2022

Andrea Jensen

Software Quality Engineer – NCVS, Germany

Hi, I’m Andrea! A tester since 2011, I started by chance and now continue out of passion. Currently, I am a Software Quality Engineer in the maritime industry by day; and a reader, crafter, curious learner, and RiskStorming Online advocate by night.

Rik Marselis

Principal Quality Consultant – Sogeti, Netherlands

Rik Marselis is a principal quality consultant at Sogeti in the Netherlands. He is a highly regarded presenter, trainer, author, consultant, mentor and coach who supported many organizations and people in improving their quality engineering practice by providing useful tools & checklists, practical support and having in-depth discussions. His presentations are always appreciated for their liveliness, his ability to keep the talks serious but light, and his use of practical examples with humorous comparisons. Rik is an accredited trainer for TMAP, ISTQB and TPI certification training courses, but also, he has created and delivered many bespoke workshops and training courses. For example, on quality engineering and on Intelligent Machines and DevOps testing. Rik is a fellow of Sogeti’s R&D network SogetiLabs. These R&D activities result in presentations, books, white-papers, articles, podcasts and blogs about IT in general and quality engineering in particular. In 2020 his latest TMAP book “Quality for DevOps teams” was presented.

Fran O’Hara

Director – Inspire Quality Services, Ireland

Fran has over 35 years experience in the software industry working in various roles in development, test, management and professional consulting. He co-founded and successfully grew a software testing services organisation which was ultimately acquired by Sogeti/Capgemini. For the last 15 years he has been providing independent coaching, training and mentoring in Agile and Lean to a wide range of organisations. He has a particular focus on quality, testing and associated practices. Fran is an international speaker, a co-organiser of Agile Tour Ireland and a co-founder of the Irish SIG in Software Testing – SoftTest. His tutorial, ‘Metamorphosis – Moving to Agile and Staying Agile’, was voted best tutorial at EuroSTAR 2016 in Stockholm.

Kristoffer Nordström

Responsible Adult in the Room – Northern Test Consulting, Sweden

Kristoffer Nordström is a Test Developer that has worked with technologies such as Telecommunications Systems, Distributed Compilers, Cloud technology, Cryptocurrency, Smartphone OS development, Embedded systems, and much more. A testing devotee and passionate member of the test community, with his own company, he consults and teaches the class ‘Python for Testers’, because he believes in tools-assisted sapient testing.

Rikard Edgren

Test Expert – Nordic Medtest, Sweden

Rikard Edgren describes himself as a humanistic and technical tester since 1998, specialized in generalities like test strategy and exploratory testing. Thus far Rikard has had ten speaking appearances at EuroSTAR and was a winner of the Best Conference Tutorial Award in 2014 and 2020, and Programme Chair in 2018. Rikard is a member of the think-tank The Test Eye, co-author of Software Quality Characteristics, author of The Little Black Book on Test Design and Den Lilla Svarta om Teststrategi. Rikard currently works as Test expert at Nordic Medtest, Karlstad, Sweden, working with the Swedish healthcare infrastructure.

Lalitkumar Bhamare

Tech Architecture Manager – Accenture Interactive, Germany

Lalit is a Manager (Innovation and Thought Leadership) in the DevOps chapter of Accenture Interactive, Germany. He is the CEO, Co-Founder, and Chief Editor of the popular software testing magazine, Tea-time with Testers  and is co-creator of the State of Testing survey. Lalit is also Vice President at the Association for Software Testing, USA, and looks after AST’s education program. His specialties are his test consulting skills, whole team testing, test management, teaching testing, and helping project teams with Quality Conscious Software Deliveries.

Lalit is an international keynote speaker and has spoken at leading testing conferences worldwide. He was Program Chair for ConTest NYC 2020 and a Lead Instructor for the BBST Foundations course with AST as well as conducting Rapid Software Testing full-day training courses. Occasionally, Lalit conducts public workshops on Exploratory Testing, to enable testers to do “more with less”. He regularly assists James Bach in his Rapid Software Testing Applied online classes (RSTA). Setting up and running Testing CoPs (Community of Practice) and establishing an intellectual testing culture in an organisation is one of his niche skills.

Lalit was recently congratulated by prominent people in the testing industry for his contribution to the community, which he considers to be the true reward for his work. Find out more about Lalit.

Leela Putten

IT Specialist Consultant – Qualiblaze, South Africa

Leela Putten is an IT specialist consultant currently working in the non-functional testing and automation enablement delivery space, with a passion for empowering people, chasing her goals, and making a difference. Born in Mauritius, she pursued an Msc in Forensic Informatics in Scotland, and later moved to South Africa for work opportunities and lots of travel adventures. She started working in the security and performance testing field and gained exposure across multiple financial and telecommunication institutions for the past 12 years. Her current focus is technical practice roles across digital transformation projects, enabling ways of working amongst others.

Pia Wiedermayer

Lead QA Consultant – Zuehlke, Switzerland

I am a passionate quality personality. Quality and first-class service were already a special interest for me in my original professional field, the top hotel industry. My studies in business administration and e-business management got me excited about the countless opportunities in IT. That’s why I started as a consultant in test automation in 2013. Via test management and team leadership, my path led me to Zühlke at the beginning of 2019, where I have been a QA specialist ever since, advising our customers as well as supporting them in daily business. I place particular value on a holistic approach, in which quality is understood and lived as a principle – and not as an annoying evil at the end of the process.