STARWEST - Conference List Schedule | TechWell

Conference Schedule

Sunday, October 1

Continental Breakfast — 7:30am – 8:30am
7:30 am to 8:30 am
Registration — 7:30am – 5:00pm
7:30 am to 5:00 pm
Multi-Day Training Classes Begin — 8:30am – 5:00pm
8:30 am to 5:00 pm
Security Testing for Test Professionals
Dalton Forbes
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. 

Advanced Tester Certification—Technical Test Analyst
Susan Harrington
8:30 am to 5:00 pm

Accredited training for the ISTQB® Advanced Tester Certification—Technical Test Analyst (CTAL-TTA) certification. This course covers risk-based testing, structure-based testing, analytical techniques, quality characteristics for technical testing, reviews, and test tools and automation.

Certified Performance Tester with JMeter—PtU
Robert Foster
8:30 am to 5:00 pm

Learn to use the open source framework, Apache JMeter™, to manage, record, and execute your tests. The two-day, hands-on class will have students run tests against a sample application to help solve issues that include basic test recording, dealing with SSL, parameterizeing tests, and more.

Software Tester Certification Foundation Level—ISTQB CTFL
Hajer Ben Moussa
8:30 am to 5:00 pm

Accredited training for the ISTQB® Certified Tester—Foundation Level (CTFL) certification, the world's most widely-recognized certification of software testing skills and knowledge. Find out what it takes to be a successful software tester and gain practical knowledge you can apply now including the relationship of testing to development, test levels, black-box methods, white-box testing, experienced-based testing, and more.

Software Test Management, Planning, and Measurement
Jeff Pierce
8:30 am to 5:00 pm

Learn how to achieve a consensus on important test strategy issues such as resource allocation, risk prioritization, automation, and more. This course is appropriate for Test Managers, Test Leads, and experienced testers tasked with developing testing strategy for their organization.

  • Discuss the importance of corporate culture and the economics of test and failure
  • Learn proven test planning methods and techniques
  • Learn to create customized Master Test Plans and Level-specific plans
  • Explore the issues that affect the test strategy
  • ...
Agile Tester Certification—ISTQB/ICAgile
Mike Sowers
8:30 am to 5:00 pm

Explore agile testing processes in this interactive course designed for dev and testing roles. Learn technical and team skills testers need for success, as well as key agile testing techniques. Successful attendees earn the ICAgile Certified Professional—Agile Testing (ICP-TST) designation and can optionally sit for the ISTQB® Certified Tester Foundation Level—Agile Tester (CTFL-AT) exam.

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. Learn to avoid the common mistakes of DevOps implementations and to leverage DevOps best practices. Upon completion attendees will be certified by the International Consortium for Agile and awarded the ICAgile Professional (ICP-FDO) designation.

Agile & DevOps Leadership—ICAgile Certification
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.

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 2

Registration — 7:00am – 5:00pm
7:00 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
Full & Half-Day Tutorials — 8:30am – 12:00pm
8:30 am to 12:00 pm
Tutorial MA BDD for Champions!
Andrew Knight, Sarah Watkins
8:30 am to 4:30 pm

Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) is a set of pragmatic practices that prioritizes our focus on the behaviors we want to develop. Why? Users get value out of good behaviors. If we focus on developing high-quality features that users want, then everything else falls into place. In the first half of this workshop, we will explore behaviors for an example product using a group activity called Example Mapping. Then, in the second half, we will refine all the scenarios for those behaviors by writing Gherkin "Given-When-Then" scenarios that follow the Arrange-Act-Assert pattern. Through these...Read more

Tutorial MB Getting Started with AI-Driven Automation
Dionny Santiago
8:30 am to 12:00 pm

AI has been rapidly changing the way we approach software testing. Traditional test automation is time-consuming to create and breaks down easily in the presence of change. Thankfully, AI is helping testing teams create less procedural, more resilient tests that are able to self-heal in the presence of modern, rapidly changing, highly dynamic production systems. This sounds great, but you may be asking yourself: How do I get started? What additional skills do I need to learn? What tools are available for me to start using, right now? Join Dionny Santiago as he breaks down different AI...Read more

Tutorial MC Testing from the Inside: Unit Testing Edition
Tariq King
8:30 am to 12:00 pm

Do you want to take your testing and/or development skills to the next level? Are you working in an agile team where you are trying to shift-left so that your organization can reap the full benefits of testing earlier? In software testing, you're generally taught to think outside the box, from a user's perspective. However, sometimes great ideas can be sparked from inside the box, by looking at the underlying code and using that knowledge to identify various ways to break the software. Join Tariq King as he walks through the fundamentals of program-based testing so that you can find bugs...Read more

Tutorial MD Test Automation: How to Start and Succeed
Chris Loder
8:30 am to 12:00 pm

Many organizations invest a lot of effort in test automation at the system level but then have serious problems as their product matures and changes over time. As a leader, how can you ensure that your new automation efforts will get off to a good start? What can you do to ensure that your automation work provides continuing added value? Chris Loder will explain the critical issues you need to know to get a good start, and he will share his extensive experience in building great automation. He covers the most important management issues you should address for test automation success,...Read more

Tutorial ME The Influential Tester in Agile Development
Robert 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 of testers only doing traditional testing activities and programmers strictly doing their time-worn coding activities. But there are actually many places testers can be influential and contribute value on cross-functional teams. Rob Sabourin will share several examples of how testing skills can be applied to a wide variety of activities in an agile project. For instance, testers are among the most skilled team members in story grooming, elicitation, and exploration. Risk analysis in self-...Read more

Tutorial MF The How and When of Communication
Julie Gardiner
8:30 am to 12:00 pm

Ever struggled to communicate test progress or persuade a stakeholder on the quality improvement initiative you have? Do you struggle getting developers to appreciate the need to build testing into the lifecycle? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then this session is for you. Julie Gardiner shares key ingredients for getting your message across more effectively. She shares a communication model she has used for nearly 20 years in her career to get her message across and, more recently, how the science of timing can play a major part of how communication is received. Through...Read more

