Showing posts with label conference. Show all posts
Showing posts with label conference. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 18, 2025

My First LeadDev LDX3 2025 Experience - Day 1

 I’ve been trying to attend LeadDev for the last three years. I’ve submitted CFPs every time, hoping to be selected as a speaker, but it hasn’t happened yet. I’m not giving up, though; I’ll keep trying. This year, I finally got the chance to attend in person, and it felt special. Big thanks to CFC for making this happen.

As it was my first time attending LeadDev, I wanted to be well-prepared and make the most of the experience. Checked my travel route, laid out my notebook and favourite pen (yes, I still love handwritten notes!). The organisers had an app where I could plan my schedule in advance. That really helped me as it meant I didn’t have to make last-minute decisions during the day and could just focus on being present. I found that really useful. 

I spent some time looking up the talks and the speakers ahead of time and built my schedule based on what I was most interested in. The event had three main stages—Ways of Working, Organisational Leadership, and Technical Strategy. There was also a Solutions Stage with vendor demos, community spaces, office hours, and a chance to meet authors. I didn’t manage to attend everything, but I’ll share what I experienced.

🧡 The day started with a lovely catch-up with Christine Pinto. We’ve met before, but it’s always such a joy to connect in person, especially with someone who’s part of the quality community I deeply value.




Day 1 kicked off with the session I attended first: “How to Keep Everyone Happy (on a Shoestring)?” by Neslihan Şirin Saygılı.

Neslihan shared her journey managing teams without formal management training, facing many real-world constraints: limited budget, limited headcount, limited time, limited life and the added pressure when C-level executives want Friday launches. She described these as “dominoes vs avalanches,” highlighting how small issues can cascade into bigger crises if not managed well.

Her approach starts with taking a wide view. She created a “happiness sparse matrix”. She also talked about “rotating priorities” like pizza trade-offs where each sprint prioritises a different team’s needs, with a “time currency” paid upfront(people respected the fairness)



A bigger perspective came from framing the challenge as a “constraint satisfaction problem,” one without a perfect numerical solution but solvable through heuristics and teamwork. She reminded us it’s okay to have “good enough” plans, It's better to be 70% right today than than 100% right too late. Keep the stakeholders informed all the time.

Her practical advice included focusing on root causes, not blaming individuals, and fixo ne thing fully, not 10 things badly. Keep the big picture, don't let the crisis blind you to the others. She encouraged establishing some principles like casual coffee breaks, sharing credit, listening, being accessible, and supporting personal growth through books and side projects to keep the “emotional bank account” topped up.

Quote from Regina Phalange:

“Our experiences are similar in pattern but unique in detail. I believe we need tailored solutions.”

Managing tech crisis on a shoestring isn’t about being a hero, but being a human.

What resonated most with me was how much this isn’t about having all the answers or being perfect. It’s about understanding the real, messy challenges teams face every day and finding practical, human ways to navigate them and you don't have to do it alone, find help!

The next session I attended was “Better Software, Faster” by Laura Tacho.

Laura opened strong with a clear message: “We need to think about using AI on an organisational level to see the organisational benefits.” She quickly made it clear that AI isn’t about producing more lines of code—because we already know lines of code aren’t a meaningful measure. Instead, it’s about improving the developer experience.

She described how many leaders right now are sitting in a “disappointment gap”—expecting AI to replace engineers or bring instant transformation, but the reality doesn’t match the hype. That contrast was summed up with humour: “The milk is actually shaving cream,” which got a good laugh in the room.

This hype around AI is the biggest barrier for adoption. Engineers might even start seeing it as competition, which only builds more resistance. But as Laura pointed out: data beats hype—every time. Leaders need to set realistic expectations about what AI can and can’t do, and be able to explain those clearly to boards, execs, and development teams alike. While AI can be transformative, that’s not what most companies are seeing in their day-to-day work—yet.

Quote from Brian Houck (SPACE framework co-author):
“The hype around AI is in many ways the biggest barrier for adoption.”

