CAST 2025 - Day 1
8:00 AM - 9:00 AM - Breakfast & Networking (Main Town Hall)
9:00 AM - 9:10 AM: Conference Chair Welcome and Intro (Main Town Hall)
9:10 - 10:00 AM: Welcome Keynote - "Elevating the Human in the Equation: Responsible Testing in the Age of AI" (Main Town Hall)
10:00 - 10:10 AM: Begin Morning Session Tracks (10 Minutes)
10:10 - 11:00 AM: Track Session 1 (50 Minutes)
TRACK 1: Quality Strategies, Culture & Leadership
In PrAIse of Scepticism
Damian Synadinos
Session Overview
Everything starts with trust. And often, trust is enough.
However, misplaced trust...trusting the wrong thing, the wrong amount, or at the wrong time, can have catastrophic consequences. But how can we know when trust is enough? And what do we do when it is not?
By practicing skepticism!
Healthy skepticism is a neutral stance that suspends belief until justified evidence is available. And, it helps us make evidence-based decisions, avoid negative consequences, and move forward when trust is not enough. Practicing skepticism involves fact-checking, being aware of biases, asking good questions, and much more. And, it is all especially relevant with the rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI), a powerful yet complex technology.
Understanding AI and practicing skepticism can help us use it responsibly, productively, and safely. Join me as I explore trust, promote skepticism, offer practical ways to develop critical thinking, and show how these ideas apply to AI and your context.
Key Takeaways:
-
- The importance of Trust -When trust is enough
- When knowledge is preferred
- When skepticism is appropriate
- Practical ways to develop and practice skepticism
Target Audience: ALL
Topic Areas: AI, Culture, Strategy
TRACK 2: Test Engineering, Techniques & Tooling
Rethinking Quality - A Fresh Take on Model-Based Testing
Michael Bar-Sinai
Session Overview
Model-Based Testing (MBT) is a proven methodology that makes testing teams much more powerful and agile, and allows them to focus on required system behavior and less on laborious maintenance tasks. The problem is, it can easily become cumbersome and time consuming, slowing down the testing cycle.
With advancements in automation and the introduction of AI and applying an MBT methodology, teams can take their automation to a whole new level, reducing test maintenance to a minimum.
Now MBT can be used for UI automation, API testing, manual test generation - and even requirement validation before a system is being implemented.
This session will challenge attendees to reconsider MBT in 2025 and combining with the power of new tooling to get maximum impact.
Key Takeaways:
- Learn fundamental concepts of MBT
- Making MBT relevent in 2025 w/ Tooling Advancements
- Contexts MBT can add value
- Learning strengths, weaknesses and constraints of this method.
Target Audience: All
Topic Areas: Automation, Methodology, Agility
TRACK 3: Invited Experts
Building Your Software Tester Survival Guide
Dawn Haynes
Session Overview
In the ever-evolving landscape of software development, testers face a range of challenges that require adaptability, resilience, and a clear sense of purpose.
This session offers a holistic survival guide to help software testers navigate their unique professional journey. From honing essential technical skills to cultivating collaboration within teams and across functional
boundaries, Dawn will share actionable strategies for staying relevant and impactful in the evolving industry.
Key Takeaways:
- Tackling common software testing obstacles
- Fostering an evolutionary mindset
- Advocating for the vital factor of quality in delivering successful outcomes
Target Audience: All
Topic Areas: Career Development, Culture, Strategy
11:00 - 11:10 AM: Session Break - Session 2 (10 Minutes)
11:10 - 12:00 AM: Track Session 2 (50 Minutes)
TRACK 1: Quality Strategies, Culture & Leadership
Built to Endure: Architectural Integrity in Modern Systems
Matthew Alexander
Session Overview
If the universe tends toward disorder, one thing is clear: there are far more ways for a system or architecture to fail than to function as intended. In software, it's pretty easy to find instances of architectural entropy (e.g., drift, complexity, unclear domain boundaries). Regardless of the form it takes, entropy negatively influences a team's ability to deliver business impact. Counteracting this tendency toward chaos means building and developing solutions that promote architectural integrity, the foundation of order and adaptability in modern systems. Enforcing architectural integrity involves recognizing what factors lead to decay, how to design for integrity, and implementing the right guardrails. In this session we'll explore architectural integrity, from definition to real-world examples, and dive into strategies of how to stay strong as systems evolve.
