What began as a simple high school robotics demonstration at the last PNSQC conference has evolved into something much bigger.

On Sunday, October 11, 2026 (1:00 PM – 5:30 PM), the day before the main PNSQC Conference begins, we will host our first-ever PNSQC Innovation Day at the University Place Hotel in Portland, OR.

Innovation Day is designed to bring our entire community together—students, educators, parents, and technology professionals—to explore the future of learning and technology. This unique event combines hands-on student projects, live robotics, and educational seminars into a shared experience where curiosity meets opportunity.

What to Expect:

• Student Project Displays: Brilliant young minds showcasing research, ideas, and prototypes in STEM, AI, software, and cybersecurity.

• Robotics Demonstrations: Local student teams putting their engineering, testing, and problem-solving skills to the test in live competition activities.

• Educational Seminars: Practical, real-world discussions tailored for parents, teachers, and professionals looking to understand AI and the rapidly changing tech landscape.

Our goal is simple: create opportunities for students to explore future possibilities, connect with industry professionals, and help everyone better understand the technologies shaping our world.

Get Involved & Spread the Word!

Interested in participating? Student project registration is now open! We also welcome robotics teams, volunteers, mentors, and community partners.

• Help Us Share: Please forward this to any students, educators, parents, or community members who might want to be a part of this exciting day.

• Learn More: Check out the official 2026 Innovation Day page for full details.

• Questions? Reach out directly to outreach@pnsqc.com to find out how you can get involved.

Welcome Our New Sponsor: Tricentis!

Sponsored Content | From our Community Partner: Tricentis

We are thrilled to welcome Tricentis as a platinum sponsor of PNSQC 2026!

Tricentis is a global leader in agentic quality engineering. The Tricentis Agentic Quality Engineering Platform leverages the power of AI alongside decades of technology and expertise to provide a fundamentally different way to ensure software quality across complex enterprise application environments.

Why It Matters:

• Intelligently Driven by AI: A totally automated, fully codeless approach to quality.

• Enterprise Scale: Addresses both agile development and complex enterprise applications.

• Proven Impact: Enables organizations to accelerate digital transformation by dramatically increasing software release speed, reducing costs, and improving quality.

Widely credited for reinventing software testing for DevOps, cloud, and enterprise applications, Tricentis is recognized as a leader by major industry analysts including Gartner, Forrester, and IDC. They support more than 3,000 customers globally, including household brands like T-Mobile, Dolby, and Jaguar Land Rover.

We are incredibly grateful for their support in making this year’s conference a success!

Lock In Early Bird Pricing Now!

The Super Early Bird rate has officially flown the coop, but you can still score a sweet deal. Grab your ticket at the Early Bird rate of $1,450 before prices go up again!

• What: PNSQC 2026 Conference & Workshops

• When: October 12–14, 2026

• Where: University Place Hotel, Portland, OR (or streaming virtually!)

• The Perk: Serious career growth + Portland’s legendary food scene.

Whether you’re eyeing a Voodoo Doll donut or mastering automated testing pipelines, your journey to quality starts here.

Secure your Early Bird spot today!

Subscribe now

Let’s talk about a new risk area I recently identified and want to share with you today. At a recent conference, I shared with the QA Engineers that AI is not so much a thinking technology as it is a matching technology. The very measurement of Tokens refers to the smallest possible match. At its core, AI frameworks have captured vast amounts of existing information primarily from the internet. When AI works with word structures such as “Once upon a …,” its algorithms refer to the volumes of content it has consumed and derive the next logical word as statistically likely to be “time”. An interesting reality of how AI pays attention to data and instructions is that it places more emphasis on the beginning and ending of content and less on the middle. I have coined this reality the Horseshoe Paradigm, and within it lies a new type of risk we need to be aware of and test for.

If the application we are testing has AI integrated, results derived from datasets are more likely to be incorrect in the middle regions. Incorporate techniques such as equivalence partitioning, statistical sampling, or anomaly detection to identify these inaccuracies, ensuring your testing strategy accounts for the Horseshoe Paradigm.

Use the following three assessments to determine if you should enhance your testing approach to target defects within the Horseshoe specifically.

