Author: Ed de Graaf

Register: Online at our KWality Talk Page, this is an in person event. Location: Morty's Pub, 272 King St N, Waterloo, ON N2J 2Y9 Time: 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm Details: It's that time of year again! On June 25 join the board and members of the KWSQA community at Morty's Pub for an evening of food, drinks, and socializing with your peers. The social will kick off at 6pm and will run until 8pm. We're hoping to host the social on the patio to enjoy the summer weather, but in the case of inclement weather the event will be moved indoors. Food will also be provided through the event by KWSQA. Drinks and extra food will be the responsibility of attendees. We look forward to seeing you there! Tickets: This year our social tickets will be offered for a rate of $20 for Non-Members. Anyone with a 2026 KWSQA Membership is able to attend the event at no additional fee. If you wish to purchase your membership in order to access this and all following KWality Talks you may do so by purchasing your membership here, then returning to this page and using your new membership code on the first screen to reserve a KWSQA Member Ticket. 2026 KWSQA Members will need to enter their Membership Code (which will have been sent via Ticket Tailor) on the first screen in order to access the KWSQA Member Ticket type. Reminder, this code will have been sent to you by TicketTailor when you purchased your membership or in early January. We recommend searching for "2026 KWSQA Membership" in your emails to find the email with your membership code. If you cannot locate this email or your membership code please reach out to info@kwsqa.org

Register: Online at our KWality Talk Page, the attendance link will be included in an email the day of the event. Location: Online. Please ensure that your onscreen name matches your registration name. Time: The meeting starts between 11:55 am and 12:00 pm, a waiting room might be enabled if you arrive prior to this time. Meeting ends at approximately 1:00 pm. Speaker: Tina Fletcher Topic: When I started my career twenty years ago, software quality basically meant "no bugs," and testing meant executing a finite set of cases. Since then, I’ve watched the concept evolve alongside significant shifts in technology and industry practices. Because these changes have been largely additive, we face an ever-expanding horizon of what "good" software looks like. In this talk, I offer a definition of modern software quality that incorporates the many expectations accumulated from technological and process trends such as Agile, automated testing, cloud hosting, DevOps, and AI. Drawing on my own painful experiences with neglecting or misunderstanding the evolving dimensions of quality, I’ll share examples of what I’ve learned from them and what effective practices can look like. To help organize and categorize this laundry list of quality-related things to be responsible for, we will break them down into four key pillars: User Value: Building the Right Thing (strategic alignment, risk assessment, measurable impact) Product Health: Testing the Things We Can Predict (enabling and executing solid testing strategies) Operational Health: Dealing with the Unexpected (observability, recovery, non-deterministic behaviour) Sustainability: Holistic Stewardship (security, cost, performance, accessibility, maintainability) We’ll cover a series of questions to help you explore and audit your team’s practices in each area, followed by a set of prompts to help you determine where the next quality evolution is likely to come from in your context. While the field may have been simpler when I began, the constant transformation is what has kept it exciting. Fortunately, today it’s easier than ever to learn a new skill that can bring more value to your users and your business. As a final thought, I hope to leave you with the realization that the most important software quality strategy is the willingness to adapt, evolve, and stay curious in an ever-changing landscape. Bio:  Tina Fletcher is an Engineering leader who brings a software quality-focused mindset to the teams and projects she leads. She’s also a Director on the KWSQA Board, an occasional conference speaker, and a bit obsessed with her vegetable garden. Find her online at tinafletcher.ca.

