Test up North 2025: Reflections from a QA Manager
This September, QA Manager Suman Bala delivered a session at Test Up North for their inaugural conference at Hippo Campus in Leeds, which brought together practitioners and experts to share insights, techniques and innovations that elevate software testing and quality assurance.
During the event attendees were given the chance to learn about new testing technology and industry trends, hear real examples of problems and the solutions created by professionals, and give their views on topics as part of a group debate. Throughout the day, Suman listened to a range of sessions and delivered her own talk on strategies to transform mobile testing.
Here are her key takeaways from the testing mini-conference…
The day began with an insightful talk from Ayesha Saeed, Accessibility Test Lead at Solirius Reply. Drawing inspiration from her newfound love of jigsaws, she explored how systems thinking can enhance accessibility testing, encouraging delegates to develop a deeper awareness of how individual components connect with a wider system. She highlighted that this perspective helps testers identify patterns, uncover hidden dependencies, and address underlying systemic challenges, ultimately leading to more inclusive, reliable, and user-friendly digital experiences for everyone.
The key takeaway from this talk was to focus on what you can control, recognise what you can’t, and actively work to expand your sphere of influence.
Next up was Vas Ntokas, Lead Testing Engineer at DwP, whose interactive demo showcased a practical framework for embedding ethical principles and quality assurance throughout the AI development lifecycle. He explored how teams can identify and mitigate potential biases, ensure transparency in model decision-making, and maintain accountability at every stage - from data collection and model training to deployment and continuous monitoring. By integrating ethics and quality from the very beginning, rather than treating this as an afterthought, he demonstrated how responsible AI can be both practical and achievable in real-world development environments.
His message was clear: as we navigate the complexities of emerging AI regulations, adopting a hands-on ethical approach to testing AI systems will be essential for building trust and ensuring long-term success.
Several quality talks then followed as part of the ‘Great Testing Debate’ session, offering attendees practical strategies for standing out and excelling in quality assurance and testing roles. The discussions explored how to showcase unique skills and contributions effectively, navigate the challenges of shaping a culture of quality in fast-moving environments, and develop a refinement mindset to better understand precise requirements and avoid costly assumptions.
Throughout the session, a number of clear messages emerged. For example, Harrison Young, Senior Developer at Hippo, left plenty of food for thought around his practical approaches to mutation testing - a technique designed to strengthen the reliability of test suites by deliberately introducing small changes to code. This hands-on approach brought his concept to life, leaving attendees keen to explore how mutation testing could enhance their own development and QA practices.
I approached my talk with a clear goal, to inspire teams to rethink how they balance speed and quality in mobile development. As the mobile landscape continues to evolve, maintaining high standards while delivering faster has become one of the industry’s biggest challenges. During the session, I shared practical approaches to improving release cycles and building more efficient delivery pipelines for quality testing. If there was one thing I wanted the audience to take away from my advice, it was this; when we get the balance right, we can deliver better products, create stronger user experiences, and build teams that are confident in both their pace and their precision.
A key piece of advice I gave delegates was to make quality a part of every step in the development process, rather than something that gets checked at the end. This means regularly reviewing work, learning from mistakes, and gathering feedback from the team to catch issues early. By combining automation, collaboration, and iterative improvement, mobile teams can maintain high standards of quality while still accelerating delivery. This advice landed well and sparked plenty of interesting questions from the audience.
The success of Test Up North has set the bar high. In the world of QA, there is a growing demand to keep pace with new technologies, methodologies, and expectations, and it can often be easy to become lost in the constant stream of new tools and frameworks.
Test Up North challenged this narrative. What struck me most wasn’t just the quality of the content throughout the day, though that was exceptional, but the energy and enthusiasm shared amongst attendees - the distance people had travelled to be there reflected that.
The testing community in the north is growing, and it’s incredibly exciting to see it continue to flourish at events like this.
This September, QA Manager Suman Bala delivered a session at Test Up North for their inaugural conference at Hippo Campus in Leeds, which brought together practitioners and experts to share insights, techniques and innovations that elevate software testing and quality assurance.
During the event attendees were given the chance to learn about new testing technology and industry trends, hear real examples of problems and the solutions created by professionals, and give their views on topics as part of a group debate. Throughout the day, Suman listened to a range of sessions and delivered her own talk on strategies to transform mobile testing.
Here are her key takeaways from the testing mini-conference…
The day began with an insightful talk from Ayesha Saeed, Accessibility Test Lead at Solirius Reply. Drawing inspiration from her newfound love of jigsaws, she explored how systems thinking can enhance accessibility testing, encouraging delegates to develop a deeper awareness of how individual components connect with a wider system. She highlighted that this perspective helps testers identify patterns, uncover hidden dependencies, and address underlying systemic challenges, ultimately leading to more inclusive, reliable, and user-friendly digital experiences for everyone.
The key takeaway from this talk was to focus on what you can control, recognise what you can’t, and actively work to expand your sphere of influence.