1. First, we need to understand the design of the application under test. Is AI being used within the application to derive results? Was AI utilized in the development of that code?

2. Next, we need to understand that the middle of datasets and calculated results are much more likely to be inaccurate if AI is being used to derive those results. Pay particular attention to decimal numbers.

3. Lastly, we should understand the concepts of an “Oracle,” which is a human subject matter expert who provides certified data used in your testing validations. It’s critical not to rely on AI to generate this data due to the Horseshoe Paradigm and the higher risk of invalid calculations in the middle of large datasets.

Utilize these three questions to help you mature your testing approach as you adapt to the new technology benefits and challenges of AI. Realize that there are very few “experts” in the field of AI at this point. As we uncover new risks, such as the Horseshoe Paradigm, you will need to adapt your approach to account for them.

As AI becomes embedded in more of what we test and how we build, our job as Quality Engineers isn't shrinking — it's expanding into territory that didn't exist five years ago. The Horseshoe Paradigm is one piece of that map. For another, read my piece on Silent Confidence.

About the Author

Greg Paskal is a testing innovator with over 40 years of experience, known for pioneering sustainable and maintainable approaches to both manual and automated testing. He is the creator of METS (Minimal Essential Test Strategy) and the author of Test Automation in the Real World, available on Amazon. A dedicated mentor and lifelong learner, Greg shares his insights through writing and his YouTube channel, Craft of Testing.

Learn more at CraftOfTesting.com, METSTesting.com, and GregPaskal.com, or connect with him on LinkedIn.

The early bird catches a worm, but the Super Early Bird catches all the bugs! Lock in the absolute lowest rates for PNSQC 2026 before they fly away.

Secure your spot now: pnsqc.org/register

Supporting Quality Innovation: PractiTest Joins PNSQC 2026 as a Gold Sponsor

^{Sponsored Content | From our Community Partner: PractiTest}

We’re excited to welcome PractiTest as a new Gold Sponsor of PNSQC 2026.

PractiTest is an AI-powered Test Management and QA Intelligence platform that goes beyond test execution to deliver meaningful business insights. While tests run, defects are logged, and dashboards fill up, the most important questions often remain unanswered: Are we ready to release? Are we covered where it matters most? What is our actual level of risk?

PractiTest closes that gap by transforming QA data into clear indicators, actionable insights, and recommended next steps. With real-time visibility into risk, coverage, and release readiness, stakeholders can make informed decisions with confidence. Built on a flexible data model, seamless integrations, SmartFox AI, and powerful QA Intelligence capabilities, PractiTest helps teams always know where they stand and release with confidence.

Learn more at PractiTest.com or connect with the team on LinkedIn.

New PNSQChronicles: The Signal Before the Storm with Kristine O'Connor

What if the warning signs of harm are already visible but we’re not looking for them?

In the latest episode of PNSQChronicles, Kristine O’Connor, Senior Agile Transformation Consultant at Agile Rising and a PNSQC Top Presenter Award winner, joins Michael Larsen to discuss Quality Intelligence and how quality professionals can help identify risks before they become irreversible.

Inspired by her aunt’s experience as the victim of a financial scam, Kristine explores how telemetry, behavioral data, and a deeper understanding of customer needs can help organizations detect emerging threats, prevent harm, and improve outcomes.

This thought-provoking conversation examines the intersection of software quality, customer experience, empathy, risk prevention, and challenges us to think beyond defects toward the real-world impact of our systems.

Subscribe now

In software development, finding a bug late costs exponentially more to fix. The same logic applies to your professional development! Why delay what you can optimize right now?

It’s time to practice what we preach: Shift Left Your Registration. By securing your spot early, you don’t just stay ahead of the curve—you also unlock the absolute best rates. Our Super Early Bird discount is live, but it won’t last forever.

Don’t let this opportunity timeout. Head over to our registration portal and lock in your pass today:

Register Now for PNSQC 2026

Let’s build, test, and connect—starting early!

Welcoming Gold Sponsor Xray + OMG Tech Partners

Sponsored Content | From our Community Partner: Xray + OMG Tech Partners

PNSQC is pleased to recognize Xray + OMG Tech Partners as a Gold Sponsor of PNSQC 2026.

