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Conference Schedule

Sunday, October 14

Registration Desk Hours—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
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Security Testing for Test Professionals (2-Day)
Jeffery Payne
8:30 am to 5:00 pm

Explore security testing in an interactive workshop setting. This course is appropriate for software development and testing professionals who want to begin doing security testing as part of their assurance activities. 

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Software Tester Certification—Foundation Level (3-Day)
Conrad Fujimoto
8:30 am to 5:00 pm

Accredited training for the ISTQB® Certified Tester—Foundation Level (CTFL) certification, aligned to the new 2018 syllabus. ISTQB is the only internationally accepted certification for software testing and has granted more than 500,000 certifications in more than 110 countries around the world. In this three-day course, learn what it takes to be a successful software tester and learn about the relationship of testing to development, test levels, black-box methods, white-box testing, experienced-based testing, and more. This course is appropriate for those new to the testing profession and those seeking certification in software testing. 

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Mobile Application Testing (2-Day)
Brian Hicks
8:30 am to 5:00 pm

Many testers attempt to apply what they know to mobile testing, and while that may work for some functional testing, it often leaves many critical features untested. Critical errors that go untested can mean a swift end to a mobile application. Learning how to identify common issues in mobile applications and how to test the unique aspects of a mobile application is the only way to be truly successful. This two-day course will cover usability across multiple platforms and resolutions, network and security testing, creating application unit tests, mobile UI automation, and performance testing for various devices over various networks and carriers.

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Agile Test Automation—ICAgile (2-Day)
Rob Sabourin
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).

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Agile Tester Certification (2-Day)
Mike Sowers
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.  

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Foundations of DevOps—ICAgile Certification (2-Day)
Glenn Buckholz
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.

 

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, October 15

Continental Breakfast—7:30am–8:30am
7:30 am to 8:30 am
Registration Desk Hours—7:30am–5:00pm
7:30 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
Training Classes Continue—1:00pm–5:00pm
1:00 pm to 5:00 pm

Tuesday, October 16

Registration Desk Hours—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 Continue—8:30am–5:00pm
8:30 am to 5:00 pm
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Tutorial TA Selenium Test Automation: From the Ground Up Preview
Max Saperstone
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. Max Saperstone 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. Max 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

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Tutorial TB The Tester's (New) Role in Agile Development Preview
Rob Sabourin
8:30 am to 12:00 pm

Avoiding siloed development is a tricky business. It’s so easy for agile teams to fall into the rut in which testers only do traditional testing activities, and programmers strictly do their time-worn coding activities. Rob Sabourin shares a number of examples of how testing skills can be applied to a wide variety of activities in an agile project. Testers are among the most skilled team members in story grooming, elicitation, and exploration. Risk analysis in self-organized agile teams empowers testers to drive design decisions. A tester’s affinity analysis skills help clear the way for...Read more

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Tutorial TC Technical Test Automation Challenges: Patterns and Solutions Preview
Seretta Gamba
8:30 am to 12:00 pm

Many organizations find that test automation does not work as well as they thought it would. In many cases, these failures are due to generic technical reasons, which can be fixed with relative ease. Other solutions that have worked well are patterns, common to automation efforts at any level with whatever tools you are using. Seretta Gamba focuses on often-neglected technical issues—i.e., non-management issues—and the patterns that help solve them. These are not development or code patterns—this is a code-free tutorial. Using a set of patterns developed with Dot Graham, Seretta...Read more

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Tutorial TD Measurement and Metrics for Testing Preview
Mike Sowers
8:30 am to 12:00 pm

To be most effective, those in testing roles (whether Agile or traditional) must develop and use metrics to help the team direct the testing effort and help the team make informed recommendations about the software’s release readiness and associated risks. Because one important testing activity is to “measure” the quality of the software, teams must measure the results of both the development and testing processes. Collecting, analyzing, and using metrics are complicated because many developers and testers are concerned that the metrics will be used against them. Join Mike Sowers as he...Read more

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Tutorial TE Agile Leadership: Tips and Techniques Preview NEW
Jeffery Payne
8:30 am to 12:00 pm