KWSQA is offering this KWality Talk as in-person only, details under Location below! Register: Online at our KWality Talk Page. Panelists: Lauren Weber: Senior Test Developer, D2L, https://www.linkedin.com/in/ljweber/Josh Assad: Dev Manager, BinSentry, https://www.linkedin.com/in/josh-assad/Mirza Tania Nasreen: Project Management, Ford Motor Company, https://www.linkedin.com/in/mirzatanianasreen/Graeme Harvey: Director of Product Engineering, Taking Root, https://www.linkedin.com/in/graemeharvey/ Topic: Is the office a destination or a distraction? Join our 45-minute panel as we dive into the merits and challenges of the Return to Office era. From the "commuter tax" to the joy of face-to-face collaboration, our speakers share their personal journeys navigating RTO mandates. This isn't just a corporate update—it’s a guide to finding connection, community, and personal growth in the physical workplace. KWality Talk Details Time Doors will open at 11:45 pm. Announcements and discussion start at 12:00 pm. Meeting ends at approximately 1:00 pm. Lunch As with all in-person KWality Talks lunch will be provided. Please ensure you note any dietary restrictions in the ticket registration process.  Registration Please follow the instructions on the KWality Talk Page to register for this event. Location This months in-person event will be held at the Waterloo Accelerator Centre at 295 Hagey Boulevard, Waterloo, ON, N2L 6R5. Code of Conduct People attending our meetings are expected to adhere to the KWSQA code of conduct.

Register: Online at our KWality Talk Page, the attendance link will be included in an email the day of the event. Location: Online. Please ensure that your onscreen name matches your registration name. Time: The meeting starts between 11:55 am and 12:00 pm, a waiting room might be enabled if you arrive prior to this time. Meeting ends at approximately 1:00 pm. Speaker: Gabriela Viggiano Topic: Many teams fall into the trap of setting quality expectations based solely on velocity metrics, often failing to truly assess the detrimental impact of bugs and defects. This session delves into how this illusion of progress, fueled by unaddressed rework and scope creep within sprints, hinders genuine quality and performance. Discover how AI-empowered, metric-driven technical retrospectives can provide a powerful solution. We'll explore common pitfalls in traditional quality metrics and demonstrate how AI tools can assist in detecting hidden patterns and human biases that often lead to rework and escaped defects. Learn practical strategies for conducting effective technical retrospectives focused on quality. We will discuss practical commands for AI to identify patterns and biases, and to collect metric-data to facilitate deeper insights, trigger targeted action items for continuous improvement, and ultimately move from simply reactive bug fixing approach to a proactive, quality-first approach that truly enhances team performance and delivers quality superior software. Bio:  MBA Gabriela A. Viggiano, Agile Manager at BalsamBrands, is a Senior Agile and Productivity Coach. Driven by a love of learning, Gabriela is passionate about empowering individuals and teams to unlock their potential and elevate their careers. You'll often find her sparking growth and challenging perspectives over a cup (or two!) of coffee.

KWSQA is offering this KWality Talk as in-person only, details under Location below! Register: Online at our KWality Talk Page. Speaker: Maciej Konkolowicz Topic: Will AI steal your testing job? While the headlines might scream disruption, the reality is more nuanced. This session empowers Quality Champions to navigate the evolving landscape of artificial intelligence in software testing and leverage its true potential. Maciek, a Senior DevOps Manager at Functionize, an agentic test automation company, will share a practical framework to help you identify the right AI tools to enhance, not replace, your expertise. Discover answers to crucial questions: What types of AI are truly valuable for testing? How can your teams effectively integrate AI? And do you need to be a machine learning expert to benefit? By the end of this session, you'll be able to critically evaluate AI offerings, separating genuine value from marketing buzz. Learn how to make informed decisions that will demonstrably speed up your testing, improve quality, and solidify your role as a vital contributor – all without relying on generic AI recommendations. Meet our Speaker:  Maciek is a Senior DevOps manager. He works at Functionize, an agentic AI driven test automation platform. He’s spent more than 10 years focused on driving quality in software and increasing delivery of quality at speed. Maciek lives and breathes SRE and quality by continuously learning about best practices and then spreading them across our industry. When he’s not thinking about quality, Maciek is busy finding expensive ways to improve the velocity of his sailboat, or searching the great outdoors for encounters with wildlife…while hiding the costs of his adventures from his wife. Maciek shares his ideas and expertise at conferences and meetups across the Midwest and on his blog at https://www.mkonk.com and Twitter @MKonkolowicz. KWality Talk Details Time Doors will open at 11:45 pm. Announcements and discussion start at 12:00 pm. Meeting ends at approximately 1:00 pm. Lunch As with all in-person KWality Talks lunch will be provided. Please ensure you note any dietary restrictions in the ticket registration process.  Registration Please follow the instructions on the KWality Talk Page to register for this event. Location This months in-person event will be held at the Waterloo Accelerator Centre at 295 Hagey Boulevard, Waterloo, ON, N2L 6R5. Code of Conduct People attending our meetings are expected to adhere to the KWSQA code of conduct.