Xray completes the DevOps workflow, enabling teams to test smarter, release faster, and deliver high-quality software at scale. As a leading test management solution for Jira, Xray helps organizations improve visibility, traceability, and quality throughout the software development lifecycle.

OMG Tech Partners, an Atlassian Gold Solution Partner, helps organizations in highly regulated industries transform complexity into clarity through compliance-ready solutions. Their expertise supports teams navigating governance, risk, and regulatory requirements while maximizing the value of the Atlassian ecosystem.

Together, Xray and OMG Tech Partners help organizations make sense of complex environments, modernize the way they operate, and implement Atlassian solutions that stand up to the highest levels of scrutiny.

Learn more about Xray at https://www.getxray.app/

and follow them on LinkedIn

Thank you to Xray + OMG Tech Partners for supporting PNSQC and the software quality community.

New Community Voices Series Launches

We’re excited to launch a new series of articles featuring thought-provoking perspectives from leaders across the quality community. And yes, you can become a guest author too!

Our first article is:

Are We Really Quality Professionals?
Why a 25-year career shift made one industry veteran rethink a title that millions of software testers take for granted.

In this article, Jan Jaap Cannegieter, an IT Advisor for the Dutch Government with more than 30 years of experience in software testing, quality assurance, and business analysis, challenges us to look beyond job titles and reconsider what it truly means to be a quality professional in today’s rapidly evolving technology landscape.

Read the article and join the conversation:

Interested in sharing your own experiences, lessons learned, or ideas with the quality community? PNSQC welcomes guest authors from across the software quality ecosystem.

Subscribe now

After roughly 25 years of working in software testing on a regular basis, I no longer work in testing at all. Today, I work for the Dutch government, where I assess large-scale projects to determine whether they are being managed effectively and advise them on how to improve their governance and control. In these reviews and advisory engagements, testing is only occasionally a topic of discussion.

When you step back from testing, as I have, you start noticing things that previously seemed perfectly normal. One of those things is the use of job titles by testers that include the word quality: QA Specialist, Quality Officer, Quality Engineer, and similar variations. For the sake of simplicity, I will group all of these titles under the umbrella term quality professional.

The reasoning behind these titles is familiar to most testers, and it was to me as well until recently. The argument goes something like this: by identifying defects and issues, testers help improve product quality, provided those issues are addressed. Therefore, we contribute directly to quality. In the minds of many testers, that makes us quality professionals.

There is no question that a system’s quality improves when the defects we identify are resolved. But does that automatically make us quality professionals?

From the perspective of my current role, the answer is no.

The concept of quality in my current environment is far broader than product quality alone.

Quality Assurance Beyond Testing

In my current context, every major project has a Quality Assurance Officer. This person organizes a wide range of activities aimed at assessing and, where necessary, improving quality. These activities include peer reviews, formal assessments, delta reviews, milestone reviews, and other independent evaluations.

The focus of these reviews can vary considerably. They may examine governance structures, project progress, stakeholder engagement, business feasibility, technical viability, or other factors that influence a project’s likelihood of success.

Interestingly, testing is rarely a primary focus of these assessments.

Occasionally, I interview someone involved in testing. This isn’t because testers have a special role in quality assurance activities, but because they often possess valuable insights into how a project is actually performing. They see problems, risks, and inconsistencies that others may overlook.

However, from a roles-and-responsibilities perspective, testers do not occupy a privileged position within these quality assurance activities. The primary objective of these reviews is project quality: determining whether a project is likely to achieve its goals successfully.

Quality at the Organizational Level

In my current environment, we also have Quality Officers. Their responsibility is quality at the organizational level, with a strong focus on processes rather than products.

Examples include:

• Program and project management processes

• Lifecycle management processes

• Security processes

• Privacy processes

• Data management processes

In practice, these Quality Officers almost never deal with testing. Their focus is ensuring that organizational processes are defined, followed, measured, and continuously improved.

Three Different Types of Quality

This is why the claim that testers are quality professionals does not fit well within my current context.

Here, testers are simply testers. Their responsibility is to independently determine whether a system behaves as intended. That is an important responsibility, but it is also a specific and limited one. The responsibilities of the quality professionals around them are significantly broader.

