CAST 2025 - Day 2
8:00 AM - 8:55 AM - Breakfast & Networking (Main Town Hall)
8:55 AM - 9:05 AM: Conference Chair Welcome and Intro (Main Town Hall)
9:05 - 9:10 AM: Begin Morning Session Tracks (5 Minutes)
9:10 - 10:00 AM: Track Session 1 (50 Minutes)
TRACK 1: Quality Strategies, Culture & Leadership
Quagileology: Where Quality, Agile and Psychology Meet
Blake Hill
Session Overview
So much time is given talking about quality assurance, and quality testing... But what about creating a framework to ensure our TEAMS, are quality teams, that can then produce quality outputs?
Defining Quality, New and known Agile concepts and Team Psychology. Mix them all up and Voilà: "Quagileology"
This session introduces you to a leadership framework based on three pillars:
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- Providing Proof (Quality)
- Purposeful Process (Agile)
- Passion for People (Psychology)
Key Takeaways:
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- Increasing Process Ownership / Accountability
- Key Ways to Build Team Trust
- Implementing Metrics that Matter
- Celebrating Team Improvements
Target Audience: All
Topic Areas: Leadership, Strategy, Culture
TRACK 2: Test Engineering, Techniques & Tooling
Enabling DevOps Progress with Testers
Eric Proegler
Session Overview
This experience report is about our DevOps journey, and how Testers are driving progress shipping on a B2C platform with hundreds of services faster and more frequently.
Our Quality Engineering group was asked by new leadership to shift left, and help ship code more frequently. We had already assembled a lot of the components for CI/CD: we had automated deployments. Infrastructure is in code. UI tests written by “Full-Stack” QEs are defined in jobs, and had unit and UI tests in PRs and builds. We were already tracking DORA metrics by service.
But we were still releasing with bespoke validation/signoff processes. We could ship in minutes/hours, but it took live coordination, approvals, and people pushing buttons to enable deployment. We wanted to meet the goals of the CI/CD effort, but we also needed to think about how our roles and purpose would need to evolve alongside these changes. As a Quality organization, we engaged with and led the change, maintaining our responsibility for releases while growing our testers’ skills to help them thrive. This active participation meant having more say in defining our roles and future.
Our Platform Engineering Team, QEs, and product engineering teams collaborated to define and deliver new processes to release code. We’ve learned a lot, improved skills, and solved technical and social/process problems. And by engaging with our stakeholders’ desirements, we helped forge a path we can walk. I’ll share what we’ve done so far, what we think we’ve learned, and ask for your feedback.
Key Takeaways:
- Practical insights on implementing CI/CD pipelines
- Tips on fully integrating automated tests in your pipeline
- Advocacy Strategy
Target Audience: Intermediate
Topic Areas: DevOps, Quality Strategy, Advocacy
TRACK 3: Invited Experts
Transformation to Quality Engineering while Translating Metrics into Value
Carlos Kidman
Session Overview
In a world where business and technology are both evolving at rates we've never experienced, most teams aren’t struggling with whether to test. They’re struggling with how to make testing matter.
You’re automating everything, shifting left, integrating into pipelines… but leadership still asks, “Why are we spending so much on testing and we're still not catching all of the issues?”
The truth? Traditional testing models are failing. They struggle to show demonstrated value, they don’t tell a story, and they definitely don’t scale with the complexity of today’s systems.
This session is about the real work behind evolving from QA to Quality Engineering, and it’s not always pretty.
I’ll walk you through what we did to transform how our teams thought about quality, how we measured it, and how we connected it to what the business actually cares about.
Key Takeaways:
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What changes when you move from testing for teams to engineering with them
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Why the hardest part isn’t tooling—it’s changing mindsets and breaking silos
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How we wrestled with legacy metrics and learned to tell a better story
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Which metrics actually translate into value (and which ones waste everyone’s time)
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How we built alignment across product, dev, and QA without losing our sanity
This isn’t a fairy tale about best practices. It’s a grounded, practical, and people-centered walk through of the messy, sometimes painful, always-worth-it journey to modern Quality Engineering.
If you're tired of being asked to prove your worth while at the same time you are working harder than ever and not seeing the results you expect, or you're leading a team that’s stuck between “quality” and “speed”—this session is for you.
Because when done right, the shift to "engineered quality" doesn’t just improve test coverage. It makes your whole org better.
