners
4:00 pm to 4:30 pm

You have a great idea and want to try something that you think will make life better—for you, your team, your family, or your customers. Maybe it’s a new framework or tool that you are so excited to bring back to your boss. Maybe it’s a different way to think about your team structure. Maybe you have a great idea of how to improve the customer experience for your most loyal customers. But then your idea is shot down by your boss, team, or coworkers—not because it isn’t a great idea, but because they don’t know for sure it will work. What’s the ROI? What if it fails? What will we...Read more

Concurrent Session Web Application Testing: Beyond Theory into Practice
Alan Richardson, Compendium Developments
4:00 pm to 4:30 pm

Have you ever wondered how other people test applications—not in theory, but in practice? What were their thought processes? How did they model the application? What tools were used? How did they track the testing? That's what this talk is all about. Alan Richardson will give a short case study of testing an open source web application. Using an open source application ensures there is no commercial confidentiality about the procedures or tools, and throughout the demonstration, Alan will explain his thought processes, coverage, approaches, tools...Read more

Keynote AI Family Feud: Playing the AI vs. Traditional Automation Game Preview
Jennifer Bonine, PinkLion AI, Jason Arbon, test.ai, Tariq King, Selftest IO, Jeremias Rößler, retest
4:45 pm to 5:30 pm

Let’s answer some questions everyone has about AI and put our two teams of experts to the test on their knowledge of different methods for automation and intelligent strategies. In this game show, you will see two teams of experts face off and respond to questions that we all face on how to adapt and understand new AI technologies and what use cases work for the different business challenges you face daily. We will also explore the academic versus the practical, real-world application of tools that are hitting the market. Each team will be given the same testing challenge at the...Read more

Expo Reception & Passport Game Prize Drawings—5:30pm–6:30pm
5:30 pm to 6:30 pm
Beach Party & Concert—7:00pm–10:00pm
7:00 pm to 10:00 pm

Thursday, April 23

Morning Yoga/Morning Run—6:45am-7:30am
6:45 am to 7:30 am
Networking Events—Lean Coffee (7:30am-8:30am) | Couch Sessions (All Day)
7:30 am to 8:30 am
Registration—8:00am–3:00pm
8:00 am to 3:00 pm
Keynote Conscious Curiosity: The Key to Innovation
Jessie Shternshus, The Improv Effect
8:30 am to 9:45 am

Curiosity is the spark that drives ideas. It fuels imagination, creative work, and innovation, and it is the driving force behind discoveries of all kinds. Yet we tend to lose our drive to be curious as we grow up. How can we all be more consciously curious? How can you help instill a culture of curiosity at your company or at home? What are the benefits of a curious mind and culture? Jessie Shternshus will talk about her innate and learned curiosity and share how it fueled her exploration of the subject. She will walk you through how she has...Read more

Concurrent Session The Art of Agile Testing Leadership: Finding Your Path Preview
Jennifer Bonine, PinkLion AI
10:00 am to 12:15 pm

Testing leadership is evolving with agile and DevOps. The key to helping your teams transform and be successful in this new world is to know what skills you need to be effective—and, in turn, help your team navigate change. Jennifer Bonine will give you a toolkit for agile leadership so you can explore your level of acceptance of change, how adaptive you are, and strategies to help others adapt to change. She will provide exercises that enable you to discover your leadership style and understand your blind spots as a...Read more

Concurrent Session Characteristics of a Rock Star Agile Leader
Jeffery Payne, Coveros
10:00 am to 10:30 am

Whether you are a chief agile dog at your company or just someone who is passionate about agile and seeking to spread the word, there are some personal characteristics that may make or break your success. These characteristics embody the spirit of agile and must be internalized if you are going to be successful in leading agile efforts. Join Jeffery Payne as he discusses the attributes of a successful agile and DevOps leader and how you can improve your leadership skills. Learn how these characteristics can be made actionable to enable your teams to embody agile principles and be more...Read more

Concurrent Session Getting to Continuous Testing
Max Saperstone, Coveros
10:00 am to 10:30 am

Max Saperstone tells the story of how a health care company striving to get to continuous releases built up their automation to secure confidence in regular releases. Initially, as no test automation existed, Max was able to take an opportunity for greenfield test automation and, in the span of twelve months, develop over two thousand test cases. A pipeline was created to verify the integrity of the automated tests and build Docker containers for simplified test execution. These containers could be easily reused by developers and the DevOps team to verify the application. Join Max as he...Read more