Tutorial MG Ramping Up Modern Performance
Leandro Melendez
8:30 am to 12:00 pm

Modern software is developed in a continuous manner, with several backend services frequently being deployed and scaled in the cloud. Furthermore, as organizations move toward agile, DevOps, and continuous delivery, it is vital for them to move away from traditional approaches to evaluate performance. Are you interested in ramping up or polishing your skills on performance testing? Leandro Melendez will introduce attendees to modern, agile, and continuous performance testing. You’ll learn performance assurance principles and everything from fundamental performance concepts like correlation...Read more

Tutorial MH Debunking the QA KPI Myths and Make KPI Great Again
Lisette Zounon
8:30 am to 12:00 pm

When it comes to software quality, data and metrics are essential for making informed decisions. However, not all KPI metrics are created equal. In fact, many common KPI metrics can become myths that do more harm than good. In this tutorial, Lisette draws on her experience to debunk the QA KPI myths and share practical strategies for making KPI metrics great again. She will discuss how to determine the purpose of QA KPIs for your organization's needs and how to adapt KPI metrics to your organization's culture—exploring practical QA KPI metrics that bring value to everyone in the...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
Tutorial MI Test Strategies for a Modern World
Adam Satterfield, Janna Loeffler
1:00 pm to 4:30 pm

With the advent of DevOps, Agile, and ever-increasing complex technologies under test, the classic, the bloated test strategy document has quickly become outdated. Many testers struggle to understand how to convey complex testing tasks concisely. However, there is hope! There is a way to create a concise, actionable, and useful test strategy for Agile, DevOps, and even the dreaded Waterfall! Janna and Adam will leverage real-world test strategies that they have used and will break down the critical components and detail out how to create a test strategy, no matter what development style...Read more

Tutorial MJ Full-Stack Testing for Microservices Architectures
Tariq King
1:00 pm to 4:30 pm

Software development is trending toward building systems using small, autonomous, independently deployable microservices. Leveraging microservices makes it easier to release software early, more frequently, and even continuously, which aligns well with Agile and DevOps. But how does the microservices architectural pattern affect software testing and testability? How can you ensure microservice-based applications have an adequate level of test coverage at each level? Does this paradigm change the test automation pyramid, and if so what does that look like? Join Tariq King as he walks...Read more

Tutorial MK Instill a DevOps Testing Culture in Your Team and Organization
Adam Auerbach
1:00 pm to 4:30 pm

The DevOps movement is here. Companies across many industries are breaking down siloed IT departments and federating them into product development teams. Testing and its practices are at the heart of these changes. Traditionally, IT organizations have been staffed with mostly manual testers and a limited number of automation and performance engineers. To keep pace with development in the new “you build it, you own it” environment, testing teams and individuals must develop new technical skills and even embrace coding to stay relevant and add greater value to the business. DevOps really...Read more

Tutorial ML Automation Framework Essentials
Chris Loder
1:00 pm to 4:30 pm

Automation is critical in today’s software delivery lifecycle, and yet many organizations struggle to keep their automation running. How can we mitigate difficulties and get consistent automation runs and results we can trust? The secret is implementing a solid automation framework, but that isn’t as easy as it seems. Chris Loder has built several automation frameworks over his career and has learned what works—and, more importantly, what doesn’t. This tutorial will cover what an automation framework is, the benefits of having one, and the keys to a successful framework, including...Read more

Tutorial MM Become Your Company's Quality Consultant
Péter Földházi
1:00 pm to 4:30 pm

Companies of all sizes face difficulties in achieving higher quality standards within their organization. As quality engineering includes various roles and activities, it is also challenging to find the right people to analyze the current state from a wide perspective and provide the recommendations that will allow these organizations to mature their teams, improving their DevOps culture in the process. Join Péter Földházi as he illustrates the knowledge and skills necessary to become your company's quality consultant. Péter's goal is to involve engineers from beginner to advanced levels...Read more

Tutorial MN Towards Healthier Apps Through Observability
Kaushal Dalvi
1:00 pm to 4:30 pm

Observability has exploded onto the software engineering zeitgeist over the last five years, and for a good reason. However, it suffers from being misunderstood and sometimes equated with a closely related subject—monitoring. This confusion is compounded by the fact that some of the existing tools and frameworks just adopted a lot of the observability terminology in just the letter of the word, not the intent. Not having a solid grasp on the basics of observability is becoming unacceptable in the world of effective software quality engineering. Kaushal Dalvi shares his experiences in the...Read more

Tutorial MO Test Design for Fully Automated Build Architecture
Melissa Benua
1:00 pm to 4:30 pm

Imagine this…as soon as any developed functionality is submitted into the code repository, it is automatically subjected to the appropriate battery of tests and then released straight into production. Setting up the pipeline capable of doing just that is becoming more and more common and something you need to know about. But most organizations hit the same stumbling block—just what IS the appropriate battery of tests? Automated build architectures don't always lend themselves well to the traditional stages of testing. In this hands-on tutorial, Melissa Benua introduces you to key test...Read more

Registration Desk Closes — 5:00pm
5:00 pm
Speed Networking — 5:15pm - 6:00pm
5:15 pm to 6:00 pm

Tuesday, October 3

Registration — 7:30am - 5:30pm
7:30 am to 5:30 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
Full & Half-Day Tutorials — 8:30am - 12:00pm
8:30 am to 12:00 pm
Tutorial TA Testing in the Cloud From All Four Corners of the World!
Kristoffer Nordström
8:30 am to 4:30 pm

