STAREAST 2025 - Test Automation Engineer

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,...

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...

In the era of DevOps, agile methodologies, and the ever-expanding landscape of intricate technologies, the traditional bulky test automation strategy document has rapidly lost its relevance. Testers are grappling with the challenge of succinctly communicating intricate testing objectives. Yet, a beacon of optimism shines through! A streamlined, actionable, and impactful test automation strategy tailored for agile, DevOps, and even the notorious waterfall approach is within reach. Join Janna as she draws upon real-world test strategies from her experience, deconstructing the essential...

Everybody gets frustrated when web apps are broken, but testing them thoroughly doesn’t need to be a chore. Playwright, a new open-source browser automation tool from Microsoft, makes testing web apps fun! Playwright offers a slew of nifty features like automatic waiting, mobile emulation, and network interception. Plus, with isolated browser contexts, Playwright tests can set up much faster than traditional Web UI tests. In this session, we will automate concise yet robust web app tests for a Kanban board web app with Playwright in TypeScript. You'll learn to test modern web apps of any...

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...

Python is one of the most popular programming languages these days. It's a great language for both beginners and pros, and the pytest framework makes testing in Python a breeze. In this introductory tutorial, we will learn how to start automating tests in Python with pytest. Specifically, we will cover configuring test projects, writing unit tests for libraries, writing API tests with requests, and writing UI tests with Playwright. We will also dig into many of pytest's advanced features like fixtures, parameters, and configs. Bring your laptops because you will be coding along with the...

We're starting to see AI and agents everywhere. Let's admit it, though - at times they can be unruly. Not good! Why does this happen? Where can AI go wrong? How do we wrestle these tools into line? Maybe get them to wear a tie at times, if that's not asking too much? Dona will tackle common pitfalls you might run into with AI and agents. She'll show you how to address the quirks that make AI seem unpredictable. You'll learn how to set clear expectations for AI performance, and design systems that work for YOUR business. She'll show you a framework to harness AI and agents effectively. And...

Sluggish tests, flakiness, and maintenance headaches can be signs of test automation anti-patterns creeping into your codebase. In this session, Anna Patterson will identify the most common pitfalls developers and testers encounter in Cypress—such as excessive reliance on UI interactions, hard-coded waits, unstable test data, and lack of isolation. She will break down how these issues impact your test reliability and offer actionable strategies to overcome them. By the end of the talk, you’ll be equipped with the knowledge to optimize your test suite for speed, stability, and long-term...

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...

In Paul Burnside's organization, there was a need for a new load testing approach in the age of microservices a few years ago and the decision was made to develop a new free open-sourced tool. Join Paul, as he discusses why "virtual users" are outdated for modern service testing and how endpoint testing is the solution. The session will cover the decision to open-source and the key features and benefits including cost savings on AWS, access to raw data, customizable reports for monitoring and analysis, built with Rust for performance and a user-friendly design. Paul will demonstrate a...

In today's technology-driven landscape, where software and hardware intertwine seamlessly in embedded systems, adopting a DevOps culture becomes imperative. This talk delves into the dynamic world of embedded systems and explores how organizations can successfully implement and nurture a DevOps culture within this unique domain. DevOps, with its emphasis on collaboration, automation, and continuous improvement, has revolutionized software development. However, adapting these principles to the realm of embedded systems presents distinct challenges and opportunities. The discussion will...

In this talk, Lisa Waugh will discuss the challenges in delivering high-quality software due to manual testing and the need for automated unit test generation. Despite the development of techniques and tools to automatically generate unit tests, the generated tests often suffer from poor readability and lack resemblance to developer-written tests. To address these issues, Lisa's team has investigated the use of large language models (LLMs) to improve the readability and usability of automatically generated tests. They have created a pipeline to guide LLMs in generating high-coverage,...

In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, quality assurance is undergoing a major transformation. QA professionals must maintain software quality while adapting to the rapid pace of development, accelerated by AI. To keep up, the shift from manual testing to automation and AI-driven solutions is essential. This transition is not just about speed—it’s about fostering innovation, adaptability, and future readiness. However, adopting automation is complex, requiring team-wide processes and long-term maintenance for success. Where do you start? In this session, Amanda will share a...

Testing is a risk-mitigating activity that takes time. Ideally, we want to cover as many behaviors as possible in the shortest amount of time for fast feedback. The only way to speed up is to scale up. But how? This talk outlines a playbook for the five most impactful ways to scale up tests. From improving infrastructure to arranging tests more efficiently down to refining the performance of particular steps, you will learn tried-and-true techniques for running more tests in less time. With this playbook, you could scale up to hundreds of tests running concurrently without crashing. Join...

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...

Every experience counts – In a recent Sauce Labs study, 57% of consumers said they’d consider switching to a competitor after just 3-4 negative interactions with a company’s website, software, or mobile app. With all the options available, consumers are growing less forgiving, putting a bigger emphasis on the need for a clear brand loyalty strategy that takes the execution of the digital experience into bigger consideration. Design and engineering are key to the equation and the culmination of that is implementing a testing strategy – one that makes the rollout and updating of new features...