STARWEST 2011

STARWEST 2011

By co-creating xBTM and successfully implementing Scrum and exploratory testing in diverse project areas including online gaming and stock exchange systems, Michael Albrecht has a track record of inspiring testers to take their testing to new levels and to find unexpected bugs in unexpected ways. Michael is working with KYH, a Swedish college with a program for the next generation of testers, to spread his knowledge about new and efficient test methods to a larger audience. He is one of the enthusiasts behind Swedish Exploratory Testers (SWET), a peer conference for exploratory testing geeks in Sweden. Michael shares his thoughts online at twitter.com and addq.se/blogg/. Concurrent Class: xBTM: Taking Full Advantage of Exploratory Testing Thursday, October 06, 2011 3:00 PM

Alexander Andelkovic Spotify

In the software industry for fifteen years, Alexander Andelkovic currently works as a test engineer at Spotify in Stockholm, Sweden. An exploratory tester, Alexander is a driving force for implementing next-generation model-based testing and an ambassador for session-based test management. Prior to his current role, Alexander worked as a test leader in the mobile Internet business unit at Microsoft for five years. At ignite NORDIC2010 he presented “Augmented Reality Testing: Future Technology at Our Help.” Concurrent Class: Model-based Testing: The Next Generation Thursday, October 06, 2011 11:15 AM

Jason Arbon Google, Inc.

With the official title of "Social Engineer" at Google, Jason Arbon currently manages several teams at Google on Chrome/HTML5 tools and search experiments. Previously Jason worked at Microsoft leading the quality team for Bing search relevance and ranking. Past projects include Google Talk, Google Desktop, BizTalk Server, MSN, Windows Filesystem, WindowsCE, and Exchange Server. Prior to joining Google, he worked at a small distributed message routing platform company and a stealth social search startup. Jason's primary software interests are in search relevance, applying social networking signals, distributed systems for automation, and quantification of relevance and software quality. Concurrent Class: Google's New Methodology for Risk-driven Testing Wednesday, October 05, 2011 11:30 AM

James Bach Satisfice, Inc.

James Bach is founder and principal consultant of Satisfice, Inc., a software testing and quality assurance company. In the eighties, James cut his teeth as a programmer, tester, and SQA manager in Silicon Valley in the world of market-driven software development. For nearly ten years, he has traveled the world teaching rapid software testing skills and serving as an expert witness on court cases involving software testing. James is the author of Lessons Learned in Software Testing and Secrets of a Buccaneer-Scholar: How Self-Education and the Pursuit of Passion Can Lead to a Lifetime of Success. Afternoon Tutorial: Exploratory Testing Explained Monday, October 03, 2011 1:00 PM Full-Day Tutorial: Critical Thinking for Software Testers Tuesday, October 04, 2011 8:30 AM

Jon Bach eBay, Inc.

Jon Bach joined eBay (San Jose) as a QA director for the Buyer Experience team. Formerly a manager of corporate intellect and senior test consultant at Quardev, Jon has been in testing since 1995 with experience that includes managing teams at Microsoft, HP, and LexisNexis. The co-inventor (with his brother James) of session-based test management, Jon is an award-winning speaker on test management and exploratory testing. He’s mostly known for his “half-baked” ideas about how to inspire innovation and create a learning culture for test teams. Find Jon on Facebook and Twitter (@jbtestpilot). View his presentations at quardev.com/articles and his blog at jonbox.wordpress.com. Afternoon Tutorial: Exploratory Testing Is Now in Session Tuesday, October 04, 2011 1:00 PM

Scott Barber PerfTestPlus, Inc.

Scott Barber is the chief technologist of PerfTestPlus, executive director of the Association for Software Testing, co-founder of the Workshop on Performance and Reliability, and co-author of Performance Testing Guidance for Web Applications. A recognized expert in performance testing software systems, he combines experience, science, and wit to teach a heuristic approach to testing performance to every member of the project team. Scott is an international keynote speaker and author of more than 100 published works related to software testing. Bonus Session: The Workshop on Regulated Software Testing (WREST) - Back by Popular Demand! Friday, October 07, 2011 8:30 AM

Dan Bartow SOASTA, Inc.

Dan Bartow is vice president of product management and cloudtest evangelist at SOASTA, the leader in performance testing from the cloud. Prior to joining SOASTA, Dan was senior manager of engineering at Intuit, where his team was responsible for the speed and stability of TurboTax Online. During the past decade he has been responsible for the performance of websites for leading consumer brands. Dan has set multiple industry precedents including launching the world's largest stateful JBoss cluster and using more than 2,000 cloud computing cores to generate load against a live website. A frequent industry presenter, Dan has spoken at leading testing and cloud computing conferences. Afternoon Tutorial: Production Performance Testing in the Cloud Monday, October 03, 2011 1:00 PM

Michael Bolton Developsense

Tester, consultant, and trainer Michael Bolton is the co-author (with senior author James Bach) of Rapid Software Testing, a course that presents a methodology and mindset for testing software expertly in uncertain conditions and under extreme time pressure. Michael is a leader in the context-driven software testing movement with twenty years of experience testing, developing, managing, and writing about software. Currently, he leads DevelopSense, a Toronto-based consultancy. Prior to DevelopSense, he was with Quarterdeck Corporation, where he managed the company’s flagship products, and directed project and testing teams both in-house and worldwide. Contact Michael at michael@developsense.com. Full-Day Tutorial: A Rapid Introduction to Rapid Software Testing Monday, October 03, 2011 8:30 AM Concurrent Class: Get Testers Out of the QA Business Wednesday, October 05, 2011 3:00 PM

