National Software Testing Conference, UK 2021

It’s been a while, but it sure felt great to get in front of a live audience again and interact with folks at the National Software Testing Conference this week! I had a great time talking about the role of testing in supporting and accelerating business change though digital transformation and disruption. Along with my keynote, the KPMG team presented a talk on the role of test automation in your SaaS pipeline and a workshop on testing challenges in FinTech. It’s a great group of people to work with, and I was particularly proud of my colleague Abdulla Mohammad finally receiving his award for “Test Manager of the Year” from the European Software Testing Awards. I’m working with Abdulla on some machine learning tools for coverage and risk reporting and can tell you, he only has greater things ahead of him!

Aside from being hosted at the amazing location of the British Museum, we got to meet some fantastic testers and see some really interesting content from the UK community. One talk in particular stood out as a topic of passion for me as well being very well presented. Ethics in technology and the role of testers has been a keen interest of mine for some time and was brought to a new head during the pandemic. Samuel Plantie is a lawyer from Outbrain and presented a fantastic talk on data ethics systems using AI and algorithms. The stark contrast between the implications of bias, data breaches and the rights of those having data collected against the overwhelming unpreparedness of organizations using them was jarring.

Overall, it was a great conference and I look forward to easing back into the circuit and meeting and hearing from more testers in the UK and abroad. Hope to see you all soon!

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