You could argue that there are at least three distinct types of quality:

1. Product Quality: Whether the system itself meets expectations and requirements.

2. Project Quality: Whether the project is being managed in a way that maximizes the likelihood of success.

3. Process Quality: Whether the organization’s processes are effective, controlled, and continuously improving.

Testers certainly influence product quality, although they are by no means the only professionals who do so. Developers, architects, product owners, business analysts, and many others contribute as well.

When it comes to project quality and process quality, however, testers in my current context have little or no direct responsibility.

A Claim Worth Questioning

Perhaps that means we should be more careful when we describe ourselves as quality professionals.

If quality encompasses product quality, project quality, and process quality, then most testers operate primarily within only one of those domains. While our work can contribute significantly to better products, that contribution alone may not justify claiming ownership of quality in its broadest sense.

At least in my current environment, that claim is difficult to defend.

Testers are not quality professionals because they improve quality. They are testers because they provide independent information about quality, and there is a meaningful difference between the two.

Jan Jaap Cannegieter is an IT Advisor for the Dutch Government with over 30 years of expertise in software testing, quality assurance, and business analysis. A recognized international expert, he has twice featured as a speaker at the prestigious Pacific Northwest Software Quality Conference (PNSQC).

Spend $320 on Portland, Not Registration Fees!

Portland is famous for its creativity, independence, and willingness to try new ideas. That same spirit is what makes PNSQC special.

At PNSQC, you’ll find practitioners sharing real-world lessons, challenging conventional thinking, and exploring what’s next in quality, testing, AI, and software engineering. It’s a conference built by the community, for the community, and it embraces the curiosity and innovation that make Portland unique.

Whether you’re looking for practical takeaways, fresh perspectives, or meaningful conversations with fellow professionals, PNSQC is the place to be this fall.

Early registration is now open, and the Super Early Bird rate is the best way to secure your spot while saving money.

Join us in Portland. Keep learning. Keep questioning. Keep Portland weird.

Register early and save: PNSQC Registration

PNSQChronicles: Discussing the "AI Assurance Imperative" with Jonathon Wright

As AI systems become increasingly autonomous, traditional approaches to quality assurance are being pushed beyond their limits. In this episode of PNSQChronicles, Michael Larsen sits down with keynote speaker Jonathon Wright to explore what quality engineering looks like in the age of agentic AI.

Jonathon discusses:

• the evolution of AI Assurance

• the emergence of Confidence Engineering

• why testing AI-powered systems requires a fundamentally different mindset than testing traditional deterministic software.

From non-deterministic behavior and autonomous agents to governance, ethics, and the future role of software testers, this conversation examines how the testing profession must adapt to meet the challenges of an AI-driven world.

If you’re curious about the future of quality engineering, AI governance, and what comes next for the testing profession, this is a conversation you won’t want to miss.

You can hear more from Jonathon in his Keynote Address, “The AI Assurance Imperative: Quality Engineering for the Agentic Era” at PNSQC 2026.

Share Your Ideas. Save 50%

Have an idea, case study, research project, lesson learned, or innovative approach to software quality?

Submit a poster proposal for PNSQC 2026.

Poster sessions are one of the best ways to start conversations, share practical insights, and connect with fellow quality professionals in a relaxed, interactive setting.

Accepted poster authors receive 50% off conference registration, making it an excellent opportunity to share your work while attending the conference at a significant discount.

Space is limited.
Poster proposals will be accepted through September 22.

Whether you’re a first-time presenter or a seasoned conference speaker, a poster is a great way to contribute to the community and showcase your ideas.

What could you teach the quality community this year?

Learn more and submit your proposal: https://pnsqc.org/conference/2026/poster/

PNSQC June Meetup: Tech Talk Team Up with Portland AWS User Group

PNSQC is teaming up with the Portland AWS User Group for our June Meetup at ProFocus Headquarters!

Join us for an evening of networking and technical learning with cloud, security, and quality professionals from across the region.

This month’s talk:
Trevor Gudeman, Senior Software Engineer at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, will explore how AWS-native tools like CodeBuild and CodePipeline can improve code quality across CI/CD workflows through automated linting, testing, security scanning, quality gates, and more.