Leading agile teams and organizations is much different than leading more traditional software development efforts. The emphasis on self-directed teams shifts a leader's role from that of a line manager who tells everybody what to do, to a mentor, facilitator, coach, and servant leader. This tutorial discusses how to effectively lead self-directed teams either as a ScrumMaster or staff manager. Jeff Payne also addresses how management roles are defined in agile, as well as various organizational structures that support agile leadership. He will also give you practical tips and techniques...Read more

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Tutorial TF Getting a Grip on Cognitive Adaptive Testing Preview NEW
Julie Gardiner
8:30 am to 12:00 pm

Cognitive Adaptive Testing means harnessing the power of analytics and autonomics in support of continuous delivery. The emergence of cognitive, adaptive testing is driven by trends towards omnichannel content delivery, utilization of big data and improved customer experience. Our software/systems need to be extremely responsive to customer sentiment, work across a variety of devices, be resilient in the face of unpredictable failure modes, and process vast amounts of unstructured data. Such scenarios put extreme pressure on IT systems and processes to be not only more responsive but...Read more

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Tutorial TG Exploratory Testing in Practice Preview NEW
Chris Blain
8:30 am to 12:00 pm

Many traditional test teams are augmenting their documented test plans and test cases with a structured, exploratory approach. Teams adopting agile methods are replacing ad-hoc testing with exploratory techniques, allowing all development team members to effectively participate in product testing. Exploratory testing is all about simultaneously learning about the software you are testing while you are designing and executing the tests. It is used by developers for unit testing, independent testing teams for integration or system testing, and by customers implementing acceptance testing of...Read more

Lunch 12:00pm–1:00pm
12:00 pm to 1:00 pm
Full-Day Tutorials Continue —1:00pm–4:30pm
1:00 pm to 4:30 pm
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Tutorial TH Test Estimation in the Face of Uncertainty Preview
Rob Sabourin
1:00 pm to 4:30 pm

Anyone who has ever attempted to estimate software testing effort realizes just how difficult the task can be. The number of factors that can affect the estimate is virtually unlimited. The keys to good estimates are understanding the primary variables, comparing them to known standards, and normalizing the estimates based on their differences. This is easy to say but difficult to accomplish because estimates are frequently required even when we know very little about the project—and what we do know is constantly changing. Throw in a healthy dose of politics and a bit of wishful thinking,...Read more

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Tutorial TI Success with Test Automation Projects: A People-driven Approach Preview NEW
Isabel Evans
1:00 pm to 4:30 pm

As we face increased demands for speed, change and technical excellence—the pressure, and the need for automating aspects of testing increases. But, successful test automation is not just about selecting and implementing tools and a technical infrastructure. People ensure the success or failure of the automation project; they must drive the project. Join Isabel Evans as she shows you how to make your test automation projects people-driven, by focusing on two vital but often neglected elements of any automation project: attitudes towards automation and experiences of automation. What...Read more

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Tutorial TJ Innovation: Evolving and Expanding Your Creative Capabilities Preview
Jennifer Bonine
1:00 pm to 4:30 pm

Innovation is a word frequently tossed around in organizations today. The standard cliché is “Do more with less.” People and teams want to be innovative but often struggle with how to define, prioritize, implement, and track their innovation efforts. Jennifer Bonine shares the Innovation Types model to give you new tools to evolve and expand your innovation capabilities. Find out if your innovation ideas and efforts match your team and company goals. Learn how to classify your innovation and improvement efforts as core (to the business) or context (essential but non-revenue generating)....Read more

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Tutorial TK Web Security Testing: The Basics and More Preview
Jeffery Payne
1:00 pm to 4:30 pm

Web applications are often security critical or serve as front-ends for security critical applications, making web testing for vulnerabilities an essential part of software testing. Unfortunately, most software testers have not been taught how to identify web security issues while testing applications. Join Jeffery Payne as he shares what you need to know to security test web-based applications as part of your overall testing process. Learn about the most common web security vulnerabilities and how they are introduced into web code and exploited by hackers. Explore test techniques for...Read more

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Tutorial TL Test Automation in Agile: The Path to More Consistent Releases Preview
Janet Gregory
1:00 pm to 4:30 pm

