STAREAST 2025 - Career & Personal Development
Monday, April 28
The How and When of Communication
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...
Facilitating Team Decisions
One of the agile manifesto principles is “Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.” Tricia Broderick wishes this principle was written to say, motivated teams. Because leaders giving the environment and support for individuals to make team decisions is anything but trivial. Achieving effective decisions goes beyond bringing people together for consensus. This approach may lead to groupthink or repeating decision meetings. Instead, leaders facilitate collaboration by building and tapping into the co-...
Badass Agile Coaching Skills for Everyone
Some perspectives imply that Agile Coaching is for a small set of specialized agilists who serve to improve everyone else or that it’s a unique role that others, including managers and leaders, shouldn’t do or will find difficult to master. This talk intends to debunk those notions by illustrating the power and impact of Agile Coaching skills for everyone. In this workshop, Bob Galen will explore the nuance associated with Agile Coaching to demystify it. He’ll share and explore the Agile Coaching Growth Wheel as a competency model for agile coaching. We’ll do a deep dive into the critical...
Automation Framework Essentials
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...
Become Your Company's Quality Consultant
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...
Tuesday, April 29
Leading Change
Leading change requires something other than issuing directives and using checklists to validate execution. As much as I love a checkmark, no one wants the role of "did you do it?" over and over. Leaders have significant influence on whether a change is understood, embraced and retained within the organization. In this deep dive session, discover and examine the aspects necessary for creating and building a culture of change and resilience. Expect to walk away with practical alternatives to the dreaded "trust but verify" implementation approaches.
The Craft of Highly Effective Agile Leadership
Based on the learning objectives from the iCAgile, Leading with Agility workshop, this ½ day version will explore the craft of agile leadership in guiding your journey to becoming a catalyst leader. Along the way, we'll explore the why of leading with agility, how to develop and grow your personal agility, tactics for developing and deepening your organizational relationships, and approaches for leading cultural and organizational transformation. Critical topics include your responsibility in shaping a culture that is inclusive, safe, empowered, aligned, and results/impact-focused. We also...
Quality and Testing Measures and Metrics
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 Mike Sowers as he...
Wednesday, April 30
AI/ML SDET: A Title Change or a New Role?
Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning Software Development Engineer in Test. What a title! But what does that person even do? Are they using AI/ML to test software? Are they testing AI or ML? This isn’t just a title change for a software tester, this is really a mind shift and tool change. What if you don’t even have a UI in which to test your product? What if you don’t ship a UI or even a product? The world of software is changing with advancements in AI/ML and it is time to make sure we level up our testing abilities to match the revolution. Join Kevin as he walks you through his...
Building a QA Team from the Ground Up
At some point in your career - especially at newer companies and start ups, there might come a time when you are hired onto a development team as the very FIRST QA hire! With such an exciting opportunity, there is so much at stake. Your performance will not only depend on your testing skills, but your ability to add value to the development process AND the product! In this presentation Stephanie will go over her own experience building a QA team, and some important milestones and challenges she hit along the journey. She will talk about how to evaluate the team you are being hired into,...
SQL Server Indexing Strategies Using Query Store for Improved Performance in Retrieving Data
In the realm of database management, optimizing query performance is crucial, especially for SQL Server environments dealing with large datasets. The challenge lies in identifying and implementing effective indexing strategies that can significantly enhance data retrieval performance. During her talk, Navya will address the common issues of slow query performance and inefficient indexing, often exacerbated by the complexity of modern data systems and the dynamic nature of query patterns. To tackle this problem, she leveraged SQL Server's Query Store feature, which provides a powerful tool...
Exploratory Testing Superpowers: Unleashing Your Inner Batman
In this talk, Dan Reiley will touch on a common issue in software testing: scripted tests often miss hidden problems, especially when dealing with fast-changing software. Following rigid checklists limits the ability to uncover deeper bugs. To address this, QA teams the world over turn to exploratory testing, which involves learning, designing, and executing tests at the same time. Drawing from his experience at Sirius XM and with the SiriusXM app, Dan applied three important skills: observation, deduction, and documentation & adaptability. Through careful observation, he discovered...
