Spring QA Conference is here and we are joined by Alison Wade of Techwell (https://www.techwell.com/) to discuss their three upcoming conferences:

- Epic Experience in San Diego (brand new in 2020!)

- STAREAST in Orlando

- Agile + DevOps West in Las Vegas

Alison shares why conferences are so important for QA Leaders and professionals to attend and particular highlights of the three conferences.  Tune in for a discount code to get a huge break on registration for any of the three conferences!

We focus on the upcoming STP Con in San Diego (www.stpcon.com), one of the best QA conferences of the year. We'll talk with Rick, organizer of STPCon along with Melissa of E*TRADE, one of the top thought leaders in QA and one of the originators of the new Mile High Testing conference in Denver. Stay until the end and you'll receive a discount code for savings on attending STP Con!

We also chat with Melissa about best practices in a Modernized Testing Approach - a great topic for anyone in QA!

For our final 2019 tap|TALK, we're joined by the inimitable Angie Jones! Angie shares with us her views of Test Automation as we head into 2020, along with her history in the industry, and more about her work with Test Automation University and with Applitools. Finally, Angie shares with us her boldest prediction for the 2020's. Angie is one of the best and brightest in our industry and her work at TAU is amazing - you'll enjoy learning more from Angie in this podcast!

In this episode tap|QA's Kirk Walton and Jared Hoernemann, Senior SDET, speak with Christine Fisher about how her team instituted Behavioral Driven Development at NAIC, a project that tap|QA played a large part in! Christine shares a bit more about BDD, why it made sense for her team, and the experiences they had in getting started with it, while Jared shares some of the technical pieces in making it happen. If you have given BDD a thought for your organization, this is a great podcast to check out!

tap|TALK's "2020 Vision" series continues with Kevin Pyles, Director of QA at Domo. Kevin recently won "Best Presentation" at the HUSTEF testing conference for his "From Zero to AI Hero" presentation. As a leading advocate of AI / ML in testing, Kevin discusses the near-term future of AI and its advantages, and how "the machines will not take our jobs, but make them better"... as long as QA professionals continue to "Level Up" with their skills.

Great podcast for all those who are AI-curious!

Our "2020 Vision" series continues with Kevin Surace, Chairman and CTO of Appvance and Keynote Speaker at this fall's STPCon.  Kevin gives us a deeper dive into AI and Machine Learning, why what you see in the movies is not reality, and makes the case for code-free automation via AI as we head into the 2020s.  Kevin also explains what Level-5 Autonomy is, why it's a game changer, and why Appvance is ahead of the game when it comes to achieving it.

Our "2020 Vision" series continues with Melissa Benua, Engineering Manager of mParticle and one of our industry's top speakers.  Melissa dives into Continuous Integration / Continuous Delivery (or Deployment) and discusses some industry best practices and why Quality is going to become EVERYONE'S responsibility.  Melissa also defines a Combined Engineering team, and discusses practices for building a great team including some tips on the interview to make sure you are identifying top talent.

Our "2020 Vision" series kicks off with the "Performance Sherpa" Mark Tomlinson who joins tap|TALK to discuss trends in Performance Testing.  Mark takes us on a deep dive into his history with Performance and Load Testing, why tools can be good (but reminds us why not to shut our human brains off) and other tricks of the trade.  We'll also hear Mark's bold predictions for our industry in the 2020s.

After a long break, tap|TALK is back! Today, join Kirk Walton from tap|QA for an in-depth talk around how to build Great QA teams, even in an incredibly hot market. We'll focus on the interview process and the 7 Killer Questions you need to identify a great fit for your organization, and then how to sell the candidate on your role being the ideal fit for them.  This is a GREAT podcast for any QA Leader that is struggling to attract talent - a problem so many organizations are faced with today!

Tariq King, Head of Quality for Ultimate Software and a global thought leader around AI / Machine Learning for Testing, joins tap|TALK to demystify testing bots.  Learn about Tariq's passion for AI in the QA field, how he developed his first bot, and exactly how testing bots work "under the hood."  It's not magic!

We'll also discuss how all QA professionals can learn more about how to get involved with AI for testing!