She shared stats showing that advanced organisations in the top quartile have about 60% adoption of AI tools on a daily or weekly basis—but there’s still a huge gap between them and the rest. Laura stressed that if you invest the effort and resources into AI adoption, usage will go up. The average reported time savings is already about 3 hours and 45 minutes per developer per week in the first half of 2025.

Still, she was honest about how hard it is to lead in this space right now. The landscape is evolving rapidly, and many leaders feel like they’re constantly guessing. But we’re not alone in that. Laura wants to equip us to show up with clarity and confidence, especially when it comes to separating hype from what’s actually happening.

She reminded us that we have a hard job to do as organisational leaders. Our role and responsibility is to educate around the hype. It’s easy to get distracted by shiny new tools, but when leadership asks “what are we doing with AI?” — we need to have a clear, honest answer. And when we ask “what does it actually take to build better software?” — the answer isn’t just writing code faster. It’s making sure the code is reliable, maintainable, and valuable.

Laura outlined two things we need to do this well:

  1. A common definition of engineering performance
  2. Clarity on how AI is influencing that performance

We also need AI-specific measures, not just the usual engineering metrics.

Despite all the newness, she reminded us that the fundamentals of software delivery still hold—collaboration, fast time to market, quality, reliability, and security. AI might help accelerate delivery, but without care, it can also accelerate the wrong things. We need to protect our organisations from delayed damage, like producing more poor-quality code, faster.

One big takeaway for me was around aligning the organisation on a shared definition of excellence. Laura introduced DX Core 4, a framework developed by people like Abi Noda and Dr. Nicole Forsgren (from the DORA team), which has already been used by hundreds of companies. It’s been battle-tested, and it shows that Developer Experience (DX) is one of the biggest levers we have to improve engineering performance.

She shared that around 20% of developer time is lost to friction from inefficient tools and poor internal systems. Since time is such a scarce commodity, mapping DX improvements back to saved time and recovered salary makes a solid business case for investing in better developer experience. Biggest wins for utilisation is going from non-using to using AI. Top metric to track in terms of Impact = time savings per week.  AI Measurement Framework = Utilization + Impact + Cost.

As Azra from Block put it:
“These improvements helped us move faster without sacrificing quality or focus.”

Laura wrapped up by debuting an AI Measurement FrameworkThis session was a real eye-opener. It helped me see how, as leaders, we need to take ownership not just of tools and tech, but of the narrative around them. 

Sunday, December 1, 2024

Reflecting on November of Hosting, Speaking, and Connecting

I don’t generally write monthly reviews, but this time I wanted to share about four events from November so I  thought of capturing everything in one place. This post is more of a personal journal to look back on later.  Normally, I share updates about the events I attend or speak through LinkedIn, but I thought it would be a good to compile everything into a blog. 

1. Final Internal Quality Community Event

On November 13th, I hosted the final internal quality community event of the year at my company. Our guest speaker was Jakub Cagiel, who delivered an insightful talk on Quality at Atlassian. Jakub shared Atlassian's approach to quality and their journey to achieve it, focusing on processes that empower developers to own and build quality effectively. Highly recommend this talk, Jakub was an absolutely fantastic speaker. 

This was the sixth event I organized this year as part of our internal quality community at CFC. Here’s a recap of the other incredible sessions. I'm so grateful to all the speakers who agreed to speak.

I enjoyed hosting these events and am very grateful to my colleagues who attended that kept me motivated to continue organizing these sessions. I look forward to continuing these events next year as part of our internal quality community

2. Women in Silicon Roundabout

On November 28th, I attended and spoke at the Women in Silicon Roundabout London conference for the first time. My session, on “Elevate Your Career Through the Power of Networking and Personal Branding,” shared my journey into public speaking and how mentors like Angie Jones and Maaret Pyhäjärvi helped me in my speaking journey. I talked about how I initially had no awareness of testing communities and had never attended a conference. Now, I am involved in several communities and have the opportunity to speak at conferences. I shared about TestBash Brighton 2019 being my first conference and the first community I was introduced to.

