📘 Free e-book: The 7 success factors of software testing. 25 years of project experience in one 33-page workbook, now also in English 👉 Get it for free

"It's toxically positive. Everything you say to it, it'll go, you're right. That's amazing. Thank you for pointing that out. Even if you are dead wrong." - Tara Walton

What does a tester actually need right now, when AI tools are everywhere and QA teams keep getting cut? With Tara Walton I talk about why communication and the fundamentals of testing matter more than ever, and why being the best bug-finder in the room means nothing if you can't explain what you found and why it counts. We get into how AI's "toxic positivity" makes critical thinking a skill you have to practice deliberately, and what it means that when you remove QA, your users become your first line of defense. I also ask Tara about career direction, and her answer comes back to something simple: follow what makes the light bulb go on, then go deeper into that.

Tara Walton has spent over a decade as an Automation Developer writing test cases and delivering automated results for clients. She recently moved into the DevRel side of DevOps. Though spending most of her time in APIs and teaching quality as a practice, Tara is a staunch advocate for accessibility and user experience. When not achievement hunting, she tackles RCA on software bugs and failed projects. Having dual degrees in Mathematics and Computer Science, Tara also enjoys classic ballroom dancing, Dungeons and Dragons, karaoke, and sharing experiences at global conferences.

Highlights:

📘 Free e-book: The 7 success factors of software testing. 25 years of project experience in one 33-page workbook, now also in English 👉 Get it for free

"Regulators are not our enemies. They are our friends and they're trying to make our life safer." - Alexis Savkin

How do you bring AI into a medical lab when the regulatory landscape is still taking shape? With Alexis Savkin I talk about exactly that tension, and the answer turns out to be less about technology than about focus and strategy. We get into why starting with a very specific, measurable problem makes the regulatory side manageable, and how a single-page risk diagram convinced compliance stakeholders faster than any technical pitch. I keep coming back to his point that regulators are not enemies but partners trying to make things safer, and that the real mistake is trying to solve "AI" as one giant problem instead of one concrete thing at a time.

Alexis Savkin is a Senior Strategy Consultant and the CEO of BSC Designer, a Balanced Scorecard platform. He has more than 20 years of experience in the field, with a background in applied mathematics and information technology. Alexis is the author of the “Strategy Implementation System”. He has published over 100 articles on strategy and performance measurement, regularly speaks at industry events.

Highlights:

📘 Free e-book: The 7 success factors of software testing. 25 years of project experience in one 33-page workbook, now also in English 👉 Get it for free

"The ultimate goal is to make people's life easier." - Bartosz Filipek

What happens when 40 years of custom decisions stack so high that even the standard testing tools from your own vendor stop working? With Bartosz Filipek and Szymon Wałachowski I talk about exactly that situation: a mainframe environment so deep in its own customization that the only way forward was to build one final bridge to the outside world. We dig into how they created a Java-based unit testing tool for COBOL developers, and what surprised me most is that COBOL programmers find it easier to write assertions in Java than in their own first language. We also get into code coverage, integration with tools like SonarQube and X-ray, and the long road of getting something as basic as a service account approved.

Szymon Wałachowski(https://www.linkedin.com/in/walachowski/) is a Senior Software Engineer, Professional Nerd, and part-time QA team member (the plot twist nobody saw coming).

Bartosz Filipek is an IT Architect with over 10 years of experience in software development, specializing in Java, Scala, and TypeScript. Passionate about automation and fostering strong collaboration between development teams and customers, he places a strong emphasis on quality assurance and testing.

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📘 Free e-book: The 7 success factors of software testing. 25 years of project experience in one 33-page workbook, now also in English 👉 Get it for free

"For the same input we have a lot of different outputs, some of them can be similar, but yeah still non-determinism is completely there." - Dušanka Lečić

This time I talk with Dušanka Lečić about why testing chatbots breaks everything we know about traditional QA. She explains how chatbot bugs are invisible – they hide in prompts, retrieval logic, and chunks, not in code – and why the same input can produce dozens of valid outputs. Dušanka shares her framework for testing context retention, hallucination control, and accuracy, and reveals why stress testing a chatbot means checking for typos and user frustration, not system load.

Dušanka Lečić is a dynamic leader and technical expert with nearly a decade of experience steering software testing initiatives across international teams. As a Test Lead and Department Manager at Levi9, she specializes in performance testing, agile methodologies, and engineering excellence. Holding a Ph.D. in Technical Sciences, Dušanka blends academic insight with real-world execution, and is a frequent contributor to industry conferences, mentoring programs, and expert communities. Her sessions offer a rich perspective on quality assurance, innovation, and leadership in fast-paced development environments.

Highlights:

📘 Free e-book: The 7 success factors of software testing. 25 years of project experience in one 33-page workbook, now also in English 👉 Get it for free

"People should stop asking on interviews what's the difference between class and object. You should probably ask: What is MCP?" - Mitko Mitev

This time I talk to Mitko Mitev, about how AI is reshaping our work as testers, without replacing us. Mitko shows exactly where AI tools save real time across test planning, test case generation, and exploratory testing, and why human expertise remains non-negotiable for context, business logic, and validation. We go into the shift from writing scripts to instructing agents in plain language, how ISTQB's new AI syllabi prepare testers for what's coming, and why waiting another year to explore AI might already be too late.