Agile teams deliver “potentially” shippable software at the end of every iteration (one to four weeks) or possibly every day. Janet Gregory says that this goal can't be achieved without automated tests, and many teams struggle with test automation. The challenge of automating functional regression tests frightens many testers, who feel their skills aren’t up to the job. So, how can you deliver good quality when you have to release so often? By combining a collaborative team approach with appropriate tools and design approaches, you can not only automate your regression tests but also use...Read more

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Tutorial TM Just In Time Testing Preview NEW
Chris Blain
1:00 pm to 4:30 pm

Turbulent development projects experience almost daily requirements changes, user interface modifications, and the continual integration of new functions, features, and technologies. Keep your testing efforts on track while reacting to changing priorities, technologies, and user needs. This highly interactive workshop offers a unique set of tools to help you cope with—and perhaps even flourish in—what may seem to be a totally chaotic environment. Practice dynamic test planning and scheduling, test idea development, bug tracking, reporting, test triage, exploratory testing, and much more....Read more

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

Wednesday, October 17

Continental Breakfast—7:30am–8:30am
7:30 am to 8:30 am
Registration Desk Hours—7:30am–4:30pm
7:30 am to 4:30 pm
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Keynote K1 The Life of a Tester, from Once Upon a Time to Happily Ever After Preview
Jennifer Bonine, tap|QA, Janna Loeffler, Carnival Corp.
8:30 am to 9:45 am

Most fairy tales start out with a scary premise and move to a happy ending. Lately, we have heard lots of scary stories about the future of testing. As machine learning and artificial intelligence continue to gain prominence, we see even more concerns about the tester’s career. With the help of a famous animation team, Jennifer and Janna will take you through a wild animated journey from what it was like in the early days of software to where we are today. We’ll explore the evolution of the testing profession, as well as what it will become in the future. As this story moves from...Read more

Networking Break in the Expo—9:45am–10:15am
9:45 am to 10:15 am
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Industry Technical Presentation ITP1 Testing Together: Get Your Software Team on the Same Page Preview
Joshua Shang, Blended Perspectives
10:15 am to 11:15 am

This talk will focus on the risks of separate Agile and testing teams, (illustrated by one team for instance using Jira, and another recording test cases and defects in ALM).

Whilst synchronization can work across teams, problems can emerge if test cases act as requirements but are not transparent to product owners or developers. Test cases can also become the de-facto “definition of done”, meaning sprints can run into challenges achieving their velocity.

Topics to be covered include:

- Requirement/Code/Test/Defect traceability - Reusable test cases - Testing and release management - Pros and cons of tight vs loose integration between planning and testing tools - Tips to create one team of the spectrum of skills and expertise to make a successful Agile teamRead more

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Concurrent Session W1 7 Sure-fire Ways to Ruin Your Test Automation Preview
Seretta Gamba, Freelancer
10:15 am to 11:15 am

Test automation projects fail, but why? Could you stop it from happening? In this tongue-in-cheek talk, Seretta Gamba will share seven proven methods to disrupt or utterly ruin a test automation project, including letting a lone champion keep important knowledge to themselves, ignoring good programming practices, setting impossible goals, and feigning support. Seretta’s humorous recommendations provide managers, testers, and automators alike with the early signs of an automation project in danger. By “warning” that the most effective defenses are found using the test automation...Read more

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Concurrent Session W2 What’s Our Job When the Machines Do Testing? Preview
Geoff Meyer, Dell EMC
10:15 am to 11:15 am

After its highly hyped introduction decades ago and followed by a long, quiet “winter,” artificial intelligence (AI) has slowly crept back into our consciousness. While our Siri and Alexa assistants entertain us, machine learning (ML) has brought new conveniences into our lives, with solutions such as Nest and Netflix. Today, AI brings us to the tantalizing brink of the autonomous vehicle. The sea change of this fourth Industrial Revolution has begun to disrupt industry after industry. The emerging capabilities of these fascinating machines demand our attention as AI starts to be...Read more

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Concurrent Session W3 A Tester’s Role in Requirements Exploration Preview
Janet Gregory, DragonFire, Inc.
10:15 am to 11:15 am

Having a shared understanding of desired and undesired behaviors for each new product feature is key to delivering value to the business frequently and predictably. However, many teams lack this understanding even as they start coding. As testers, we can explore feature specifications early, contributing to a successful and timely delivery. With a testing mindset, testers can elicit examples from stakeholders and help turn them into test scenarios that guide development. Janet Gregory will explain how incorporating that tester mindset and using test techniques during requirements...Read more

