A Virtual Event
Empower Your Future
In Software Development,
Engineering, Testing & QA
March 8 — 9, 2023 9:00 am — 3:00 pm PT
Get Connected. Be Inspired. Sharpen Your Skills.
The Test Automation University (TAU) Conference is helping the automation community build for success. Join this free virtual two-day conference to gain insightful takeaways on the importance of automation testing, web testing, and recalibrating the focus on quality.
Hear from industry leaders and experts during keynotes, hands-on workshops, and sessions with live Q&A, including:
- From Washing Cars To Automating Test Applications with Rex Jones II
- A Holistic Approach to Testing in Continuous Delivery with Lisa Crispin
- Bigger than the Box with Erika Chestnut
- Head-to-Head Web Testing with Filip Hric and Andrew Knight
Sharpen your skills. Don’t miss Julia Pottinger’s workshop on API Automation with Javascript or join Leandro Melendez’s session for an introduction to Performance and Load Testing. Mix and match as you choose from these and other tutorials by Tariq King, Anand Bagmar, and more. And don’t worry—even though you have to choose which ones to attend live, you will have access to the recordings of all of the tutorials.
Be inspired by lightning talks including What the QA Position Will Look Like in the Future by Rafaela Azevedo, The Role of Automation in Mobile Continuous Testing by Moataz Nabil, and more.
Connect with many of your favorite TAU instructors and event speakers in real time during dedicated networking breaks.
Have fun. Play along during the pep rally and live game show, join the halftime musical show with Creative Technologist Dan Gorelick, cheer for your fellow TAU’ers during the awards and superlatives, and more. Plus—test your software and automation testing knowledge and rack up points for a chance to win cool prizes.
There’s something for everyone.
Save your space today!
To ensure a quality learning experience, workshop spots are limited. However, there’s no need to worry if your first choice fills up—all registrants will have access to the on-demand recording of each of the six workshops. Can’t stay for the full main event day? Again, no worries—all registrants can view each of the talks in the event archive.
This event has concluded. The On-Demand Archive is coming soon. Thank you for your patience.
Speakers
Andrew Knight
Principal Developer Advocate & Test Automation University Director
Applitools
Erika Chestnut
Quality & Leadership Coach and Consultant
Tariq King
VP, Product-Service Systems
EPAM
Lisa Crispin
Consultant
Lisa Crispin Consulting LLC
Rex Jones II
Sr. QA Automation Engineer
FieldRoutes
Jenny Bramble
Director of Engineering
Papa
Julia Pottinger
Head of Training and Development
QualityWorks Consulting Group
Carlos Kidman
Head of Engineering
Stealth Startup
Filip Hric
Cypress Ambassador, Educator
Cypress
Anand Bagmar
Software Quality Evangelist
Applitools
Rafaela Azevedo
CEO & Co-Founder
The Chain Academy
Moataz Nabil
Developer Advocate
Bitrise
Nikolay Advolodkin
Developer Advocate
Sauce labs
Tara Walton
Independent
Leandro Melendez
Performance Advocate
k6
Dan Gorelick
Independent Creative Technologist and Sound Artist
Joe Colantonio
Founder
TestGuild
Program
9:00 am
Opening Remarks
Joe Colantonio, TestGuild
Andrew Knight, Test Automation University & Applitools
9:15 am
Workshop: Head-to-Head Web Testing: Part 1 with Cypress
Filip Hric, Cypress
The web has evolved. Finally, testing has too. Cypress is a modern testing tool that answers the testing needs of modern web applications. It has been gaining a lot of traction in the last couple of years, gaining worldwide popularity. If you have been waiting to learn Cypress, wait no more! Filip Hric will guide you through the first steps on how to start using Cypress and set up a project on your own. The good news is, learning Cypress is incredibly easy. You’ll write your first test in no time, and then you’ll discover how to write a full end-to-end test for a modern web application. To prepare for this workshop, review the workshop instructions.
❗This workshop is full, but there’s no need to fret—all registrants will have access to the on-demand recording.