This is a workshop for those of you that have done some sort of scripting or automation before. It’s a workshop where we’ll write a simple test agent using Python for sending traffic to a centralized REST API. You’ll follow up by creating 10,000 items of random test objects for offline test data. You’ll spin up server instances in the AWS cloud using Python. And finally, to top it all off, you’ll deploy your test agent and test data in cloud instances spread out over the four corners of the world, all of them generating simultaneous test traffic toward a single REST API where you’ll all...Read more

Tutorial TB Building Your Own Automation Framework
Chris Loder
8:30 am to 4:30 pm

Let’s face it, building an automation framework is hard. That’s why there are so many commercial ones available on the market. But what if you wanted to build your own? One that you could customize to suit your needs, as opposed to you having to work within the confines of a tool or other framework. Where do you start? What does it need to have to be successful? Chris Loder will walk you through building your own automation framework based on his successful framework architecture. You will start with a basic test case runner and then build on it by adding new modules, such as UI...Read more

Tutorial TC A Quality Engineering Introduction to AI and Machine Learning
Tariq King
8:30 am to 12:00 pm

Although there are several controversies and misunderstandings surrounding AI and machine learning, one thing is apparent — people have quality concerns about the safety, reliability, and trustworthiness of these types of systems. Not only are ML-based systems shrouded in mystery due to their largely black-box nature, they also tend to be unpredictable since they can adapt and learn new things at runtime. Validating ML systems is challenging and requires a cross-section of knowledge, skills, and experience from areas such as mathematics, data science, software engineering, cyber-security...Read more

Tutorial TD Getting Smart on API Testing & Automation
Jeffery Payne
8:30 am to 12:00 pm

API testing has become more and more popular as service-oriented architectures have become common. In addition, testing at the API level can be effectively automated to provide maintainable regression tests that work well in a DevOps process. In this tutorial, Jeffery Payne discusses what API testing is all about and how it is effectively done. Techniques and tools are discussed that highlight where in the testing process API testing makes the most sense to perform. Various open source and commercial tools will be demonstrated and the pros and cons of various solutions discussed. Effective...Read more

Tutorial TE Quality and Testing Measures and Metrics
Jeff Pierce
8:30 am to 12:00 pm

To be most effective, leaders—including development and testing managers, ScrumMasters, product owners, and IT managers—need metrics to help direct their efforts and make informed recommendations about the software’s release readiness and associated risks. Because one important evaluation activity is to “measure” the quality of the software, the progress and results of both development and testing must be measured. Collecting, analyzing, and using metrics are complicated because developers and testers often are concerned that the metrics will be used against them. Join Jeff Pierce as he...Read more

Tutorial TF Web Security Testing: The Basics and More
Tom Stiehm
8:30 am to 12:00 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 Tom Stiehm 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

Tutorial TG Exploratory Testing in the Heat of the Sprint
Robert Sabourin
8:30 am to 12:00 pm

Agile teams are burdened with the challenge of delivering working product increments after short iterations of development. Getting software from an ambiguous terse, incomplete requirement–to a done, working, solid, valuable, high-quality code requires testers to continuously adapt to change in a turbulent context and deliver actionable results. Rob Sabourin will illustrate how charter-driven session-based exploratory testing techniques can empower agile teams and help them learn quickly and adapt based on what really matters. Testers can design and execute tests on the fly as they explore...Read more

Tutorial TH Automating Visual Tests with Cypress
Andrew Knight
8:30 am to 12:00 pm

In this workshop, we learn what "visual testing" is and how it's different from traditional functional testing. Essentially, a picture is worth a thousand assertions. We can take visual snapshots of our apps during automated tests and compare them over time. Any changes detected are flagged for testers to inspect. Good visual testing uses AI to flag significant things like missing elements instead of insignificant things like a 1-pixel shift. To demonstrate this, we will automate a test for an example web app using Cypress and JavaScript without and then with visual snapshots. For visual...Read more

Lunch — 12:00pm - 1:00pm
12:00 pm to 1:00 pm
Full & Half-Day Tutorials Continue — 1:00pm - 4:30pm
1:00 pm to 4:30 pm
Tutorial TI Prompt Engineering for Software Quality Professionals NEW
Tariq King
1:00 pm to 4:30 pm

With the sudden rise of ChatGPT and large language models (LLMs), professionals have been attempting to use these types of tools to improve productivity. Building off prior momentum in AI for testing, software quality professionals are leveraging LLMs for creating tests, generating test scripts, automatically analyzing test results, and more. However, if LLM's are not fed good prompts describing the task that the AI is supposed to perform, their responses can be inaccurate and unreliable, thereby diminishing productivity gains. Join Tariq King as he teaches you how to craft high-quality AI...Read more

Tutorial TJ Agile Test & Transformation Leadership in Action
Mike Sowers
1:00 pm to 4:30 pm

Leading and driving change in our companies, organizations, and teams can be as difficult as pushing a wet rope uphill! Even with the best processes and tools, we may not achieve our business and customer satisfaction goals when our environment is stuck in the status quo. Ultimately, transforming an organization is about changing culture. Our values, beliefs, goals, assumptions, purpose, priorities, and other factors influence culture. Test managers and leaders are critical players in driving cultural change. Mike Sowers will explore the key attributes of being a Test Transformation Leader...Read more

Tutorial TK Integrating Automated Testing into DevOps
Jeffery Payne
1:00 pm to 4:30 pm

In many organizations, agile development processes are driving the pursuit of faster software releases, which has spawned a set of new practices—DevOps. DevOps stresses communications and integration between development and operations, including rapid deployment, continuous integration, and continuous delivery. Because DevOps practices require confidence that changes made to the code base will function as expected, automated testing is essential. Join Jeffery Payne as he discusses the unique challenges associated with integrating automated testing into continuous integration/continuous...Read more

Tutorial TL Holistic Performance Testing for Modern Applications
Kaushal Dalvi
1:00 pm to 4:30 pm