📅 Monday, June 15

🕠 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM PDT

📍 Hybrid event: attend in Portland or online

RSVP through Meetup and join us!

We’re almost done with our review of the abstracts submitted for PNSQC 2026. During the evaluation process, I got about a third of the way through the pile and realized I had stopped skimming (We had over 100 abstracts). I was actually reading. Many talks were asking and answering harder questions than I’ve heard at any conference in a while.

The conversation about agentic AI is getting serious

The most crowded subject in the submissions was agentic testing. Not the hype version, where someone declares that agents will replace testers and then does a demo. The practitioners coming to Portland are bringing real battles and experiences.

One paper makes a case: We’ve spent years learning to test deterministic systems, and agentic AI breaks that contract entirely. Same inputs, different paths. Test suites that pass don’t tell you the agent stayed inside its intended boundaries. A whole session is dedicated to something the author calls the “tautology trap,” a failure mode where tests look behavioral but never actually call the agent. 14,000 passing tests. Zero behavioral validation. Green pipeline the whole time. I was thinking this may start some uncomfortable conversations in the hallways.

Several other papers work the same territory from different angles. One digs into why AI coding assistants have created a validation bottleneck nobody fully anticipated. Developers ship faster; everything downstream gets slower. Another builds a governance framework for autonomous test automation from the inside out: impact analysis, quality scoring, and confidence reporting replacing the raw pass/fail percentage that doesn’t actually tell a stakeholder what they need to know.

What strikes me reading all of these together is that the field is past the “should we use AI” question. The question is now: how do we use it without fooling ourselves?

The human question isn’t going away

Some of the papers I’m most excited about aren’t primarily about tools at all.

One of them asks whether we’ve been optimizing away something we can’t replace. Not human effort, but human judgment. The kind of quality that comes from someone who cares about what ships, who understands the person on the other end, who will flag something even when the test passed. Is caring something that can be duplicated by a machine? There’s a phrase in the abstract I keep thinking about: “quality is art.” Unprovable, probably. Worth arguing about.

Another paper approaches this from a different direction: what happens to team health when the systems we build become more autonomous but the humans running them stay just as human? It draws on real research from organizational psychology as the actual argument.

And then there’s a paper from a program manager who spent his MBA dissertation interviewing 20 C-suite and VP-level leaders about why communication fails during sustained change. By the time the message reaches the people who have to act, the context that makes it matter has been stripped out. He calls it “communication debt.” I’ve seen this in many clients I’ve worked with. It has nothing to do with AI and everything to do with why good initiatives die in middle management.

Some of the most interesting work is coming from unexpected places

A team of high school students from Portland submitted a paper on autonomous robotics software architecture. Not a science fair project. A real engineering paper about the quality failure modes that emerge when you move from finite state machines to belief-based decision models. They’ve been building competitive robots for years and they documented what breaks, why it breaks, and what they changed. I’ve read papers from senior engineers with less intellectual honesty and rigor than this one.

Here’s something most teams building LLM-powered products don’t know yet. The metric everyone uses to evaluate RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) systems, “faithfulness,” measures whether the model’s answer was consistent with what it retrieved. That’s it. It says nothing about whether what it retrieved was actually true. A financial services architect noticed this gap, built an adversarial test set to measure it across the major evaluation frameworks, and the numbers are not reassuring. You can score 0.95 on faithfulness and be confidently wrong. He’s bringing the data to Portland.

One paper will resonate with anyone who has ever tried to explain to a non-technical executive why a small change cost six months and $400,000. It’s about assessing software maintainability without reading a codebase line by line. How do you communicate technical debt to someone who asks why the developers can’t just fix it over a weekend?

What this year’s program is really about

If I had to name the common thread across all of this work, I’d call it accountability under uncertainty. How do you stay responsible for quality when the systems you’re building make their own decisions? When the tests pass but you’re not sure what they proved? When communication breaks down not because anyone lied but because the message changed on its way?

The community has been digging into these questions. The papers this year aren’t answers. They’re the best current thinking from people who are doing the work, getting it wrong, adjusting, and writing it down for the rest of us.

October in Portland. I’m looking forward to the arguments.

What’s the hardest question your team is dealing with right now?

