BCS SIGiST Summer Conference 2026
Human-Centred Testing: People and Practices & the Future of the Profession
Date: Tuesday 7 July, 10:00am - 5:00pm, followed by a networking event.
Venue: BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT, 25 Copthall Avenue, London, EC2R 7BP
Watch the video playlist
Conference Schedule
| Time | ||
|---|---|---|
| 10:35 | Joint Opening - Mike Harris FBCS | |
| Stream 1 - In person - Shirley Room |
Stream 2 - In person - Sparck-Jones Room | |
| Host: Mike Harris FBCS | Host: Andy Shaw | |
| 10:05 | Jenna Charlton Topic: A Note From Your User |
Cri Quentin Topic: Wired Differently: Testing Better |
| 10:35 | Break | |
| 10:45 | Gomathi Ramlingam Topic: Who Tests the Agents? |
Shajahan Pulikkal Topic: Agentic + Human-Centred Testing: Five Practical Ways We Scaled Quality Without Losing the Human Touch |
| 11:15 | Break | |
| 11:25 | John Kurowski Topic: The Art of Getting It Wrong: How Organisations Learn and Grow |
Michael Skolnik Topic: Inventing the Shipwreck: A technological risk framework for thinking about AI in software testing |
| 11:55 | Break | |
| 12:05 | Udeme Jalekun Topic: From Support Tickets to Test Strategy: What Human Problems Teach Us About Quality |
Gary Shannon Topic: Tech Comeback Lab: How I Help People Stand Out and Get Hired in Today’s Market |
| 12:35 | Close morning session | |
| 12:40 | Lunch and networking | |
| 13:40 | Host: Gomathi Ramalingam Madhuri Mittal Topic: Version 2.0: How a Career Break Made Me a More Human-Centred Tester |
Host: Andy Shaw Magda Rocha Topic: AI Writes. Humans Decide. Engineering Quality in an AI-Augmented Workflow |
| 14:10 | Break | |
| 14:40 |
Matteo de Giovanetti |
Louise Humpington Topic: Tested but to Whose Standard? |
| 14:50 | Break | |
| 15:00 | Chris Ambler FBCS Topic: Elephants, Ethics, and Edge Cases: Why Psychology Is Now a Core Skill for AI Testers |
Suman Bala and Melissa Fisher Topic: Bridging the gap: How Testers and Developers win together |
| 15:30 | Break | |
| 15:40 | Qambar Raza Topic: The Human Side of AI Testing: Why Your Best Automation Still Needs a Person Behind It |
Sangeetha Kodam Topic: From Silent Tester to Quality Advocate: How Communication Transformed My Testing Career |
| 16:10 | Break | |
| 16:20 | Helen Whitaker Topic: Distance Doesn’t Mean Disconnection: Leading Distributed Testing Teams |
Niyi Ibironke Topic: Rehumanising Quality: The QA Role as Orchestrator in AI-Accelerated Testing |
| 16:50 | Joint closing of the conference and thank yous! - Mike Harris FBCS | |
| 17:00 | Networking event | |
