Agile Testing and Automation Day

Registration

Opening Talk and Welcome Note

Agile is not a new process that just retains existing domains and structure, overlaying them with new process regimes or standards. Agile is an entirely new way to operate. Roles will change. Roles will disappear. Team structure, hierarchies and reporting lines rebuilt from the ground up.

 The Cambrian Explosion happened 540million years ago, and was a sudden proliferation in new life forms. All the main forms of life we have now came into being. Those forms that evolved and exploited the opportunities thrived. Those that did not, remaining much as they did in the Ediacaran Period, died out.

Agile is a Cambrian Explosion of new forms. If one remains in the past, one risks becoming extinct. This is a time to evolve.
- Tim Carpenter, Director - Head, Test Engineering, Standard Chartered Bank

Building an Agile DevOps non-functional squad for a Digital Bank - David Morris, Head of DevOps and Tools Engineering, United Overseas Bank Limited (UOB)

Tea/Coffee Break

Testing in Agile world is not a phase rather; testing is the only way to approve that something is really done from an end customer’s perspective and without a doubt - Integrated Development Environment and automated test tools frees tester’s time to explore the business needs.

Agile development is all about continuous releases in a number of iterations which is the reason test automation team often miss out on quality objectives. In cases where there are more sprints requiring fixing, it becomes even more difficult to devote time identifying, fixing and testing each iteration.

This is why it is important to allocate proper time for testing and start conducting test automation in parallel to development cycles to avoid lags. Conducting parallel testing also will help the team become more productive and respond to requirements quickly, avoiding last minute rushes. Moreover, it will also help them invest time in exploratory testing, which requires manual efforts.

It is important to develop an approach which promotes “A testing mindset” – “No more Us vs. Them” rather whole team approach & collective testing ownership. "

- Majid Bhatti, Programme Director / Agile Coach, DBS Bank

It will be an overview of lessons learned while working with many fintechs, and the challenges posed by the introduction of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, big data, cloud computing, cryptocurrencies, tokens, internet of things and more. - Stephen Peters, Director, Aluna Pte Ltd

Lunch Break

Software delivery team needs artists to deliver quality software. A QA tester’s task on such a team becomes very crucial. As a QA tester I monitor few feedback loops to prevent defects to seep into the system. In this session I want to share more info about such loops that help teams deliver quality software
- Riju Kansal, Technologist, Automated Testing enthusiast, ThoughtWorks

Keeping your Tests Lean - Ruchika Rawat, Sr. Consultant, ThoughtWorks

Tea/Coffee Break

The Challenge Corporations have discovered that Innovation Challenges and Hackathons can introduce new ideas and bring fresh approaches to addressing customer needs. Bringing together participants from across disciplines and outside the firm can identify promising solutions, build prototypes, and present a compelling pitch in a short timeframe. But assembling teams from non-technical disciplines, while bringing a fresh perspective and understanding of customer needs, also limits the ability to test the viability and robustness of a prototype. This means that detailed design, build and testing often takes place long after the innovation event, or that concepts are dropped because their viability could not be assessed efficiently. To provide ready-to-use tooling for hackathons, corporations typically build an Innovation Sandbox, comprising wireframing software, cloud-based servers and databases, APIs to key corporate systems, and other tools specific to the challenge.
What This Session Covers This session addresses key questions:
• What test building blocks can be incorporated into a firm’s Innovation Sandbox?
 • How can testing improve the practicality of prototypes without slowing down the build-test-learn cycles?
• How can testing tools be provided for short-duration events, while requiring minimal learning curve?

- Jon Scheele, Coach/Trainer, Digital and Analytics Consultant

Agile software development has gained great success in the past years, and is proven to be an efficient way to deliver working software. However, Agile development benefits are difficult to materialize in outsourced software projects. Many outsourced Agile projects had failed due to customers’ misunderstanding of Agile and misalignment of expectation, while the software vendors faced difficulty guiding the customers to co-create the software together. The mismatch in the working culture, rigid project governance, and lack of customer involvement were the common pitfalls in outsourced Agile projects.

Good agile contracts set the right foundation and conditions for working software. It guides the customers and software vendors to create successful working software together. Joshua will share how good agile contracts support the agile processes and practices that lead to quality software with great business value needed for success, while create long lasting customer-vendor relationships.

- Joshua Lai, Agile Coach / Scrum Master, NCS Group

Conclusion & Thank You Note