Jennifer Bonine Up Ur Game Learning Solutions

Jennifer Bonine began her career in consulting, implementing large ERP solutions. She has held director level positions leading development, quality assurance and testing, organizational development, and process improvement teams for Fortune 500 companies in several domains. In her most recent engagement for one of the world’s largest technology companies, she served as the Strategic Quality and Process Improvement Executive. Throughout her career, she has had the opportunity to build several global teams from the ground up while managing the required organizational change. She currently serves as the strategic quality and process improvement executive for Up Ur Game Learning Solutions, a global people development company that offers F2F and virtual models for team and personal development. Afternoon Tutorial: Leading Change (Even If You’re Not in Charge) Monday, October 03, 2011 1:00 PM Concurrent Class: A Holistic Way to Measure Quality Thursday, October 06, 2011 9:45 AM

Edward Bonver Symantec

A senior principal software engineer on the product security team at Symantec Corporation, Edward Bonver is responsible for working with software developers and quality assurance professionals across Symantec to continuously enhance the company’s software security practices through the adoption of methodologies, procedures, and tools for secure coding and security testing. Edward teaches secure coding and security testing classes for Symantec engineers and leads the company’s QA Security Task Force, which he founded. He is a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and a Certified Secure Software Lifecycle Professional (CSSLP). Concurrent Class: Practical Threat Modeling: Engaging Testers Early Thursday, October 06, 2011 1:30 PM

Mette Bruhn-Pedersen Bruhn-Pedersen Consulting

Experienced test practitioner Mette Bruhn-Pedersen has worked with software testing for almost a decade in the transport and banking industries. Currently Mette works as a test manager at a Danish bank implementing and integrating a new banking platform, primarily focusing on non-functional requirements. She is passionate about getting testing incorporated as a natural part of all development processes and helping others create sustainable solutions for improving software quality and customer satisfaction. Mette participates in special interest groups for software testing and is regularly invited to speak at test conferences worldwide and at home in Denmark. Concurrent Class: Testing on the Toilet: A Success Story from STARWEST 2007 Thursday, October 06, 2011 11:15 AM

Hans Buwalda LogiGear

An internationally recognized expert in testing, Hans Buwalda is the pioneer of keyword-driven test automation, an approach now widely used throughout the testing industry. Originally from The Netherlands, Hans is now CTO of California-based LogiGear, directing the development of the successful Action Based Testing™ methodology for keyword-driven test automation and its supporting TestArchitect™ toolset. Prior to joining LogiGear, he served as project director at CMG (now Logica) in the Netherlands. Hans speaks frequently at international conferences on concepts such as Soap Opera Testing, 3 Holy Grails of Test Development, Testing in the Cold, and Jungle Testing. Hans is coauthor of Integrated Test Design and Automation. Concurrent Class: Offshore and Outsourced Test Automation Adventures Thursday, October 06, 2011 9:45 AM

Chris Chen Salesforce.com

In his role as senior manager of the test automation team at Salesforce.com, Chris Chen drives key elements of the overall test automation strategy for the organization and oversees the development and testing of many test automation projects. Chris joined Salesforce.com in 2001 and has worked in various areas of R&D. For the past six years, he has primarily focused on test automation and currently has several test automation-related patents pending. Prior to Salesforce.com, Chris led various test automation projects at Lexmark and BoldFish. Concurrent Class: The Force of Test Automation in the Salesforce Cloud Wednesday, October 05, 2011 1:45 PM

Christopher Clark PepsiCo

With more than fifteen years of experience in software development and testing, Christopher Clark leads the transformation initiatives in PepsiCo’s Enterprise Test Center (ETC). Chris is responsible for defining and implementing testing standards across the organization, improving test governance, and ensuring compliance with testing processes. Instrumental in developing and leveraging the peer review process at PepsiCo, he works with teams to improve project success by driving testing activities earlier into the project lifecycle. Concurrent Class: Peer Reviews at PepsiCo: Finding Defects Early Wednesday, October 05, 2011 3:00 PM

Frank Cohen PushToTest

Frank Cohen is a recognized test tools and methodology expert, credited with bringing open source testing to Deloitte, Wells Fargo Bank, PepsiCo, the US Air Force, NTT Verio, and TIBCO. Frank is founder and CEO of PushToTest, the open source test company, and inventor of the popular TestMaker test automation tool for functional testing, load and performance testing, and production monitoring. Frank is the author of several books, including Fast SOA: The way to use native XML technology to achieve Service Oriented Architecture governance, scalability, and performance and Java Testing and Design: From Unit Testing to Automated Web Tests. Concurrent Class: New Generation Record/Playback Tools for AJAX Testing Wednesday, October 05, 2011 3:00 PM

Lee Copeland Software Quality Engineering

Lee Copeland has more than thirty-five years of experience as a consultant, instructor, author, and information systems professional. He has held a number of technical and managerial positions with commercial and non-profit organizations in the areas of applications development, software testing, and software development process improvement. Lee frequently speaks at software conferences both in the US and internationally, and currently serves as Program Chair for the Better Software conferences, the STAR testing conferences, and Software Quality Engineering’s Agile Development Practices conferences. Lee is the author of A Practitioner’s Guide to Software Test Design, a compendium of the most effective methods of test case design. Full-Day Tutorial: Key Test Design Techniques Tuesday, October 04, 2011 8:30 AM Bonus Session: Speaking 101: Tips and Tricks Tuesday, October 04, 2011 5:30 PM Keynote: Lightning Strikes the Keynotes Wednesday, October 05, 2011 4:30 PM

Rick Craig Software Quality Engineering

A consultant, lecturer, author, and test manager, Rick Craig has led numerous teams of testers on both large and small projects. In his twenty-five years of consulting worldwide, Rick has advised and supported a diverse group of organizations on many testing and test management issues. From large insurance providers and telecommunications companies to smaller software services companies, he has mentored senior software managers and helped test teams improve their effectiveness. Rick is co-author of Systematic Software Testing and is a frequent speaker at testing conferences, including every STAR conference since its inception. Morning Tutorial: Leadership for Test Managers Monday, October 03, 2011 8:30 AM Morning Tutorial: Essential Test Management and Planning Tuesday, October 04, 2011 8:30 AM Afternoon Tutorial: Measurement and Metrics for Test Managers Tuesday, October 04, 2011 1:00 PM