Next up was Vas Ntokas, Lead Testing Engineer at DwP, whose interactive demo showcased a practical framework for embedding ethical principles and quality assurance throughout the AI development lifecycle. He explored how teams can identify and mitigate potential biases, ensure transparency in model decision-making, and maintain accountability at every stage - from data collection and model training to deployment and continuous monitoring. By integrating ethics and quality from the very beginning, rather than treating this as an afterthought, he demonstrated how responsible AI can be both practical and achievable in real-world development environments.
His message was clear: as we navigate the complexities of emerging AI regulations, adopting a hands-on ethical approach to testing AI systems will be essential for building trust and ensuring long-term success.
Several quality talks then followed as part of the ‘Great Testing Debate’ session, offering attendees practical strategies for standing out and excelling in quality assurance and testing roles. The discussions explored how to showcase unique skills and contributions effectively, navigate the challenges of shaping a culture of quality in fast-moving environments, and develop a refinement mindset to better understand precise requirements and avoid costly assumptions.
Throughout the session, a number of clear messages emerged. For example, Harrison Young, Senior Developer at Hippo, left plenty of food for thought around his practical approaches to mutation testing - a technique designed to strengthen the reliability of test suites by deliberately introducing small changes to code. This hands-on approach brought his concept to life, leaving attendees keen to explore how mutation testing could enhance their own development and QA practices.
I approached my talk with a clear goal, to inspire teams to rethink how they balance speed and quality in mobile development. As the mobile landscape continues to evolve, maintaining high standards while delivering faster has become one of the industry’s biggest challenges. During the session, I shared practical approaches to improving release cycles and building more efficient delivery pipelines for quality testing. If there was one thing I wanted the audience to take away from my advice, it was this; when we get the balance right, we can deliver better products, create stronger user experiences, and build teams that are confident in both their pace and their precision.
A key piece of advice I gave delegates was to make quality a part of every step in the development process, rather than something that gets checked at the end. This means regularly reviewing work, learning from mistakes, and gathering feedback from the team to catch issues early. By combining automation, collaboration, and iterative improvement, mobile teams can maintain high standards of quality while still accelerating delivery. This advice landed well and sparked plenty of interesting questions from the audience.
The success of Test Up North has set the bar high. In the world of QA, there is a growing demand to keep pace with new technologies, methodologies, and expectations, and it can often be easy to become lost in the constant stream of new tools and frameworks.
Test Up North challenged this narrative. What struck me most wasn’t just the quality of the content throughout the day, though that was exceptional, but the energy and enthusiasm shared amongst attendees - the distance people had travelled to be there reflected that.
The testing community in the north is growing, and it’s incredibly exciting to see it continue to flourish at events like this.
This September, QA Manager Suman Bala delivered a session at Test Up North for their inaugural conference at Hippo Campus in Leeds, which brought together practitioners and experts to share insights, techniques and innovations that elevate software testing and quality assurance.
During the event attendees were given the chance to learn about new testing technology and industry trends, hear real examples of problems and the solutions created by professionals, and give their views on topics as part of a group debate. Throughout the day, Suman listened to a range of sessions and delivered her own talk on strategies to transform mobile testing.
Here are her key takeaways from the testing mini-conference…
The day began with an insightful talk from Ayesha Saeed, Accessibility Test Lead at Solirius Reply. Drawing inspiration from her newfound love of jigsaws, she explored how systems thinking can enhance accessibility testing, encouraging delegates to develop a deeper awareness of how individual components connect with a wider system. She highlighted that this perspective helps testers identify patterns, uncover hidden dependencies, and address underlying systemic challenges, ultimately leading to more inclusive, reliable, and user-friendly digital experiences for everyone.
The key takeaway from this talk was to focus on what you can control, recognise what you can’t, and actively work to expand your sphere of influence.
Next up was Vas Ntokas, Lead Testing Engineer at DwP, whose interactive demo showcased a practical framework for embedding ethical principles and quality assurance throughout the AI development lifecycle. He explored how teams can identify and mitigate potential biases, ensure transparency in model decision-making, and maintain accountability at every stage - from data collection and model training to deployment and continuous monitoring. By integrating ethics and quality from the very beginning, rather than treating this as an afterthought, he demonstrated how responsible AI can be both practical and achievable in real-world development environments.
His message was clear: as we navigate the complexities of emerging AI regulations, adopting a hands-on ethical approach to testing AI systems will be essential for building trust and ensuring long-term success.
Several quality talks then followed as part of the ‘Great Testing Debate’ session, offering attendees practical strategies for standing out and excelling in quality assurance and testing roles. The discussions explored how to showcase unique skills and contributions effectively, navigate the challenges of shaping a culture of quality in fast-moving environments, and develop a refinement mindset to better understand precise requirements and avoid costly assumptions.
Throughout the session, a number of clear messages emerged. For example, Harrison Young, Senior Developer at Hippo, left plenty of food for thought around his practical approaches to mutation testing - a technique designed to strengthen the reliability of test suites by deliberately introducing small changes to code. This hands-on approach brought his concept to life, leaving attendees keen to explore how mutation testing could enhance their own development and QA practices.
