The switch from traditional, top-down management to agile project practices poses a dilemma for managers and the team, including test managers and testers. If agile teams self-manage their work, what does a test manager actually do now? And without strong guidance from a traditional manager, how do teams organize their work? Dale Emery describes how successful agile teams resolve these conundrums-by adopting a seemingly paradoxical way of collaboration called “servant leadership.” A servant leader leads by serving and serves by leading. On high-performing agile teams, everyone is a servant leader in one way or another. There are no followers in the traditional sense and no command-and-control managers. Everyone leads-all the time. Everyone serves-all the time.

The consumerization of enterprise software applications is no longer on its way-it is here. Emerging technologies such as mobile apps, tablets, 4G, cloud computing, and HTML5 are impacting software engineering and testing organizations across all industries. By enabling sensitive data to be accessed through the web and on mobile devices, there is immense pressure to ensure that apps are reliable, scalable, private and secure. Using real-world examples, Doron Reuveni identifies the top ten disruptive technologies that have transformed the software industry and outlines what they mean for the testing community now and in the future. The ways in which web and mobile apps are designed, developed, and delivered are changing dramatically, and therefore the ways these apps are being tested are being taxed and stretched to the breaking point.

We test software to prevent bad things from happening when the software is deployed into production. We assess the quality of the software and give well-founded advice on its readiness for release. However, in some cases, the mere act of testing can cause significant problems. Bart Knaack analyzes real-life testing “accidents” that had serious consequences to the business. For example, although most companies spend a lot of money to secure their production environments, many leave their test environments only partially protected. If a hacker gets into the testing environment–or even worse, the defect database–they can wreak havoc or learn all about the vulnerabilities of your system. Bart shares examples of testing accidents, challenging you to create solutions to prevent these accidents from happening in your organization. Life is too short to make all these mistakes yourself. Come and learn from Bart.

Do you have teams performing myriads of manual tests? Do you have to depend on subject matter experts with tribal knowledge for testing? Are you yearning to transform it all into a mature, modern, and world-class test organization? Theresa O'Leary leads you through a set of practical and proven steps to implement testing excellence. Her holistic approach encompasses people, process, tools, and environments. Theresa walks you through the steps of getting approval from management, setting up the correct organizational structure, establishing training and skill goals, institutionalizing new methods, and selecting and implementing tools. Using concrete examples from her experiences at UPS, Theresa shares how she demonstrated to executives the business value of improvement and gained both top-down and bottom-up buy-in.