Path to Becoming a Test Automation Engineer Rock Star!
So… you want to become a Test Automation Engineer (or hire and develop one)? While there’s quite a bit of information available about important technical and tool skills to master, there’s not enough discussion around the path to becoming an effective Test Automation Engineer that knows how to add VALUE. This had led to a proliferation of engineers who are proficient with tools and building frameworks but have skill and knowledge gaps, especially in software testing, that reduce the value they deliver with test automation. In this talk, Lee will share his lessons learned from over 30 years...
Thursday, May 1
Uncertainty of Change
Uncertainty and change are inevitable in our complex world, but how we each respond to it can vary from ignoring it to denying it or even trying to stop it. In this talk, Jitesh will examine why we react to uncertainty so poorly by sharing some case studies and then, through the psychology of uncertainty, help explain our responses. He will then discuss how software development is inherently uncertain and how some team's testing approaches can worsen this uncertainty. He will explain how we can reframe testing to reduce uncertainty and help engineering teams work more effectively in...
Leadership in Software Quality: Insights and Strategies from Industry Experts
Are you navigating the challenges of leadership in the ever-evolving software quality industry? Join this dynamic panel discussion featuring seasoned leaders who will share their expertise, experiences, and actionable advice. This session is designed for professionals at all levels, from aspiring leaders to seasoned managers, seeking to enhance their leadership capabilities. The panelists bring diverse perspectives on fostering innovation, maintaining quality in fast-paced environments, building high-performing teams, and leading through change. Attendees will gain practical insights into...
Test Leadership & Career Development
Maxine Thompson's team at Progressive had experienced several issues where individual contributors sometimes got released from projects due to reported lack of skills in certain areas such as communication, leadership engagement, collaboration, domain knowledge, as well as occasional technical gaps. The team realized a gap in the knowledge, confidence, leadership, communication, and technical skills demonstrated by some of their quality assurance analysts. The question was how to upskill their ICs to meet and overcome these challenges in the face of emerging and constantly changing...
Reception and Summit Kickoff: As a Leader, What Is Keeping You Up at Night?
Kickoff the Testing & Quality Leadership Summit with a reception and some networking.
Friday, May 2
Summit Welcome - Opening Remarks
After enjoying the Summit breakfast starting at 8:00 AM, join your moderator Jeff Payne as we kick off the STAREAST Testing & Quality Leadership Summit for 2025.
Balancing AI Innovations with Fundamental QA Principles
The pressure to adopt new technologies like AI and automation without a strong foundation in core QA principles is fraught with risk. Jumping into AI without understanding how to best leverage AI within QA for business success can cause quality issues. But lagging behind your competitors when it comes to utilizing AI can result in loss of market share. Join Igor Dorovskikh as he guides QA leaders on creating a balanced approach that integrates the use of AI capabilities within essential QA fundamentals. You'll learn how to define and implement these core principles, identify the pitfalls...
Summit Lean Coffee: Leadership Secrets from the Room
While everyone has their own approach to leadership, we all have our go-to tips and tricks that can help others lead teams, organizations, and ourselves. These may be techniques for motivating staff, growing team skills, managing senior executives, or finding the right people for your organization.
During this collaborative lean coffee session, Jeffery Payne will facilitate a discussion to elicit and discuss those leadership secrets used effectively by Summit participants. Using a lean coffee meeting format, participants will choose which aspects of leadership to discuss, vote on...
Think Tank Discussion Parts I, II, III, and Wrap-Up
Think Tank Discussion Part I: Problem Definitions | 11:15 AM
Join with your peers in an engaging and highly interactive session to discuss the issues that affect you most. Using answers to the question “As a Leader, What is Keeping You Up at Night?” posed at Thursday’s evening reception, participants will form small groups to work on finding solutions to pressing leadership & management issues. Discussions will review identified issues, barriers to change, and focus on innovative strategies and practical next steps. At the end of the think tank, all feedback will be collected and...