With the advent of frameworks like Angular, React, and Vue, the landscape of application performance has changed significantly in terms of testing and measurement. Gone are the days of measuring response time as a single value based on back-end performance. In modern web and mobile applications, additional layers need to be peeled apart at the front end to truly understand its performance characteristics. Traditional approaches to performance testing are no longer sufficient to provide a delightfully responsive user experience. Join Kaushal Dalvi as he details new developments in the...Read more

Tutorial TM Test Estimation in the Face of Uncertainty
Robert 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

Tutorial TN Smarter Test Design with Classification Trees and Pairwise Techniques
Julie Gardiner
1:00 pm to 4:30 pm

In many teams, the total number of possible combinations of inputs, outputs, browsers, and devices for the software we need to test has grown to an alarming number. As testers, we need to choose the most important tests first, but how do we do that without understanding the potential scope in the first place? In this tutorial, Julie Gardiner will share two powerful testing techniques that can help us be more efficient and effective with our testing. Classification trees are a structured, visual approach to identifying test objects and documenting test ideas and data in a way that allows...Read more

Welcome Reception — 5:00pm - 6:00pm
5:00 pm to 6:00 pm
Test Lab Kick-Off — 5:30pm - 7:30pm
5:30 pm to 7:30 pm

Wednesday, October 4

Morning Yoga — 6:45am - 7:30am
6:45 am to 7:30 am
Registration — 7:00am - 5:30pm
7:00 am to 5:30 pm
Continental Breakfast — 7:30am - 8:30am
7:30 am to 8:30 am
Networking Events—Test Lab (All Day) | Genius Testing Bar (All Day)
7:30 am to 5:30 pm
Keynote K1 The Rise of Generative AI: Judgment Day
Tariq King, EPAM Systems
8:30 am to 9:45 am

It’s been over 70 years since Alan Turing defined what many still consider to be the ultimate test for a computer system—can a machine exhibit intelligent behavior that is indistinguishable from that of a human? Originally coined the imitation game, the Turing test involves having someone evaluate text conversations between a human and a machine designed to respond like a human. The machine passes the test if the evaluator cannot reliably tell the difference between the human versus machine-generated text. Although the Turing test generally serves as a starting point for discussing AI...Read more

Keynote K2 Bootstrapping a Tester's Journey
Aprajita Mathur, Guardant Health
10:00 am to 11:00 am

Have you ever felt stuck and considered changing your career path as a tester because your opinion didn’t matter, or the popular opinion was “anyone can test !”? During this keynote, Aprajita Mathur will share her personal experience of feeling stuck in an endless "loop", regardless of role or position. During her journey, Aprajita missed opportunities and epically failed because she lacked the tools, attitude, or mindfulness to become unstuck. So, what does it take to bootstrap yourself? Aprajita will share the five concepts attendees need to keep building upon during their career to...Read more

Visit the Expo — 10:30am - 2:00pm
10:30 am to 2:00 pm
Networking Break in the Expo — 11:00am - 11:30am
11:00 am to 11:30 am
Concurrent Sessions — 11:30am - 12:30pm
11:30 am to 12:30 pm
Concurrent Session W1 What Can ChatGPT Do for Your Testing Organization?
Tonya Jackson, CSAA
11:30 am to 12:30 pm

ChatGPT can assist a testing organization by automating repetitive and mundane tasks, such as answering FAQs, generating test cases, and providing relevant information on testing processes. Additionally, it can provide quick and accurate responses to inquiries, freeing up time for human testers to focus on more complex tasks. ChatGPT can also be integrated into an organization's testing tools to improve efficiency and reduce errors in testing processes. How? Through test case generation, ChatGPT can be used to generate test cases automatically by analyzing the language patterns and...Read more

Concurrent Session W3 Test Architecture for API First Platforms
Venkatesh Venkataraman, Oracle
11:30 am to 12:30 pm

API First Platforms adopt rapid application development lifecycle and high velocity deployments. Quality assurance teams are stressed to reduce the automation backlog and have a limited window to catch up with speed of deployments. This session will discuss how Venkatesh's team at Oracle adopted a creative approach to accelerate test automation by adopting an innovative “Automate First” model. The core pillar of this test architecture is creation of acceptance driven component tests leveraging virtualized services by developers. This laid a solid foundation which assured validation of...Read more

Concurrent Session W4 Exploratory Testing As Code
Brendan Connolly, Carpe Data
11:30 am to 12:30 pm

What if testing followed the lead of revolutions in infrastructure and configuration management. What if testers treated exploratory testing like developers do code? Exploratory testing is a powerful and effective technique. However, its acceptance is inhibited because there isn’t a common structured process that enables the traceability and transparency to make it a standard across the software industry. In this session, Brendan Connolly will introduce the tooling and process needed to implement a light-weight, scalable, transparent, and traceable approach to managing exploratory testing...Read more

Concurrent Session W5 Riding the Hybrid Car—Our Continuous Test Automation Journey
Shai Srinivasan, Markel Insurance
11:30 am to 12:30 pm

This talk will provide a glimpse into how continuous test pipelines co-exist and integrate with strategic low code test automation tools. Multiple testing teams, each owning distinct applications, are faced with the task of testing their own product as well as the interactions and behaviors with each other. Tight schedules and the challenge of finding the right skill set can be solved with the use of low code SAAS test automation tools. In this talk, Shai Srinivasan will share some of the challenges she and her team faced—how do these tools integrate with the enterprise's testing process...Read more

Concurrent Session W6 Automation Face-Off
Chris Loder, Upland InGenius
11:30 am to 12:30 pm

