STAREAST 2024 - Test Automation Engineer | TechWell

STAREAST 2024 - Test Automation Engineer

Customize your STAREAST 2024 experience with sessions covering test automation for engineers.

Monday, April 29

Chris Loder
Rogue Automator
MD

Test Automation: How to Start and Succeed

Monday, April 29, 2024 - 8:30am to 12:00pm

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,...

EPAM Systems
ME

The How and When of Communication

Monday, April 29, 2024 - 8:30am to 12:00pm

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...

Grafana k6
MF

Ramping Up Modern Performance

Monday, April 29, 2024 - 8:30am to 12:00pm

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...

Lisette Zounon
Zsquare Solutions Inc.
MG

Debunking the QA KPI Myths and Make KPI Great Again

Monday, April 29, 2024 - 8:30am to 12:00pm

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...

Janna_Loeffler
mParticle
MH

Test Automation Strategies: Navigating DevOps, Agile, and Complex Technologies

New
Monday, April 29, 2024 - 8:30am to 12:00pm

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...

Adam_Auerbach
EPAM Systems
ML

Instill a DevOps Testing Culture in Your Team and Organization

Monday, April 29, 2024 - 1:00pm to 4:30pm

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...

Tuesday, April 30

Kristoffer Nordström
Northern Test Consulting AB
TA

Testing in the Cloud From All Four Corners of the World!

Tuesday, April 30, 2024 - 8:30am to 4:30pm

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...

Dalton Forbes
Coveros
Phil LaFrance
Coveros
TB

Supercharge Your Workflow: To GitHub and Beyond

New
Tuesday, April 30, 2024 - 8:30am to 4:30pm

Whether you are new or experienced with GitHub this class is for you! Supercharging your workflow caters to anyone who wants to enhance their Agile and DevOps process with the capabilities of GitHub. GitHub has long been the premier site for open-source projects and is now turning a pivotal corner into becoming the predominant platform for all aspects of the development lifecycle. Some examples of this include; protecting company code through various GitHub Products or curating marketplace actions and workflows prior to use. This tutorial will look at how to leverage GitHub Actions (CI/CD...

Tariq King
Test IO
TC

A Quality Engineering Introduction to AI and Machine Learning

Tuesday, April 30, 2024 - 8:30am to 12:00pm

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,...

Jeff Payne
Coveros
TD

Getting Smart on API Testing & Automation

Tuesday, April 30, 2024 - 8:30am to 12:00pm

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...

Tom-Stiehm
Coveros
TF

Web Security Testing: The Basics and More

Tuesday, April 30, 2024 - 8:30am to 12:00pm

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...

Realtor.com
TH

Confident Communication Drives Powerful Quality Leadership

Preview
Tuesday, April 30, 2024 - 8:30am to 12:00pm

Driving a culture of quality starts with effective communication. Join Stacy Kirk and Erika Chestnut to unlock your communication superpowers! Imagine a cheat code that helps us boost productivity and team vibes by 10x. We will leverage behavior self-assessments to help discover your unique strengths, communication styles, and reactions to challenges. Stacy and Erika will help you learn to communicate effectively with your team, management, and cross-functional teams to build a culture of quality. You will learn to assess how others best receive and process information and how to...

Andrew Knight
Cycle Labs
TI

Modern Web Testing with Playwright

New
Tuesday, April 30, 2024 - 8:30am to 12:00pm

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...

Tariq King
Test IO
TJ

Prompt Engineering for Software Quality Professionals

Tuesday, April 30, 2024 - 1:00pm to 4:30pm

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...

Jeff Payne
Coveros
TL

Integrating Automated Testing into DevOps

Tuesday, April 30, 2024 - 1:00pm to 4:30pm

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...

Melissa Benua
mParticle
TO

Test Smarter, Not Harder: How to Design Test Suites for Continuous Delivery

Tuesday, April 30, 2024 - 1:00pm to 4:30pm

Imagine: 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 the wild. Setting up the pipeline to do just that has become commonplace, but most organizations hit the same stumbling block: just what IS the appropriate battery of tests? Automated build pipelines don't always lend themselves well to the traditional stages of testing. In this hands-on tutorial, Melissa will introduce testers to the key principles of test case and test suite design that apply to...