Dale Emery DHE

For thirty years Dale Emery has worked in the software industry as a developer, manager, process steward, trainer, and consultant in both IT organizations and software product development companies. He helps people apply the agile values of communication, feedback, simplicity, courage, and respect to all areas of software development. Dale's combination of deep technical expertise and extensive organizational development experience makes him particularly effective in working with software teams. In 2007 he received the Ward Cunningham Gentle Voice of Reason Award, which the Agile Alliance created to recognize Dale's unique contributions to the agile community. He holds two patents for his software designs. Full-Day Tutorial: Adapting to Agile Monday, October 03, 2011 8:30 AM Concurrent Class: Servant Leadership in Agile: The End of Command and Control Thursday, October 06, 2011 9:45 AM

Bob Galen iContact

Bob Galen is the director of R&D at iContact and president of RGCG, LLC, a North Carolina-based firm specializing in strategy development, coaching, and training teams making the shift to Scrum and other agile practices. Bob regularly speaks at international conferences and professional groups on topics related to software development, project management, software testing, and team leadership. He is a Certified Scrum Master Practicing (CSP), Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), and an active member of the Agile Alliance and Scrum Alliance. In 2009, Bob published Scrum Product Ownership—Balancing Value from the Inside Out, which addresses the gap in guidance toward effective agile product management. You can reach Bob at bob@rgalen.com or rgalen.com. Morning Tutorial: A Test Leader’s Guide to Agile Monday, October 03, 2011 8:30 AM Concurrent Class: Session-based Exploratory Testing on Agile Projects Wednesday, October 05, 2011 3:00 PM

Julie Gardiner Grove Consultants

In the IT industry for nearly twenty years, Julie Gardiner has worked as an analyst programmer, Oracle DBA, and project manager. She has first-hand experience as a test analyst, test team leader, test consultant, and test manager. At UK-based Grove Consultants, Julie, a certified ScrumMaster, provides consultancy and training in all aspects of testing, specializing in risk-based testing, agile testing, test management, and people issues. She won best presentation at STAREAST, best presentation at BCS SIGiST, and best tutorial at EuroSTAR. Julie has been a keynote speaker at STARWEST, Innovate Test Management, and STANZ. Morning Tutorial: Becoming a Trusted Advisor to Senior Management Monday, October 03, 2011 8:30 AM Morning Tutorial: Usability Testing in a Nutshell Tuesday, October 04, 2011 8:30 AM

Mieke Gevers AQIS

In the IT industry for more than twenty years, Mieke Gevers has developed a special interest in the techniques and processes relating to performance management and automated testing. Mieke is a regular speaker at conferences and organizations worldwide. She served on the Program Committee for the EuroSTAR conference in 2007 and 2009 and was Program Chair of the Belgium Testing Days 2011 and 2012. A co-founder of the Belgian Testers Organization, Mieke has been a board member of KVIV and the ISTQB-affiliate Belgian Software Testing Qualifications Board. Concurrent Class: Performance Testing the SMART Way Thursday, October 06, 2011 9:45 AM

Ellen Gottesdiener EBG Consulting, Inc.

EBG Consulting, Inc., principal consultant and founder Ellen Gottesdiener helps business and technical teams collaborate to define and deliver the product that customers value and need. Ellen is an internationally recognized facilitator, trainer, speaker, and expert on requirements development and management, agile business analysis, product chartering and roadmapping, retrospectives, and collaborative workshops. Author of two acclaimed books Requirements by Collaboration and The Software Requirements Memory Jogger, she works with global clients and speaks at industry conferences. Ellen is co-authoring a book on how to discover and explore product needs using agile-lean practices. Learn more from her articles, tweets, blog, and free eNewsletter, and find a variety of useful practitioner resources on EBG’s web site. Contact Ellen at ellen@ebgconsulting.com. Afternoon Tutorial: Agile Requirements Exploration with Tester Collaboration Tuesday, October 04, 2011 1:00 PM

Pradeep Govindasamy Cognizant Technology Solutions

With more than twelve years of experience in the information technology industry, Pradeep Govindasamy currently holds the lead role for the Automation and Mobile Testing Center of Excellence at Cognizant. Pradeep started—and is now the research and development unit lead for—the automation and mobile practices which has more than 1500 experts servicing global customers. Pradeep has spoken on topics of automation, test data management, and tools at conferences worldwide including STARWEST, STAREAST 2011, Swiss Testing Day, HP Universe, and EuroStar. Concurrent Class: Selecting Mobile Application Automation Tools Thursday, October 06, 2011 3:00 PM

Dorothy Graham Software Test Consultant

In testing for more than thirty years, Dorothy Graham is co-author of Software Inspection, Software Test Automation, Foundations of Software Testing, and Experiences of Test Automation (2011). She was a founding member of the ISEB Software Testing Board and a member of the working party that developed the ISTQB Foundation Syllabus. A popular and entertaining speaker at conferences and seminars worldwide, Dorothy was the program chair for the 1993 and 2009 EuroSTAR Conferences and holds the European Excellence Award in Software Testing. She has been speaking at STAR conferences since 1992. Now semi-retired, Dorothy has more time to spend on her main hobby—choral singing. Full-Day Tutorial: Managing Successful Test Automation Monday, October 03, 2011 8:30 AM

Janet Gregory DragonFire, Inc.