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Concurrent Session W4 The Test Expert's Role in DevOps Preview
Mike Sowers, Coveros
10:15 am to 11:15 am

DevOps is a culture shift that emphasizes collaboration between software developers and other IT professionals while automating software delivery and infrastructure changes. It aims to establish an environment where building, testing, and releasing software can happen more rapidly, frequently, and reliably. Many see DevOps as an extension to agile. In this session, Mike Sowers suggests that for those in testing roles, we may still be running to keep up in order to contribute in an agile context, and DevOps just adds to that pressure. But we can and should still strive to contribute...Read more

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Industry Technical Presentation ITP2 Testing at Loblaw Digital Preview
Justin Watts, Loblaw Digital
11:30 am to 12:30 pm

This is how Loblaw Digital keep things running smoothly as we grow from a manual first to an automation first organization.

Our mission is continuous testing with a shift-left mentality to provide confidence across the Software Development Lifecycle

it's about delivering compelling multi-channel experiences to help Canadians live life wellRead more

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Concurrent Session W5 Everything I Know about Automation I Learned from Saturday Morning Cartoons Preview
Chris Loder, InGenius Software
11:30 am to 12:30 pm

Do you remember sitting in front of the television as a kid, enjoying your favorite Saturday morning cartoons? Chris Loder shows you how the lessons we learned from those cartoons apply to our everyday work in test 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 "should have taken that left turn at Albuquerque" and possibly done things a little differently. Discover how the animators in Spider-Man didn’t redraw every background but reused the animation cels, similar to our reusing pieces of...Read more

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Concurrent Session W6 How AI Is Transforming Software Testing Preview
Raj Subramanian, Testim.io
11:30 am to 12:30 pm

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning concepts are rapidly being integrated into IT systems. Companies like Apple, Tesla, Google, Amazon, and Facebook have started investing more in AI to solve different technological problems in the areas of health care, autonomous cars, search engines, predictive modeling, and much more. Applying AI is real, it’s coming fast, and it’s going to affect every business, no matter how big or small. So, how do we as testers adapt to this change and embrace AI? Where should we start? And once we get to the era of wanting to automate...Read more

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Concurrent Session W7 Telling a Better Story: Finding Quality in the Agile User Story Preview
Stephan Marceau, Slalom, Keith Turpin, Slalom
11:30 am to 12:30 pm

When delivering agile software development projects and conducting quality assurance and testing assessments, it often seems that “solving the testing problem” doesn’t solve “the quality problem.” The testing problem is much broader than just code quality, testing tools, automation, and skills gaps. A common problem in many projects and teams is a lack of discipline during backlog grooming and sprint planning, leading to inferior user stories that leave the QA effort in peril and disrupt project delivery. In their interactive presentation, Stephan Marceau and Keith Turpin will dissect the...Read more

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Concurrent Session W8 Docker and the Path to a Better Staging Environment Preview
Gil Tayar, Applitools
11:30 am to 12:30 pm

Staging environments are notoriously difficult to set up and maintain. Unless you have a top-notch DevOps team, staging environments are usually different from production environments, and consequently, they are fraught with problems—failing deployments, "out of disk space" errors, and various other issues. Even when the staging environment is great, there's still a problem: There’s only one. If you want to test a feature branch, you must allocate time or, alternatively, install the feature branch and risk disrupting other testers. It’s time the testers took control about building their...Read more

Lunch 12:30pm–1:30pm
12:30 pm to 1:30 pm
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Industry Technical Presentation ITP3 No Agility Without Quality Preview
François Bonetto, Askida
1:30 pm to 2:30 pm

Growing adherence to the DevOps approach is an asset to Agility and stands out as a logical evolution to an Agile transformation. One of the key factors in the success of this approach is the automation of development processes, hence, testing. However, if tests are automated, they are often far from the user stories that are yet the target of Sprints to deliver business value. Teams typically support the automation of unit and functional tests but rarely integrated testing. In order to deliver business value quickly, it is necessary to test user stories, thus performing end-to-end testing. Learn how to adapt your automated testing strategies to ensure continuous quality improvement across your organization.Read more

