The KWSQA is pleased to announce Targeting Quality 2017 on September 25th and 26th at the Crowne Plaza Hotel and Conference Centre in Downtown Kitchener.

Our full schedule is now available here!

Registration for TQ2017 has now closed.

Keynotes

Angie Jones: Owning Our Narrative

The concept of shifting left suggests that testing be done earlier in the software development process. The notion of this is admirable and, when done properly, can enable teams to be very Successful with their quality initiatives. However, the implementation of this practice is often defined from the top down where the powers-that-be aren’t necessarily experts in testing. This has led us to the current state of the industry where being a programmer has become a requirement to shift left. This is a very dangerous state to be in. It’s time to rise up and own our narrative. In this talk, we will explore how to do just that by climbing out of the box that we’ve been placed into as testers and redefining what it means to shift left – from our perspective.

Angie Jones is a Senior Automation Engineer at Twitter who has developed automation strategies and frameworks for countless software products. As a Master Inventor, she is known for her innovative and out-of-the-box thinking style which has resulted in more than 20 patented inventions in the US and China. Angie shares her wealth of knowledge by speaking and teaching at software conferences all over the world and leading tech workshops for young girls through Black Girls Code.

Andrew Annett: If your team is an object, what’s its API?

We constantly talk about the value of communication but seldom in terms that technical teams tend to relate to. This session will use the object model, messages and the RESTful architectural style to examine how a development team interacts successfully (or not) with other elements in its system.

We’ll discuss object-oriented design, system thinking, software development as a service and map REST actions to team practices.

Andrew is a coach and facilitator devoted to helping teams improve product delivery. He is focused on promoting shared understanding through better communication practices.He joined the agile community having survived a career of big-plan-up-front development and transformation programs in large financial institutions. Along the way he was distracted by involvement in startups and some unusual infrastructure projects and developing coaching skill. He has facilitated sessions at the past 3 Agile and Beyond gatherings.

He’s currently injecting idea viruses into a software product enterprise dedicated to supporting more effective learning and is a founding member of Leanintuit.