The co-author of Agile Testing: A Practical Guide for Agile Testers and Teams, Janet Gregory specializes in helping teams build quality systems. Based in Calgary, Canada, Janet’s greatest passion is promoting agile quality processes. As tester or coach she has helped introduce agile development practices into companies and has successfully transitioned several traditional test teams into the agile world. Janet’s focus is working with business users and testers to understand their roles in agile projects. She has partnered with developers on her agile teams to implement successful test automation solutions. Janet is a frequent speaker at leading agile and testing software conferences around the world, including the STAR testing conferences. Afternoon Tutorial: Agile Testing: After the First Year, What’s Next? Monday, October 03, 2011 1:00 PM Morning Tutorial: Planning Your Agile Testing: A Practical Guide Tuesday, October 04, 2011 8:30 AM Afternoon Tutorial: Agile Requirements Exploration with Tester Collaboration Tuesday, October 04, 2011 1:00 PM Concurrent Class: Seven Key Factors for Agile Testing Success Wednesday, October 05, 2011 11:30 AM

Jon Hagar Independent Consultant

Jon Hagar is a systems-software engineer and tester supporting software product integrity, verification, and validation with a specialization in embedded software systems. For more than thirty years Jon has worked in software engineering, particularly testing/verification and validation. Embedded projects he has supported include the space shuttle, large rockets, spacecraft, and ground systems as well as testing new smart phones. Jon has managed and built embedded test labs including supportive automation development. Jon publishes regularly with more than fifty presentations and papers in software testing, verification, validation, agile, product integrity and assessment, system engineering, and quality assurance. He teaches classes at the professional and college level. Concurrent Class: Can You Hear Me Now? Yes … and Everyone Else Can, Too Thursday, October 06, 2011 3:00 PM

Julian Harty eBay, Inc.

Julian Harty was hired by eBay to help revamp testing across the organization, to significantly improve the effectiveness and relevance of testing. Since then he's learned plenty about testing techniques that work, some that don’t, and ways that automation can help. In the process, Julian started writing and sharing material with others who were interested in testing mobile software. That work has been shared at workshops and tutorials around the world, and the test automation techniques ended up being published as a book and now online. Julian is an active contributor to several open-source testing and development projects. Learn more at http://blog.bettersoftwaretesting.com or http://code.google.com/u/julianharty/. Full-Day Tutorial: Test Automation for Mobile Apps Tuesday, October 04, 2011 8:30 AM Concurrent Class: Pushing the Boundaries of User Experience Test Automation Wednesday, October 05, 2011 1:45 PM

David Hayman Qual IT Software Testing Solutions

David Hayman has been in IT for twenty-seven years with twenty-three of those focused on software testing. Originally from the UK, David has lived in New Zealand for eight years. He is currently the test practice manager for Qual IT Software Testing Solutions in Auckland, delivering testing solutions, and mentoring and training IT teams across a gamut of industries and applications. A contributing author to The Testing Practitioner, David is a thought-provoking and entertaining speaker at events in the UK, Europe, and Australasia. Actively involved in the ISEB/ISTQB certification program since 1998 as a trainer and exam writer, David is currently the Chair of the Australia and New Zealand Testing Board. Keynote: I Didn't Know I Knew That: A Story of Self-Learning Wednesday, October 05, 2011 10:00 AM

Dawn Haynes PerfTestPlus, Inc.

Dawn Haynes is COO, principal trainer and consultant for PerfTestPlus, Inc., and a director of the Association for Software Testing. Her unique blend of experience, humor, and effectiveness at providing students at all levels with tools and techniques to help them generate new approaches to common and complex software testing problems has resulted in international recognition as an elite trainer of testers. Dawn provides consulting services and is frequently invited to speak at testing conferences, local groups, and intimate gatherings of testers. She has more than twenty-five years of experience supporting, administering, developing, and testing software and hardware systems—from small business operations to large corporate enterprises. Morning Tutorial: How to Break Software: Robustness Edition Monday, October 03, 2011 8:30 AM Concurrent Class: Managing Intrateam Dysfunction Thursday, October 06, 2011 3:00 PM

Nazar Hossain Zarieas

Specializing in QA strategy and governance, Nazar Hossain has focused on developing Testing Centers of Excellence (TCoE), designing QA governance models, and implementing automated testing (both technical and strategic). Nazar's testing experience includes designing and building centralized TCoEs for several large financial, industrial, and pharmaceutical organizations as well as mobilizing and operating several large testing practices. His automated testing experiences include creating a more than 130 person automated testing practice for one of the world's largest IT consulting firms, running several test automation teams, conducting maturity assessments, and developing key assets to manage and govern an automated testing practice. Concurrent Class: Automated Testing: The Differentiators of Success Wednesday, October 05, 2011 11:30 AM

Joel Hynoski Google, Inc.

Joel Hynoski lucked into testing when the test manager left the telecommunications company in Australia where Joel was working as a software engineer. It was then that he found his passion for the creativity of testing and the engineering problems in test. Joel has now been in test for fourteen years and manages the client focus area for Google, with products like Chrome, ChromeOS, Google Toolbar, Google Updater, and Chrome Web Store under his purview. Joel has worked on Google Docs, Talk, and Contacts. Previously he worked from startup stage at Pure Networks (Cisco) and Open Telecommunications. Summit: Testing in the Face of Relentless Change and Time Pressure Friday, October 07, 2011 8:30 AM

Krishna Iyer ZenTEST Labs

Krishna Iyer, CEO of ZenTEST Labs, is a young entrepreneur, a prolific speaker, and author. Before ZenTEST Labs, Krishna was a quality manager at Kanbay where he worked with clients such as CitiFinancial, HSBC, IBM, and GE. Krishna shapes ZenTEST Labs strategy using his financial background, improves ZenTEST Labs operations using his rich IT and process consulting experience, and transforms its culture using his expertise as a behavioral trainer. Krishna is a regular presenter at testing and quality conferences including STARWEST and STAREAST. Keynote: Test Automation Magic: Pushing the Frontiers Thursday, October 06, 2011 4:15 PM

Eric Jacobson Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.