In today’s world where layoffs, redundancies and uncertainty, personal branding and networking have more relevant than ever. Watch these short video clips by Kelsey Hightower on how everyone has a personal brand  and Angies Jones on networking

I shared actionable tips and stories about how these skills can open new doors, help you stand out, and elevate your career. 

The audience engagement was excellent, with a full house of 340 participants attending the session. I’m always happy to present this talk at meetups, conferences, or internal events. If you’d like me to present this session to your organization or event, feel free to reach out on LinkedIn.


3. Ministry of Testing Panel

It was an honour to join Jitesh Gosai and  Barry Ehigiator as a panellist on The Testing Planet’s discussion on why shifting left isn’t enough hosted by Gwen Diagram. We kicked started by answering the first question 

What are the limitations of shift-left testing?

For me, when we talk about shifting testing to the left, it often leads to the misinterpretation that it's solely about automating early or starting testing sooner. This perspective can miss the importance of a shift-right approach or a more holistic view. 

 It was an engaging conversation where we explored the challenges of shift-left testing, balancing speed with quality, and identifying gaps in current testing practices. Have a read at this post by Jitesh who has written a detailed summary on the testing planet event here

If you missed it, don’t worry, Testing Planet sessions are available on-demand. Thanks to Ministry of Testing for organising this.

4. The Test Tribe London Meetup

On November 29th, I hosted the second Test Tribe London Meetup. Even though we were a smaller group of 16 people, it was a wonderful evening of meaningful interactions and learning. The first one was hosted on 25th September where Simon Prior gave a talk on "Testing SaaS - Quality in a "Buy not Build" World". 

The Test Tribe community is organizing events in various cities, and when they reached me to help host a meetup in London, I agreed to it. I had never hosted any external events like this before, so I wanted to contribute to the community in a new way. It was an exciting opportunity to be involved being on the other side. We had two amazing speakers for the second meetup:

Lewis even gave away a signed copy of his book to a participant who asked a great question during the Q&A! Lots of discussions over pizza and networking. There will be more meetups by The Test Tribe London Meetup in 2025, so keep an eye out for that.

November was a month of events, from organizing internal events to speaking at conferences and hosting meetups, it was a month filled with opportunities to learn, share, grow, contribute and give back to the community. Apart from these events, I got an opportunity to contribute to Anne-Marie Charret's November Newsletter on Quality Coach Book on the topic of  "Building Cross-Functional expertise in a team"

If you attended any of these events or found the topics interesting, I’d love to hear your thoughts! 

Monday, January 1, 2024

Year in Review : Reflecting on 2023

As we wrap up another year, I spent some time on reflecting on the highs and lows of 2023, a year that brought its fair share of challenges and achievements. This tradition of year-end reflection not only helps me appreciate the journey but also sets the stage for what lies ahead.

I've been doing this tradition of reflecting back on a year for the last four years, and it's been great to look back at each year-end review. It's like flipping through the pages of a personal growth journal, seeing the progress, the lessons learned, and the challenges overcome. Here's a snapshot of my 2023 story:

  • 2023 kicked off with me joining Ship30for30, a writing course that taught me the importance of consistency, generating ideas, and embracing constructive feedback. Check out my 30-day writing adventure here.
  • Throughout the year, I had the pleasure of being a guest on various podcasts, discussing topics like observability for testers, the importance of representation, and the concept of shifting testing left. You can catch some of these conversations 👇
    • Shweta on QA Q & A - here
    • Interview with Nicola Lindgren - here
    • Marie Cruz and Nicole van der Hoeven on Adobo & Avocados - here
    • Conversation with Ruslan Akhmetzianov - here
  • My time at Thoughtworks was like a journey through a place where I learned and grew a lot. Working with great co-workers on different projects, making friends forever, and tackling challenges have all contributed to shaping a better version of myself.

"Growth always happens when you step out of your comfort zone."