Target Audience: All
Topic Areas: Leadership, Strategy, Culture
10:00 - 10:10 AM: Session Break - Session 2 (10 Minutes)
10:10 - 11:00 AM: Track Session 2 (50 Minutes)
TRACK 1: Quality Strategies, Culture & Leadership
Mission Impossible? Universal Quality Principles That Don’t Self-Destruct
Cathy Toth
Session Overview
Context-driven testing champions adapting approaches to specific situations, but what if certain quality principles maintain their value across diverse domains? This paper examines the apparent paradox between universal principles and contextual adaptation through the lens of our experience with software supporting high-consequence federal missions. Drawing from our work with the Department of Energy and National Nuclear Security Administration, we share insights from testing software that supports critical federal missions and reveal core quality approaches that maintain their effectiveness despite dramatic shifts in context.
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- Understanding the paradox of universal principles that exist in context-driven testing
- Principles vs Practice
- Effective Communication Driven By Principles
- Developing metrics that matter
- Visualization and reporting approaches
- Adapting communication for different stakeholders
- Advocacy for engineered quality vs. testing bugs out
Key Takeaways:
- Principle vs. Practice: Learn to distinguish between universal quality principles
(the "why") and context-specific practices (the "how") - Risk-Based Focus: Apply a consistent framework for understanding and
prioritizing risk, regardless of the specific software context - Systems Thinking: Discover how a whole-system approach to quality considers
the process, the product, and the people - Quality Advocacy: Implement practical strategies for championing quality
throughout the development lifecycle rather than treating testing as a final gate - Human-Centered Quality: Recognize that while tools and technologies change,
effective collaboration remains the single most significant determinant of testing
effectivenes - Practical Adaptability: Take home a flexible framework for balancing universal
principles with context-specific needs in your own testing environment
Target Audience: All
Topic Areas: Strategy, Methodology, Agility, Leadership
TRACK 2: Test Engineering, Techniques & Tooling
Hacked in Plain Sight: Why IoT Devices Are the New Cyber Battleground - and How to Test Them
Bohdan Savchuk
Session Overview
As IoT devices become integral to our daily lives, from smart homes to industrial systems, they bring immense benefits but also significant risks. Cyberattacks targeting these devices are growing in frequency and sophistication, threatening everything from personal privacy to national security. In this session, we’ll explore why robust cybersecurity testing is no longer optional but essential in the development and deployment of IoT solutions.
Through real-world examples and best practices, attendees will learn how to identify vulnerabilities, test device security, and implement proactive measures to protect against ever-evolving cyber threats. We’ll also cover the unique challenges IoT brings—such as device diversity, network complexity, and resource constraints—and how testing frameworks must adapt to meet these demands.
This session will equip you with actionable insights and strategies to future-proof your IoT devices against potential attacks, ensuring safety, trust, and compliance in an increasingly connected world.
Key Takeaways:
* Why IoT cybersecurity testing is critical—and no longer optional
* How to identify and test for common IoT vulnerabilities
* Real-world examples of IoT security failures—and how to avoid them
* Best practices and tools for effective IoT security testing
* Navigating the unique challenges of IoT: device variety, network complexity, and limited resources
* How to adapt traditional testing frameworks for modern IoT environments
* Actionable strategies to build secure, resilient, and compliant IoT solutions
* Future-proofing IoT products against evolving cyber threats
Target Audience: Intermediate
Topic Areas: IOT, Automation, Tooling
TRACK 3: Invited Experts
Close Encounters w/ Systems
Rachel Kibler
Session Overview
We live and test in complexity all the time, but do we ever stop to examine our systems?
Systems are more than just software systems, they include the teams working on them and consuming them, and they include us, our assumptions, our timing, and our expectations! Complex systems are often made up of many smaller systems and, in most cases are a part of even larger systems! Getting the right system modeled is a big part of the battle.
In this experiential talk, you will learn how the way we model a system affects the way we think about it, as different models of the same system reveal different truths about it. Two models can both be true and look very different from each other. The models we choose can change our decisions, design, and debugging strategies. Bugs are rarely isolated. They stem from small interactions, or many interactions, that become dependencies for things downstream. Thinking in systems enables our ability as testers to see nearly invisible threads that make up these interactions and the tools to respond with clarity rather than chaos.