Quality assurance manager for Turner Broadcasting System’s Audience & Multi-Platform Technologies (AMPT) group, Eric Jacobson manages the test team responsible for Turner’s sales data warehouse and its traffic system. Previously, Eric was a test lead at Turner Broadcasting, responsible for testing the new traffic system that schedules all commercials and programming on Turner’s twelve domestic cable networks, including CNN, TNT, TBS, and Cartoon Network. Prior to joining TBS, Eric was a tester at Lucent Technologies. In 2007, Eric joined the tester blogosphere, where he has been blogging about testing on testthisblog.com every week since. Concurrent Class: Be the Tester Your Dog Thinks You Are Thursday, October 06, 2011 1:30 PM

Rod Jardine UnitedHealth Group

At UnitedHealth Group (UHG) for eight years, Rod Jardine currently is a vice president of information technology, responsible for the architecture and design of OptumHealth's products, innovation, and technical initiatives and strategy. As a thought leader, Rod provides expert guidance and oversight in the design, development, and modification of UHG’s enterprise and segment capabilities and IT strategic roadmaps. He is currently working on merger and acquisitions, and developing an Accountable Care Organization solution for OptumHealth's Collaborative Care business unit. Rod follows the philosophy to think creatively, plan strategically, and execute tactically. At home in Minnesota with his wife and two children, Rod is an avid hockey player/coach when it’s cold and makes use of his PADI certification when it's warmer. Summit: Balancing Business Agility and Software Quality Friday, October 07, 2011 8:30 AM

Anu Kak PayPal

Anu Kak is a director of software quality assurance at eBay/PayPal. In his twenty-three years in the software industry, Anu has been an enterprise applications developer, customer support engineer, and software quality assurance professional. For the past eighteen years, he has been working in the field of software quality assurance in the areas of testing enterprise applications, relational database systems, and enterprise development tools. In addition to managing multiple testing teams of QA engineers spread across various locations, Anu coordinates with his peer QA teams on managing new testing strategies, establishing better QA practices, and setting strategic QA direction. Concurrent Class: A Crowdsourcing Success Story Wednesday, October 05, 2011 11:30 AM

Nancy Kelln Unimagined Testing

An independent consultant with thirteen years of diverse IT experience, Nancy Kelln enjoys working with teams that are implementing or enhancing their testing practices and provides adaptive testing approaches to both agile and traditional testing teams. She has coached test teams in various environments and facilitated numerous local and international workshops and presentations. A co-founder of POST, Nancy is an active member of the Calgary Software Quality Discussion Group, Association for Software Testing, and the Software Test Professionals organization. Nancy and her family live in Airdrie, Alberta, Canada. Connect with Nancy online at unimaginedtesting.ca or on Twitter @nkelln. Concurrent Class: Test Estimation and the Art of Negotiation Wednesday, October 05, 2011 11:30 AM

Frank Lanciotto Aetna, Inc.

Frank Lanciotto has overall responsibility for Consolidated Lab for testing infrastructure and application testing environments at Aetna, Inc., leading a team of distributed QA engineers within Aetna. Frank has more than sixteen years of resourceful and highly successful experience in a variety of testing roles within the QA Lab, both onshore and offshore. He is a technical and results-oriented information technology manager with an extensive and proven ability to lead, direct, and manage IT organizations. Frank’s primary goals are to deliver cost-effective solutions and to maintain productive customer relationships. Concurrent Class: Virtualization of Test Labs Thursday, October 06, 2011 9:45 AM

Richard Lawrence Humanizing Work

Richard Lawrence is the creator of Cuke4Nuke, the .NET support for Cucumber. Since adopting agile in 2001, Richard has led and coached numerous teams to successfully deliver software projects using an agile approach. He is passionate about and effective at building wildly productive, humanizing software teams. One of only a few dozen Certified Scrum Coaches, Richard regularly speaks at user groups and conferences. He is currently writing a book on ATDD with Cucumber for Addison-Wesley. You can read his blog at richardlawrence.info. Concurrent Class: Teach Your Acceptance Tests to Speak “Business” Thursday, October 06, 2011 9:45 AM

Manish Mathuria InfoStretch Corporation

Manish Mathuria has more than fifteen years of professional and management consulting services experience. As the CTO and leader of the mobile testing practice at InfoStretch Corporation, Manish leads the team in developing architecture, scalability, performance, and IT strategies for customers, especially in the mobile domain. He specializes in leading enterprises into the mobile domain. InfoStretch provides certification and testing services to some of the leading national and international app stores. Manish and his team have tested and certified more than 8,000 mobile applications in InfoStretch Mobile Lab. He speaks regularly at leading quality and software engineering conferences worldwide. Concurrent Class: Mobile Testing: Old Wine in a New Bottle? Thursday, October 06, 2011 1:30 PM

Lynn McKee Quality Perspectives

Lynn McKee is an independent consultant with sixteen years of experience in the software industry and a passion for helping organizations, teams, and individuals deliver valuable software. Lynn is an advocate of the software quality management practices espoused by Jerry Weinberg and provides consulting on software management, leadership, and testing. Active within the software testing community speaking at conferences, writing articles, and contributing to blogs and forums, Lynn is a co-founder of the Weekend Testers Americas and the Calgary Perspectives on Software Testing Workshop (POST). Lynn lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and can be reached online at qualityperspectives.ca or on Twitter @lynn_mckee. Concurrent Class: Test Estimation and the Art of Negotiation Wednesday, October 05, 2011 11:30 AM

Ankit Mehta Google, Inc.

A test engineering manager at Google in the Mountain View office, Ankit Mehta has been leading testing efforts on Gmail for more than three years. He and his team have implemented a robust and effective test infrastructure to measure Gmail latency to the milli-second (that helps keep Gmail fast) and a load test infrastructure that closely replicates real Gmail traffic. Ankit formerly led the testing efforts for Client products at Google for four years. He started at Google leading testing on Google Desktop. Ankit is particularly interested in building scalable and effective testing infrastructures. Afternoon Tutorial: Testing Rich Internet AJAX-based Applications Monday, October 03, 2011 1:00 PM

Scott Miles Gatan, Inc

Scott Miles has almost thirty years of experience in software development, testing, and senior engineering management working on hardware-bound software products that change the world. As the software QA manager for Gatan, the world’s leading manufacturer of instrumentation and software used to enhance and extend the operation and performance of electron microscopes, Scott is responsible for testing and releasing all of Gatan’s sophisticated software products. Prior to Gatan, Scott worked for twenty years for Teradyne as a software manager, developing and delivering to the electronic manufacturing industry the world’s leading in-circuit test equipment, automated board handling equipment, and automated optical inspection equipment. Concurrent Class: Hardware Bound: Testing with Limited Access to Resources Thursday, October 06, 2011 11:15 AM

Jamie Mitchell Jamie Mitchell Consulting, Inc.