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Concurrent Session W10 Use BDD and Product Analytics to Change Your Vision of Quality Preview
Laurent Py, Hiptest, Vincent Prêtre, Hiptest
1:30 pm to 2:30 pm

DevOps teams struggle to ensure quality in multiple daily deployments. Traditional testing approaches have often failed in this context, but there are exciting new ways to test. Laurent Py and Vincent Prêtre will explain how, at Hiptest, DevOps teams combine behavior-driven development (BDD) techniques with product analytic analysis to continuously assert the quality of their product. BDD scenarios align teams to a common goal, and users provide feedback to ensure their needs are met. The team transforms usage scenarios into tests that enable developers to deliver the...Read more

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Concurrent Session W11 Ditch Your Bug-Tracking Tool: 3 Solid Tactics to Minimize Bug Counts Preview
Jerry Penner, Waterloo Hydrogeologic
1:30 pm to 2:30 pm

A bug-free product release is an ideal that testers, developers, and project managers strive for, but when it comes to the go/no-go decision, the balance is often struck between "good" and "good enough," leaving behind a rotting to-do pile in the bug-tracking tool that is rarely acted upon in the next release. How can testers stop adding new bugs to the ever-growing list and clean up the “bug dump”? Is it possible to speed development and deliver better software by sidestepping the bug-tracking tool? Join Jerry Penner as he shares his experiences in reducing the wasted time and effort of...Read more

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Concurrent Session W12 Combatting Threats to Payment Processing in the Era of Connected Ecosystems Preview
Elizabeth Koumpan, IBM
1:30 pm to 2:30 pm

In an increasingly connected world, protection from security vulnerabilities and threats is essential. Yet providing that protection can be complex to understand, especially with changes in digital technology, consumer demands, and how social media influences consumer shopping and payment decisions. Consumer demands for a personalized experience, together with regulatory and industry initiatives, force innovation, openness, and collaboration in the payment industry, while new models, new digital ecosystems, and cross-border payments are being transformed by blockchain technology....Read more

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Concurrent Session W9 Gaining Consciousness Preview
Fiona Charles , Quality Intelligence
1:30 pm to 2:30 pm

Testers make difficult decisions with minimal information in turbulent times on critical projects. Independent consultant, Fiona Charles, suggests that testers must learn to draw a line in the decision-making process between trained intuition and careless assumption. In this presentation, Fiona shares her experience with helping testers train their instincts leading to better decision making. Skilled practitioners naturally make some decisions purely on instinct. For example, an expert medical doctor makes a dazzlingly accurate diagnosis in a complex case that baffles other physicians yet...Read more

Networking Break in the Expo—2:30pm–3:00pm
2:30 pm to 3:00 pm
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Industry Technical Presentation ITP4 Shifting Left: The Evolution of Automation Preview
Rick Faulise, tap | QA
3:00 pm to 4:00 pm

- Learn about how and why automation has become such a critical component of the QA Lifecycle - Gain an understanding of the growing changes in Continuous Integration - Learn how Open Source tools can be used and how to integrate with your software development and business needs - Learn about the new requirements for Test Engineer skills within CI AutomationRead more

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Concurrent Session W13 Strategies for Selecting the Right Open Source Framework for Cross-Browser Testing Preview
Eran Kinsbruner, Perfecto
3:00 pm to 4:00 pm

Organizations today are required to test their web application across browsers and mobile devices. Choosing the right framework is a matter of organizational as well as technical fit. With a plethora of test frameworks that span across practices such as behavior-driven development, unit tests, UI, and others, it can be a struggle to select the right tool. In this session, Eran Kinsbruner will provide an overview of the market and cover the top ten open source test frameworks, with a comparison table of pros and cons about when and why to use one tool over another. Eran will focus on both...Read more

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Concurrent Session W14 Improve Testing of AI Systems with "Grey-Box" Testing Technique Preview
Yury Makedonov, Accenture
3:00 pm to 4:00 pm

There are two main challenges to testing systems that incorporate elements of artificial intelligence. First, the same input can trigger different responses as an AI system learns and adapts to new conditions, and second, it is difficult to understand what the correct response really should be. Such behavior violates one of the main principles of traditional testing: the repeatability of test case execution. It's like shooting a moving target and not knowing whether you missed. Testers lose confidence in the outcome of their testing when traditional approaches no longer apply. Yury...Read more

