The Coolest Tech Networking Event and Star Wars Party in Washington, D.C.

On May 5th, 2022, join Inflectra’s Tech Networking Event and Party for a much-needed dose of in-person networking and socializing!

Three reasons to attend:

• Network with other tech professionals in the area, InflectraCon guests from all over the USA, and Inflectra’s technology partners from across the globe

• Socialize and have fun during our Star Wars-themed Party (May the 4th Be With You!)

• Celebrate the 16th anniversary of Inflectra with a tequila tasting, and authentic Mexican food in honor of Cinco De Mayo!

Enjoy an all-out evening reception to reconnect with old friends, and meet new ones. We’re bringing the party, you just bring yourself and a friend or two!

Panel Speakers:

• Dr. Oonagh McDonald, CBE

• Jan Guido

• Dr. Sriram Rajagopalan

• Sonya Wentz

Moderator: Teresa Langston

Description:

Organizations have adopted Agile, Scrum, DevOps, CI/CD practices widely in order to increase their adaptivity. While doing so, they learn that it is impossible to speed up the IT deliverance without trusting the quality. Lean and SAFe have Built-in Quality as a core principle, but what does that mean for teams and organizations?

In this presentation, Derk-Jan will share the challenges he encounters at various organizations. How do teams work and collaborate in order to release valuable increments, and what are approaches to increase quality awareness? We will discuss the role of testers on the team level but also investigate how quality is organized in scaled settings where teams need to collaborate on a single increment. How can you organize quality on release level, what types of releases can we distinguish and who is responsible? What do we see in practice and how should it work? In order to have quality built-in, we need more than just good tests. But a strategy also. Implementing this on various levels is challenging and has an impact on the way we develop our software.

Key Takeaways:

• Understand that built-in quality is a multi-level challenge that is gaining importance

• Discover real-life patterns that make grip on quality a challenge

• Have a look at practices in order to improve the quality

• How to define quality feedback loops and the impact on the development and business.

Description:

Is your team made up of some of the best talents in the company and consists of a Project Manager, Certified Scrum Master (CSM), Solution Architect, Data Architect, Developers, a Senior Performance Test Engineer, and an Automated Functional Tester. Your customer is open to HCD but has no idea what that entails. As a professional skilled and experienced in the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), the Agile Scrum methodology and with some knowledge of Human-Centered Design (HCD), as you start a project, this two-part session will take you on a journey on how to incorporate HCD when delivering using a DevOps workstream.

• What are some of the benefits of using HCD for a software or systems integration project?

• Does your team anticipate challenges using HCD now?

• What risks exist if you do NOT use HCD?

• If you are already sold on HCD, how do you incorporate it into Agile Scrum and/or DevOps environments?

• If you need to start using HCD, how will you reorganize your work to continue to deliver?

Well, this two-part session is for you and your team. You will experience how HCD methods can be incorporated into both Agile Transformation and DevOps Planning. Bring your thinking caps and be ready to work collaboratively during this interactive event as you take a DevOps problem and take it from Epic to Feature Test employing HCD methods.

Part 1: Using Empathize and Define to plan Epics and Features

During Part I, we will apply HCD methods and frameworks for user research and problem definition to develop Epics and Features for a DevOps case study.  

Part 2: Using Ideate, Prototype, and Test to detail Features and Work Items

During Part II, we will apply HCD methods and frameworks related to brainstorming, prototyping, and testing at the Feature- and Work Item-levels such as user stories, associated wireframes, and additional Work Items based on test results.

Description:

Agile Coaches may be asked to have many skills, but which skills are most important to you? Do you need a teacher, facilitator, mentor, consultant or something else?

Understanding the different “hats” an agile coach may wear, helps in hiring the right coach, upskilling your current coaches and setting expectations with your teams. This understanding also helps Agile Coaches have better conversations with leadership by framing and naming the different characteristics, skills and outcomes needed to wear each hat.

An experienced Agile Coach will put on 12 different hats and discuss the pros and cons of wearing each one.

While this is a presentation, the use of many hats and props will provide unique visuals and allow the audience to connect to the various skills, behaviors and outcomes associated with each hat an agile coach may wear. While a presentation doesn’t allow for Concrete Practice, it does allow for Connection, Concepts and Conclusion.

During this session, a seasoned Agile Coach will put on 12 different hats with appropriate props while discussing the distinct differences of each. Some of the hats such as a teacher you expect. Others such as the “Yes Person” may come as a surprise.

1.       Teacher (Graduation Cap)

2.       Mentor (Hogwarts Wizard’s Hat)

3.       Facilitator (Party Hat)

4.       Coach (Ted Lasso’s Hat)

5.       Consultant (Surgery Scrub Cap or my Judge’s Wig)

6.       Dojo Coach (Karate Kid Headband)

7.       Project Manager (Hard Hat with Head Lamp)

8.       Auditor (Green Accountant Hat)

9.       Agile Police (NY PD Hat)

10.   Spy (Sherlock Holmes Hat)

11.   Deliver This Product! (Crash Helmet)

12.   Yes Person (Propeller Beany)

Key Takeaways:

• Understanding the various agile coaching skills

• Taxonomy for better discussions with agile coaches and leadership

Description:

Is your team made up of some of the best talents in the company and consists of a Project Manager, Certified Scrum Master (CSM), Solution Architect, Data Architect, Developers, a Senior Performance Test Engineer, and an Automated Functional Tester. Your customer is open to HCD but has no idea what that entails. As a professional skilled and experienced in the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), the Agile Scrum methodology and with some knowledge of Human-Centered Design (HCD), as you start a project, this two-part session will take you on a journey on how to incorporate HCD when delivering using a DevOps workstream.

