The last conference for the year is done! I just love having Agile Testing Days as the one to close the yearly conference speaking season. I'm clearly biased with this event as it's been my first conference ever back in 2015 and it has a special place in my heart. Usually, I try to catch everything and everyone at this conference which can go close to 24/7. This year, I managed to be kinder to myself, stay calm instead of feeling I'm missing out, and take things a lot easier. Surprise, it really helped and I feel way better afterwards.
Another specialty of this year was that together with Santhosh Tuppad and Kristof Van Kriekingen we curated the brand-new Security Testing deep dive track for the conference. We intentionally included a whole variety of sessions from diverse speakers of different backgrounds to showcase how broad security can be and where people can find themselves to learn more, and also to get them into contact with actual practitioners. I made it a point to attend the complete track myself - there's a reason we selected those topics after all. Especially on the first busier days the room was full and people engaged with lots of questions, just loved seeing it. Looking back, I'm pretty pleased how the track turned out.
Arriving Early
For a change, I decide to come a day earlier this year, already on Saturday, and it turned out to be the right decision after some pretty hectic, wild and especially packed weeks. Having that one day to just do whatever I want was awesome. I decided not to mingle yet but have a calm dinner on my own, then retreat and follow up on a few things I didn't manage the last weeks, then get as much sleep as possible before the busyness of Agile Testing Days.
Sunday started just as awesome with a nice walk to Potsdam and grabbing hot drinks and cake at a lovely café with my dear friends João Proença and Rita Avota. We decided to keep things relaxed and went to dinner together - right after which we encountered a whole group of Agile Testing Days people on their walk back to the hotel. Every year I love seeing how folks cheer when they see each other again, there's been some real friendships made over the years and it's filling my soul.
The evening continued with more people and more conversations at the hotel bar, catching up or freshly getting to know each other. Just a perfect prelude to what's coming.
Tutorial Day
Every year, I pick a tutorial, always a different topic that will either help me broaden my horizon or allow me practicing among peers. This year, the tutorial I originally chose couldn't take place, yet I did get a place in my second pick: "The art of crafting your custom tools" by Bart Knaack, Huib Schoots, and James Lyndsay. It's been a good choice indeed! The tutorial offered both inspiration and also concrete examples on what useful tools to build and how. I appreciate that we got a whole section on building our own tool and help from each other on how to approach it. Admittedly, I wasn't on my best that day - yet this tutorial also helped me reflect why that might be and what I would need to get back in a better spot. What I appreciated the most from facilitator side is that all of them faced hiccups during the day when presenting, and they were open and vulnerable about it. They shared their feelings when they were frustrated or nervous and helped each other out to get back on track - leading by example.
After the tutorial, the conference was officially opened. Santhosh Tuppad gave the first keynote on "Simplify to Amplify: How Slow Living Enriched My Soul". He reminded us on how much anxiety we can build up when we keep running - yet for what? Slowing down can help us actually live our lives and focus on what's important to us.
After the keynote, it was time for a photo session with all speakers on stage, and right afterwards we went for the speakers dinner. This year, we had a lovely new restaurant to spoil us with lots of awesome treats. Absolutely enjoyed my time with my fellow speakers, and also connecting with folks I haven't met before. I'm really grateful for such a generous start into the conference. Afterwards, I managed to instantly go up to my room instead of keeping socializing - a great idea to preserve my energy better than last years.
Conference Day 1
The first conference day usually starts earlier for me as this is my chance to catch a lean coffee session - the following days I would already be too tired for it. So here's how it went.
- Lean coffee with Ashley Hunsberger and Lisa Crispin. I just love lean coffee as a format to gather and discuss topics that are most important to the people who are present at that moment in time. This time as well, we had lots of interesting topics to talk about, like how to convince folks to give open space conferences a try, how to implement consumer-driven contract tests, what to do after being laid off. My own topic was voted on as well: what’s one security issue you see over and over again? Lots of familiar issues were gathered, from plain text passwords being transmitted over the wire or committed to version control, to default passwords and configurations opening doors to attackers, to lack of authentication and authorization in way too many places.
- Keynote "AI-Driven Quality Engineering" by Jonathon Wright. While I usually take sketchnotes for talks I attend live at on-site conferences, for this one I took it easy and preserved my energy.