What do you think about when you hear the words "test automation"? Are you considering developing your own tools to help you probe the product deeply, or will you apply a commercial tool for automated checking? Are you excited by new, powerful, enabling technologies, or do you worry that a robot will replace you? One thing is for sure: when we apply tools, we fundamentally change the context and the nature of the work we do. Our panelists are software testing experts who will discuss all this and more with you! Together, we'll probe what people mean by automation, the power that tools can...Read more

Lunch in the Expo — 12:30pm - 1:30pm
12:30 pm to 1:30 pm
Concurrent Sessions — 1:30pm - 2:30pm
1:30 pm to 2:30 pm
Concurrent Session W7 An AI-Partnered Testing Future—It’s Here!
Kevin Pyles, O.C. Tanner
1:30 pm to 2:30 pm

Let’s be real, we are quite a ways out from AI taking over the world. AI doomsday apologists stay home! On the other hand, AI is changing everything about software creation. In this presentation, Kevin Pyles will take you on a walk down memory lane through waterfall, agile and DevOps practices, and will then introduce you to the future of software creation known as AI-Partnered Development. Let’s get practical with real-world examples of AI assisting designers, solving coding challenges and testing software right next to human testers. We will explore how AI is also involved today in...Read more

Concurrent Session W8 Leave It Better Than You Found It: The Key to Foster and Mature Culture of Quality in Your Organization and Win Customers' Trust
Megha Tiwari, Iterable
1:30 pm to 2:30 pm

Quality engineering and assurance is not merely testing and test automation. The ultimate goal is to enable product engineering teams to continuously deliver high-quality, reliable, and secure products and services to win customers' trust and bring them joy. Successful organizations have a strong quality culture where everyone, from new hires to senior executives, collectively work to build in quality. Building and maintaining a culture of quality requires explicit intent, incentives, and enablement throughout the organization. How do we create a culture of quality and mature it year after...Read more

Concurrent Session W9 Comprehensive API Testing Ecosystem
Sachin Avasthi, IBM, Shailaja Patel, IBM
1:30 pm to 2:30 pm

Maintaining API test cases across multiple environments, for different load levels, and types of tests (eg. smoke, functional, regression) traditionally required separate tests be written and maintained. Test maintenance is expensive. If you have three lower environments that tests are run for, then you usually have at least three different tests you are trying to keep in sync. If you have a new API added for a microservice, then you have to modify and validate across all three tests at a minimum. If you are running different load levels for build tests verses load tests, for example, that...Read more

Concurrent Session W10 The Theatre of Exploratory Testing: Going Off Script
Philip Daye, Insider Intelligence
1:30 pm to 2:30 pm

Ask a handful of testers to define exploratory testing. Some will respond that it’s simply poking around—try something, see what breaks, and then try something else. Many will identify it as an iterative process of learning and experimentation. But ask about what makes exploratory testing hard, and you find that practitioners are challenged in knowing where to start, what to test, when to stop, and how to know if they’ve found a bug. What makes for good exploratory testing? Join Philip as he examines the techniques of the actors of the Commedia dell'Arte, the 16th century approach adopted...Read more

Concurrent Session W11 JavaScript Mutation Testing: Improving Confidence in Your Tests
Brian Batronis, State Farm
1:30 pm to 2:30 pm

JavaScript code requires effective testing strategies to avoid bugs in production. Code coverage metrics alone can be misleading and don't necessarily indicate that the code is actually working as intended. It can be easy to get high code coverage metrics, but not actually test anything meaningfully. To address this problem, this session will explore the concept of JavaScript mutation testing. Mutation testing introduces small changes or "mutations" to the code and then expects tests to fail. This technique helps identify areas of the code that may need improvement and strengthens the...Read more

Concurrent Session W12 Performance Assurance and SRE - Panel
Leandro Melendez, Grafana k6
1:30 pm to 2:30 pm

Delivering performance applications is a multi-layered challenge these days. Teams must assure that the application performs on multiple fronts. Each new function must have quick responses and be as slim as possible from the coding moment. It must be quick and light for a single request, handle concurrency, and coexist with multiple other processes even in micro-serviced applications spread all over the place. Not to mention, it must handle lots of loads once in production. It must stay performant and available within the agreed thresholds. The impressive amount of tasks to tackle and co-...Read more

Concurrent Sessions — 2:45pm - 3:45pm
2:45 pm to 3:45 pm
Concurrent Session W13 How AI Like ChatGPT & Bard Will Change Testing & DevOps
Chris Navrides, Dev Tools, Inc.
2:45 pm to 3:45 pm

AI can now generate an automation script as good as humans in seconds. It can teach you about an API or write documentation for your code. What is really going on at the forefront of building AI systems for test automation? Working at companies like test.ai and Google, Chris Navrides has explored the intricacies of building a robot to assist a manual QA team. Through large data systems, he has dealt with training machines to determine a bug versus a feature. Chris will show how to best leverage this new wave of AI to be competitive in the work force, and increase your efficiency. As well...Read more

Concurrent Session W14 Building a QA Department With a New Vendor in a New Management Role
Neeta Sonnakul, Council for Affordable & Quality Health
2:45 pm to 3:45 pm

According to a recent study, only about 40% of new tech leaders receive formal training when they become a boss for the first time. The rest are forced to get scrappy to quickly equip themselves with new skills, techniques, and mindsets to effectively transition into their new roles. About seven years ago, Neeta Sonnakul elected to start at CAQH and was the only QA automation staff member, and eventually built a vast QA team and currently heads the department. The organization had taken delivery of several poor-quality software releases of our flagship product from our development partner...Read more

Concurrent Session W15 Drive Down Defects With Service Virtualization & Metrics That Matter
Roya Montazeri, Cox Automotive
2:45 pm to 3:45 pm

If you can't measure your software quality, you can't manage it. Cox Automotive implemented service virtualization for their Dealertrack product development to more effectively diagnose and address issues in the application. This addition to their test automation has improved the overall quality of their product lines by significantly reducing the escaped defects. Visibility into key metrics, like escaped defects, can provide insights into potential risk areas so teams can make smart choices about what tests to run to achieve the desired code and test coverage. Join this session as Roya...Read more