Jamie Mitchell has more than thirty years of experience in developing and testing both hardware and software. In 1991, Jamie moved from hardware to the dark side—software. As an early adopter of using tools as a solution for testing problems, he was a pioneer in the test automation field, working with a variety of vendor, open source, and custom-built tools since Windows 3.0. Jamie's specialty is increasing the productivity of automation and test teams through innovative ideas and custom tool extensions. In addition, Jamie provides training, mentoring, and expert technical support in all aspects of testing and automation. Jamie is the co-author (with Rex Black) of Advanced Software Testing, Volume 3: Guide to the ISTQB Advanced Certification as an Advanced Technical Test Analyst. Concurrent Class: Structural Testing: When Quality Matters Wednesday, October 05, 2011 3:00 PM

Cliff Morehead ThoughtWorks

Since falling into IT fifteen years ago, Cliff Morehead has worked for firms ranging from web startups to Fortune 50 companies and worn a variety of hats—from help desk tech to network engineer to manager. A senior consultant for six years at ThoughtWorks, Cliff focuses on delivery and advisory work for clients in agile testing strategy, execution, and test automation. He has served as the leader of ThoughtWorks' North American testing community. Concurrent Class: Better Testing through Cultural Change Thursday, October 06, 2011 3:00 PM

Mukesh Mulchandani ZenTEST Labs

CTO of ZenTEST Labs, Mukesh Mulchandani is the architect behind the organization's various testing solutions and is responsible for establishing ZenTEST Labs as a key player in the software-testing domain. He has eight years of experience in the information technology industry, most spent in banking and financial services. Before joining ZenTEST Labs, Mukesh worked with Kanbay, Capgemini Consulting, and Fortune 500 clients. He has played a major role in designing functional automation processes at the organizational level. A Certified Software Test Engineer and a Certified Product Consultant for WinRunner and QTP, Mukesh is a regular presenter at the STAR conferences. Contact Mukesh at mukesh@zentestlabs.com. Afternoon Tutorial: Testing Web-based Applications: An Open Source Solution Tuesday, October 04, 2011 1:00 PM Keynote: Test Automation Magic: Pushing the Frontiers Thursday, October 06, 2011 4:15 PM

Harish Narayan Vistaprint

A director of technology at Vistaprint, focused on quality assurance and automation, Harish Narayan is a software engineering and information technology leader with more than fifteen years of experience in strategic planning, global operations, project management, performance management, and team-building experience. Harish has expertise in building and leading world-class quality functions, and championing enterprise-wide process and capability improvements. He is passionate about instilling a culture of quality in technology organizations and has been a proven business partner in diverse industries including financial services, e-commerce, telecommunications, enterprise software, and consumer products. Concurrent Class: Testing in Production: Which Version Wins? Wednesday, October 05, 2011 1:45 PM

Manoj Narayanan Cognizant Technology Solutions

Manoj Narayanan is the director of testing services at Cognizant Technology Solutions, a leading provider of information technology and consulting services. Manoj manages the QA delivery and client relationship of Cognizant’s retail, manufacturing, capital markets, and travel and hospitality verticals in North America. In his current role, he provides thought leadership and implementation assistance for his clients as they transition the QA organization toward the next maturity level. During his fourteen years in the IT services industry, Manoj has successfully played multiple roles including performance services evangelist, program manager, and transition advisor. Prior to Cognizant, Manoj was a management consultant with A T Kearney with primary focus on business process re-engineering and risk optimization. Concurrent Class: Crowdsourced Testing: An Emerging Model for Serious Testing Thursday, October 06, 2011 11:15 AM

Raja Neravati AppLabs

A senior vice president and member of the executive management team at AppLabs, the world’s largest independent software testing company, Raja Neravati has fifteen years of experience in the software quality assurance industry. In his current role, Raja heads global delivery for AppLabs. Working closely with Fortune 1000 customers, he pioneered various implementation models creating cost effective TCoE solutions for many of AppLabs’ customers and has been instrumental in driving many process initiatives across industry verticals. Raja’s expertise in Six Sigma, CMMi, and Prince 2 methodologies has helped in designing vital business metrics. He is one of the pioneers of “Factory Model” for test automation. Concurrent Class: Establishing a Testing Center of Excellence: The Pros and Cons Thursday, October 06, 2011 1:30 PM

William Oliver Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

William Oliver has more than twelve years at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) as a software developer and software quality engineer. William previously worked at static analysis tool vendor Klocwork, Inc. and at Qualcomm as a staff engineer in the static analysis group where he assisted development teams in defect triage and worked with developers to perform static analysis. In 2010, he returned to LLNL in the Software Quality Engineering Group. Assigned to several development teams, William is the static analysis expert for the programs he supports, is the Klocwork administrator, and continues to assist in defect triage of C and C++ programs. Concurrent Class: Quantifying the Value of Static Analysis Thursday, October 06, 2011 11:15 AM

Nate Oster CodeSquads, LLC

Nate Oster is an agile player-coach and founder of CodeSquads, where he helps clients adopt lean and agile methods. Nate builds high-performance teams that adapt to change, embrace a pragmatic philosophy of continuous improvement, measure progress with new features, and deliver high-quality software that delights customers. As a coach, he inspires adopters with hands-on mentoring and simulations that provide a safe learning environment for new ideas. Nate promotes testing as a serious technical discipline and is frequently consulted as an expert in agile test automation and system performance engineering. He and his wife Heather enjoy technical rock climbing, backpacking, and travel. Nate is easily defeated at all card games. Contact him at NateOster@CodeSquads.com. Morning Tutorial: Acceptance Test-driven Development: Mastering Agile Testing Tuesday, October 04, 2011 8:30 AM Concurrent Class: Concurrent Testing Games: Developers and Testers Working Together Wednesday, October 05, 2011 1:45 PM

Jeff Payne Coveros, Inc.