Bring your curiosity and pencil and paper or your phone/tablet as we embark on a journey to have Close Encounters with Systems, and leave with a conceptual toolkit to help hone your thinking about systems!
Key Takeaways:
- How to visualize a system to change how you think about the system.
- Applying models like heuristics - Understanding their value and limitations (useful to a point and helpful for the story you want to tell)
- Utilizing Systems Thinking to make decisions around WHAT to test and, just as importantly, WHEN to test and WHY those tests are important to your context
- Reframing inputs and outputs to dependencies and outcomes and understanding the links between them
Target Audience: All
Topic Areas: Theory, Strategy and Planning
11:00 - 11:10 AM: Session Break - Session 2 (10 Minutes)
11:10 - 12:00 AM: Track Session 3 (50 Minutes)
TRACK 1: Quality Strategies, Culture & Leadership
The Aging But Ageless Software Tester
Scott Allman
Session Overview
Are you changing with age - energy and memory are not what they used to be? As we mature both as humans and as testers, our experiences shape us and change our perspectives... and sometimes, it's hard to understand where we fit into modern solution delivery teams and process where business and technology are advancing faster than ever and with it the quality and testing strategies.
This inevitable truth waits for all of us... no matter what phase of career we are in.
As a seasoned Quality professional and tester, I have taken the opportunity to interview numerous testers who are now at this stage or beyond. Naturally there are worries and concerns. But since we are engineers we embrace curiosity and go straight to asking the obvious question... “What can we do about it?”
In this lively session we will cover new ideas to master, old skills to polish, and frankly, some things in your tester’s toolbox that it is time let go of in exchange for new and more effective strategies.
While this talk is full of considerations of current technologies, it is more humanist than a dreary parade of computer facts. Nope, not a whiz-bang new theory, but plenty of stories, experiences and some wisdom picked up along the way.
We will discover together how teams can embrace the diversity between generations of testers as a core strength; bridging the age gaps between our older demographic, who've witnessed the Quality (R)Evolution in action and have the wisdom to prove it, and younger, greener testers who make up for lack of experience with fresh takes and innovative perspectives that, when combined become a powerful force for achieving high quality outcomes!
Come prepared to connect, learn, share a story or two, take away a few insights, and be encouraged to build deeper connections with your fellow testers of all ages, evolving and growing as a united team of quality professionals in our shared passion for excellence, no matter what stage of your career you are in.
Key Takeaways:
- Experience report results from an informal survey of about 80 engineers at later stages in their careers.
- Keeping sharp as a mature tester - how to embrace life long learning in a technology driven era
- The benefits of being "the leader" AND "the follower" and fostering mentoring within the team
- When to let go of what we "KNOW" vs. learning newer and more effective tools and strategies
- Managing the cognitive load of being a tester in 2025 when memory and energy are not what they used to be.
- How diversity between generations can create quality magic in your team
Target Audience: All
Topic Areas: Culture, Leadership
TRACK 2: Test Engineering, Techniques & Tooling
![Is This [Joke] Appropriate? (A risk based approach to testing)](https://associationforsoftwaretesting.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/DamianBW.png)
Is This [Joke] Appropriate? (A risk based approach to testing)
Damian Synadinos
Session Overview
Leverage the neuroscience of humor to teach critical thinking and risk assessment skills that transfer across all industries and contexts. This unique approach uses comedy analysis as a memorable framework for decision-making, resulting in better judgment calls using risk as a guide; helping you reduce unwanted consequences.
Key Takeaways:
- Cross-functional skill development
- Measurable improvement in decision-making competencies
- An engaging alternative to traditional risk management training
Target Audience: All
Topic Areas: Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, Risk Management
TRACK 3: Invited Experts
Practical Testing with Agentic AI and Computer Use Automation (CUA) Agents
Jonathon Wright
Session Overview
Building on decades of advancements in artificial intelligence and automation, this talk explores Computer Use Automation (CUA), Chain of Thought (CoT), and GraphRAG architectures to enhance model-driven decision-making, self-learning, and adaptive Agentic AI agent-based. Leveraging large action models (LAM) and large vision models (LLaVA) to provide AI-driven software testing agents are redefining productivity & assurance across the software development lifecycle (SDLC).
Attendees will gain insights into the evolution of building AI-infused system methodologies, the shift from traditional process automation to autonomous AI agents, and the role of governance models like ISO 42001 and AI risk compliance frameworks (AI TRiSM / ISO / NIST).