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Concurrent Session W15 Testing at 43,000 Feet: Reporting Risk That Matters Preview
Alexandre Bauduin, House Of Test
3:00 pm to 4:00 pm

Testing dashboards can give stakeholders the false impression that projects are under control. But are they really? As a tester, you can see a counter indicating a high percentage of passing tests but know that you may still have critical failures in the product. Alexandre Bauduin will share his experience with test reporting, which goes beyond tallying bugs, counting test cases, and computing a variety of coverage measures. Alexandre will demonstrate how teams can report meaningfully on whether we are testing the right thing well. He will share different reporting strategies in...Read more

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Concurrent Session W16 Delivering the Goods: Harmonizing Regulated and Agile Practices Preview
Griffin Jones, Congruent Compliance
3:00 pm to 4:00 pm

Agile testing is hard. Testers contend with terse requirements, minimal process, little documentation, continually evolving business, technical and organizational factors. Auditors demand proof of compliance. Some teams have trouble conforming to regulations while preserving agile practises. Griffin Jones, a tenured regulated software testing consultant, says “not only can agile practices blend with regulatory compliance - they can be harmonized with them leading to high quality and more agility.” Griffin feels that regulators are project stakeholders, who join the product owner in...Read more

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Keynote K2 Reinventing Test Leadership Preview
Fiona Charles , Quality Intelligence
4:15 pm to 5:15 pm

In the age of agile and DevOps, many organizations are eliminating the role of test manager. Fiona Charles, a people- and project-focused leadership consultant, reviews what this means for testing and test leadership. Fiona shares her experience working with skilled test leads in adapting and inventing test methodologies and selecting techniques to fit evolving organizational frameworks, new technologies, and increasingly streamlined software delivery methods. Fiona has helped develop test coaches and mentors who inspire testers to grow their skills, and with her guidance, many agile test...Read more

Expo Reception—5:15pm–6:15pm
5:15 pm to 6:15 pm

Thursday, October 18

Registration Desk Hours—7:30am–4:00pm
7:30 am to 4:00 pm
Continental Breakfast—7:30am–8:30am
7:30 am to 8:30 am
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Keynote K3 Automation in Aviation and Mission-Critical Software Preview
Alexandre Bauduin, House Of Test
8:30 am to 9:30 am

Are you confronted with automating tests of large, complex systems? Are there more conditions to test than you can do in a lifetime? Are auditors demanding compliance to a never-ending collection of regulations? Do stakeholders want slick dashboards tracking abstract key process indicators? Join Alexandre Bauduin as he shares his experience leading the complex system testing challenges of a real-time Boeing 777 Flight Simulator. Alexandre will outline how he overcame the many challenges faced by combining his skills in test design and his expertise as an airline pilot, including...Read more

Networking Break in the Expo—9:45am–10:15am
9:45 am to 10:15 am
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Industry Technical Presentation ITP5 How to End the Wait for Test Data Preview
Matthew Yeh, Delphix
10:15 am to 11:15 am

Why data represents the most significant bottleneck in the SDLC Best practices for achieving fast access to secure test data How industry leaders are leveraging DataOps to accelerate development and testingRead more

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Concurrent Session T1 No More Shelfware—Let's Just Drive Test Automation Preview
Isabel Evans, Independent Consultant
10:15 am to 11:15 am

When Isabel Evans learned to drive a car, she also learned how to check, clean, and change spark plugs, mend the fan belt with a stocking, and indicate speed and direction changes with arm and hand signals. Now, we don’t expect to have to do any of those things; we just drive the car. That’s how test tools and automation could be: Just drive and concentrate on the journey of delivering software continuously—concentrate on engineering the solutions, not on the automation. To be effective engineers, we need the support of a powerful toolset that we understand. Is that what we have? Or do we...Read more

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Concurrent Session T2 Test Management in Agile—What Happened to All My Testers? Preview
Jeffery Payne, Coveros
10:15 am to 11:15 am

Substantial confusion exists about the roles and responsibilities of test management when using an agile software development process. Agile seeks to streamline project management and leadership under the role of a ScrumMaster, but what does this mean for test managers? How do they stay involved in the process? What role do they fill? Is it possible that test managers are no longer needed? Join Jeffery Payne for a collaborative dialogue to discuss the pros and cons of a variety of test management models he has seen used by companies that have adopted agile. Learn how to best position...Read more