Concurrent Session W16 Advocating Quality When Collaboration Becomes Groupthink
Gerie Owen, ZS Associates
2:45 pm to 3:45 pm

Does your agile team overestimate its velocity and capacity? Is the team consistently in agreement with little discussion during daily standups, iteration planning, or review meetings? Is silence perceived as acceptance? If so, collaboration may have become groupthink. Advocating for quality can be challenging for testers in this situation. Aspects of the agile team that are meant to foster collaboration including self-organization and physical insulation may also set the stage for groupthink. Groupthink is the tendency of groups to minimize conflict and reach consensus without fully...Read more

Concurrent Session W18 Modern Test Automation Strategies - A Panel
Melissa Benua, mParticle, Janna Loeffler, mParticle, Adam Auerbach, EPAM Systems
2:45 pm to 3:45 pm

Love it or hate it, test automation drives a large part of our day-to-day lives as testers. But writing and maintaining software automation doesn't HAVE to be painful! Learn from a panel of automation experts - including Janna Loeffler, Adam Auerbach, and more - about how their teams have built reliable automation tooling and infrastructure that can stand the test of time. Moderated by Melissa Benua, the panel will answer YOUR questions and help you address the challenges that we all face when scaling our test automation to match modern continuous delivery needs. You don't have to have a...Read more

Visit the Expo — 3:30pm - 6:30pm
3:30 pm to 6:30 pm
Networking Break in the Expo — 3:45pm - 4:15pm
3:45 pm to 4:15 pm
Keynote K3 Lightning Strikes the Keynotes
Alison Wade, TechWell Corp.
4:15 pm to 5:15 pm

Throughout the years, Lightning Talks have been a popular part of the STAR conferences. If you’re not familiar with the concept, Lightning Talks consists of a series of five-minute talks by different speakers within one presentation period. Lightning Talks are the opportunity for speakers to deliver their single biggest bang-for-the-buck idea in a rapid-fire presentation. And now, lightning has struck the STAR keynotes. Some of the best-known experts in testing will step up to the podium and give you their best shot of lightning. Get multiple keynote presentations...Read more

Expo Reception — 5:30pm - 6:30pm
5:30 pm to 6:30 pm

Thursday, October 5

Morning Yoga — 6:45am - 7:30am
6:45 am to 7:30 am
Networking Events—Test Lab (All Day) | Genius Testing Bar (All Day)
7:30 am to 5:30 pm
Continental Breakfast — 7:30am - 8:30am
7:30 am to 8:30 am
Registration — 8:00am - 3:00pm
8:00 am to 3:00 pm
Keynote K4 How My Testing Skills Served My Personal Life
Kristoffer Nordström, Northern Test Consulting AB
8:30 am to 9:30 am

Kristoffer Nordström faced one of the most challenging and emotional times of his life when his daughter was diagnosed with a rare and life-threatening disease. As a caregiver, father, and primary project manager, he had to learn everything he could about her illness, treatment options, and potential outcomes. The skills he acquired as a tester helped him manage this overwhelming amount of information, make sense of it, and develop a plan of action while still being a loving and ever-present parent. He asked questions, researched, and analyzed data to make informed decisions about his...Read more

Concurrent Sessions — 9:45am - 10:45pm
9:45 am to 10:45 am
Concurrent Session T1 Leveraging Machine Learning to Uncover the Value of Automated Tests with Machine Learning in Test Log Analysis
Dmitriy Gumeniuk, EPAM Systems
9:45 am to 10:45 am

In today's rapidly evolving digital landscape, companies must keep pace with the speed of development and delivery. Agile, CI, and CD practices have revolutionized the way teams approach software development, but testing must also be done at a faster and continuous rate. With thousands of tests being conducted across hundreds of runs, tracking test results can be overwhelming. That's where the power of Machine Learning comes in. This session will showcase ReportPortal.io, an open-source AI-powered test automation dashboard. Discover how Machine Learning is being used to extract valuable...Read more

Concurrent Session T2 The QA Unicorn
Stephanie McSwain, Kickfin
9:45 am to 10:45 am

As a QA Manager, Stephanie McSwain has been on the lookout several times for automation engineers with a strong background in manual testing. But as it turns out, finding someone who fits that description is pretty difficult. There are plenty of people with coding skills, and that is awesome! However, manual software testing is like an art, and someone who is great at it is an incredibly valuable asset to any team. Even though manual testing requires a very different state of mind and skillset than writing automation code, manual testers are incredibly smart—and most of them are happy to...Read more

Concurrent Session T3 Metrics That Matter!
Pushpa Koneri, EAB Global, Inc.
9:45 am to 10:45 am

In this exhaustive testing world, it can be daunting to measure multiple metrics to achieve the end goal of higher product quality. Measuring metrics can quickly become a daunting task that can pose several challenges on the time and efficiency front. What are these two simple metrics that can get you to your finish line? How can teams use these metrics to bring about a process change to set high quality standards? In this session, attendees will take away simple, but effective, ideas that can help their teams to clearly define their product quality goals, and attach a quantifiable number...Read more

Concurrent Session T4 A Realistic Approach to Scalable Testing for Cross-Team Distributed Systems
Jacqueline Pan, Bloomberg
9:45 am to 10:45 am

Let’s face it. Building tests tends to take more time than developing new features themselves. It is tedious to build sufficient coverage and cumbersome to maintain long-term. However, on an enterprise systems-level, tests are crucial in ensuring bugs or defects are caught before they reach clients. As engineers, we pour our hearts and souls into trying to identify defects before we release our code to clients. But when rolling out big features, it is rare to successfully complete a software deployment process without some errors popping up along the way. This challenge becomes...Read more

