Why people hate working in agile teams, and what you can do about it

by Ben Linders - Trainer / Coach / Adviser / Author / Speaker

  from Tilburg, Netherlands

By now, many of us have been through one or more "agile transformations". We've been surrounded by agile coaches and Scrum masters who tried to help us adapt to agile, with managers who became servant leaders. Hopefully they weren't telling you what to do or how to do your work! A lot of people simply hate working in agile teams - Ben hears that all the time. And that is why he's here! In this talk, Ben will explore the difficulties of collaborating in teams and what we can do to make it beneficial and worthwhile for people to work in teams. Ben will delve into what teams really need, and what leaders should do and should not do to support them, including providing an environment and culture where teams can flourish and supporting teams in removing barriers. Through this talk, attendees will gain a better understanding of the reasons why people struggle to work in agile teams, and what leaders can do to create a positive and supportive environment for teams. The talk is intended for anyone working in a team or working with teams, from agile coaches and Scrum masters to managers and team members who are looking to improve their collaboration skills and create a more positive and productive work environment.

Ben Linders runs a one-person business in Agile, Lean, Quality, and Continuous Improvement. Author of Getting Value out of Agile Retrospectives, Waardevolle Agile Retrospectives, What Drives Quality, The Agile Self-assessment Game, Problem? What Problem?, and Continuous Improvement. Creator of many Agile Coaching Tools, for example, the Agile Self-assessment Game. Ben is a well-known speaker and author - he’s much respected for sharing his experiences and helping others share theirs. His books and games have been translated into more than 12 languages and are used by professionals in teams and organizations all around the world. As a trainer, facilitator, coach, and advisor, he helps organizations with effectively deploying software development and management practices. He focuses on continuous improvement, collaboration and communication, and professional development, to deliver business value to customers. Ben is an active member of networks on Agile, Lean, Kanban, and Quality. He shares his experiences in a bilingual blog (Dutch and English), as an editor for InfoQ.com, and as a practitioner in communities like Computable, Quora, DZone, Stackoverflow, and TechTarget. In his spare time he likes to spend time with his family and friends and enjoys being kept busy by his grandchildren. He loves to be out in nature walking or cycling, and he frequently goes scuba diving in the Netherlands and tropical countries.

Identifying Code Smells

by Benjamin Bischoff - Test Automation Engineer @ trivago N.V.

  from Dusseldorf, Germany

Have you ever wondered how to identify those subtle imperfections in your code that might be causing bigger problems? Do you want to gain a deeper understanding of code quality and how it impacts application development? Benjamin will come to Sofia to present his session titled "Identifying Code Smells," where he will guide us through various types of code smells, using real-world examples to highlight their impact.

Benjamin Bischoff, from Dusseldorf (Germany), a Test Automation Engineer (SDET) at trivago N.V. has an impressive track record of speaking engagements at esteemed conferences worldwide, including SeleniumConf, Nordic Testing Days, Romanian Testing Conference, Testμ, Agile Testing Days Open Air, DevTalks Romania, TestCon Europe, and many others. Benjamin's influence extends beyond borders. His recently published book, "Writing API Tests with Karate," is available internationally, guiding software professionals on effective testing with the powerful Karate framework. Known as a leading expert in testing and automation, Benjamin maintains some open-source projects in this space, and you shouldn't miss his popular testing blog at www.softwaretester.blog. Beyond his professional accomplishments, Benjamin's passion for close-up magic, especially magic using playing cards, adds a touch of enchantment to his persona.

AI: A game-changing way of automation testing

by Dimitar Panayotov - Senior Quality Engineer @ MentorMate

  from Varna, Bulgaria

Everyone is talking about AI nowadays! But can we leverage AI to transform our software testing practices? Dimitar will provide insights into the latest trends in software testing, including the integration of AI into the software development lifecycle. During the talk, he will guide participants through the best testing practices for manual and automated QE and how to implement AI elements into their day-to-day work. You will discover how AI can optimize testing processes, increase testing accuracy and speed, and reduce costs. This trending topic is suitable for anyone involved in creating test documentation, cases, and automation projects, whether you are a manual tester, automation tester, or developer!

Dimitar is a Senior Quality Engineer at MentorMate with 7+ years of experience in manual and automation testing. He has worked with various programming languages and technologies, including JAVA, C#, Selenium, and Postman, performing API testing using Swagger and many more. Dimitar has a diverse career path that has led him from small companies to global corporations in the IT industry. Dimitar is also one of the pillars in the modern Japanese culture (anime) community in Bulgaria for the last 20 years, and really keen on having his own indie game studio in the future.

