Testing Autonomous Beasts: With Great Value Comes Great Responsibility

14th December 2023
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Irja Straus's profile
Irja Straus

Quality Manager

Testing Autonomous Beasts: With Great Value Comes Great Responsibility image
Talk Description

After more than a decade in software, I entered a completely different world, the world of robotics, where software and hardware work together. To make the challenge even more interesting, the robots I encounter do not have the privilege of working in isolated environments, nor are they easily tamed. These robots are several-ton autonomous beasts doing live operations in warehouses alongside humans. The robots face many daily uncertainties, such as low-light conditions, unexpected movements, objects, and unpredictable human behavior. The consequences of faults in such environments can result in severe damage or even injuries, so the risks are very high. Much higher than in any other industry I worked in in my career.

This indicates that the value of testing the software that powers the robot's autonomy in such a high-risk context is crucial. Testing helps us gather relevant information to understand the shortcomings, bridge the quality gaps, and act promptly to prevent failures. In this talk, I will share how modern exploratory testing brings value to robotics when the stakes are high, and there is no room for some mistakes because they are unrecoverable.

What you’ll learn

By the end of this talk, you'll be able to:

  • How unique challenges and high risks in robotics make software testing even more valuable
  • How modern exploratory testing helps to close the crucial quality gaps in unpredictable environments
Irja Straus's profile'

Irja Straus

Quality Manager

Irja Straus is a Quality Manager at Gideon with almost 15 years of experience in the IT industry. She started her professional adventure as a software tester and business analyst, after which she took over the product manager role in the first Croatian unicorn. After a multi-year product adventure, Irja decided to accept the challenge of establishing testing practices and integrating quality from the very beginning. For the past few years, she has focused on modern exploratory testing, developing quality engineering practices, process organization, and encouraging healthy collaboration between teams. In addition, she is an active member of several Croatian and international communities focused on testing and quality, including the global community "Women In Testing". She can often be found as a guest at professional conferences where she enthusiastically conveys her experiences.
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Tags

  • testbash-autumn-2023
  • exploratory-testing
  • quality
  • risks