The Better Quality Movement: How We Can Advocate for a Better Digital World
9:15 - 10:15 Student Alumni Room
In an era where software shapes every corner of our lives — governing healthcare, finance, education, and even democracy — the consequences of poor-quality software extend far beyond bugs and crashes. They manifest in broken trust, systemic failures, and real-world harm. But whose responsibility is it to sound the alarm? Who will advocate for change not just within their teams, but across industries, governments, and global systems? The answer is _us_. This talk will challenge and inspire you to think beyond your immediate role and organization to embrace a larger mission: being an advocate for quality as a societal value. Drawing upon lessons from successful community activism, we’ll explore how software development and testing professionals can raise awareness about the true cost of bad software, rally stakeholders across disciplines, and influence broader policies and standards. We have an opportunity --- and a moral obligation --- to be the voice for responsible software practices.
Chris Harbert
Chris Harbert is an industry executive, international conference speaker, host of the Developers Who Test podcast, MBA, and Founder & CEO of Testery: the easiest way to scale open-source tests. His love of software test automation started nearly twenty years ago when he was a developer doing test-driven development at a company that was early to adopt Agile practices. Today he shares this knowledge and experience with others so we can ship better quality software faster and have more fun doing it.