The power of atomic automated tests: our experience of improved test efficiency and reliability

by Sargis Sargsyan - Public speaker, independent consultant

  from Yerevan, Armenia

Big things do come in small packages, and end-to-end atomic tests are no exception. By focusing on a single feature and reducing the size of the tests, we can achieve fast, focused, and reliable feedback from our end-to-end automation tests. In this talk, we will explore the advantages of atomic tests and how they can solve common problems like unreliable test results, slow tests, and hard-to-debug tests. Additionally, Sargis will show real-world examples of the benefits of atomic testing through a case study that resulted in a multiple-time reduction in test suite execution time. Join Sargis to discover the power of atomic automated tests and take your test automation to the next level."

Sargis is a software industry professional with more than a decade of experience in Mobile, Web, SaaS, and Enterprise applications. He is a passionate believer in agile methodologies and teamwork and has experience working in distributed international teams. Over the years, Sargis has worked with companies from different parts of the world, including the US, Germany, Czech Republic, and Armenia. One of Sargis's passions is public speaking, and he has shared his knowledge and experience at several conferences, including Selenium Conf, Appium Conf, STARWEST, Agile Testing Days, and TestCon Europe, among many others. He takes pride in helping others by sharing his experience and knowledge.

Automated Lighthouse reporting with WebdriverIO

by Hugh McCamphill - SDET Tech Lead @ ESW

  from Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom

Hugh will demonstrate how to use Lighthouse, a tool available in Chrome, to provide insights into your web application's performance and accessibility. He will explain how the score given by Lighthouse can affect where your web application appears in the search engine results, which can be crucial for businesses trying to sell or promote their products. Hugh will show how to run an audit on any webpage, including pages behind authentication, and how to test performance as part of a user journey, reusing existing automated tests. He will focus on leveraging existing WebdriverIO-based tests, with minimal extra work, to generate Lighthouse reports that cover user journeys, page navigations, and page loads, in both mobile and desktop views. To set the scene, Hugh will discuss the importance of a focus on improving Lighthouse scores and give an overview of the type of information it provides. He will also cover some basic alternative ways to get the scores that Lighthouse provides if not using WebdriverIO. Attendees will leave the talk with a better understanding of the insights that Lighthouse can provide, how to include user journeys in Lighthouse audits as part of automated WebdriverIO tests, and how to incorporate the audits into their pipeline. In short, take advantage of Lighthouse's capabilities and improve your web application's performance, accessibility, and search engine visibility.

Hugh is an experienced test professional, working in differing testing and test automation leadership roles, for coming up to 20 years. He is presently an SDET Tech Lead with ESW in Ireland, where he helps his team and others with their test automation efforts. Hugh is passionate about the software testing industry and is always looking to inspire and assist others in their software testing journey. As an active member of the Belfast Automation and Software Testing meetup, he has made an impact in the local software testing community. He has shared his wealth of knowledge and experience with aspiring software testers and automation engineers. Hugh is also a respected conference speaker and has spoken at various industry conferences, including Selenium Conference, Nordic Testing Days, Romania Testing Conference, SoftTest, Test Automation Days, and HUSTEF, always presenting technical topics and actionable knowledge. He also organizes testing related meetups in Belfast for 10+ years, and has been a co-organizer of the Belfast Testing Clinic and Test Bash Belfast.

Journey to Quality: Continuous mobile development

by Burak Ergören - Principal Test Automation Engineer @ Sahibinden.com

  from Istanbul, Turkey

Burak will share the research, experiences and actions taken in his journey towards developing a mobile test automation project from scratch to the level of continuous development. The talk will cover various topics including the key points for developing test automation and best practices, selecting the right test automation tool, scope and platform, dynamic device farm management, and the benefits and best practices of continuous integration. Burak will also discuss mobile build automation, fastlane/JIRA integration, and the process of developing pipelines. Moreover, he will explain how their team managed a complex logging structure by implementing centralized logging. His presentation is ideal for anyone interested in improving their mobile development and test automation processes, and for those looking to gain insights into how to achieve continuous development in their own projects.

Burak Ergören is a Principal Test Automation Engineer with 9+ years of experience working in one of Turkey's largest e-commerce companies, Sahibinden.com, after graduating from Marmara University, Istanbul, with a degree in computer science engineering. He has spoken at several conferences, webinars, and meetups both in Turkey and abroad, including Agile, Testing & DevOps Showcase Amsterdam, TestExpo London, and Google Devfests in Tekirdag, Edirne, Izmir and Kocaeli. Burak describes himself as a person who thinks a lot about finer details and enjoys sharing his experiences with his colleagues and learning new things from them.

Everything as Code - test distribution with K8s and Testkube

by Tomasz Konieczny - Quality Consultant

  from Gliwice, Poland

The talk focuses on the importance of quality pipelines that provide instant and complete feedback in modern products. Automated tests are essential for achieving this goal, but they can quickly make quality pipelines complex and difficult to maintain. Additionally, creating execution infrastructure from scratch can be time-consuming. Testkube is an open-source tool that simplifies the distribution of tests to Kubernetes clusters. It offers a unified approach to test orchestration and execution by abstracting away various testing frameworks and tools. By utilizing Kubernetes-native Custom Resource Definitions (CRDs), Testkube can leverage the scalability and reliability of Kubernetes for test-specific purposes. Additionally, Testkube CRDs enable the management of all testing resources in a GitOps manner. During the talk, attendees will learn how to set up Testkube and configure various test types, including Cypress, Postman, and K6, to build an efficient quality pipeline, and simplify test distribution and management while leveraging Kubernetes for reliability and scalability.

