As testers and test managers we often find ourselves struggling just to survive within our organization—sometimes with the possibility of job loss due to outsourcing looming. Often, we are told to become more “effective,” “efficient,” and do “more with less.” 

Most systems are not designed to make test automation easy! Fortunately, the whole-team approach, prescribed by most agile methodologies, gives us an opportunity to break out of this rut. Gerard Meszaros describes the essential elements of practical and proven agile test automation strategy.

Lightning Talks are a popular part of the STAR conferences. Lightning Talks consists of a series of five-minute talks by different speakers within one presentation period and are an opportunity for speakers to deliver their single biggest bang-for-the-buck idea in a rapid-fire presentation.

The industry knows that a majority of software defects have their root cause in poor requirements. So how can testers help improve requirements? Richard Bender asserts that requirements quality significantly improves when testers systematically validate the requirements as they are developed.