Target Audience: Intermediate
Topic Areas: Enterprise Testing, Architecture, Resiliency
TRACK 2: Test Engineering, Techniques & Tooling
Keeping Humans in the Loop: AI-assisted 3DDs - A New Way Test-First Approach
Kulas Angeles
Session Overview
This talk discusses reviving the 3DDs (ATDD, TDD, BDD) test-first approach using AI tools like ChatGPT and GitHub Copilot Chat. These technologies helped overcome previous challenges of speed and efficiency. The talk covers the implementation process, challenges faced at various levels, and success stories including demo. By leveraging AI assistance, the team was able to address both speed and quality concerns simultaneously. The talk also highlights how AI tools augment rather than replace human expertise, creating a balanced approach that combines the efficiency of AI with human insight and decision-making in the software development process.
The presentation aims to inspire other software quality professionals to become change agents in their organizations by adopting AI-assisted test-first methodologies.
Key Takeaways:
- The "How" of Implementing AI-assisted 3DDs
- Real challenges faced, from upper management to the teams that are implementing it so that you can learn from them and avoid it in your implementation
- Case Study Review - Our success story so you can have confidence starting it out in your own companies
Target Audience: All
Topic Areas: GenAI, TDD, BDD
TRACK 3: Invited Experts
Senses Working Overtime: Improving Software Quality Through Accessibility and Inclusive Design
Michael Larsen
Session Overview
When we test software, we often think in terms of functionality, performance, or security. I'd like to suggest we add another component: perception. How do our users see, hear, feel, and cognitively experience our products? The answers to these questions can determine how well our products work for many, if they work at all. That’s where accessibility and inclusive design come in.
In this talk, we’ll explore how testers and developers can "future-proof" their applications (and by future proof, I mean make sure that they are usable into our futures) by engaging all the senses—literally and figuratively.
We’ll dive into the reality of situational, temporary, and permanent disabilities, showing how small impairments in vision, hearing, motor control, or cognition can make or break the user experience.
Building on real-life examples, we’ll walk through the Ten Principles of Accessibility (first codified by Jeremy Sydik) and the HUMBLE framework (developed by Albert Gareev). These heuristics will help with developing empathy and designing accessible experiences.
Demonstrations of essential tools and testing workflows, including:
- WAVE and aXe for identifying page-level accessibility issues
- NVDA, VoiceOver, and JAWS for screen reader interactions
- Color Contrast Analyzer and NoCoffee Vision Simulator for visual accessibility
- Hemingway Editor for testing text simplicity and cognitive accessibility
- W3C Before and After to compare accessible vs. inaccessible design side-by-side
- Inclusive HTML/CSS practices like alt tags, skip links, scalable elements, and semantic structure
This talk will aim to demonstrate how even minor design flaws (poor color contrast, missing alt text, inaccessible menus) can become problems for many users and help provide tools and the mindset to advocate for quality that includes everyone.
Target Audience: All
Topic Areas: Accessibility
12:10- 1:30 PM: Lunch, Networking & Vendor Floor / Lunch & Learns
1:30 - 2:30 PM: Afternoon Keynote: “To Hell With Your Automation Principles!” (60 Minutes)
For some, Test Automation is a ticket to salvation: greater efficiency, more checking performed, less time ‘lost’ on testing. For others, it is the road to despair: maintenance hell, flakiness everywhere and a continuous struggle with the business to get ‘time’ for automating things. Those that were successful captured their success in strategies, principles and guidelines to guide others to the same success, or at the very least help stay away from some common pitfalls.
You’ve seen them, from the automation pyramid to page object models, the abolishment of chaintesting to the implementation of TDD and its derivatives. And while definitely useful as a perspective, there are people who have started calling some of them ‘best practices’. And that’s when both Paul and Vincent had to deal with severely raised eyebrows.
When Paul was working at Alcatel-Lucent, their “daily” automation took 47 hours to execute. The scripts had to be run across three systems to finish execution within one day. By blatantly violating a few commonly accepted automation principles, the execution time was reduced to 2.5 hours and the test coverage increased dramatically. But they were testing an entire chain, through the UI, and 2,5 hours is massive compared to how fast many of Vincent’s test suites were running! How could this be a good idea? What about the automation principles!?!
2:30 - 2:40 PM: Session Break — Begin Afernoon Tracks
TRACK 1: Quality Strategies, Culture & Leadership
From Tactical to Trusted: 10 Moves That Define a Modern QA Leader
Millan Kaul
Session Overview
In an era defined by #AI, shifting architectures, and ambiguous requirements, many QA leaders still find themselves stuck in tactical loops — chasing bugs, justifying headcount, and explaining the value of “quality” to blank stares in the boardroom. This talk is a direct look at what separates modern QA leaders from the ones just managing test execution.
You’ll walk away with 10 concrete leadership moves — from evolving your team’s skill stack to aligning with how CTOs and CEOs actually define success. We’ll cover the uncomfortable gaps between how QA teams think and how the business views them, and what it really takes to transform your function from service provider to strategic partner in the AI era.