- Agentic AI and the Future of AI-Augmented Workflows – How AI systems move from passive assistance to active moral decision-making.
- GraphRAG and Chain of Thought Reasoning – How structured AI reasoning enhances software quality, transparency, and compliance.
- CUA and Large Action Models – The emergence of autonomous, neuro-symbolic, AI agents for real-time computer use execution.
- AI-Assurance in the Age of Regulation – Navigating compliance, ethical AI governance, and risk management frameworks.
Key Takeaways:
This session is essential for AI practitioners, modern software development, and business decision-makers seeking to integrate AI-Assurance governance into their AI-productivity or AI-workforce workflows while avoiding bans from emerging AI liability laws and EU AI Act compliance mandates.
Target Audience: Advanced
Topic Areas: Agentic AI, Chain of Thought, AI Assurance, Large Action Models
12:00- 1:20 PM: Lunch, Networking & Vendor Floor / Lunch & Learns
1:20 - 2:20 PM: State of Quality in 2025: "Essential Skills for Tomorrow's Quality Leaders" - Expert Panel (60 Minutes)
In today's rapidly evolving tech landscape, the definition and expectations of Quality professionals have never been more dynamic. Join our distinguished panel of industry veterans and thought leaders as they explore the critical skills, competencies, and mindsets essential for quality practitioners to excel in 2025 and beyond.
This engaging discussion will highlight key insights into adaptive leadership, strategic thinking, technical fluency in AI and automation, and the ethical foresight needed to navigate complex challenges. Panelists will provide actionable advice on developing resilience, driving innovation, and staying relevant in an environment that demands continuous learning and agility.
Don't miss this valuable opportunity to learn from industry experts about how you can future-proof your career and lead the charge in delivering exceptional software quality.
2:20 - 2:30 PM: Session Break — Begin Afernoon Tracks
2:30 - 3:20 PM: Track Session 4 (50 Minutes)
TRACK 1: Quality Strategies, Culture & Leadership
Why Do Testers Feel Lesser Than Developers? The Tester vs. Developer Debate
Kulas Angeles
Session Overview
(Four Common Misconceptions Why Testers Think Developers are Superior and Four Ways How to Deal With It)
In transitioning from Quality Engineer to DevOps Coach (to a quality engineer again), I gained insight into testers' feelings of inferiority to developers. This talk addresses misconceptions plaguing testers and presents strategies to overcome them, challenging the perceived hierarchy and promoting equality in software development roles. By addressing common myths and emphasizing testers' unique value, we can elevate the software quality profession's status and impact.
Key Takeaways:
- Practical ways to challenge the status quo
- How to have a mindset for continuous learning
- How to make the intangible, tangible, and invisible, visible through metrics and reporting
- How to differentiate yourself from others
Target Audience: All
Topic Areas: Culture, Leadership, Influence
TRACK 2: Test Engineering, Techniques & Tooling
Testing for Cognitive Bias in Next Gen Systems
Gerie Owen
Session Overview
We would like to think that AI-based machine learning systems always produce the right answer within their problem domain. However, in reality, their performance is a direct result of the data used to train them.
The answers in production are only as good as that training data. Data collected by human means, such as surveys, observations, or estimates can have built-in human biases.
Even seemingly objective measurements can be measuring the wrong things or can be missing essential information about the problem domain. The effects of biased data can be even more insidious. AI systems often function as black boxes, which means technologists are unaware of how an AI came to its conclusion.
This can make it particularly hard to identify any inequality, bias, or discrimination feeding into a particular decision.
This session explains how AI systems can suffer from the same biases as human experts, and how that could lead to biased results. It examines practical ways that testers, data scientists, and other stakeholders can develop test cases to recognize biases, both in data and the resulting system, and how to address those biases.
Key Takeaways:
- How data influences how machine learning systems make decisions.
- How selecting the wrong data, or ambiguous data, can bias machine learning results.
- How we can identify and correct bias in machine learning systems.
Target Audience: Intermediate
Topic Areas: AI, Methodology, Human Centered Testing
TRACK 3: Invited Experts
The Case for Outsourcing as a Quality Strategy
Alexis Bell
Session Overview
Let’s face it... when testers hear “outsourcing,” the first reaction is often fear: "Are we being replaced? Will quality suffer?"
But what if outsourcing, when done right, could actually strengthen your team, not shrink it?
