Building The Taj Mahal (One Popsicle Stick At A Time)

I've built six or seven QA or Engineering departments from scratch and the success of those organizations is predicated on ruthlessly squashing your own ego and prejudices and doing what makes sense for that company. One size does not fit all. This presentation deals with assessing what a company wants vs. what a company needs, finding the right balance, and moving forward in a way that guarantees you collaboration, support, and recognition. The focus is setting you, your team, and your company up for success.

Linda Wilkinson

Linda Wilkinson has been a QA practitioner for 40 years (!). She started her career in software analysis, moved into QA, and followed the traditional route of QA Analyst I, II, II, Senior, SDET, Lead, Manager, Director, VP, and took a few brief forays into DevOps, DBA, Product Management, and data analysis as it became necessary in order to accomplish quality goals. At last count, she has worked with 18 languages, helped author a book, and has had the privilege of speaking at a variety of conferences, both as a speaker and as a member of expert boards in QA and metrics. She has built QA teams (functional, automated, and performance) from scratch five times. Passionate about quality and providing business value, her teams have maintained error rates close to 1% with high customer satisfaction ratings in a highly competitive and ever-changing technical landscape.