I approached my talk with a clear goal, to inspire teams to rethink how they balance speed and quality in mobile development. As the mobile landscape continues to evolve, maintaining high standards while delivering faster has become one of the industry’s biggest challenges. During the session, I shared practical approaches to improving release cycles and building more efficient delivery pipelines for quality testing. If there was one thing I wanted the audience to take away from my advice, it was this; when we get the balance right, we can deliver better products, create stronger user experiences, and build teams that are confident in both their pace and their precision.
A key piece of advice I gave delegates was to make quality a part of every step in the development process, rather than something that gets checked at the end. This means regularly reviewing work, learning from mistakes, and gathering feedback from the team to catch issues early. By combining automation, collaboration, and iterative improvement, mobile teams can maintain high standards of quality while still accelerating delivery. This advice landed well and sparked plenty of interesting questions from the audience.
The success of Test Up North has set the bar high. In the world of QA, there is a growing demand to keep pace with new technologies, methodologies, and expectations, and it can often be easy to become lost in the constant stream of new tools and frameworks.
Test Up North challenged this narrative. What struck me most wasn’t just the quality of the content throughout the day, though that was exceptional, but the energy and enthusiasm shared amongst attendees - the distance people had travelled to be there reflected that.
The testing community in the north is growing, and it’s incredibly exciting to see it continue to flourish at events like this.
This September, QA Manager Suman Bala delivered a session at Test Up North for their inaugural conference at Hippo Campus in Leeds, which brought together practitioners and experts to share insights, techniques and innovations that elevate software testing and quality assurance.
During the event attendees were given the chance to learn about new testing technology and industry trends, hear real examples of problems and the solutions created by professionals, and give their views on topics as part of a group debate. Throughout the day, Suman listened to a range of sessions and delivered her own talk on strategies to transform mobile testing.
Here are her key takeaways from the testing mini-conference…
The day began with an insightful talk from Ayesha Saeed, Accessibility Test Lead at Solirius Reply. Drawing inspiration from her newfound love of jigsaws, she explored how systems thinking can enhance accessibility testing, encouraging delegates to develop a deeper awareness of how individual components connect with a wider system. She highlighted that this perspective helps testers identify patterns, uncover hidden dependencies, and address underlying systemic challenges, ultimately leading to more inclusive, reliable, and user-friendly digital experiences for everyone.
The key takeaway from this talk was to focus on what you can control, recognise what you can’t, and actively work to expand your sphere of influence.
Next up was Vas Ntokas, Lead Testing Engineer at DwP, whose interactive demo showcased a practical framework for embedding ethical principles and quality assurance throughout the AI development lifecycle. He explored how teams can identify and mitigate potential biases, ensure transparency in model decision-making, and maintain accountability at every stage - from data collection and model training to deployment and continuous monitoring. By integrating ethics and quality from the very beginning, rather than treating this as an afterthought, he demonstrated how responsible AI can be both practical and achievable in real-world development environments.
His message was clear: as we navigate the complexities of emerging AI regulations, adopting a hands-on ethical approach to testing AI systems will be essential for building trust and ensuring long-term success.
Several quality talks then followed as part of the ‘Great Testing Debate’ session, offering attendees practical strategies for standing out and excelling in quality assurance and testing roles. The discussions explored how to showcase unique skills and contributions effectively, navigate the challenges of shaping a culture of quality in fast-moving environments, and develop a refinement mindset to better understand precise requirements and avoid costly assumptions.
Throughout the session, a number of clear messages emerged. For example, Harrison Young, Senior Developer at Hippo, left plenty of food for thought around his practical approaches to mutation testing - a technique designed to strengthen the reliability of test suites by deliberately introducing small changes to code. This hands-on approach brought his concept to life, leaving attendees keen to explore how mutation testing could enhance their own development and QA practices.
I approached my talk with a clear goal, to inspire teams to rethink how they balance speed and quality in mobile development. As the mobile landscape continues to evolve, maintaining high standards while delivering faster has become one of the industry’s biggest challenges. During the session, I shared practical approaches to improving release cycles and building more efficient delivery pipelines for quality testing. If there was one thing I wanted the audience to take away from my advice, it was this; when we get the balance right, we can deliver better products, create stronger user experiences, and build teams that are confident in both their pace and their precision.
A key piece of advice I gave delegates was to make quality a part of every step in the development process, rather than something that gets checked at the end. This means regularly reviewing work, learning from mistakes, and gathering feedback from the team to catch issues early. By combining automation, collaboration, and iterative improvement, mobile teams can maintain high standards of quality while still accelerating delivery. This advice landed well and sparked plenty of interesting questions from the audience.
The success of Test Up North has set the bar high. In the world of QA, there is a growing demand to keep pace with new technologies, methodologies, and expectations, and it can often be easy to become lost in the constant stream of new tools and frameworks.
Test Up North challenged this narrative. What struck me most wasn’t just the quality of the content throughout the day, though that was exceptional, but the energy and enthusiasm shared amongst attendees - the distance people had travelled to be there reflected that.
The testing community in the north is growing, and it’s incredibly exciting to see it continue to flourish at events like this.
