Ensuring quality for a peculiar piece of software
-
Locked
Staff Test Engineer
Talk Description
Joep Schuurkes and his team are building a very unusual kind of software. It is used only once a year by volunteers to tally votes in Dutch municipal elections. It runs air gapped in more than 300 locations, with no hot fixes, no monitoring, and no second chances.
In this talk, Joep shares how his team ensures quality under these extraordinary constraints. Instead of falling back on waterfall methods, they apply modern engineering principles like always be delivering and always be collecting feedback. You will see how they use practices such as working in thin vertical slices, maintaining a zero bug policy, writing use cases collaboratively, and working fully open source to build trust, transparency, and quality in a high-stakes environment.
By the end of this session, you'll be able to:
- Explain how continuous delivery and feedback loops can work even without a live production environment
- Describe how working in vertical slices supports faster learning and better stakeholder feedback
- Apply the idea of a zero bug policy to improve focus and flow in your own projects
- Recognise how working in public and sharing code openly can build trust, transparency, and external collaboration
Suggested Content