9:15 am
Workshop: Introduction to Performance and Load Testing with k6
Leandro Melendez, k6
Have you ever wondered how to get started with performance testing? This workshop will be broken down into two main areas. Theory and hands-on. During the theory portion, you will learn the importance of performance testing, the difference between frontend and backend performance, and load tests and performance tests in general. During the hands-on portion, you will learn about k6, a tool that provides the best developer experience in performance testing. It’s recommended to have k6 installed on your machines. For Mac users, it is recommended to get the latest version of Homebrew.
❗This workshop is full, but there’s no need to fret—all registrants will have access to the on-demand recording.
9:15 am
Getting Started with Visual Testing
Anand Bagmar, Applitools
Everyone wants to make quick releases, but the look-and-feel UX validation is a manual, slow, and error-prone activity. Any UX-related issues propping up cause huge brand-value and revenue loss, may lead to social-trolling, and, even worse, dilute your user base. This is an area where AI & ML can help. In this hands-on workshop, using examples, we will explore: the importance of automated visual validation how an AI-powered tool, Applitools Visual AI, can solve this problem. Integrate Applitools Visual AI in your Selenium-Java automation and learn by practice: The different AI algorithms various Applitools capabilities and features scale your automation using the Applitools Ultrafast Grid. To participate in this workshop, review the machine setup instructions.
11:45 am
Lunch and Networking Break
Connect with Filip Hric from Cypress, Tariq King from EPAM, Anand Bagmar from Applitools, Julia Pottinger from QualityWorks Consulting Group, Leandro Melendez from k6, and Rafaela Azevedo from The Chain Academy
12:15 pm
Workshop: Head-to-Head Web Testing: Part 2 with Playwright
Andrew Knight, Test Automation University & Applitools
In the morning workshop, Filip Hric will teach you how to automate web tests with Cypress. In this afternoon workshop, let’s do it again – except with Playwright and with Andy Knight. We’ll automate the same test for the same web app so you can compare the two test frameworks head to head. We’ll also use TypeScript as our programming language. To participate in this workshop, please review and these instructions.
❗This workshop is full, but there’s no need to fret—all registrants will have access to the on-demand recording.
12:15 pm
Workshop: Going Beyond Unit Testing from the Inside
Tariq King, EPAM
Did you enjoy the Test Automation University (TAU) course on Testing from the Inside? Whether you’ve taken the course or not, you may be wondering what, if anything, lies beyond the foundations of unit testing? Join TAU course creator Tariq King as he takes you deeper into the world of unit testing and other related code-based testing approaches. After a hands-on recap of the previous course edition, Tariq will dive into more advanced control flow and data flow unit testing techniques for testing various paths through the program code. Participants should have IntelliJ IDE, Java, and the course codebase.
12:15 pm
Workshop: An Introduction to API Automation with Javascript
Julia Pottinger, QualityWorks Consulting Group
APIs are an essential part of an increasingly large number of applications that we use daily. As testers, we want to ensure that our APIs do not break and provide the expected functionality. This workshop is geared toward persons who are new to API automation, who want a refresher or want to learn how to automate APIs using Supertest (a JS framework). Julia Pottinger will cover how to automate common API requests (GET, POST and PUT), negative tests for your API as well as check that your APIs handle errors appropriately and follow the specified schema, along with learning how to automate workflows for an API. In order to participate in this workshop, bring your laptop and have Postman installed on your machine.
2:45 pm
Closing Remarks
Joe Colantonio, TestGuild
9:00 am
Opening Remarks & Keynote
Opening Remarks: Joe Colantonio, TestGuild
What’s New with TAU Keynote: Andrew Knight, Test Automation University & Applitools
After four years, TAU is still going strong! We have grown into a community of 150K students taking dozens of different courses from the world’s leading instructors. Let’s look at what’s new with TAU and what exciting things we have planned for the future.
9:40 am
From Washing Cars To Automating Test Applications
Rex Jones II, FieldRoutes
Join Rex Jones II as he takes you through his inspiring career journey from washing cars to test automation. Explore his big break into testing with automation and the challenges he faced leading up to that moment.