Concurrent Session 5 Patterns of Effective Communication in Agile Teams Preview
Raj Subrameyer, ChaiLatte Consulting
10:00 am to 10:30 am

The way we communicate is the single most important skill set employers look for when hiring. It has a significant impact on cost, productivity, team morale, and employee retention; in fact, a study conducted by The Economist shows that problems in communication often delay project completion, lead to low morale and missed goals, and can result in a loss of sales. With that in mind, it becomes all the more important to identify gaps in communication when working with agile teams that have different roles, such as project managers,...Read more

Concurrent Session Shifting toward a Future of Self-Testing Systems
Tariq King, Selftest IO
10:00 am to 10:30 am

DevOps as a culture, a movement, and a philosophy is leading to an increase in the practice of shifting testing to the right, toward production. Many organizations now use continuous integration and delivery pipelines to make decisions about production readiness and, once the software is released, leverage real-time monitoring for detecting and debugging issues. Testing in production (TiP) has historically been the subject of great scrutiny due to its frequent association with insufficient pre-production testing. However, when applied...Read more

Networking Break in the Expo—10:30am-11:00am
10:30 am to 11:00 am
Concurrent Session The Art of Agile Testing Leadership: Finding Your Path (continued) Preview
Jennifer Bonine, PinkLion AI
11:00 am to 11:30 am

Testing leadership is evolving with agile and DevOps. The key to helping your teams transform and be successful in this new world is to know what skills you need to be effective—and, in turn, help your team navigate change. Jennifer Bonine will give you a toolkit for agile leadership so you can explore your level of acceptance of change, how adaptive you are, and strategies to help others adapt to change. She will provide exercises that enable you to discover your leadership style and understand your blind spots as a...Read more

Concurrent Session Artful Testing
Zeger Van Hese, Z-sharp
11:00 am to 11:30 am

At first glance, art and testing may seem like an odd couple. However, Glenford Myers combined both in his book The Art of Software Testing . More recently, Robert Austin and Lee Devin published Artful Making , which relates software development to the creation of a piece of artwork. These authors inspired Zeger Van Hese to consider the idea of artful testing. Zeger will investigate what happens when we combine and infuse testing with aesthetics. With some surprising examples, he’ll show how the fine arts can support and complement our testing efforts. For instance, the tools art critics...Read more

Concurrent Session Being Agile without Doing Agile
Dawn Haynes, PerfTestPlus, Inc.
11:00 am to 12:15 pm

The most common requests Dawn Haynes gets as a consultant these days are to help testers and teams transition to an agile development process, or to help testers be more effective in “agile-ish” environments. Interestingly, the core answer to these questions starts with forgetting the process for a moment and focusing on yourself and what you’re trying to accomplish. Being agile starts with a mindset and an attitude that drive focus, approaches, and solutions. When you start there, the path to improvement can almost always be summarized as “being...Read more

Concurrent Session Effective Agile Interactions Using Improv Sessions (continued)
Sean Ely, The Improv Effect, Jessie Shternshus, The Improv Effect
11:00 am to 12:15 pm

Most development projects rely on the assumption that the environment in which it is built is stable. However, software development environments are highly complex, in constant flux, and thus unpredictable—not because of the software itself, but because of the people creating it. The most important factor for an agile team is their ability to communicate effectively. Understanding how to interact with your internal and external team can make or break the agile process. This interactive workshop will have you using applied improv exercises on...Read more

Concurrent Session Test Design for Continuous Delivery Preview
Melissa Benua, mParticle
11:00 am to 12:15 pm

Imagine that within moments of being submitted into the code repository, a new feature automatically releases straight into production. Is this your team’s dream or their nightmare? The answer depends not just on the continuous build pipeline, but on the quality and coverage of the battery of your tests. The difference between shipping a product quickly and shoveling garbage into production quickly lies in what the appropriate battery of tests should be. Automated build architectures don't always lend themselves well to the traditional...Read more

Concurrent Session The Art of Agile Testing Leadership: Finding Your Path (continued) Preview
Jennifer Bonine, PinkLion AI
11:45 am to 12:15 pm

Testing leadership is evolving with agile and DevOps. The key to helping your teams transform and be successful in this new world is to know what skills you need to be effective—and, in turn, help your team navigate change. Jennifer Bonine will give you a toolkit for agile leadership so you can explore your level of acceptance of change, how adaptive you are, and strategies to help others adapt to change. She will provide exercises that enable you to discover your leadership style and understand your blind spots as a...Read more