Filip-Hric
Replay.io
TP

Modern Web Testing with Cypress

New
Tuesday, April 30, 2024 - 1:00pm to 4:30pm

The web has evolved. Finally, testing has too. Cypress is a modern testing tool that answers the testing needs of modern web applications. It has been gaining a lot of traction in the last couple of years, gaining worldwide popularity. If you have been waiting to learn Cypress, wait no more! Filip Hric will guide you through the first steps on how to start using Cypress and set up a project on your own. The good news is, learning Cypress is incredibly easy. You’ll write your first test in no time, and then you’ll discover how to write a full end-to-end test for a modern web application.

Wednesday, May 1

Stacy Kirk
QualityWorks Consulting
K1

Fast Not Furious: The Next Era of Test Productivity

Wednesday, May 1, 2024 - 8:30am to 9:45am

The next era of testing is here, and it's crazy fast. So fast, it would no doubt infuriate those who are not ready for it. In this talk, Stacy will discuss how testing professionals should build a responsive culture without sacrificing quality or customer experience to speed. She will detail how automation and AI must be incorporated into the new industry standard. Stacy will address how expanding our impact to areas like Data Quality, FinOps, and Ethics will usher in faster advances for business value. She will define how productivity has been and should be measured so that teams...

Péter Földházi
EPAM Systems
K2

Bridging Gaps, Building Connections: A Hungarian Testing Story

Wednesday, May 1, 2024 - 10:00am to 11:00am

The beautiful Hungarian city of Budapest seems to be characterized by bridging gaps and building connections. Two diverse parts of the city, Buda and Pest, are separated by the Danube river, which gave them the opportunity to be connected by the iconic Chain Bridge. Budapest is also the birthplace of one of the most brilliant and influential scientists of the 20th century, John von Neumann. Neumann made significant contributions that “bridged” multiple areas including mathematics, physics, economics and computer science. In the software world, you may have already heard the name “Földházi...

Perficient Inc
W3

API Testing Automation and CI/CD Integration

Wednesday, May 1, 2024 - 11:30am to 12:30pm

API Testing is a critical component of modern software development, ensuring the reliability and functionality of applications programing interfaces. However, integrating API testing into a robust CI/CD pipeline poses unique challenges with maintaining consistency and accuracy in test results across various environments and versions of the API. Changes in API endpoints, data formats, or authentication methods often result in test failures that will be difficult to trace and troubleshoot. To address these challenges, API versioning and automated API testing needs to be implemented. This...

W5

Enabling Reliable Test Automation Though Isolation: Mocking HTTP Services Using Mountebank

Wednesday, May 1, 2024 - 11:30am to 12:30pm

Have you ever found yourself at a time when you have no control over an internal or external service and while your automation was running it failed due to instability in that service? Well, to automate tests in a safe and reliable way, you need to have control of the environment. When not available, one option is to isolate your application by creating mocks of the services. In this talk, Júlio will go through a use case scenario using Mountebank (mbtest.org), an open-source tool that enables us to create HTTP mocks, to remove the dependencies related to an external HTTP service in order...

Chris Loder
Rogue Automator
W6

Automation Face-Off

Wednesday, May 1, 2024 - 11:30am to 12:30pm

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...

julia-pottinger
QualityWorks Consulting Group
W9

Next Level API Automation: Testing the Boundaries

Wednesday, May 1, 2024 - 1:30pm to 2:30pm

APIs are an essential part of an increasingly large number of applications that we use daily. APIs enable applications to exchange data and functionality easily and securely. As testers, we want to ensure that our APIs do not break and provide the expected functionality. In this workshop, Julia Pottinger will get you started with automating APIs, creating a checklist of things needed to automate an API, automating workflows and negative tests for your API as well as checking that your APIs handle errors appropriately, follow the specified schema, and don't reveal data that it shouldn’t or...

Dmitriy Gumeniuk
EPAM Systems
W13

Unlocking the Future: Real-World Applications of 3 Open-Sourced ML Powered Tools for Test Automation

Wednesday, May 1, 2024 - 2:45pm to 3:45pm

In an era where Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing various industries, the field of test automation is no exception. This talk aims to shed light on how ML can be practically applied in test automation using open-source tools that are readily available for implementation. Join Dmitry as he explores three popular tools—Healenium, ReportPortal and Visual Regression Tracker—that leverage ML to offer innovative solutions in self-healing capabilities, testing results analysis and visual testing, respectively. You will learn about the rise of AI and ML in...

Platform Science
W14

Treating Your Test Tools like a Real Product

Preview
Wednesday, May 1, 2024 - 2:45pm to 3:45pm

Have you ever had a QA tool fail to gain momentum? Ever had a splintered array of test automation frameworks that does the exact same thing across your quality engineering organization? Ever have a hard time getting leadership to sign off for tools that you know could easily boost testing productivity? If you answered yes to any of these, come join Albrecht in this crash course in building your quality engineering roadmap. In this session, Albrecht will go over how to build a product roadmap that aligns with your organization's goals and identify key milestones, to ensure your...