In this immersive session, we’ll walk through a multi-year case study of a global client who didn’t just survive disruption...but thrived...by reshaping their quality strategy through intentional outsourcing, cloud enablement, and people-centric growth.
Key Takeaways:
Through real data, metrics, and behind-the-scenes insights, you’ll learn how we:
- Embedded automation and CI/CD with a DevOps-first approach
- Used outsourcing to build capability, not fill headcount
- Upskilled internal QA pros to lead, innovate, and thrive in modern ecosystems
- Navigated the hard stuff—budget cuts, role transitions, and cloud disruption—without compromising quality or culture
- Fostered true partnerships between internal teams and external vendors rooted in trust, transparency, and shared ownership
This is the story of quality as a driver of innovation, not a cost center. A story where outsourcing didn’t erase jobs, but created new paths for internal team members to grow into leaders, product thinkers, and strategic enablers.
This session offers tangible, tested lessons for building resilient, future-ready quality and testing organizations.
Come with your questions. Leave with a blueprint for success!
Target Audience: All
Topic Areas: Strategy, Outsourcing, Leadership
3:20 - 3:50 PM: Afternoon Refreshments / Networking & Vendor Floor (30 minutes)
3:50 - 4:50 PM: Final Keynote: Orchestrating Life-Work Harmony: Ditch Balance, Conduct the Symphony of Your Life in Quality
TRINA CELESTE
Most of us have been sold a myth—that achieving “work-life balance” is the ultimate goal. But what if balance isn’t the answer? What if it’s time to stop juggling and start conducting? In this powerful and transformative session, Trina Celeste invites attendees to rethink how they approach life and work—not as a tightrope walk, but as a symphony. Drawing on the stories and strategies from her bestselling book, Orchestrating Life-Work Harmony, Trina will guide you through a bold mindset shift: from reactive balance to intentional harmony.
In this immersive experience, you’ll learn how to take command as the conductor of your own life. You’ll discover how to recognize the “weeds” of fear, doubt, guilt, and shame that choke growth—and how to pluck, chuck, or flip them into fuel for personal transformation. Trina introduces her Life-Work Harmony Model, featuring the L.A.W.N.S. framework (Light, Air, Water, Nutrition, and Space), a metaphorical and practical tool for cultivating wellbeing across relationships, financial health, career aspirations, mental wellness, and personal growth.
Through real-world stories, interactive “tune-in” moments, and actionable steps, you’ll explore how to reclaim control of your time, reinforce your boundaries, and stop outsourcing your joy. Whether you’re managing a family, building a business, navigating a career pivot, or simply burned out, this session will help you recenter, reset, and step boldly into a life aligned with your purpose and values.
With warmth, humor, and raw vulnerability, Trina creates a space where it’s safe to let go of perfectionism, challenge outdated beliefs, and begin a new chapter—one where you are the priority and your life flows with clarity, meaning, and intention.
What You’ll Gain:
- A new perspective that releases the pressure to “balance it all”
- The Life-Work Harmony Model and L.A.W.N.S. framework to assess and recalibrate key areas of your life
- Practical tools like “Pluck It, Chuck It, Flip It, or Use It!” to overcome internal blocks
- Techniques to set boundaries, shut the gate on life’s “goats” (those energy-draining distractions), and protect your personal time and space
- A renewed connection to your purpose—and a plan to act on it with clarity and courage
4:50 - 5:00 PM: Conference Wrap Up
6:30 - 11:00 PM: CAST 2025 Conference Mixer & Banquet
Join us for an unforgettable conference wrap-up with the CAST 2025 Mixer, set against the stunning backdrop of Utah’s Cottonwood Canyons at Eight Settlers Distillery in scenic Cottonwood Heights.
This locally owned gem combines vintage Utah charm with modern sophistication, offering a warm, upscale ambiance perfect for the best of networking and relaxation after two intense days of quality insights.
Use your testing skills to experience handcrafted spirits like Devil’s Gate Bourbon and Green Ditch Gin, distilled on-site using traditional techniques with a contemporary twist. Unforgettable food and a continuation of the best company around are included.
Whether you’re reconnecting with old colleagues, trading CAST stories and/or continuing a hot discussion from CAST, this event promises an evening of great conversation, exceptional flavors, and memorable experiences.
*IMPORTANT NOTE: This venue and event is a 21 and over event. No one under age will be permitted.