- "How Accessibility is Security" by Ina Tsvetkova and Jaunita Flessas. I love how both speakers demonstrated how to make talks more accessible by activating live captions. Very on point for the talk! I really appreciate these two to be the first ones to not only talk about usable security, but really combining accessibility and security issues which ultimately raised the need for security by inclusion. This talk triggered lots of thoughts for me to think about and also things I can take right back to work with me to check for and raise awareness.
- "Dark OSINT: I know where you live" by Kristof Van Kriekingen. This talk was just a perfect case of leaving people appropriately and properly scared. And at the same time massively inspired in what good we can do in the world with our current skill set. Amazing delivery as well! Absolutely loved it. I had a sneak peek of this session already at this year's Open Security Conference, yet being a co-organizer I couldn't fully focus on it - no problem this time!
- Keynote "Testing Transparently" by Elizabeth Zagroba and James Lyndsay. A very special keynote which didn't waste any time to get to the gist of it: live testing on stage. I loved the energy of both of them together, demonstrating how things can look like as a tangible example we're too often missing out on. Very happy about this being a keynote - as more people need to get inspired by how pairing can uncover a lot of useful feedback in a short timeframe.
- Workshop "Start Hacking Today (For Beginners)" by Anass Ahmed Ali. Anass had a really nice pace for people who are just starting out in tech and specifically security. I really like he didn't assume technical literacy or a specific level of knowledge. He introduced us to breaking into systems using the very accessible analogy of a house, and demonstrated approaches to learn more and find ways into this system. The workshop paved the way for people to practice on their own afterwards, and also to get an impression on what malicious actors might do so we can detect their activities.
- Keynote "The Agentic AI World is Already Here... Are You Ready?" by Martin Hynie. Martin shared a true story from his journey with AI systems and LLMs in specific, what to look out for and what to focus on. It's always good to learn about real-life examples like this.
During the evening of the first conference day, it's usually dinner and party time. This time, I took it easier as well, and opted in for an alternative program: a calm dinner at a restaurant outside the venue with a small group. Absolutely lovely and recharging my batteries. Once we returned, the party was still on, and I enjoyed lots of smaller conversations with various folks in the calmer hallway. A very special bonus for these evenings are the ATD Late Night Munchies - a Snack Exchange initiated and facilitated by Sophie Küster. She encouraged participants to contribute by bringing sweets and savory treats from wherever region they came from and enjoy each other's delicacies together. Just brilliantly wonderful.
Conference Day 2
The second day was on. Being pretty tired already, and remembering my goal to take things easier this year, I decided to skip the morning keynote and rather catch more sleep. The good thing is, that certain talks like all keynotes had been recorded and with the online pass we can still watch them within the next six months.
- "VNCPhish: How Hackers Pwn Users Despite MFA" by Yvonne Johnson. I just love that Yvonne agreed to give this talk here as a subset of her keynote from Open Security Conference 2024. I knew it would be awesome, and I wasn't disappointed. She explained a rather complex topic in simple matters and made it both comprehensible and tangible for us. I loved that she also demonstrated live how easy it can be to gain access to another person's system through MFA phishing - I've heard people around me share how they have to check their own systems at home now for proper access policies to prevent this from happening. Very cool session!
- "Reimagining DAST: Integrating ZAProxy into Web Testing" by Sara Martínez. Sara introduced us to dynamic application security testing and demonstrated where they are left weaker than they could be, and how combining these with usual web testing scenarios can uncover their actual power. I love that she demonstrated her framework for this and made it open source so we all can take this inspiration with us! Very cool talk and so applicable.
- Keynote "Practical Application of the Modern Testing Principles 2.0" by Melissa Eaden. I really appreciated Mel showcasing actual applications of the modern testing principles and hence bringing them closer to our realities. I loved her stories demonstrating what we can do for real to get us closer to a good state. Very practical for any kind of change you're trying to affect. Super well delivered as always!
- Workshop "Secure Development Lifecycle Applied - How to Make Things a Bit More Secure than Yesterday Every Day" by me, co-facilitated by Santhosh Tuppad. I loved having a variety of folks attending the workshop, from people having their first touch points with security to those who already brought some experience. It seems they enjoyed practicing what they can do from idea to production to bake security into the product instead of sprinkling it on top of the cake at best.
