Lalit Bhamare

Lalit is standing for election to the AST board 2022-23. Find him on Twitter at @Lalitbhamare

1. Please share your vision for the future of the AST, and how would you help to accomplish this vision in case you were part of the AST Board of Directors?

Particularly after serving my first term on the BOD, my revised vision for AST is to do my best to make it relevant, relatable and a go-to place for test professionals once again.

AST has been one of the most important organization for professional testers and I would like to re-establish that standing and identity it has had over the years.

I plan to do my bit in spreading more awareness about AST’s contribution the software testing field, helping more and more talented testers to find AST as well as enabling AST to support talented testers and celebrate great testing.

As member of BOD, I have been utilizing my opportunities to do this and plan on to continue to do so by joining hands with fellow board members and AST members alike.

2.Is there an area where you feel AST is lacking in its role as a professional organization? If so, what would you suggest doing to begin to change that and increase the value to AST members and the testing community at large?

I should have read this question first but my answer to the previous question partly shares this concern.

An area where AST is lacking presently is in attracting more testers and building an engaging/active community to ensure continues exchange of ideas to take the craft ahead.

My suggestion would be to build an active community of testers and friends of testing where conversations and healthy debates around ideas are encouraged in a safe and inclusive environment. To build a community that will dedicatedly work towards taking craft of testing ahead, without ignoring the advantage engineering side of things can add to it.

3. Many people come to be AST Board of Directors candidates through a long history of community involvement. This community involvement usually involves teaching, creating and running peer conferences, creating and running regular conferences, and working with commercial entities. Please describe any current initiatives you participate in that might affect your ability to serve on the AST board, and serve the AST membership.

Nothing that occurs to my mind as conflict of interest/ethics.

 4. In what ways have you supported the mission of AST?

I have been member of AST for over 10 years now if I am not wrong. The work done by founding members of AST as well as all the members who took AST forward, have had great influence on the philosophy of testing I follow and preach.

I have volunteered for number of initiatives by AST be it supporting CAST or teaching BBST foundations classes.

The work I have been doing through “Tea-time with Testers” magazine (as well as other side projects) is very well aligned with the cause AST stands for and mission it works towards.

5. (Optional) Would you like to provide a short (250-400 word) introduction to go on your candidate page?

Please see my blog Tales of Testing.