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World Congress 2024 • Aug 20, 2024 • Session details

The Affordances of Quality

Steve Upton

Deleting the QA column from your agile board doesn't destroy quality—it guarantees it. Learn how structural affordances turn testing into an inescapable daily developer habit.

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#1 about 4 min

Defining affordances as the paths of least resistance

The physical design of everyday objects shapes behavior by establishing which functional actions are inherently effortless.

#2 about 2 min

How misleading design triggers incorrect user behaviors

Conflicting visual cues in tools and environment surfaces inadvertently invite incorrect operations or neglected tasks.

#3 about 3 min

Removing the distinct testing column from agile boards

Eliminating isolated review stages prevents development teams from passing off difficult testing scenarios to external personnel.

#4 about 5 min

Treating system testability as a primary architectural requirement

Environments built primarily for automated test execution organically produce highly modular, observable, and simple architectural patterns.

#5 about 4 min

The inherent pain of manual software deployment cycles

Protracted feature branching combined with batched manual verification processes invariably results in disastrous integration conflicts.

#6 about 3 min

Adopting continuous delivery for highly sustainable software operations

Comprehensive automation of testing processes transforms product launches from terrifying technical events into mundane business decisions.

#7 about 3 min

Improving software safety through frequent production deployments

Frequently updating production systems eliminates the anxiety of major software releases by building crucial team muscle memory.

#8 about 3 min

Shifting software testing from adversarial gatekeeping to enablement

Modern quality professionals must collaborate closely with delivery teams rather than merely inspecting final compiled applications.

Matching moments

2:18 min

Transforming software quality from assurance to enablement

Ondřej Gróf Ondřej Gróf · World Congress 2026 Europe

2:30 min

The shifting mindset of modern quality assurance engineers

Alisa Hrustic Alisa Hrustic · Europe 2026 Virtual

2:16 min

Designing quality as an interconnected software system

Serge Baumberger Serge Baumberger · Europe 2026 Virtual

4:05 min

Using test automation as a catalyst for team collaboration

Augustin Gottlieb Augustin Gottlieb · World Congress 2025

58 sec

Cultivating a shared team mindset for software quality

Lilia Gargouri Lilia Gargouri · World Congress 2026 Europe

2:02 min

Establishing a company-wide approach to software quality assurance

Daniel Strmečki +1 · World Congress 2022

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Upcoming sessions on this topic

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World Congress 2026 North America

September 25, 2026 · 14:50–15:20

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Keeping Code Quality at AI Speed

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September 24, 2026 · 10:20–10:50

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The New Rules of Software Delivery

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+1 more

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Open session

World Congress 2026 North America

September 24, 2026 · 11:10–11:15

Outdoor Stage

Architecting the 100X SDLC: Building Production Trust into AI-Assisted Delivery

Ranjan Parthasarathy

Founder, CPTO/CEO at AXIOMSTUDIO.AI

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September 25, 2026 · 13:30–14:00

Stage 7

Agents Can't Iterate Against Tests That Lie

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Reinventing Testing Practices in the AI Era

Eric Deandrea

Java Champion & Senior Principal Software Engineer at IBM

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September 24, 2026 · 16:50–17:20

Stage 6

Who Tests the AI? Building Trustworthy AI Systems at Enterprise Scale

Him Raj Singh

Manager, Software Engineer at PayPal

Him Raj Singh

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