- Keynote "Air Fryers, Automation, and AI" by Angie Jones. Angie is one of the best keynoters I've witnessed so far. She didn't disappoint this time either! I really like how she provided a both opinionated and also differentiated point of view on what's currently happening and her personal advice on how to do good work with new tooling at hand. This keynote did remind me of her keynote a few years back when she told stories of how musicians had to adapt to new technology, this one used chefs as an example. The key message basically stayed the same - yet it seems people still need to hear it. I also loved how she responded to a critical (and very valid) question from the audience with such integrity and in such constructive manner. We all can learn from Angie.
After the formal program there was time for a short dinner, and then evening sessions already started. I chose to go to the Open Space hosted by Alex Schladebeck and João Proença. I love open spaces and really appreciate that this was an option to integrate it into a very busy conference program. At first, I thought I wouldn't have the energy to propose a session myself. Yet when attending Anass' hacking workshop yesterday, I decided to give it a go and suggest my "Capture the Flag Together" session for beginners to offer people a practice option to take their first steps on security / penetration testing to get into a system and find secrets (aka "flags") that we're not supposed to see. All that in a collaborative manner as an ensemble, bringing in all our knowledge and trying out our ideas together. People came indeed and we spent the open space seeing how far we could get. Unfortunately, the time slot at hand was rather short, so I couldn't see any other sessions.
Nonetheless, I spent the rest of the evening with lots of conversations with lots of amazing folks - as usual, gaining new inspiration from experience exchange on basically everything. Definitely one of the best parts and main arguments to go to an on-site conference that intentionally gives space for this to happen.
Conference Day 3
The final conference day arrived. Being really tired by now, I decided to repeat what helped me the day before and skip the morning keynote.
- Workshop "API Hacking using GPTs" by Santhosh Tuppad. He introduced the audience to API security testing in general and the impact security flaws can have. Afterwards, Santhosh demonstrated how AI tooling can help with API testing and security in specifics.
- Keynote "Orchestrating Chaos Into a Symphony" by Rachel Kibler. I loved Rachel's stage presence and way of delivery! True keynote speaker. She dropped lots of insights and wisdom, combined with real stories. I really liked how the transformation at her company revealed tangible advice for everyone who wants to affect change.
- Workshop "Threat Modelling Workshop for QA Heroes" by Giancarlo Cordero Ortiz. It was interesting to learn how threat modeling is done at SAP. Giancarlo pointed out lots of aspects what helps and what hinders based on his experience, and how testing and quality folks are well-equipped for this and also needed at the table.
- Keynote "Unlearning A.I." by Pradeep Soundararajan. Pradeep explained how he feels like an old man when hearing the same stories and seeing the same things happening over and over again in the industry. He shared observations on what people do and don't do and why it can be problematic. He applied the same for AI tooling and encouraged people to unlearn how to approach such new things to give ourselves a fresh perspective on them.
- "ATD’s NEXT Keynote Casting". This bonus session allowed folks who applied for a keynote at Agile Testing Days 2026 to pitch their idea. We heard from ten awesome people what they had in mind and then the audience got to vote for their favorite. We had a clear winner: huge congratulations to Clare Norman for an outstanding pitch of rethinking user situations and system errors - I can't wait to see this on the keynote stage next year!
While the conference was officially over, of course people kept going during the evening. For one more time, a group of folks decided to go outside and enjoy a dinner at a nice restaurant together. More stories shared, a lot more laughter, so much community spirit. Once back at the hotel, we enjoyed those last moments of togetherness until the very end.
Time to Go Home
The time came to say goodbye and depart. Lucky me that I met Gabrijela Hladnik and Anna Bommas in the hotel lobby and we spontaneously decided to share our trip to Berlin. More time for further exchange! Just love it when this happens. There's usually never enough time to speak with everyone you want to speak with during Agile Testing Days, no matter how long the conference is. So these little coincidences and opportunities are just perfect to seize. Just like the lunch table you join and encounter a conversation on neurodiversity you absolutely appreciate to listen to and share experiences on. Like the late-night evening talk about nerdy hobbies and side projects. Like meeting other souls you meet for the first time and discover you share so much with and who can understand you pretty quickly this way. Like having a very dear friend precisely knowing what you'll have for dinner at a specific restaurant, because of course you do.
I did take things easier this year. Nonetheless, I came home with a bunch of things to try and think about, renewed and new connections, and a lot of love for this very unique conference in my heart. Huge thanks to everyone for making this special place so special - with the amazing organizers leading the way. See you all next year!