W15

Automated Mobile App Testing on Various Physical and Virtual Devices

Wednesday, May 1, 2024 - 2:45pm to 3:45pm

Many organizations face the issue today whereby their customers have a wide range of mobile devices upon which their application runs making it challenging to find all potential defects. To accomplish testing of various devices would require an organization to purchase many physical devices and maintain them. Join Alanzo as he walks you through how his team validated the functionality and compatibility of their mobile app in various environments and on various mobile devices through use of a robust test environment. He will outline how developing automated scripts, implementing a...

Everfi, a Blackbaud company
W17

A Crash Course In Getting Started with Cypress

Preview
Wednesday, May 1, 2024 - 2:45pm to 3:45pm

In 2024, the amount of new technologies and practical applications to software testing principles can leave any software tester looking to advance their career in test automation feeling overwhelmed. In this interactive session, Anna will share the applied learning models that she has developed over her 10+ years of experience in the field to empower you on your test automation learning journey. You will gain a deeper understanding of Cypress, a user-friendly framework, to help you write your first automated test, as well learn practical tips and tricks on how to further develop...

TechWell Corp.
K3

Lightning Strikes the Keynotes

Wednesday, May 1, 2024 - 4:15pm to 5:15pm

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 for the price of one—and...

Thursday, May 2

K4

The Art of Testing Cars and Delighting Drivers

Thursday, May 2, 2024 - 8:30am to 9:30am

Welcome to the era of rolling autonomous death machines, also known as the era of the software-defined autonomous vehicle. As companies like Tesla have proven, modern car buyers value software driven experiences at a growing rate. No longer are cars just about horsepower but are now really about personalization, entertainment, and comfort. They are also all becoming at least semi-autonomous with level 4 autonomy coming within the decade. In this new world, continuous deployment and deep learning AI will change the user's experience with the modern vehicle. Even today, all modern cars...

T3

How Green Is Your Testing?

Thursday, May 2, 2024 - 9:45am to 10:45am

The evolution of testing from manual to automated has created a stir around efficiency and savings. Today we are delivering the best products while exploring ways to save energy and money. At the enterprise level, delivery managers and executives are looking for ways to reduce their carbon footprint and save money in all areas of the DevOps lifecycle. As the world collaborates to meet the net zero carbon emissions by 2050, the DevOps team is at the center of sustainability. Sustainability is how we co-exist with the planet by making choices that will sustain the planet for generations...

Tariq King
Test IO
T6

AI in Testing: A Moderated Panel Discussion

Thursday, May 2, 2024 - 9:45am to 10:45am

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.

Lockheed Martin
Lisa Allman
Lockheed Martin
T10

DevOps and Airplanes: A Match Made in the Clouds

Thursday, May 2, 2024 - 11:15am to 12:15pm

DevOps principles can be applied to various industries, including aviation, to enhance the development, testing, and deployment of software systems used in aircraft. These software systems are critical for various functions such as navigation, communication, and monitoring. It's important to note that the aviation industry has unique safety and regulatory requirements that do not to apply to commercial products, so DevOps practices must align with these standards to ensure the safety and reliability of aircraft software systems. Join Aly and Lisa as they take off and discuss how DevOps...

T11

Integration Testing with Cypress

Thursday, May 2, 2024 - 11:15am to 12:15pm

Running tests on a live environment (as opposed to a mocked one) is generally an anti-pattern within the Cypress community. You won’t find many (if any!) articles explaining how to do so, or how to do so successfully. However, live app testing can sometimes be critical when it comes to integration testing; as it helps you find bugs your mocked tests just won’t find. These bugs are usually critical and can make or break your production deployments. Stephanie McSwain has seen it work first hand and it’s been eye opening. Join this session and Stephanie will show you how, when, and why to...

Slalom, Inc.
T12

Managing Test Data in Enterprise Environments

Thursday, May 2, 2024 - 11:15am to 12:15pm

Managing test data is hard. Managing test data in complex, distributed, poorly documented, and organization-spanning enterprise software is substantially harder. In enterprise systems test data is convoluted, hidden, and hard to synthesize, the test environments it flows through are shared and unstable, and the test scenarios dependent on it are long and complex. These challenges combine to cripple many test automation efforts in enterprise software. In this talk Blake Norrish will describe what an optimal test data management strategy looks like, how the nature of enterprise software...