Concurrent Session Artful Testing (continued)
Zeger Van Hese, Z-sharp
11:45 am to 12:15 pm

At first glance, art and testing may seem like an odd couple. However, Glenford Myers combined both in his book The Art of Software Testing . More recently, Robert Austin and Lee Devin published Artful Making , which relates software development to the creation of a piece of artwork. These authors inspired Zeger Van Hese to consider the idea of artful testing. Zeger will investigate what happens when we combine and infuse testing with aesthetics. With some surprising examples, he’ll show how the fine arts can support and complement our testing efforts. For instance, the tools art critics...Read more

Concurrent Session Being Agile without Doing Agile (continued)
Dawn Haynes, PerfTestPlus, Inc.
11:45 am to 12:15 pm

The most common requests Dawn Haynes gets as a consultant these days are to help testers and teams transition to an agile development process, or to help testers be more effective in “agile-ish” environments. Interestingly, the core answer to these questions starts with forgetting the process for a moment and focusing on yourself and what you’re trying to accomplish. Being agile starts with a mindset and an attitude that drive focus, approaches, and solutions. When you start there, the path to improvement can almost always be summarized as “being...Read more

Concurrent Session Effective Agile Interactions Using Improv Sessions (continued)
Sean Ely, The Improv Effect, Jessie Shternshus, The Improv Effect
11:45 am to 12:15 pm

Most development projects rely on the assumption that the environment in which it is built is stable. However, software development environments are highly complex, in constant flux, and thus unpredictable—not because of the software itself, but because of the people creating it. The most important factor for an agile team is their ability to communicate effectively. Understanding how to interact with your internal and external team can make or break the agile process. This interactive workshop will have you using applied improv exercises on...Read more

Concurrent Session Test Design for Continuous Delivery (continued) Preview
Melissa Benua, mParticle
11:45 am to 12:15 pm

Imagine that within moments of being submitted into the code repository, a new feature automatically releases straight into production. Is this your team’s dream or their nightmare? The answer depends not just on the continuous build pipeline, but on the quality and coverage of the battery of your tests. The difference between shipping a product quickly and shoveling garbage into production quickly lies in what the appropriate battery of tests should be. Automated build architectures don't always lend themselves well to the traditional...Read more

Lunch in the Expo—12:15pm–1:15pm
12:15 pm to 1:15 pm
Keynote 10 Ways You Can Thrive in Your Career Preview
Rob Lambert, Cultivated Management
1:15 pm to 2:30 pm

For many people, their careers are directed by others. Without proper thought and consideration about where we want to go, we could end up somewhere we don’t want to be. Rob Lambert will explore some of the ways you can instead learn to thrive in your career—learning, improving, helping others, accepting help, and building a diverse set of in-demand skills. He will share ten ways he’s uncovered to enjoy your journey as you progress through your career: paint a picture for the future, build a simple knowledge management system, seek out diverse ideas, build strong relationships in...Read more

Concurrent Session Getting Lean: Creating a Culture of Quality
Daniel Slatton, Dialexa
2:45 pm to 3:15 pm

An important tenet of lean implementations is the notion of building quality in. This concept always receives universal head-nods when said aloud, but it can be challenging in practice. How can we actually start this transformation within our organizations? Daniel Slatton will walk through how his company has taken a culture-first approach to quality, stressing the importance of creating meaningful feedback loops, focusing on the specific language used, and constructing outcome-focused environments. He’ll show how these approaches can help your team to enhance its ultimate goal of...Read more

Concurrent Session Reality-Driven Testing in Agile Projects Preview
Robert Sabourin, AmiBug.Com, Inc.
2:45 pm to 4:15 pm

Many agile teams rework previously deployed stories, even after plenty of in-sprint testing. Well-groomed, refined stories framed with typical, alternate, and error scenarios, gracefully described in well-formed Gherkin, continue to encounter all sorts of bugs. In fact, software engineering consultant Rob Sabourin sees rework in over 20% of deployed stories. Rob will show how agile teams can drive rework down dramatically, often achieving near-zero rework after a story is done, by prioritizing reality-driven testing. He’ll teach you to...Read more

Concurrent Session Practicing Exploration Preview
Adam Cuppy, ZEAL
2:45 pm to 3:15 pm