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Concurrent Session T3 The Importance of When: How to Effect Change in Your Team Preview
Julie Gardiner, Independent Consultant
10:15 am to 11:15 am

Have you ever had lots of ideas to improve software quality, but your project team seemed less than responsive? Does your team struggle to work well together? Do you already have lots of actions to take from the conference and you don’t know how these changes will be received? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then this session is for you. Join Julie Gardiner as she shares ways of getting your message across and how to play to people’s strengths to make your team work more efficiently and effectively. She will demonstrate an effective communication style model and explain why...Read more

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Concurrent Session T4 Testing in the Dark: Improving Quality when You Don't Know the Product Preview
Rob Sabourin, AmiBug.com
10:15 am to 11:15 am

Stakeholders drop software on our desks and expect us to test it without any requirements, design, or product knowledge whatsoever. About the only clear thing is the absurd and unrealistic deadline. We are expected to bend over backward, spread magic pixie dust, and heroically test quality into a product we have never heard of before. But testing in the dark is not impossible, and as Rob Sabourin shows, it can even be a very valuable and fun experience. Learn strategies to emerge from a murky fog into clear, meaningful quality insights and leverage unlikely sources about what...Read more

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Industry Technical Presentation ITP6 Continuous Testing Made Awesome with Sauce Labs Preview
Dominic Lucia, Sauce Labs
11:30 am to 12:30 pm

Join Dominic Lucia, Solution Engineer at Sauce Labs, as he shows how the Sauce Labs platform can help you continuously test your web and mobile applications, ensuring no-fail releases to keep your customers happy and freeing up your teams for more innovative development, all while decreasing the time and money you spend on infrastructure. Dominic will discuss how Continuous Testing can help your team truly achieve modern development workflows, give a complete demo of the Sauce Labs Continuous Testing Cloud, and answer all of your questions about the future of this exciting space! - Overview of how to run your automated Selenium tests in the Sauce Labs cloud - Decrease the amount of time it takes your suite to run by executing tests in parallel - Ensure your apps work all of the time with functional testing on real devicesRead more

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Concurrent Session T5 Devices and Desires: As Humans How Do We Experience Software? Preview
Isabel Evans, Independent Consultant
11:30 am to 12:30 pm

We consume and still we desire more. More devices, more apps, more data, more bandwidth, more connectivity. The more we have, the more we want …. We assume that to be true – those of us who work in the software industry. But is that true? To understand what is really required of our products, we need to design and test a pyramid of interlocking quality attributes, that build together to make an optimum experience for the people who use our products, matching their needs, and their desires. It is not enough to test functional suitability, performance, and reliability. People also require...Read more

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Concurrent Session T6 Testing Retail VR Applications Preview
Nimesh Patel, Valtech Canada
11:30 am to 12:30 pm

Traditional test approaches break down when applied to retail virtual reality systems. In this presentation, Nimesh Patel will share his experience developing a novel approach to retail VR testing that uses a blend of exploratory research and business- and user-focused testing strategies. Nimesh juggles the needs of a rich collection of company stakeholders, diverse clients, and highly specialized VR team members in order to draw critical insights from VR testing. Exploratory research of other retail VR applications was used to identify many domain-specific risks by studying their...Read more

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Concurrent Session T7 Why Military Veterans Make Exceptional Testers Preview
Brenda Hall, Bridge360
11:30 am to 12:30 pm

Hiring trained talent has been a challenge for IT organizations for several years now. How do you find a steady source of qualified candidates for entry-level QA and QE positions, especially considering colleges and universities don't include a software quality assurance curriculum? Enter the returning veteran! Our veterans often find the search for jobs a daunting challenge, but Brenda Hall discovered just how well veterans are suited for work in software quality. She will share her insights into solving two challenges—our companies needing talent, and returning veterans needing...Read more

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Concurrent Session T8 Behavior-Driven Testing Using Page Object Models Preview
Brian Hicks, Coveros
11:30 am to 12:30 pm