Register: Online at our KWality Talk Page, the attendance link will be included in an email the day of the event. Location: Online. Please ensure that your onscreen name matches your registration name. Time: The meeting starts between 11:55 am and 12:00 pm, a waiting room might be enabled if you arrive prior to this time. Meeting ends at approximately 1:00 pm. Speaker: Vitaly Sharovatov Topic: Have you ever felt the urge to increase the amount of testing, thinking it would directly improve product quality? Have you ever been held "accountable" for quality or pressed for time, leaving you feeling helpless? Or perhaps you've been asked to justify quality assurance initiatives with numbers? Our industry is filled with myths: from "quality can be measured" to "more testing means higher quality" and from "QA slows down work" to"testers are responsible for quality". I believed them all too once, then I started questioning my beliefs when I saw how product quality improved when we reduced code coverage from 70% to 40% - I then realised that quality metrics are only proxy metrics and their correlation should be revisited regularly. Join me and let's see what dangers all these myths pose to both teams and products, and how they should be debunked and overcome. Bio:  As a quality enthusiast, I believe that people should take pride in their work and companies should aim to produce high-quality products. I have spent the last 23 years in IT, focusing on engineering, quality assurance and mentorship. I am also a huge animal lover and have saved and raised more than 50 cats and dogs.

KWSQA is offering this KWality Talk as in-person only, details under Location below! Register: Online at our KWality Talk Page. Speaker: Gil Broza Topic: Why do so many Agile teams struggle to deliver quality -- despite doing "all the right things"? It's not for lack of testing, automation, or tooling. Nor is it due to schedule pressure, poor planning, or technical debt. The real issue is a process gap -- one that most teams don't even see, but that quietly undermines quality at every step. In this interactive session, you'll learn how to spot this gap in your own team's process, identify high-impact changes to close it, and leave with practical tools to start improving quality right away -- no matter your role, title, or seniority. Meet our Speaker:  Gil Broza specializes in helping leaders solve their organization's product development problems. He also supports their non-software colleagues in creating real business agility in their teams. In the last 20 years, Gil has guided over 100 organizations in improving customer outcomes, team productivity, adaptability, collaboration, and engagement. To make improvements real and sustainable, Gil works with clients' unique value delivery contexts and focuses on leadership, mindset, and systemic management. Additionally, companies call on him to provide leadership advisory, organizational mindset workshops, and keynotes for internal events. Gil is the author of four highly acclaimed books: Deliver Better Results, The Agile Mind-Set, The Human Side of Agile, and Agile for Non-Software Teams. He lives in Toronto. KWality Talk Details Time Doors will open at 11:45 pm. Announcements and discussion start at 12:00 pm. Meeting ends at approximately 1:00 pm. Lunch As with all in-person KWality Talks lunch will be provided. Please ensure you note any dietary restrictions in the ticket registration process.  Registration Please follow the instructions on the KWality Talk Page to register for this event. Location This months in-person event will be held at the Waterloo Accelerator Centre at 295 Hagey Boulevard, Waterloo, ON, N2L 6R5. Code of Conduct People attending our meetings are expected to adhere to the KWSQA code of conduct.