• What are some of the benefits of using HCD for a software or systems integration project?

• Does your team anticipate challenges using HCD now?

• What risks exist if you do NOT use HCD?

• If you are already sold on HCD, how do you incorporate it into Agile Scrum and/or DevOps environments?

• If you need to start using HCD, how will you reorganize your work to continue to deliver?

Well, this two-part session is for you and your team. You will experience how HCD methods can be incorporated into both Agile Transformation and DevOps Planning. Bring your thinking caps and be ready to work collaboratively during this interactive event as you take a DevOps problem and take it from Epic to Feature Test employing HCD methods.

Part 1: Using Empathize and Define to plan Epics and Features

During Part I, we will apply HCD methods and frameworks for user research and problem definition to develop Epics and Features for a DevOps case study.  

Part 2: Using Ideate, Prototype, and Test to detail Features and Work Items

During Part II, we will apply HCD methods and frameworks related to brainstorming, prototyping, and testing at the Feature- and Work Item-levels such as user stories, associated wireframes, and additional Work Items based on test results.

Description:

The two primary contributors to poor quality in an organization are lack of involvement by management and lack of knowledge about quality. Without the right process and people, quality will be either a cost center or forgotten component by development. To achieve organizational success, enterprise quality must take action to build quality from top down. Managers must accept responsibility for the quality practice within the organization and promote it across the organization. Everyone is responsible for quality, not just QA. The journey is fraught with obstacles – maturing the quality practice of an organization builds long term success with robust process and will train employees.

Key Takeaways:

• Everyone is responsible for Quality, but Management is responsible for Quality practice.

• Quality is not a destination, it’s a journey.

Description:

The Metaverse - the digital replication of experiences in created worlds outside of our physical world.  What does that mean? 

We will be exploring the difference between the tech mania/buzz and what experiences should remain as “real” human interactions in our actual physical world.  We are on the dawn of a new everything.   Let’s explore what it means to be human at a moment of unprecedented technological possibility.

We will discuss a perspective on how the brain and body connect to the world

Look to understand the new landscape from both scientific and cultural experiment perspectives. Companies are experimenting with our data, buying patterns, and embedding gamification into all verticals in our world.

Let’s examine how gaming and gamification will start to permeate our social life, work, buying habits, consumer goods, and entertainment. 

We are in an exciting, unprecedented, and fast-paced rate of technological advancement.  Let’s discuss it together! 

Description:

Coming Soon

Description:

Is what a business analyst (BA) does on an agile project much different from what is done on a waterfall project? Yes and No. Do the three amigos include the analyst or not? It certainly does! Although how the work is done depends on the team and project. During this session we’ll review how the role of a BA on an agile project can vary, how BAs impact the development team, the various roles a BA does, and what makes a BA good at their jobs. All analysts bring excellent communication, collaboration, and trust to their work on project teams – but how we communicate and collaborate will differ. This session is targeted at anyone on a project team that has never worked with an analyst before.

Key Takeaways:

• Understand the progressive elaboration with analysis staying several sprints ahead of development

• Understand the Roles a BA plays on a project other than BA

• Know and utilize the skills an analyst brings to the team

Panel Speakers:

• Glen Hellman

• Uday Kumar

• Jennifer Bonine 

Moderator: Coming Soon!

Description:

We are very aware of biases that are a threat to delivering software quality. But those biases can also be used to our advantage and there is a name for it: nudging.

Biases have been the subject of quite some talks on stage nowadays. Biases that are a threat to delivering high-quality software. And for sure there is a lot to worry about, we all know for example that we assume that we know exactly what our stakeholders want, and we still produce not working software. But is it also possible to use those biases in the favor of quality and testing? In fact, there is a way that biases are used positively, and it has a name: nudging. Nudging uses ‘choice architecture’, which means creating a situation where you can make an unconscious choice for a good purpose. It is used a lot in marketing and politics, for example how a grocery store, using green arrows to the fruit and veggie aisles, increase the sale of healthy food. I looked at different opportunities that nudging gives us for the sake of better agile testing. For example, in a refinement or in a discussion about bugs or when we are delivering our results to our team or our stakeholders. In my talk, I will elaborate more on what nudging exactly is, the ethical questions around nudging, and how we can apply nudging while testing. It will be an exploration so bear with me.

Description:

No doubt you’re an amazing tester. If we could clone you and have twenty such team members we would. Life would be good! We’d crush the testing! But…we can’t clone you. When it comes to our team, the best we can hope for is to hire the right people with the right attitude and aptitude and nurture their QA and testing skills. How do we accomplish such a monumental task?