Have you ever overcooked peanut butter and jelly? Ever put too much antacid in your chili? Have you ever tried to do either? Certainty and experimentation rarely go hand in hand, but it is possible to do both. As software professionals, we're required to experiment and explore. When we don't, our products end up shallow and uninteresting. We must sink into the depths of what's scary and uncertain in order to resurface with winning ideas that are just what our customers need. Adam Cuppy will explore bridging the gap between certainty and...Read more

Concurrent Session Automating E2E Integration Tests for Mobile with Detox Preview
Jennifer Robison, Echobind
2:45 pm to 4:15 pm

React Native provides a low barrier into mobile development across platforms for iOS and Android. However, things are a little toxic when it comes to writing fully automated end-to-end tests. Eliminate the bad stuff with Detox! Detox is an end-to-end testing framework for mobile apps. Many other frameworks require redundant coding with platform-specific languages—this means you could write a test to validate your login screen in Swift for iOS, then write the same test again in Java for Android. Detox allows you to write one set of tests...Read more

Concurrent Session Seamless Performance Acceptability Activities in Agile
Scott Barber, PerfTestPlus, Inc.
2:45 pm to 4:15 pm

An agile team’s task is to consistently deliver performant applications. But an additional goal should be to seamlessly embed valuable, performance-related activities into software development without disrupting, complicating, or extending the flow and efficiency of the overall lifecycle or the individual sprint. This talk won’t be theoretical, philosophical, or prescriptive; it will be a practical discussion. Scott Barber will share the most poignant, surprising, and enlightening stories he’s encountered from agile teams concerning their journeys...Read more

Networking Break in the Expo—3:15pm-3:45pm
3:15 pm to 3:45 pm
Concurrent Session Session Coming Soon
Speaker Coming Soon
3:45 pm to 4:15 pm

Session description coming soon!Read more

Concurrent Session Reality-Driven Testing in Agile Projects (continued) Preview
Robert Sabourin, AmiBug.Com, Inc.
3:45 pm to 4:15 pm

Many agile teams rework previously deployed stories, even after plenty of in-sprint testing. Well-groomed, refined stories framed with typical, alternate, and error scenarios, gracefully described in well-formed Gherkin, continue to encounter all sorts of bugs. In fact, software engineering consultant Rob Sabourin sees rework in over 20% of deployed stories. Rob will show how agile teams can drive rework down dramatically, often achieving near-zero rework after a story is done, by prioritizing reality-driven testing. He’ll teach you to...Read more

Concurrent Session Inside Out: Harnessing the Power of Emotional Intelligence In Your Career Preview
Aly Klidies, TechWell Corp.
3:45 pm to 4:15 pm

Recently while watching the Disney movie Inside Out with her children, Aly Klidies realized that so many of the emotions displayed in the film are actually valuable demonstrations that can help us explore, understand, and develop as adults in our careers. Have you ever been in a meeting where your project deadline date was moved up two weeks sooner than expected and you wanted to burst into flames like "Anger"? Or maybe you were sitting in a performance review and you started to focus solely on the negative comments from your manager like "Sadness" would? We have all been there!...Read more

Concurrent Session Automating E2E Integration Tests for Mobile with Detox (continued) Preview
Jennifer Robison, Echobind
3:45 pm to 4:15 pm

React Native provides a low barrier into mobile development across platforms for iOS and Android. However, things are a little toxic when it comes to writing fully automated end-to-end tests. Eliminate the bad stuff with Detox! Detox is an end-to-end testing framework for mobile apps. Many other frameworks require redundant coding with platform-specific languages—this means you could write a test to validate your login screen in Swift for iOS, then write the same test again in Java for Android. Detox allows you to write one set of tests...Read more

Concurrent Session Seamless Performance Acceptability Activities in Agile (continued)
Scott Barber, PerfTestPlus, Inc.
3:45 pm to 4:15 pm

An agile team’s task is to consistently deliver performant applications. But an additional goal should be to seamlessly embed valuable, performance-related activities into software development without disrupting, complicating, or extending the flow and efficiency of the overall lifecycle or the individual sprint. This talk won’t be theoretical, philosophical, or prescriptive; it will be a practical discussion. Scott Barber will share the most poignant, surprising, and enlightening stories he’s encountered from agile teams concerning their journeys...Read more

Keynote Fun as a Productivity Tool
Kristoffer Nordström, Northern Test Consulting AB
4:30 pm to 5:30 pm