Key Takeaways:
- 10 practical leadership shifts that elevate QA from test execution to business influence — including mindset, metrics, hiring, and visibility.
- The real skills gap: what top-performing testers are mastering (and why most teams are still investing in the wrong ones for today’s tech reality).
- How to reposition your quality practice in language executives care about — so it’s not just heard, but trusted.
- How to get unstuck when everything feels urgent — a framework for prioritizing what matters, focusing your team, and returning to high-impact basics.
Target Audience: All
Topic Areas: Leadership, Personal Development
TRACK 2: Test Engineering, Techniques & Tooling
Accelerated Performance Test Design using GitHub Copilot and K6
Kavin Arvind
Session Overview
Performance scripting has long been a time-consuming and specialized task, often requiring deep tool knowledge and significant manual effort. In this experimental session, we explore how GitHub Copilot, a generative AI coding assistant, can dramatically accelerate the creation, enhancement, and maintenance of performance test scripts.
Attendees will get hands-on exposure to:
- Designing LoadRunner and K6 scripts using plain English prompts
- Converting SoapUI/ Swagger/ Postman Projects into complete load test scripts
automatically - Leveraging AI to generate transactions, apply parameterization, error handling,
and assertions - A modular, reusable framework that reduces API scripting time by up to 70%
We’ll conclude with a live 60-Second Scripting Challenge: Human vs. Copilot. Can AI beat us in building a valid API test?
This session is ideal for testers, SDETs, and performance engineers eager to explore the intersection of performance engineering and AI-driven productivity.
Key Takeaways:
- Learn how to use Copilot with LoadRunner/K6 for rapid script development
- Understand where AI accelerates and where human validation remains essential
- Discover a plug-and-play scripting framework designed for reusability and
consistency - Learn prompt engineering techniques tailored for test scripting
- Execute scripts, observe real-time performance results, and refine their test logic
Target Audience: Intermediate
Topic Areas: Performance & Load Testing, Automation, AI
TRACK 3: Invited Experts
Advocate for Quality Within Your Company
Péter Földházi
Session Overview
Companies of all sizes face difficulties in achieving higher quality standards within their organization. As quality engineering includes various roles and activities, it is also challenging to find the right people to analyze the current state from a wide perspective and provide the recommendations that will allow these organizations to mature their teams, improving their software quality in the process.
Join Péter as he demonstrates his consulting approach that has enabled him to elevate his clients' QA practices and overall software quality. This includes quantitative analysis, software architecture review, and a communication style that opens doors even in the most challenging circumstances.
Key Takeaways:
- Understand different versions of the testing pyramid
- Analyzing Quality "Current State" w/ stakeholder communication
- Data Driven Decisioning - Data Analysis Methods w/ Different Tooling
Target Audience: All
Topic Areas: Quality Culture, Advocacy
3:30 - 4:00 PM: Afternoon Refreshments / Networking & Vendor Floor (30 minutes)
4:00 - 5:10 PM: “The Black Mirror” AI Avatar Panel
Matthew Simons & Guests
Embrace the dystopian future! Come watch a panel of custom trained AI avatars do their best to represent the panelists who trained (or mis-trained) them. This moderator-led panel fiasco will center on a theme relevant to the shared backgrounds of the panelists and the conference. Shenanigans likely.
- Introduction to the format (panel discussion with audience questions), the panelists, and topics that are fair game (~5 mins)
- Panel discussion with audience questions (~20-30 mins)
- Panelists reactions and notes on their Avatar's responses (~15-20 mins)
- Presentation on training techniques by the panelists and the moderator (~20-30 mins)
- Final audience Q&A (remaining time)
- Fun, laughter, entertainment
- A high-level understanding of the process by which AI can be trained on specific material to create specialist AI systems
AUDIENCE: ALL
5:10 - 5:15 PM: Conference Day One Wrap Up
6:30 - 11:00 PM: Tester Games and AI Hack Night
After a full day of quality deep dives and strategy sessions, it’s time to let our hair down and unwind together!
Whether you’re teaming up to solve playful testing puzzles, racing through mini-bug hunts, or collaborating on quick-fire AI hack challenges, you’ll be in good company: seasoned leaders, rising stars, and fellow quality aficionados all looking to network, brainstorm, and share a laugh.
Yes there will be plenty of refreshments to refuel and get you ready for the action
And you better believe there will be prizes for the sharpest testers and most creative problem-solvers, but the real reward is the chance to connect across disciplines in a relaxed atmosphere, forging new partnerships that will fuel tomorrow’s breakthroughs.