Jeff Payne is CEO and founder of Coveros, Inc., where he has led the startup and growth of the company. Prior to Coveros, Jeff was Chairman of the Board, CEO, and co-founder of Cigital, Inc. Under his direction, Cigital became a leader in software security and software quality solutions, helping clients mitigate the business risks associated with failed software. Jeff is a recognized software expert and speaks to companies nationwide about the business risks of software failure. He has been a keynote and featured speaker at CIO and business technology conferences and frequently testifies before Congress on issues of national importance, including intellectual property rights, cyber-terrorism, and software quality. Bonus Session: Making Agile Work: An Introduction to Agile Development Practices Sunday, October 02, 2011 8:30 AM Summit: Think Tank Discussion Friday, October 07, 2011 8:30 AM

Dale Perry Software Quality Engineering

Dale Perry has more than thirty-four years of experience in information technology as a programmer/analyst, database administrator, project manager, development manager, tester, and test manager. Dale’s project experience includes large system development and conversions, distributed systems, and both web-based and client/server applications. A professional instructor for more than twenty years, he has presented at numerous industry conferences on development and testing. With Software Quality Engineering for fifteen years, Dale has specialized in training and consulting on testing, inspections and reviews, and other testing and quality-related topics. Full-Day Tutorial: Risk-driven Testing with the STEP™ Process Monday, October 03, 2011 8:30 AM Full-Day Tutorial: Software Performance Testing: Preparing for a Successful Test Tuesday, October 04, 2011 8:30 AM

Martin Pol Polteq Testing Services BV

Martin Pol has played a significant role in helping to raise the awareness and improve the performance of testing worldwide. Martin provides international testing consulting services through POLTEQ Testing Services BV. He’s gained experience by managing testing processes, and implementing and improving structured testing in many organizations worldwide. A co-author of Test Process Improvement, a classic text on models for improving testing, Martin has developed approaches to successfully manage test outsourcing services. In 2010, Martin received the Knight in the Order of Orange-Nassau award from The Netherlands for his lifetime contributions to the IT and software industries. Concurrent Class: Test Process Improvement on a Shoestring Thursday, October 06, 2011 1:30 PM

Sundar Raghavan Skytap

As the chief product officer at Skytap, Sundar Raghavan is responsible for the overall product direction and roadmap. Working with Skytap engineering, Sundar brings to market innovative cloud solutions that solve DevTest and DevOps challenges. He works directly with leading companies including Google, HP, EllieMae, and LanDesk that use Skytap for application development and testing projects. Prior to Skytap, as head of Postini product marketing at Google Enterprise, Sundar enabled Postini's rapid growth and scale (15 million users, 40,000 customers, 2 billion messages a day). Pre-Google, Sundar launched many successful products at Ariba, Hyperion (Oracle), and Microstrategy. Concurrent Class: Cloud Computing: Powering the Future of Testing Wednesday, October 05, 2011 11:30 AM

Doron Reuveni uTest

Doron Reuveni co-founded uTest in February 2007. Since its inception, uTest has provided functional, usability, and load testing services through a community that includes more than 35,000 professional testers from 170 countries. Doron is a published author and expert in testing methodologies for web, desktop, and mobile applications. Prior to uTest, he was the senior vice president of technology at Enigma, Inc., delivering large-scale software implementations through his global team of product managers, developers, QA professionals, and project managers. Doron has more than twenty years of experience delivering software applications to companies from Fortune 500 to young, agile startups. To learn more, visit uTest at utest.com. Concurrent Class: Top Ten Disruptive Technologies You Must Understand Wednesday, October 05, 2011 1:45 PM

Randy Rice Rice Consulting Services, Inc.

A leading author, speaker, and consultant with more than thirty years of experience in the field of software testing and software quality, Randy Rice has worked with organizations worldwide to improve the quality of their information systems and optimize their testing processes. He is co-author of Surviving the Top Ten Challenges of Software Testing and Testing Dirty Systems (with William E. Perry). Randy is an officer of the American Software Testing Qualifications Board (ASTQB). Founder, principal consultant, and trainer at Rice Consulting Services, Randy can be contacted at riceconsulting.com where he publishes articles, newsletters, and other content about software testing and software quality. Visit Randy’s blog at randallrice.blogspot.com. Afternoon Tutorial: Free and Cheap Test Tools Monday, October 03, 2011 1:00 PM Full-Day Tutorial: Becoming an Influential Test Team Leader Tuesday, October 04, 2011 8:30 AM

Rob Sabourin AmiBug.com

Rob Sabourin, P. Eng., has more than twenty-five years of management experience leading teams of software development professionals. A well-respected member of the software engineering community, Rob has managed, trained, mentored, and coached hundreds of top professionals in the field. He frequently speaks at conferences and writes on software engineering, SQA, testing, management, and internationalization. Rob wrote I am a Bug!, the popular software testing children's book; works as an adjunct professor of software engineering at McGill University; and serves as the principle consultant (and president/janitor) of AmiBug.Com, Inc. Contact Rob at rsabourin@amibug.com. Morning Tutorial: Using Visual Models for Test Case Design Tuesday, October 04, 2011 8:30 AM Keynote: Testing Lessons from Comic Book Superheroes Thursday, October 06, 2011 8:30 AM

Sebastián Schiavone Google, Inc.