Register: Online at our KWality Talk Page, the attendance link will be included in an email the day of the event. Location: Online. Please ensure that your onscreen name matches your registration name. Time: The meeting starts between 11:55 am and 12:00 pm, a waiting room might be enabled if you arrive prior to this time. Meeting ends at approximately 1:00 pm. Speaker: Mesut Durukal Topic: The talk “Crafting a User-Friendly Test Automation Framework” emphasizes the importance of user-friendliness in test automation frameworks, drawing from the author’s experience with difficult-to-use frameworks. The focus is on making frameworks easy to understand, implement, scale, and maintain. Key aspects like readability, ease of implementation, reliability, execution speed, and modularity are discussed, with real-life examples illustrating how to achieve these goals. The talk also offers recommendations for improving test code readability, reusability, and execution speed, using tools and strategies for better usability across different profiles of users. Key Takeaways: Participants will see how the test automation framework can be used by different people in several ways. Different strengths of a test automation framework will be highlighted which contribute to the user experience of it. The audience will see some real project examples that show how our touches can improve the test code and can be applied practically. Some final tips like using ML tools efficiently will be discussed. Bio:  Mesut brings over 15 years of expertise across Industrial Automation, IoT, SaaS/PaaS, Cloud Services, the Defense Industry, Autonomous Mobile Robots, and Embedded Software. Skilled in CMMI, Scrum, and PMP methodologies, he has held key roles, including Quality Owner, Hiring Manager, and Chapter Lead, in multinational projects. Mesut specializes in test automation and CI/CD integration for continuous testing, alongside establishing test strategies and overseeing the testing lifecycle to ensure high-quality project outcomes. He is the founder and head of Tokyo Test Fest, the first international Software QA conference in Japan, which was a resounding success. Bringing together professionals from 26 countries, Tokyo Test Fest broke new ground in Japan by fostering a global community of quality assurance experts and provided a unique platform for knowledge sharing, networking, and innovation in software testing, marking a milestone for the QA industry in Japan and beyond. He is a frequent international speaker, the Best Presentation award winner, and a member of various program committees. He has spoken at 150+ international conferences.

Register: Online at our KWality Talk Page, this is an in person event. Location: Morty's Pub, 272 King St N, Waterloo, ON N2J 2Y9 Time: 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm Details: It's that time of year again! On June 25 join the board and members of the KWSQA community at Morty's Pub for an evening of food, drinks, and socializing with your peers. The social will kick off at 6pm and will run until 8pm. We're hoping to host the social on the patio to enjoy the summer weather, but in the case of inclement weather the event will be moved indoors. Food will also be provided through the event by KWSQA. Drinks and extra food will be the responsibility of attendees. We look forward to seeing you there!

Register: Online at our KWality Talk Page, the attendance link will be included in an email the day of the event. Location: Online. Please ensure that your onscreen name matches your registration name. Time: The meeting starts between 11:55 am and 12:00 pm, a waiting room might be enabled if you arrive prior to this time. Meeting ends at approximately 1:00 pm. Speaker: Bas Dijkstra Topic: Are you sure your APIs are secure? An introduction to API security testing APIs are responsible for more than 80% of all internet traffic. Therefore, it shouldn't be surprising that people with malicious intent are trying to gain unlawful access to systems and data through APIs more and more often.As a result, it's important that we, as testers and developers, are aware of the security of the APIs that are used in our systems. But where do you get started with testing the security of your APIs? And isn't that really complex?In this talk and live testing demo, we will use the 2023 OWASP API security top 10 to learn more about some of the most common API security vulnerabilities. You'll see that, even without specialized tools and deep security testing knowledge, you can uncover valuable information about the security of your APIs and get better insights into whether your data and your systems are safe and secure.After this talk, you will have seen that common sense and a healthy dose of curiosity go a long way to get started with API security testing.Key Takeaways: With common API testing tools, a healthy dose of curiosity and some guidelines, every tester can uncover valuable information about the security of their APIs The rise in use of APIs and the simplified attack vector they introduce means there's a need for adequate API security testing Getting started with API security testing does not have to be hard, complex, technical or 'something only security experts can do' Bio:  Hey, my name is Bas Dijkstra, and I am an independent test automation consultant and trainer. I have been active in the test automation field for some 18 years now, and have worked on software testing and automation solutions across a wide range of programming languages, frameworks and technology stacks. I’ve delivered test automation training to dozens of companies and hundreds of conference attendees in the Netherlands as well as abroad, to excellent reviews. I’m also the developer of RestAssured.Net, a library that is meant to make writing tests for HTTP APIs in C# a breeze. I live in Amersfoort, The Netherlands, together with my wife and two sons. When I am not at work, I like to go outside for a long bike ride, or to sit down and play a game of chess or read a good book.