Eric Proegler is a Staff Platform Engineer for Credit Karma in Oakland, California. At work, he’s hacking processes, wielding metrics carefully, asking questions, and generally splitting the difference between Solver and Right Hand StaffEng Archetypes. Previously, Eric has been a Senior Director of Quality Engineering, a performance testing consulting practice lead, a Testing Tools Product Manager, and the President of the Association for Software Testing. He’s presented at CAST, TestBash, DevOpsDays Austin, Agile, QualitySense Conf, PNSQC, CMG Impact, STARWEST, Jenkins World, Oredev, Nordic Testing Days, Romanian Testing Conference, Yerevan Testing Days, CodeFest, and STPCon. Eric may be best known as the lead organizer for WOPR, the Workshop on Performance and Reliability. In his free time, Eric spends time with family, travels, runs a science fiction book club, and is resuming a busy schedule of live literary events, music, and stand-up comedy. He seeks out street food from all over, plays video games, collects Lego sets, and closely follows the NBA.
This experience report is about our DevOps journey, and how Testers are driving progress shipping on a B2C platform with hundreds of services faster and more frequently. We had automated deployments. Infrastructure is in code. UI tests written by “Full-Stack” QEs are defined in jobs, and had unit and UI tests in PRs and builds. We were already tracking DORA metrics by service. But we were still releasing with bespoke validation/signoff processes. We could ship in minutes/hours, but it took live coordination, approvals, and people pushing buttons to enable deployment. Then we brought it all together. Our Platform Engineering Team, QEs, and product engineering teams collaborated to iterate on tooling that lets our engineers merge to Main and walk away. We’ve learned, and solved technical and social/process problems. I’ll share what we’ve done, what we think we’ve learned, and ask for your feedback.
Susanne has been working according to the human-centered design approach for over 15 years, advises companies on digital product development, is a social science UX researcher and has been a co-founder of evux, an experience consultancy, since 2016. She began her professional career as a computational visualist. She holds a doctorate in computer science and is particularly interested in the interaction of people with information in collaborative environments.
We have data. A lot of data. In many organizational areas - including yours. Performance metrics and dashboards are popping up everywhere. Are they helpful? Let's ask together why we have these dashboards. We'll uncover the main problem with useful visualizations and show how to use the concept of “data ops” to achieve helpful information consumption in organizations. We shed light on the human part of organizational information processing.
Laveena Ramchandani is a dedicated and experienced Test Manager with over 10 years of experience in the field. She is deeply passionate about continuous learning and sharing knowledge within the testing community. As a leader in data science testing and testing in general, Laveena has significantly contributed to enhancing the skillsets of individuals within the industry, particularly through her impactful presence on digital platforms. In 2022, Laveena was recognized as a finalist for the prestigious Digital Star Award at the everywoman in Technology Awards. In addition to her recognition, she has been featured on several podcasts and blogs, serves as a trainer for new testers with The Coders Guild, and is a sought-after international speaker. Her commitment to the community continues to inspire and shape the next generation of testers.
Data has become the new gold in today's digital age, and Data Science along with Machine Learning are at the forefront of innovation. However, despite the excitement surrounding these fields, the role of testers in data science remains relatively unexplored. Many testers lack exposure to the unique challenges of testing data science models, despite their growing importance in the tech landscape. In this talk, I will share my journey into the world of data science model testing—a field I had never tested before—and demonstrate how I was able to bring value to a project in unfamiliar territory. My goal is to inspire fellow testers to venture into this space with confidence, equipping them with insights, strategies, and processes that can help ensure the quality of data science models.
This session is designed to empower testers to confidently approach data science testing. You'll leave with:
This talk aims to provide not just practical tools for data science model testing but also inspiration to broaden your skillset and contribute effectively to this growing field. Join me as we explore the intersection of testing and data science, and discover how quality assurance can elevate the performance and reliability of machine learning models.
Gojko Adzic the author of Lizard Optimization, Impact Mapping, Specification by Example and a few more books… He is the founder or co-founder of Narakeet, MindMup and Votito, and a partner at Neuri Consulting LLP. Gojko is one of the 2019 AWS Serverless Heroes, the winner of the 2016 European Software Testing Outstanding Achievement Award, and the 2011 Most Influential Agile Testing Professional Award. Gojko’s book Specification by Example won the Jolt Award for the best book of 2012, and his blog won the UK Agile Award for the best online publication in 2010. Author of Lizard Optimization, Impact Mapping, Specification by Example and a few more books… Working on Narakeet and Votito.
Lizard Optimization is a way to gain deep understanding of underserved customers by mixing exploratory testing, observability and product experimentation. This talk is a quick overview of the Lizard Optimization process, with a case study of a product where it helped unlock 500 times (not percent) growth year-on-year. Learn how to steer your product growth gently without overcomplicating delivery and focusing on value, and how cheap and dirty observability can provide the necessary information to make informed decisions, understand your audience better and improve your products.
Maria is a specialist generalist with deep knowledge in quality engineering and software testing. With twenty-five years in software development her experience ranges from different roles like mentor, teacher, team manager, developer, test lead, tester and coach in different domains such as Telecom, Retail, Security and lately Automotive. She thrives when she can help an individual, a team or a company to improve their testing skills, enhance their approach to testing and quality engineering, and see them taking pride in what they do. She sporadically blogs, runs workshops, speaks at conferences and helps organise conferences. In 2017 – 2019 she was a board member of the AST (Association for Software Testing).
While testability may appear to be an obvious consideration in software development, my 20+ years of experience tell a different story. Testability is often misunderstood, sidelined, or underestimated. This leads to frustration and hinders productivity. Developers and testers approach testability differently, shaped by their roles, priorities, and understanding of testing. These differences impact how testability is defined and addressed. Testing goes beyond verification—it’s about challenging, questioning, and exploring software to uncover risks. Testability should reflect this broader spectrum, but this perspective is often overlooked. In this talk, I will share my experiences on how addressing testability from a holistic approach—considering different aspects and perspectives—can boost productivity and enhance test coverage. These improvements benefit developers, testers, and business organizations alike.