Concurrent Session T5 Coded Automation Isn't Dead—A Deep Dive on the Page Object Pattern with Some Super Cool New Twists
Timothy Heck, MRI Software
9:45 am to 10:45 am

Software Development Engineers in Test know that page objects have long been used to make test automation more resilient. This talk evolves the page object pattern in ways that provide some really strong advantages over the traditional approach. Timothy Heck will demonstrate how to make page objects isolated from the browser automation technology, making it possible to switch from Selenium to Playwright (or the next big thing) without changing the page objects. This talk will also look at how to make self-narrating automation scripts where the simple act of interacting with a page object...Read more

Concurrent Session T6 AI in Testing: A Moderated Panel Discussion
Tariq King, EPAM Systems
9:45 am to 10:45 am

Artificial intelligence is the newest trend in software testing. But what is it, and how will it impact the tester's role, both today and in the future? What do you need to do to embrace this emerging technology? Tariq King will moderate this panel discussion to give you an opportunity to hear the opinions of industry leaders about AI in testing. You will have a chance to drive the debate, so come prepared with all your AI questions.Read more

Visit the Expo — 10:15am - 3:00pm
10:15 am to 3:00 pm
Networking Break in the Expo — 10:45am - 11:15am
10:45 am to 11:15 am
Concurrent Sessions — 11:15am - 12:15pm
11:15 am to 12:15 pm
Concurrent Session T7 Harnessing the Power of Ephemeral Environments
John Jenkins, Disney
11:15 am to 12:15 pm

Integration testing in the staging environment is a pain. One bad commit from a dependency, and all your automated integration tests start failing. Consequently, developers rightly don't want to gate their code pushes on successful integration tests, and integration test results are quickly dismissed as unreliable, and ignored completely. Ephemeral environments change all of that. By using ephemeral environments as a key part of test strategies, not only has John Jenkins succeeded in moving staging dependent integration tests into the build pipeline, but he has also caught and prevented...Read more

Concurrent Session T8 Test Architecture—Quality Collaboration in a Distributed Environment
Elizabeth Stewart, AccuWeather, Inc.
11:15 am to 12:15 pm

Technical implementations often span across multiple companies. How can a test architect drive better results in quality and continuous integration in their own organization while working through challenging, complex, multi-company implementations? By creating a holistic test strategy, including evaluating major areas of testing early in the process, a test architect can enable not only their own organization, but all of the organizations involved in the program. Learn specific techniques at every stage including identifying commonalities in test environments, understanding implications of...Read more

Concurrent Session T9 Are We Done Testing? A Metrics Dashboard
Linda Westfall, Westfall Team, Inc.
11:15 am to 12:15 pm

In many cases, it takes multiple metrics to get a complete picture of the status of a process, product, or service. A metrics dashboard accumulates a set of metrics associated with a decision. A dashboard allows the metric's customer to see, in a single collection, the relevant information. In this session, Linda Westfall will use the question, "are we done testing?" to illustrate an example of a metrics dashboard. She will also discuss each individual metric that makes up the dashboard and how they contribute information to help answer this question. These metrics will include testing...Read more

Concurrent Session T10 Simplify Agile Testing Using SPOCK
Pradnya Adwankar, Discover Financial
11:15 am to 12:15 pm

This session will share how to simplify agile testing using SPOCK. If your team is being impacted by complexity in your testing, improve your design with self-contained, repeatable, and independent tests with consistent and expressive reports. Reduce cycle time and test more often. SPOCK also easily integrates with DevOps pipelines for a frictionless testing transformation. By applying these techniques, Pradynya Adwankar saw significant improvement in her development teams’ confidence in testing more often, an improved level of efficiency, and faster deployments. See how your non-technical...Read more

Concurrent Session T11 How Building Accessibility Automated Test in DevOps Helps Reduce Post-Deployment Overheads
Jia Ma, Microsoft
11:15 am to 12:15 pm

#A11y, aka Accessibility is a hot topic nowadays. It is not only an important business priority for each digitally transformed company to increase user retention and sales revenue, but it also ensures that people with disabilities can use any digital product without any barriers. Many organizations started to focus on digital accessibility by investing tremendous amounts of budget in vendor or user testing post product deployment. However, quite a portion of this budget can be eliminated by educating their product teams, especially engineers to adopt accessibility automated test in their...Read more

T12 Software Test Case Selection Based on Comparative Cost and Risk-Based Value
Mark Gillenson, University of Memphis
11:15 am to 12:15 pm

The testing challenge is being able to select an efficient and effective set of test cases within the limited resources available for testing. The term “efficient” refers to the realization that the number of test cases is inherently limited by the testing resources available. The term “effective” refers to the ability of the selected test cases to find code defects that exist. Mark Gillenson addressed this problem by interviewing a set of testing professionals in a corporate partner and applying qualitative research techniques to reach their conclusions. This work was conducted in two...Read more

Lunch in the Expo — 12:30pm - 1:30pm
12:30 pm to 1:30 pm
Concurrent Sessions — 1:30pm - 2:30pm
1:30 pm to 2:30 pm
Concurrent Session T14 Chihuahua Load Tests!
Leandro Melendez, Grafana k6
1:30 pm to 2:30 pm

Because, bigger isn't always better. Especially nowadays. Do your teams need help accommodating those humongous load tests in your agile & continuous projects? Do you need frozen environments? Or, stop (freeze) all new changes until you can execute your colossal test? Everything to find the limits of your cloud, elastic, and distributed application? All of that struggle to repeat it because the metrics you've got became invalid with the next release? You should reframe the perspective and stop focusing on generating a few massive load tests. Why not have Chihuahua-sized load tests? You...Read more

Concurrent Session T15 How Mechanical Robots Are Transforming Mobile QA Testing
Eden Full Goh, Mobot
1:30 pm to 2:30 pm

