To be announced soon!

Are you still using Selenium for your web testing needs? It may be time to explore better
options! This talk will dive into test automation tools, comparing Selenium with alternatives
like Playwright and Cypress to see which suits you best.
First, we’ll break down Selenium’s features, like its ability to work with multiple browsers,
cross-platform support, a robust ecosystem, and various programming language options. We
will recognize its downsides: learning it can be challenging, you’ll need to wait around for
things to load, and handling tricky webpage elements can be a headache. We’ll also discuss
when there are better options than Selenium.
We’ll also compare Selenium with Playwright and Cypress. These tools have strengths and
downsides that could suit your needs better than Selenium. Throughout the talk, we will
provide practical examples to showcase alternative tools and approaches that complement or
replace Selenium, depending on specific testing requirements. This will empower you to
evaluate Selenium for their projects and consider alternative solutions to make your testing
life more effortless.
By the end of the session, you will have a solid foundation for choosing the proper
framework that will enable you to optimize web testing efforts and deliver more value to
your team through test automation. Join us to explore the diverse world of web testing
frameworks and unlock the full potential of web testing.
Takeaways:
1. Discover what makes Selenium great and where it falls short, like its ability to handle
different browsers but needing help with tricky webpage elements.
2. Explore alternative tools like Playwright and Cypress to determine if they better fit your
testing tasks.
3. Gain insights to make informed decisions about your testing toolkit, helping you streamline
your testing process and achieve better outcomes.

Have you ever been curious about what it is – to be a team lead?
Perhaps you’re aspiring to become a team lead, or you’re already in that role and striving to optimize your daily operations. Despite employing time management strategies and delegation, you are not seeing the positive impact you anticipated by being a team lead? Are you concerned as your colleagues’ technical skills advance while your own development seems to have plateaued?
I’ll provide tips and tricks that can make a tangible difference. Exploring cases from my experience as a team lead and fellow managers, you will understand if this role is for you and how to overcome most typical obstacles that you may have at the beginning of your journey.

“When someone hits fifty, they either start writing memoirs, or tend to do soft-skills talks on various conferences. With more than 15 years experience in living via coding, and then another 15 years in living via leading people and teams, Doncho has a story to tell. A story about how (not) to (mis)treat people; A story about what I wish I knew when I was 30, and how it’d help me; A story about basic life hacks, that would keep us afloat, even when the times are dire; A story about the stories, which did not make it to that talk. There won’t be much AI involved, but more like RL (real life). With some lessons.”

What if the human definition of intelligence is wrong? If we don’t know what intelligence is, how we can develop and trust artificial intelligence? During the talk, I will go through specific decisions that might be classified as smart and intelligent, but in the end they are not. Real-world examples of testing and development choices that shouldn’t happen.

As a people, we think that any action is intelligent only if we will do the same action. Example: AI is intelligent because it can answer millions of questions and the answers sound meaningful for us.
Example 2: Monkeys are intelligent animals because some of them use tools, like humans do. But birds and fishes are not intelligent because we don’t understand their actions.

The same situation happens when teams (qa and dev) choose tools/technologies/processes.
Teams/Companies are mainly making their choices based on trends and what they see in other companies. But some of the tools/processes might not work for them. For example, using Playwright only because Microsoft does might not work for your team.

How blockchain technology is becoming integrated into everyday applications, such as digital identity verification, voting systems, and decentralized finance (DeFi).
Abstract:
Blockchain technology is quickly becoming a part of our lives with its decentralized, transparent and secure features making it invaluable, in various industries. This presentation delves into how blockchain’s being incorporated into applications particularly focusing on digital identity verification, voting systems and decentralized finance (DeFi).
Digital identity verification utilizes blockchain to offer identities that are decentralized tackling issues like security breaches and identity theft. The e Residency program in Estonia serves as an example by providing a blockchain based identity that is both secure and easily verifiable.
In the realm of voting blockchain technology holds the promise of enhancing transparency and security in processes. By ensuring that votes cannot be altered or manipulated and are easily verifiable blockchain based voting systems can help build trust in practices. Examples like Voatz in the US and various global trials of voting underscore the potential for this technology to revolutionize our voting methods.
Decentralized Finance (DeFi) stands out as another application of technology offering financial services through decentralized networks without traditional middlemen. DeFi platforms facilitate activities such as lending, borrowing and trading cryptocurrencies while democratizing access to services and boosting efficiency. Leading DeFi projects such, as Uniswap, Compound and Aave demonstrate how blockchain is reshaping the sector.

In the 21st Century the Cyber Universe is threatened by Evil Source Code and Evil entities. The only hope for many developers is the Fifth Element : the Sec in Devops, which must be implemented side by side with the Four elementals : Code, Build, Test , Deploy. A Microsoft Service is bringing the Four Elements but can the Fifth be included, and will it save us from disaster?

Learn about secure development practices, hardening developer ecosystems , secure coding, and much much more !

Turning Complexity Into Modularity

In today’s agile software development processes, effective testing is crucial. It must be an integral part of writing code to ensure the resulting product functions as specified. In this session, we will define what constitutes good unit and integration tests and share common bad practices in unit testing that we have encountered over time.

We’ll explore real-world examples of poor testing patterns, their negative impacts, and how to rework them into more effective practices. Additionally, we will discuss how AI can be used to improve unit testing by assisting in writing effective test cases and enhancing test maintenance.

By the end, you’ll have a structured approach to writing better tests!

Key Takeaways:
– Characteristics of Effective Tests
– Common Pitfalls in Testing
– Efficient Test Creation
– Integrating AI in Testing

Note to the organizers: The talk can also fit the 25-minute format by dropping the AI section.

We’ll explore the fundamentals of Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG), which combines retrieval and generative models for enhanced AI capabilities. We’ll look at the practical applications of RAG such as implementing a simple customer support chatbot. Additionally, we’ll explore vector databases, understanding their role in storing and retrieving information efficiently, while highlighting best practices and advanced techniques for maximizing RAG’s potential.

In this session we will get a glimpse on how to instill growth mindset in teams and organizations. And pave the way to higher employee engagement, innovation and performance.

Web is huge and so is the variety of tools and strategies for testing web applications. Selenium has been around for two decades, but nowadays we have Cypress, Playwright, Puppeteer, WebdriverIO and many more. Let’s also not forget that e2e testing is just the top of the testing pyramid, we have various options to do component testing as well. The web testing world is evolving rapidly and we will talk about its state in 2024.

Now that Ivan Goychev has seen both the private companies and public administration, he wants to share some insights of the differences and similarities(yes, there are such) in how each organization type ensures delivering high quality services. He will present some practical process examples of what works, what to avoid and what can be done better. He will including some counterintuitive advices backed by research to encourage those who might be hesitant to try. The topic is suitable for C-Level executives, managers and individual contributors at all levels.