Sebastián Schiavone serves as a program manager for Google’s test organization in Seattle/Kirkland. He helped codify best practices for test planning and currently works on a variety of projects from scalable virtual machine test environments to experiments in social discovery of information. Previously, Sebastián roamed the halls of Silicon Valley staples Apple, Adobe, and Microsoft. Concurrent Class: Google's New Methodology for Risk-driven Testing Wednesday, October 05, 2011 11:30 AM

Ron Schioldager Wells Fargo

With more than twenty-three years of experience in software development and implementation services, Ron Schioldager is a senior quality assurance manager for WellsFargo.com, a comprehensive retail banking website serving millions of customers nationwide. For ten years at Chevron he was involved with large scale system integration and then moved to professional services for a small software company dedicated to public transit. For the past six years, he has been at WellsFargo.com responsible for web services testing, performance testing, test data management, and test tool management. Concurrent Class: Managing Test Data in Large and Complex Web-based Systems Wednesday, October 05, 2011 1:45 PM

Alim Sharif Ultimate Software Group

An experienced performance test architect and certified project manager, Alim Sharif is part of a team that is transforming one of the largest physical SaaS environments in the world to a completely virtual-based cloud environment. In an agile environment at Ultimate Software, Alim initiated early performance test processes to identify and resolve performance, reliability, stability, and scalability issues of the company’s Unified Human Capital Management SaaS Solutions for Global Businesses. Alim has worked as a database administrator, project manager, network engineer, IT data center manager, test automation engineer/architect, SQA manager, and performance test engineer. He has developed and implemented performance test processes, procedures, and tools that resulted in huge gains in team productivity. Concurrent Class: Performance Testing in the Cloud Thursday, October 06, 2011 11:15 AM

Clinton Sprauve Micro Focus

A senior solutions architect for the Micro Focus Application Management & Quality division, Clint Sprauve has seventeen years of experience in the software quality assurance industry. Previously he was the senior product marketing manager for the Silk Testing Solutions at Borland Software and Segue Software, and served as a senior technical sales engineer for both companies. Clint has also been an independent consultant specializing in test management and test automation. Concurrent Class: Quality and the Cloud: Realities and Costs Wednesday, October 05, 2011 3:00 PM

Dan Taylor GridPoint, Inc.

Dan Taylor is Director of Professional Services for GridPoint, an established leader in smart electric grid software that enables utilities, industry, and consumers to manage the transformation to a clean, efficient, twenty-first century grid. Dan has more than twenty years of experience in IT services delivery and operations as both a consultant and CIO. He has focused his career on providing performance improvement services to the IT sector, helping clients improve their IT operations and their software delivery capabilities. Dan is an active member of the Project Management Institute (PMI), the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA), the American Society for Quality (ASQ), and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Summit: Maximizing the Value of Testing Friday, October 07, 2011 8:30 AM

Ruud Teunissen Polteq Test Services BV

An international test consultant at POLTEQ Test Services BV, Ruud Teunissen has performed several test functions in a number of IT projects: tester, test specialist, test consultant, and test manager. Ruud participated in the development of the structured testing methodology TMap®—Test Management Approach. Together with Martin Pol and Erik van Veenendaal, Ruud is co-author of several books on structured testing, including Software Testing: A Guide to the TMap® Approach. Afternoon Tutorial: Reliable Test Effort Estimation Tuesday, October 04, 2011 1:00 PM

Erik van Veenendaal Improve Quality Services BV

A leading international consultant and trainer, and a recognized expert in the area of software testing, Erik van Veenendaal (erikvanveenendaal.nl) is the founder of Improve Quality Services BV, a company that specializes in testing and quality management. He is the author of a number of books and papers within the profession, one of the core developers of the TMap testing methodology, and currently the vice-chair of the TMMi Foundation. Erik is a frequent keynote and tutorial speaker at international testing conferences. For his major contribution to the field of testing, Erik received the 2007 European Testing Excellence Award. Morning Tutorial: Product Risk Assessments for Better Testing Monday, October 03, 2011 8:30 AM Concurrent Class: Test Process Improvement with TMMi® Thursday, October 06, 2011 3:00 PM

James Whittaker Google

James Whittaker has spent his career in software testing. He was an early thought leader in model-based testing where his Ph.D. dissertation became a standard reference on the subject. While a professor at the Florida Institute of Technology, James founded the world's largest academic software testing research center and helped make testing a degree track for undergraduates. He wrote How to Break Software, How to Break Software Security (with Hugh Thompson), and How to Break Web Software (with Mike Andrews). While at Microsoft, James transformed many of his testing ideas into tools and techniques for developers and testers, and wrote the book Exploratory Software Testing. He is currently the test engineering director at Google where he's busy forging a future in which software just works. Morning Tutorial: How Google Tests Software Monday, October 03, 2011 8:30 AM Keynote: All That Testing Is Getting in the Way of Quality Wednesday, October 05, 2011 8:30 AM

Christin Wiedemann AddQ Consulting

Changing careers after eleven years as an astroparticle physicist, Christin Wiedemann brings her logical and analytical problem-solving skills into the world of testing. Four years down the road, she is still eager to learn and to find new ways to test more efficiently. At AddQ Consulting she works as a tester, test leader, and teacher. Christin is constantly trying new approaches and is keen to share her experiences by tweeting and blogging regularly at christintesting.blogspot.com/. Concurrent Class: xBTM: Taking Full Advantage of Exploratory Testing Thursday, October 06, 2011 3:00 PM

Reán Young The Kroger Company

Reán Young began her career as a software developer and was first exposed to quality on a project for the Department of the Defense. Reán has worked in a wide variety of industries including telecommunications, insurance, defense, newspaper, and automotive software. Leading software quality teams for the past ten years, she has been involved in building quality centers of excellence in China and India. A certified ScrumMaster, Reán currently works as a quality manager at Kroger where she has managed quality teams across departments such as pharmacy, eCommerce, transportation, store systems, and mobile apps. Reán enjoys working with schools and speaking to parent groups about the changing world of technology. Concurrent Class: Risk-based Testing: When You Can’t Test It All Thursday, October 06, 2011 1:30 PM