Iterable
T14

Navigating the Testing Career Labyrinth: From Intern to Director

Thursday, May 2, 2024 - 1:30pm to 2:30pm

Navigating a successful career in software testing presents formidable challenges, especially when striving to climb the career ladder. Whether you're aiming to transition from manual testing to becoming an SDET or contemplating roles in people management and organizational leadership, forging your path can feel overwhelming. Join Jeff Sing, as he draws upon his personal journey, starting as a QA Intern and progressing to his current role as a Director of Engineering. Through anecdotes and insights, you will learn the strategies and decisions that can significantly propel your career...

T15

Let’s Get Serious About Testing

Thursday, May 2, 2024 - 1:30pm to 2:30pm

You want to go faster, your business wants to go faster, frankly the market is forcing you to go faster. Your organization has no choice, you go faster or you get left behind! All that speed cannot come at the expense of quality though, you must maintain or improve quality as you increase velocity. If you are going to speed up to meet demand and maintain quality, you need to automate testing. To automate you need a solid plan and architecture. Join Tony to explore unit, functional and regression testing—why each one is needed and where to implement. Understand the differences between...

Lisette Zounon
Zsquare Solutions Inc.
T16

Enabling a DevOps Culture with Embedded Systems

Thursday, May 2, 2024 - 1:30pm to 2:30pm

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. Our discussion will navigate through these challenges and unveil strategies to harness the full potential of DevOps in the embedded systems...

Deepika Kale
Guardant Health
T17

Kafka and Kafka Testing: Streamlining Real-time Data Processing

Preview
Thursday, May 2, 2024 - 1:30pm to 2:30pm

In today's data-driven landscape, real-time data processing is the backbone of modern applications. Kafka, a distributed event streaming platform, has emerged as a critical component in building data-intensive systems. This presentation provides an in-depth exploration of Kafka and the essential practice of Kafka testing, offering attendees valuable insights into harnessing the power of real-time data streams while ensuring robust system reliability. You will be introduced to Kafka and to understanding Kafka's architecture and core components, as well as the importance of Kafka...

Grigori Trofimov
Parasoft
T18

Stressed About Performance Testing? Simulate It!

Thursday, May 2, 2024 - 1:30pm to 2:30pm

Preparing your software application to handle peak loads and high-volume conditions is vital, whether your business is seasonal operations like e-commerce during holiday seasons, a ticketing system for big events, a live streaming service hosting the World Cup, or a financial institute that must provide seamless transactions. Load and performance testing, along with the creation of a simulated environment for testing, is your key to success. This combination provides the understanding of how your application will behave under high-stress circumstances and ensures stability and performance...

Dorothea Bozicolona-Volpe
Social Espionage
T20

How To Become A QA Influencer—6 Steps Toward Building A Stronger Digital You!

Thursday, May 2, 2024 - 3:00pm to 4:00pm

Today IT leadership & QA executives of the world’s top brands all have strong, significant & differentiating personal brands to differentiate them in their industry. Whether you are an associate, executive, sales person, business leader, or human resources professional in an organization, who you are matters as much as how you communicate it. Now more than ever it is important to get your voice heard and establish your reputation on and off line. Learn the tips and tricks for building your personal brand from the expert that taught several IT & C-Suite executives, business...

Insider Intelligence
T21

Crafting Excellence: Optimizing Test Case Design with Domain Analysis

Thursday, May 2, 2024 - 3:00pm to 4:00pm

In today's fast-paced software development landscape, the pressure to deliver code rapidly is unrelenting. However, this doesn't mean that our applications are becoming simpler or that testing is less critical. On the contrary, the software environment has grown more diverse, and applications are constructed in increasingly intricate ways to meet evolving business demands. In this session, we draw inspiration from the craftsmanship of master swordsmiths who meticulously forged swords to perfection. Quality, in their world, meant the difference between life and death. Similarly, in software...

Lisette Zounon
Zsquare Solutions Inc.
K5

Supercharge Your Confidence As a Tester in the DevOps and AI Era

Thursday, May 2, 2024 - 4:15pm to 5:15pm

In software development, particularly in the DevOps and AI era, the role of a tester is both crucial and challenging. WE need to aim to empower testers with strategies to excel in this environment, ensuring they deliver the highest quality applications. In this keynote, you will learn how to manage expectations and instill confidence in your team along the software delivery process. Join Lisette to explore effective communication techniques with stakeholders, establishing trust and demonstrating value from the project's inception. Discover how to continuously leverage key performance...