Tomasz is a highly experienced Test Architect and Quality Consultant with a true passion for all things related to software quality. He is a devoted advocate of DevOps, and is always on the lookout for ways to automate everything. At present, Tomasz is the QA Lead at Testkube, an innovative open-source project that streamlines the distribution of tests to Kubernetes clusters. He is also actively involved in the testing community, sharing his extensive knowledge and insights through a variety of mediums such as blog posts, articles, and conference talks. Over the last few years, he has delivered 50+ talks at international and nationwide conferences, covering a diverse range of topics related to software development and quality, including the evolution of quality approaches in software development, automated tests as quality pipeline data feed, and serverless architecture to speed up tests. He also talks about test environments management with Docker, insecurity by design, scaling blockchain with Lightning Network, and many others. Additionally, Tomasz is always eager to experiment with new ideas and concepts, believing that it is worth taking risks to achieve great results. His goal is to continue working on unique and challenging projects, while always enjoying his work as much as he does now.

How to secure your application with Secure SDLC

by Dmytro Tereschenko - Head of Information Security @ Sigma Software

  from Lisbon, Portugal

In today's digital world, application security is more important than ever. With hackers and cybercriminals lurking around every corner, it's essential to build secure applications from the ground up. Dmytro will help us explore Secure SDLC (Secure Software Development Lifecycle), a framework that can help you build secure applications with confidence.He will discuss the different phases of the Secure SDLC framework, starting from planning and design to implementation and maintenance. He will also explain how to identify and mitigate security risks at each step of the development process, ensuring that the application meets industry standards and regulations. Dmytro will also discuss the importance of collaboration and communication in building secure applications. He will uncover how to create a culture of security within your team, and how to get everyone on board with Secure SDLC. You'll walk away from this speech with practical insights and tools for building secure applications that keep your users and data safe.

With over 15 years of experience in the field, Dmytro has honed his skills in a variety of domains, including Quality Assurance, Business Analysis, Peopleware, Human Resources, and Project Management. However, Dmytro's true passion lies in the field of information security, where he has achieved considerable success. Currently based in Portugal, Dmytro serves as the Head of Information Security at Sigma Software. He is responsible for ensuring that the company's data and systems are protected from cyber threats, and he works closely with other departments to implement best practices for information security. Dmytro is also an active participant in the information security community and has spoken at events such as the Swedish Security Conference and Open Tech Week.

Breaking the mold: A provocative discussion on moral values and their impact on society and QA industry

by Anton Angelov - CTO of Automate The Planet Ltd, Inventor of BELLATRIX Test Automation Framework, Author

  from Sofia, Bulgaria

We will wrap up with Anton's talk focused on the essential role that moral values play in shaping individuals and society as a whole. Lawrence Kohlberg's theory of moral development identifies six stages, each with its own characteristics and values. In the QA industry, it is crucial to have a strong ethical framework to ensure quality and accountability in software development. The rise of technological advances, globalization, and demographic changes poses challenges to maintaining moral values in IT. To uphold moral values, individuals and organizations must prioritize humanistic values over capitalist values and prioritize the collective interest over personal gain. The future of the QA industry depends on addressing these challenges and upholding ethical standards in the face of changing social and economic structures. As the IT industry continues to evolve and face new challenges, we must remain vigilant in upholding ethical standards and protecting the rights and well-being of all stakeholders, so accept the challenge of Anton and join this provocative final session.

Anton Angelov is well-known in the Bulgarian QA community - he is the CTO and Co-founder of Automate The Planet, and also the inventor of BELLATRIX Test Automation Framework, as well as author of two best-selling books, "Design Patterns for High-Quality Automated Tests: Clean Code for Bulletproof Tests" in C# and Java. He is a multiple winner of the "QA of the Year" award, listed in the top 100 of most influential IT people in Bulgaria, and cited with the "Overall Contribution QA Community Award". Anton directs teams of passionate engineers helping companies succeed with their test automation, consults companies, leads automated testing training series, and gives conference talks at the biggest QA conferences worldwide. He has spoken at 40+ conferences globally. Anton has a dream and a vision for Bulgaria to become the world center of Quality Excellence with the right education.

Lightning Talks

Lightning talks are a type of presentation format where speakers are given a short amount of time, five minutes or less, to present a topic or idea. If you want to speak from our stage, you will have the opportunity to do so and share your insights and ideas with a larger audience. You will be able to sign up during the event. While we try to leave the format as free as possible, consider short talks, English language and our code of conduct policy.