  • One of the personal milestones of the year was delivering workshops at conferences. From a 99-minute session on continuous testing to an in-person workshop on inclusive cross-functional requirements, the feedback from attendees was incredibly rewarding. You can find more about these workshops here. If any conference is seeking workshops on these topics, feel free to reach out to me as I'm looking to do more of these in 2024. Apart from these workshops, I got an opportunity to be part of a panel discussion on 'Driving a culture of quality' at TestBash Autumn 2023. It was an honour to be part of this alongside Ben Dowen and Calab Grandall.
  • Said goodbye to Thoughtworks and jumped into a new role as the Quality Practice Lead at CFC. The first month has been a rollercoaster of learning, and I'm excited about what's coming next.
  • In response to health challenges stemming from remote work(not taking frequent breaks), I committed to a journey of healthy eating habits. Shedding 12 kgs wasn't just about adopting healthy habits but also about dedication, consistency, and bouncing back after setbacks. This achievement stands out as a personal highlight for me in 2023.
  • Being named a RisingSTAR Finalist was an honor. While my idea on cross-functional requirements didn't take the top spot, standing among brilliant finalists was a win in itself.

  • Additionally, I contributed as part of the program review team for Testμ 2023 by Lambdatest, adding my voice to the testing community as a reviewer. I was also invited to be a Llambdatest Spartan which is a great community to be part of.




As I bid farewell to 2023, I acknowledge its ups and downs. Each challenge has contributed to my growth, and I'm proud of how I've navigated them. Despite falling short on consistent blogging, 2024 holds a simple goal—write at least 5 blogs. Putting it out here for public accountability! 😄

In closing, I'm grateful for the experiences and lessons of 2023. Here's to growth, resilience, and the untold stories awaiting in 2024! 🌟🎉

Stay tuned for more adventures! ✨

Friday, December 31, 2021

A Year in Review - 2021

 Another year passed by and its the time of the year to look back and reflect. This year for me was more of trying to recover from year 2020 loss of my loved one and taking care of myself. 

Reflecting back to me is all about being grateful and learning from all those experiences and continue to grow. So I wanted to look back at my 2021 journey.

  •  Networking and making friends was one of the huge advantage of attending in person conferences, I had made some from 2019 conferences that I had attended in person. I had an opportunity to share a short story in colloboration with Niranjani Manohoran for an initiative called as RISE hosted by Synapse QA where we shared how we met at a conference and continued helping each other 😇
  • I got an opportunity to pair and collaborate with Maaret Pyhäjärvi to test the application under test to create a course.
  •  I joined Thoughtworks in May as a Senior QA Consultant which was one of the most exciting news. I had followed and got inspired by many thoughtworkers, I was very excited to start a new chapter of my journey as a thoughtworker. It's been just 7 months since I joined and I already feel so confident about everything that I have done so far and how much I have learned. There's so much more that I'm looking forward to in 2022 that I have planned for . 
  • I continued sharing my learnings about Observability with the community, I still consider myself as a newbie in this topic and there's so much more to learn and explore. This topic is one of my favourite and I'm very passionate about it, I'm hoping to learn more about this in 2022 🎯. Was part of the panel along with Miss Amy, Shery Brauner, Tiani Jones and Thom Duran which was hosted by LeadDev - Getting your engineers on board with observability. And also contributed on LeadDev where myself including Liz Fong-Jones, Kristie Howard and Lesley Cordero have shared experiences around how the teams been using Observability. I loved sharing and reading about how others have been using it. Interested in reading? Here's the link - How Netflix, Teachers Pay, HoneyComb and more used Observability 
 
  •  I got invited to be one of the reviewers for Super Reads 2021:Synape QA Global Write-A-Thon. It was great to be part of the awesome panel of reviewers.I loved reading so many stories and articles throught the review process. 
  • I did speak at few conferences this year including TestFlix 2021, Appium Conference 2021, API Summit 2021, Conf42:Site Reliability Engineering 2021 and Dev Day 2021. I had a privilege to be a host at Agile India 2021 Conference to host Manoj Kumar where he delivered a talk on Tips from the Trenches : Accessibility Testing.
  • It was an honour to be on TestGuild Podcast hosted by Joe Colantonio, it was such an awesome experience and enjoyed the conversation sharing all about quality.
  • This is my first and last blogpost of this year 2021. I did not or shall I say I could not write any blogpost in this year. I did get very anxious about not writing any blog. But slowly I learnt to accept that it's ok, it's ok to not write, it's ok to take a break from something to take care of yourself. Gradually I started feeling less guilty about not being able to write which was a huge relief for my ownself. And I'm looking forward to 2022 to take small steps towards getting back into writing and sharing more 💪💫💥.