Throughout my 31 years in IT, I’ve been tasked with building and mentoring testing teams regularly. I do so now to build and sustain my own successful business. Agile and DevOps…no problem! Test automation and frameworks…piece of cake! Build and grow a team…YIKES!

Many years ago, I had an epiphany…GAMES! I recalled my military days and the war games we’d play. I thought back to my consulting for the U.S. Navy to teach them how to automate tests against flight simulators. I flashed back to the puzzles I had to solve in my attempt to become an air traffic controller. History tells us games go back over 2,300 as a tool to teach with Chess being a perfect example. It was used as a strategy teaching game to prepare soldiers to do battle! The games many of us play to improve specific skills…such as memory, speed of thinking, creativity…came to mind.

Thus, I began using games and puzzles. I use them to assess if a potential new hire has what’s needed to be part of our engineering team and to continually hone the skills of our software test engineers.

Join Bob Crews for this interactive, high-participation, fun presentation as we play the games and solve the puzzles which can assist in building and developing phenomenal software testing teams!

The audience will learn:

• How games have been used throughout history to hone specific skills of the participants

• The types of games to use to assist in identifying personality traits and key attributes

• The value of games, puzzles, and games and what both the player and observers can learn

• That games do more than teach…they boost moral!

Key Takeaways:

• Specific games, puzzles, and brainteasers and the personality traits and attributes they target

• An understanding of when to play and when to observe

• The correlation between skills needed for games and skills needed by testers

Description:

The way we navigate and interact with information is constantly evolving to keep up with our rapidly increasingly digital world. Social networks and digital media platforms backed by subjective influence have paved the way towards complete polarization, and diverse sets of perspectives are being highlighted in technologies that are built to attract and connect consumers. This means that improving the trust and quality of information we use has become even more essential to effectively adapt to the new media age and set the tone for the future of work. Through this, consumers have begun to adapt to the new age of information consumption. Automating answers in real-time and continued support has boosted the workforce morale and validated the trust coming from those using the information.

Key Takeaways:

• The development of emerging technologies that are changing the way we use the information to make decisions

• The vast amount of opportunities for business information growth that stems from an expansive technological landscape that combines human and artificial intelligence

• The workplace and industry benefits of integrated technology that provides information in real-time.

Panel Speakers:

• Dr. Les Stein

• Mike Lyles

• Jan Guido

Moderator: Dr. Sriram Rajagopalan

Description:

A data-driven organization is imperative for the future. The smartphone and the ubiquitous computing have produced an exponential data explosion. From fueling the recent success of “artificial intelligence” (AI) and the rise of “digital transformation” to its accelerated growth due to Covid-19 to new approaches to its “monetization” to how it makes businesses and consumers both anxious and animated, data dominates our deeds, debates, and dreams. If the last decade was about “software eating the world, this decade is about “data eating the world”. Organizations are now faced with the huge challenge of managing, harnessing, and leveraging all of this data. We are still at the very beginning of the data revolution, and of understanding its second, third, and fourth-order effects. Organizations that are successfully transforming their business, technology, and operations strategy to align with their data strategy are the ones that will have a sustainable competitive advantage.

Key Takeaways:

• A mental-model for managing, harnessing, and leveraging data within an organization

• Strategies for improving data culture and democratization within an organization

• Key blockers and challenges on the journey to becoming a data-driven organization

Description:

Teams using Scrum sometimes struggle with operational or emergent work blowing up their sprint plans. As DevOps delivery is increasingly used by organizations the need of Scrum teams to accommodate operational work also increases. After all, it does not matter how interesting that new feature is if production is down. By combining the disciplines of Scrum and Kanban teams can find that happy balance of planned work and emergent work while still maintaining discipline and continuous improvement.

As an example, we will build up a hybrid process for a hypothetical team to discuss the reasoning behind different combinations of practices that could be used. I will review 3 categories of hybrid ScrumBan delivery methods that are typically seen in the industry.

Description:

How many times have you heard statements like, “How did we miss this in test”, “This defect doesn’t happen on my machine”, “We do not need automation”, or “We are waiting on testing to give us the green light”? Far too often, teams are spending a lot of time diving into discussions that they no longer need to have.  This builds frustration, affects team alignment, and can potentially impact the quality and milestones of the project. Through the years, we have seen a need for processes, tools, and old-school approaches to change. Discussions we needed to have years ago are no longer the same now.  There is a need for strategic changes in how we operate within a project and how we communicate across teams.

In this HIGHLY INTERACTIVE presentation, we will discuss many of the well-known phrases, philosophies, and theories around testing of years past, and how that we must overcome the obstacles and be successful today.  We will discuss how the dynamics within the teams must change, and most importantly, how you, as a tester, can influence across the organization.

Key Takeaways:

·       Evaluate previous successes in our SDLC and testing processes that now must evolve

·       Group discussion on challenges YOU are facing & suggestions for how to overcome them

·       Suggestions for how we can drive DIFFICULT discussions into solution-focused results

·       How to tell if YOUR team is stuck – and what you must do to address it

·       Tips and guidelines for how to best influence across the team and organization