How to stick the landing! - Thriving in new places

Why does it take most people 6 to 12 months before they feel fully onboarded (i.e. 'settled') in a new place or job? Wouldn't it be great to start thriving on day 1? In other words: "stick the landing".

During a long journey, starting at only 17 years old when joining the army, I've learned many (hard) lessons which often resulted in situations with little comfort and little confidence. There and then I learned the greatest skill of all: 'getting back up'. Only now I do realize that this long 'search for identity and purpose' set me up perfectly with the right skills, mindset, and experience to thrive in the actual world.

As a quality consultant in tech, working typically with a client for only 1 or 2 years, I don't have the time to get 'adjusted' or 'settle in'. And I don't need to. Anymore...

Join me as I share personal (war) stories about 'the army', 'the road to software development', 'leading cultural change towards a quality mindset', and many more. Share in these lessons with me and take home with you the ability to thrive!

Pattern-driven design: How I met my architecture

Choosing an architectural style and/or design pattern(s) for your new project can be a daunting task. There is an ocean of design patterns and best practices out there and never enough time research them all.

During this talk we will explain how to use your (defined) ‘quality attributes’ as input for a decision making model on software architecture that is called ‘pattern driven design’. By using this model you don’t have to research all the different patterns/architectures out there nowadays. It has already been done for you (by University of Utrecht).

When leaving the room you will never have to spend more than a day on selecting design patterns and architectural styles for you project (extension).

byte-sized talk (16 min), Target audience: Anyone who is involved in software design (at some point).

Why your team is slowing down

Do bugs and technical debt make you want to pull your hair out? Does your backlog never seem to shrink but only grow? Is your velocity (and roadmap) unpredictable too?

Yes? Then this is a session for you!

First we'll cover the different types of technical debt. Once you can recognise them you are ready apply a few simple tactics that will help you get a hold on your technical debt that keeps pilling up whilst slowing down your delivery frequency at the same time.

During this session you'll also learn more about (data-driven) decision making (including tools/models), DevOps- and Lean principles like 'Good is good enough' or 'Decide as late as possible' and how these (attitudes) will accelerates your teams decisiveness and flow.

Join us and learn how to obtain a balanced delivery system for features, bug fixes and solving technical debt.

Presented at:
- DevConf Poland (2023)
- Ya!vaConf (2023)
- Conf42 DevOps (2024)

Target audience: Both engineers and non-engineers who have experienced working with agile practices like 'scrum' at some point in their career.

Technical requirements: no extra/special requirements

preferred duration: 45/50 min.

Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fynUdECBKb4&list=PL8BUDiR2Y8YuD1K4rLbZMSvAlM62H6PGx&index=19

Test-reduction - Doing more with less

Let's talk about the elephant in the room: testing in software development isn't always a crowd favorite. But what if it didn't have to be that way?

This session is all about cracking the code to make testing not just bearable but actually kinda cool.

No, seriously. It's not just another snooze-inducing session on testing. We're unpacking practical tips and clever techniques (such as risk-based testing and property-based testing) to make testing more interesting, efficient and less of a time sink.

Join us and learn about (test design) techniques that'll turn testing into a secret weapon in your software development toolkit. Finally you will know how to answer the question “What should I (not) test?!”….

It's time to be more effective and starting doing more with less—less time testing, more time building awesome stuff!

Target audience: Developers / unit test writers
Preferred session duration: 45 - 60 min

People, Pitfalls and Patterns to keep going with Quality Automation

The software- and tech industry is rapidly changing and it's an exciting time to work in this field. In the meantime many pitfalls in quality automation remain in place and are not (yet) solved through the adoption of AI and LLM's.

During this sessions we'll dive into both technical- and non-technical challenges teams get confronted with when they strive to implement a 'built-in' quality system.

We will cover issues such as 'testability', 'maintainability' and how combinations of design patterns like the 'page object model' (POM) and 'composition' will help to revive your test automation project so that everyone involved feels that it is actually 'helping' rather than slowing-down. Also I'll share some (war) stories on how I helped teams to make quality a common or shared responsibility, rather than forwarding this to a dedicated person on the team.

If you'd like to learn recognising these pitfalls in your team or organisation as well and also pick up a few strategies and (design) patterns to help you save your test automation framework from drowning, then join me here!

From Military to Test Automation - Celebrate your Legacy!

Legacy is often seen as a burden—something outdated, inefficient, or in need of replacement. But what if we shifted our perspective? Shouldn't we celebrate legacy for moving us toward more sustainable solutions? Think about that for a moment.

Through the lens of my personal journey—from the army to the world of software development—I’ll share how I learned to embrace legacy rather than reject it, and how I apply these lessons to everyday tasks and challenges in my role as an automation engineer. I’ll take the audience through my struggles with identity, uncertainty, and mental health, and how lessons from past experiences have not only shaped my career in IT and automation but also transformed my mindset and approach to life.

This talk is about more than just software; it’s about finding value in what came before us, using it to drive sustainable progress, and recognizing that every challenge we face today is a stepping stone to tomorrow’s success.

Reviving Legacy Code with Test Automation: Strategies for a Rescue Mission

Working with legacy code can be a daunting task, but Test Automation could make it manageable.

By taking a slightly more pragmatic approach (rather than holding on to a traditional one) on Test Automation, we could breathe new life into legacy code and keep it running smoothly for years to come. Being pragmatic implies sometimes having to let go of best practices like upholding certain standard and metric like code- and test coverage that in some cases are just not realistic given the essence of time in a revival/survival situation.

In this talk, we'll discuss strategies like TDD (amongst other things) that, if applied with a little bit of pragmatism, are perfect for the revival of your legacy project. Also I'll give you some tips on figuring out where to start (and stop) in a 'low-coverage-situation' and how to identify the low-hanging fruit to quickly build an effective test suite to reduce the biggest risks.

Whether you're a seasoned engineer or just starting out, this talk will offer valuable tips for reviving legacy code with Test Automation. Sooner or later, you'll have to deal with legacy!

preferred session duration: 40 - 50 min