10:00 am
The Role of Automation in Mobile Continuous Testing
Moataz Nabil, Bitrise
It is important to test mobile apps continuously to ensure they are of high quality. Automation is heavily used in mobile continuous testing. A mobile app that works on a wide variety of devices and operating systems is critical. Together, we’ll explore what automated Mobile Continuous Testing entails and which tools, practices and processes can be used.
10:30 am
Networking Break
Connect with Moataz Nabil from Bitrise, Rex Jones II from FieldRoutes, Carlos Kidman from Stealth Startup, Nikolay Advolodkin from Sauce Labs, and Rafaela Azevedo from The Chain Academy
10:40 am
Is Management a Career Path for You?
Jenny Bramble, Papa
Should I go into management? – I’ve gotten this question in a hundred different forms a hundred times over my career. Many times, this question is coming from a place of uncertainty–everyone wants to advance in their careers and sometimes management feels like the only way up. But individual contributors have more paths for advancement than ever, and management can now be a choice. Have an honest chat with Jenny Bramble about deciding to go into management and what you can do as an individual to start preparing yourself for management as early in your career as possible.
11:10 am
Lightning Talks
Anand Bagmar, Applitools – AI-Powered CBT
Rafaela Azevedo, The Chain Academy – What the QA Position Will Look Like in the Future
Nikolay Advolodkin, Sauce Labs – Supercharging Your CI Workflow with Java and GitHub Actions
11:35 am
Lunch & Halftime Show: Making Electronic Music, with Code!
Dan Gorelick
Have you ever listened to algorithmically-generated music that is coded live in front of you? Dan Gorelick offers insight on the process for how code can be used as an instrument to create music on-the-fly. There will be live coding and debugging as Dan creates a song from scratch. The tool used to create the music is called TidalCycles, a free and open-source library created to express musical ideas on the fly. Headphones are recommended for this session. Dan Gorelick will kick off the algorave jams during our halftime show. (Glow sticks not included.)
12:05 pm
Family Feud
Moderator: Tara Walton
Join our Family Feud game to compete and test your test automation and TAU knowledge to win prizes!
12:50 pm
A Holistic Approach to Testing in Continuous Delivery
Lisa Crispin, Lisa Crispin Consulting LLC
It’s not uncommon for teams moving towards continuous delivery to face a growing backlog of customer-reported bugs. In this session, Lisa Crispin shares her experiences with striving to deploy smaller changes more frequently. Explore the useful experiments Lisa and her team used to overcome common challenges and move towards successful CD.
1:20 pm
Networking Break
Connect with Erika Chestnut, Leandro Melendez from k6, Lisa Crispin from Lisa Crispin Consulting LLC, Tara Walton, and Dan Gorelick.
1:35 pm
Testing Your Testing Knowledge!
Carlos Kidman, Stealth Startup
It’s time for a pop quiz! In this session, Carlos Kidman will ask a series of multiple choice questions about software testing and automation. Using Slido, you as members of the audience will get to answer. Whoever earns the highest score will win a prize. Be sure to study up!
2:10 pm
Closing Keynote: Bigger than the Box
Erika Chestnut
Has quality’s focus and scope been narrowed to a single step in the delivery process? Join Erika Chestnut as she shares how she breaks out of the box and crosses the aisles to elevate and expand the role quality in her organizations. Learn how to influence from the middle, socialize the full potential of quality and cultivate a culture of quality defined, developed, and driven by Quality Champions.
2:50 pm
Superlative Awards & Closing Remarks
Joe Colantonio, TestGuild
Andrew Knight, Test Automation University & Applitools
Test Automation University (also called “TAU”) is one of the best online platforms for learning testing and automation skills. The TAU platform offers dozens of courses from the world’s leading instructors, and everything is available for free because the platform is proudly powered by Applitools. TAU has become an invaluable part of the testing community at large and as of February 2023, over 140,000 students have signed up!
Participate in the Explore Visual Testing Challenge and be entered to win one of five $100 gift cards. See details and get started today.
We are committed to improving the Test Automation University (TAU) Conference participant and speaker inclusivity and creating a safe space for everyone to enjoy. All participants must adhere to our Code of Conduct.