With over 30 years in software quality assurance and more than 20 years as a Project and Test Manager, Mitko Mitev is recognized as one of South East Europe’s leading software testing experts.

A dedicated advocate for the QA and testing professions, he has been instrumental in establishing and promoting international standards through his work with the ISTQB and as President of the South East European Testing Board (SEETB). Mitko also serves as Chief Editor of Quality Matters magazine and Chair of the SEETEST conference, both focused on advancing global best practices in software quality.

Today, Mitko continues to develop and refine educational materials, books, and articles that help professionals deepen their expertise in software testing. He is also the founder and owner of Quality House – a leading outsourcing and consultancy company with offices in Bulgaria, Serbia and Romania, proudly celebrating 21 years on the market and delivering world-class independent testing services.

Highlights:

📘 Free e-book: The 7 success factors of software testing. 25 years of project experience in one 33-page workbook, now also in English 👉 Get it for free

"The truth is that we are feedback givers for all the development teams." - Filip Barszcz

In this episode, I talk with Filip Barszcz about what most companies get wrong when they claim to have a quality culture. Filip reveals why stakeholders, developers, and product owners all speak different languages when they say "quality" and how he translates between them to build actual buy-in for testing strategy. He walks through his playbook for introducing change without burning out the team: small wins first, honesty about short-term productivity drops, and color-coded tables that make executives eager to invest in QA. If you've ever struggled to get testing taken seriously beyond "just click through it before release," this conversation gives you the roadmap.

Filip Barszcz is a full-time QA Chapter Leader with over 10 years of experience in the IT industry.

Highlights:

📘 Free e-book: The 7 success factors of software testing. 25 years of project experience in one 33-page workbook, now also in English 👉 Get it for free

"That's the goal of every company. Every company, government and country make money." - Marta Firlej

In this episode, I talk with Marta Firlej about a topic most testers avoid: money. Marta explains why understanding how your company actually makes money is crucial for QA professionals, and walks through the real costs behind salaries, automation projects, and test activities that stakeholders care about. She shares a practical calculation method to assess whether test automation is worth the investment, and challenges us to translate testing value into business numbers.

Marta Firlej is inventor and organizer of the testing conference test:fest in Wrocław Poland. Proud member of the Polish and European testing community by being an organizer of various events, sharing knowledge and experience as a speaker, and participating as an attendee.

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📘 Free e-book: The 7 success factors of software testing. 25 years of project experience in one 33-page workbook, now also in English 👉 Get it for free

"AI doesn't think, it doesn't analyze, it predicts." - Henri Terho

In this episode, I talk with Henri Terho, senior consultant and AI enthusiast, about why building trust in AI systems requires the same rigor we've always applied to software—just now at a whole new level. Henri explains how AI agents multiply both our successes and our mistakes, why prompting is harder than it looks, and why testers are uniquely positioned to thrive in this shift. We dig into the oracle problem, the communication trap, and why your test suite might soon matter more than your codebase.

Henri Terho is a Senior AI Consultant at Eficode with broad experience spanning regulated industries—automotive, banking, aerospace, and beyond—alongside a deep commitment to open-source collaboration. He has played a key role in fostering community-driven innovation, having served as chairman of Tampere Entreprenourship society and co-founding Tampere Tribe to support local startup culture.

Highlights:

📘 Free e-book: The 7 success factors of software testing. 25 years of project experience in one 33-page workbook, now also in English 👉 Get it for free

"A flaky test can actually sometimes be a good test because it's highlighting things." - Simon Stewart

In this episode, I talk with Simon Stewart, professional software developer and former lead of the Selenium project for over 10 years, about one of the most frustrating problems in software testing: flaky tests. Simon reveals why a flaky test isn't always a bad test – sometimes it's actually exposing real production risks that your team needs to address. We dive into practical strategies for handling flakiness in CI pipelines, from gatekeeping techniques used at Meta to knowing when it's actually okay to delete tests. You'll learn why assigning ownership to individuals (not teams) is crucial, and how to use test flakiness as valuable signal rather than just noise.

Simon Stewart has been a professional software developer since before the millennium began. He was the lead of the Selenium project for over a decade and is the co-editor of the W3C WebDriver and WebDriver Bidi specs.

Highlights:

📘 Free e-book: The 7 success factors of software testing. 25 years of project experience in one 33-page workbook, now also in English 👉 Get it for free

"Attackers know what apps we are working with, we are using, and they take advantage of it." - Bartosz Czernic-Goławski

In this episode, I talk with Bartosz Czernic-Goławski, a penetration testing and cybersecurity expert, about how mobile security has evolved from Nokia's indestructible brick phones to today's pocket-sized computers. We trace the journey from analog networks that anyone could eavesdrop on to modern smartphones that demand excessive permissions and collect sensor data every second. Bartosz reveals how attackers use overlay attacks to steal banking credentials, why iOS users aren't as secure as they think, and what phone freaks in the 1980s can teach us about today's vulnerabilities.

Bartosz Czernic-Goławski is a non-functional tester with six years of professional experience, currently working at Pentacomp as a security auditor and penetration tester. He holds an Engineering degree in Telecommunications and a Master’s degree in Applied Computer Science with a specialization in Cybersecurity—both earned at the Warsaw University of Technology.

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