New approaches in robotics are changing the way companies build and test software as it becomes increasingly device dependent. Companies like Apple, Google, and T-Mobile already rely on in-house robotics fleets to automate manual testing of mobile apps on devices. And that is just the beginning. Robots can perform all of the expected actions that a human would make on a device, including finger swiping, switching between various apps, toggling the notification center, and more. Using computer vision, a field of AI that teaches computers how to parse digital images and videos, robots can...Read more

Concurrent Session T16 Pipelines and Deployments and QA! Oh My!
Kathleen Naughton, World Wide Technology
1:30 pm to 2:30 pm

As software delivery has evolved from monolithic, periodically released applications to microservices that are continuously deployed, our testing and validation practices need to evolve to support the new delivery models. An essential piece in this puzzle is the build and deployment pipelines that deliver the software to be tested and beyond. In this session, Kathleen Naughton and attendees will journey down the (yellow brick?) road to learn enough about build pipelines and deployments to ask the right questions. The questions that guide the consistent delivery of high-quality software by...Read more

Concurrent Session T17 Integrating Accessibility into Agile
Pavani Gonuguntla, CGI Federal, Stephen Omojuyigbe, CGI Federal
1:30 pm to 2:30 pm

Many times accessibility activities occur late in a project’s release when it takes longer to figure out problems and costs more to fix them. Typically all you can do at this point is patch the problems rather than fix them properly. CGI Federal approaches accessibility with an agile mindset, integrating it throughout the iterative design, user story creation, development, and testing efforts. During this session, Pavani Gonuguntla and Stephen Omojuyigbe will focus on case studies and recommended best practices from where they worked with management and cross-functional teams to get buy-in...Read more

Concurrent Session T18 Inconceivable! How the Princess Bride Teaches Planning
Mark Minson, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
1:30 pm to 2:30 pm

One of the most fantastic cult classics ever, the Princess Bride has many wonderful lessons to teach such as ‘never get involved in a land war in Asia’ and never lie to someone about the danger you know exists, or it might come and bite you on the shoulder. It also teaches a great lesson about planning by showing us a bad example and then a good example. The only difference in personnel is the leader. Planning is more of an art than a science. “Woo, hoo-hoo! Look who knows so much!” Mark Minson will contrast Vencini’s and Wesley’s plans, explaining why one failed and one succeeded and...Read more

Networking Break in the Expo — 2:30pm - 3:00pm
2:30 pm to 3:00 pm
Expo and Registration Closes — 3:00pm
3:00 pm
Concurrent Sessions — 3:00pm - 4:00pm
3:00 pm to 4:00 pm
Concurrent Session T19 Data Quality Engineering: Enabling Success of Data Driven Solutions
Dinesh Rajput, KPMG US, Advisory Services, Lighthouse
3:00 pm to 4:00 pm

The success enabler tools supporting business organizations within an enterprise are primarily driven by the underlying AI/ML powered solutions, data & analytics platforms, and enterprise applications suite. In modern data driven economy, the dependability (quality and timeliness) of data powering these business enablers, directly influences the success or failure of the business offering and adoption. The major factors for constrained data dependability can be attributed to limiting capabilities for validation of data availability, usability, reliability, relevance, and presentability...Read more

Concurrent Session T20 Smarter, RPA Based Testing of ERP and CRM Applications
Sathish Rajamani, Chainsys Corporation
3:00 pm to 4:00 pm

When Sathish Rajamani asked clients what were the top challenges in managing their ERP and CRM programs, regression and automation testing was one of the top three concerns. Performing automated testing for ERP applications like Oracle Cloud or SAP S/4 HANA or Salesforce had always been a challenge across the lifecycle. This session is a demonstration of how SmartBOTS helps clients to configure and test the business process leveraging the RPA (Robotic Process Automation) based technology. UI, API Driven, unattended testing leveraging BOTS has helped in assuring the quality of the ERP and...Read more

Concurrent Session T22 How I Spend More on Coffee Than DevOps
Jacob Orshalick, focus.dev solutions
3:00 pm to 4:00 pm

Jacob Orshalick and focus.dev solutions are a development shop that provides Continuous Delivery for every client product they build. Even so, with the cloud solutions available today, they just don’t need a DevOps team. Maybe after this session you won’t need one either. Automating your infrastructure—you need an environment where your software product can be deployed for testing. Attendees will learn how to use AWS CloudFormation with AWS Serverless Access Model (SAM) to automate the creation of their deployment environment stack. They will see how they can then make changes to the...Read more

Concurrent Session T24 Graceful Degradation—Failing with Style
Samer Naqvi, Global Logic UK & I
3:00 pm to 4:00 pm

We do a lot to reduce the chance that our application is down, forgetting that it will eventually happen. We should be focusing on not reducing the risk of failure, but reducing its impact – this is widely known as Graceful Degradation. Adopting a Graceful Degradation strategy suggests that it is possible to provide the service for your customers even if certain parts of your application do not behave as expected. Failure should not be an exception in software, it should be the rule. That is why Graceful Degradation is such a key concept in software delivery. Resiliency is about having the...Read more

Keynote: More Information Coming Soon!
4:15 pm to 5:15 pm
Testing & Quality Leadership Summit Reception — 5:30pm - 6:30pm (Summit Registration Required)
5:30 pm to 6:30 pm

Friday, October 6

Registration — 7:30am - 3:00pm
7:30 am to 3:00 pm
Continental Breakfast — 7:30am - 8:30am
7:30 am to 8:30 am
Testing & Quality Leadership Summit
8:00 am to 3:30 pm

More information coming soon!

Read more

Women Who Test Bonus Session—8:30am–4:30pm
8:30 am to 3:30 pm
Lunch — 12:00pm - 1:00pm
12:00 pm to 1:00 pm