 What a journey and a ride it was, Year 2021. With so many great things, had miserable moments too. Even though I could not do as much as I had thought of, I'm happy and grateful of what I was able to do. All the learnings, experiences, struggles and challenges have given me a lot of strength and confidence. I'm grateful to all those people who were kind, empathetic and encouraging. 

While I'm planing and building my goals for next year, this is the tweet that is going to be a reminder and going to be stuck in my mind 😊

 

Looking forward for the year 2022 🙌💫 

Monday, January 4, 2021

Reflecting on Year 2020

⚠️ Content warning: This blog contains mention of death 

 The year 2020 - A year filled with a lot of uncertainties, learned whole new definition of being adaptable to the changes, surprises which were both good and bad, a year of learning about all new fears. Year 2020 to me has meant all about empathy and humanity. It's been a mixed year which has entirely changed the way I look at life and the impact has been real.

This year had been a real toll in terms of mental health and adapting to the new way of living with a lot of unexpected situations to face. I almost decided not to write anything about reflecting on this year. But I decided to do it. This is my first blog post in the last 6 months. 

The year started with a lot of excitement and goals that I wanted to achieve. A lot of planning and passion went in for what I wanted to achieve and learn while I was on my Testing Tour. Setting out on Testing Tour was not just about learning topics and sharing but it was more of getting out of my comfort zone. I am so glad I took the courage to do it and it proved to be worth it. I met known and new people from across the world which was an amazing experience. 

I got introduced to the whole new topic of Observability or O11y where Abby Bangser and Shelby Spees has helped me in a way that got me hands-on with so much better understanding and clarity about this topic. Shared my learnings from Testing Tour and Observability at multiple conferences

 I lived in fear since I came to know about Covid-19, fear for my family who live with me and who lived back home in India. I have seen Covid effect really closely. Three of my loved ones caught it one after the other. First my Mom, then my Dad and then my brother. In this battle, I lost my Dad who was my inspiration and role model. This hit me so hard that I'm still trying to recover to come out of that loss and pain 😢 which is never going to heal. These were one of the toughest days I have ever faced.

I still wanted to look back and reflect on the good things that happened to me. 

  • Went on Testing Tour and had 15 different sessions on 15 different topics and blogged about each of those sessions. 
  • I learned about a lot more new topics and tried my hands-on with new tools. I learned about Observability, Performance testing using Jmeter, Microsoft Azure and lot more. 
  • I got an opportunity to be part of Observability for testers series organized by Anne-Marie Charrett along with Lisa Crispin and  Abby Bangser which was a great opportunity to learn and explore more about observability.

  • I gained 1076 followers crossing 1000k followers on  Twitter which for me is a huge number. 
  • I learned to listen to my mental health and say no to few of the opportunities. I had to prioritise myself over other things which I struggled initially but gradually learned that it's absolutely ok to stop and take a break to take care of yourself. 
  • When the entire world went remote, initially I was happy that I will get to work from home but gradually it became challenging to work from home with two kids around as they had their virtual school sessions. Throughout this process, I learnt not to feel guilty for not being able to give full attention to both my kids while they are on their virtual school sessions. Learnt to be patient and adapt to each day as it comes. 
  • Our testing community is not just to learn and share about all things testing but it proved to be supportive during my difficult times which I'm so thankful for. 

Reflecting on all these gave me so much happiness, confidence and pleasure 💫😇. It's always good to look back and see what you have been doing or learning on the way. Looking forward for year 2021 with an attitude of being grateful for what I have. Thanks for your time for stopping by and reading my post 🙂