Does it feel like you spend half of every sprint fixing failing automated functional tests? Are programmers unwilling to work with automation code? Is test automation a maintenance nightmare? There is a better way. The Page Object Model (POM) is a powerful design pattern for building test automation. A lack of design discipline can lead to test automation code that is buggy, brittle, and almost impossible to maintain. Focusing on the fundamentals of the POM pattern, combined with some disciplined behavior-driven practices, leads to high-quality, maintainable automation code, saving teams...Read more

Lunch 12:30pm–1:30pm
12:30 pm to 1:30 pm
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Concurrent Session T10 Mobbing for Test Design: Connecting with Your Colleagues’ Test Ideas Preview
Jeff MacBane, TechSmith, James Fogarty, TechSmith
1:30 pm to 2:30 pm

Do you have trouble generating test case ideas? Are there seemingly obvious bugs getting through your test plan? Are you considering revamping your current test analysis and design? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then this session is for you. You may have heard of mob programming as an extension of pair programming. Mob testing is the same principle: having the whole team test together on one computer, collaborating and throwing out ideas. You end up getting the best from everyone. Join Jeff MacBane and James Fogarty as they show you how to leverage mob test design...Read more

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Concurrent Session T11 Shift Your Perspective on Data and Influence Stakeholders Preview
Jennifer Bonine, tap|QA
1:30 pm to 2:30 pm

With all the open source tools available in the market, it can be overwhelming to determine which might meet your needs and which will work best in your environment. Join Jennifer Bonine as she explains the relationship between data and your environment, and using data to help make decisions in order to create a high-performing team and metrics dashboard. She will identify opportunities for applying data analytics across the engineering and testing landscape. She also will review ways to collaborate and show results in a way that clearly demonstrates progress, as well as how to present a...Read more

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Concurrent Session T12 5 Ways to Make Load Testing Work for You Preview
Israel Rogoza, IncrediBuild
1:30 pm to 2:30 pm

While organizations understand the need for load testing, and many even have the necessary tools to manage it, they still fail to execute it well and “do the job” for end-users. Frustration at a poor user experience is increased by the IT organization's failure to explain the root cause of load issues, simply passing them off to users as generic "technical issues." Join Israel Rogoza as he shares five ways to achieve load testing success that focuses on the users’ needs. Based on his load test experiences, Israel will introduce strategies to help you decide who should carry out...Read more

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Concurrent Session T9 Troubleshooting and Understanding Modern Systems: Tools Testers Need Preview
Chris Blain, Medidata Solutions, Inc.
1:30 pm to 2:30 pm

Successful agile testers collaborate with programmers as code is written, isolating problems, troubleshooting defects, and debugging code all along the way to getting the product to done. But modern systems are scaling beyond what traditional teams are able to understand using familiar tools. New appreciation for systems and complexity theory, as well as disciplines and tools around emerging areas such as observability and resilience engineering, are offering solutions that allow teams to actively debug their systems and explore properties and patterns they have not defined in advance....Read more

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Keynote K4 From a Testing Team to an Organization Quality Chain Preview
Sophie Benjamin, Kezber
2:45 pm to 3:45 pm

Is testing a bottleneck in your company? Do you uncomfortably squeeze testing into projects? Can you show stakeholders how testing adds value? Sophie Benjamin has spent the last fifteen years answering these questions, transforming testing into added value for projects, products, and companies. Sophie shares techniques for creating organizational value chains—process models in which each step feeds the next, therefore adding value to the product or service being created. Sophie shows how quality awareness at each step adds value, and she gives examples of how quality value chain...Read more

Friday, October 19

Continental Breakfast—8:00am–8:30am
8:00 am to 8:30 am
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Women Who Test
8:30 am to 3:45 pm

Women Who Test is a full-day event on Friday, October 19 for women to network with other women who work in software testing. It is also a day to learn from and be inspired by each other. The program will cover testing topics and will support women’s personal and career journeys and include content like: reengineering your life, growing your personal brand, setting goals, discovering your career superpowers, and how to problem-solve when you are a female in the tech industry where your gender is out numbered 7:3. Join women test engineers, managers, CEOs...Read more

Lunch 12:00pm–1:00pm
12:00 pm to 1:00 pm
Women Who Test Bonus Session Continues 1:00pm–3:45pm
1:00 pm to 3:45 pm