Want to attend PNSQC but need approval? Focus on the value you’ll bring back to your organization:

Practitioner-Led Content
PNSQC presentations are selected through peer review and delivered by practitioners sharing real-world experiences, not sales pitches.

Focus on Software Quality
Unlike broad technology conferences, PNSQC is dedicated to software quality, testing, quality engineering, and quality leadership.

AI Through a Quality Lens
Learn how organizations are applying AI to testing and quality engineering while addressing reliability, risk, governance, and trust.

Direct Access to Experts
PNSQC’s size makes it easy to engage with speakers, authors, and fellow practitioners, leading to deeper conversations and practical takeaways.

Knowledge You Can Apply Immediately
The conference emphasizes case studies, lessons learned, and proven practices that teams can bring back and implement right away.

Register during the Super Early Bird period to secure the lowest conference rates and get more value from your training budget.

Invest in the Next Generation of Innovators

Support the next generation of innovators, problem-solvers, and technology leaders.

The PNSQC STEM Fair gives students an opportunity to showcase STEM projects, receive feedback from industry professionals, and explore real-world applications of technology. Your sponsorship helps inspire curiosity, critical thinking, and future careers in STEM.

Why Sponsor?

• Connect with future STEM talent

• Support STEM education and workforce development

• Demonstrate your commitment to innovation and community engagement

• Gain visibility among students, educators, and technology professionals

Interested in sponsoring the PNSQC STEM Fair? Contact outreach@pnsqc.org for more information.

PNSQC 2026 is accepting poster paper proposals

No formal paper required. Present your work, your experiment, or your question directly to software quality professionals at one of the Pacific Northwest’s longest-running tech conferences (44 years and counting!)

PNSQC is one of the few practitioner-focused software quality conferences in the world that offers a Poster Paper Program—a rare opportunity to present exploratory research, innovative ideas, or work in progress in a professional conference setting.

THE EXPLORER

You have an idea worth sharing, but not enough data for a full paper—yet. Use a poster to start the conversation and gather feedback.

THE PRACTITIONER

You tried something interesting at work. Maybe it succeeded, maybe it failed. Either way, there’s a lesson others can learn from.

THE EMERGING SPEAKER

You want presentation experience before stepping onto a stage in front of 150+ attendees. A poster session is a great place to start.

THE STUDENT

Your capstone project, thesis, course research, or independent study deserves an audience beyond the classroom.

If any of these sound like you, the PNSQC Poster Paper Program may be the perfect fit.

What You Get

• 50% off conference registration — accepted poster authors pay half price

• A reviewer assigned to give feedback on your poster before the conference

• Direct access to 300 software quality professionals, engineers, and hiring managers

• Publication credit in the PNSQC 2026 program and proceedings

• A real conference presentation credit for your resume or portfolio

• As an added bonus, accepted poster presenters receive a $250 stipend, making PNSQC one of the only conferences to provide financial support for poster authors.

DEADLINE: SEPTEMBER 22, 2026

Submit at pnsqc.org/conference/2026/poster/

Questions? program@pnsqc.org

PNSQC June Meetup: Tech Talk Team Up with Portland AWS User Group

PNSQC is teaming up with the Portland AWS User Group for our June Meetup at ProFocus Headquarters!

Join us for an evening of networking and technical learning with cloud, security, and quality professionals from across the region.

🎤 This month’s talk:

Trevor Gudeman, Senior Software Engineer at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, will explore how AWS-native tools like CodeBuild and CodePipeline can improve code quality across CI/CD workflows through automated linting, testing, security scanning, quality gates, and more.

📅 Monday, June 15
🕠 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM PDT
📍 Hybrid event: attend in Portland or online
RSVP through Meetup and join us!

Join us on Wednesday, October 14, 2026 for a full day of hands-on workshops designed for quality engineers, testers, and technology leaders. This year’s program focuses on the biggest shift in software quality: AI, automation, and autonomous systems.

Learn practical skills and modern approaches from industry experts, including:

• Testing Beyond Your Laptop with GitHub Actions — CI-driven testing in real-world pipelines

• Social Software Testing Approaches — exploring collaborative and exploratory testing methods

• Using Models to Define Test Plans — structured thinking for better test strategy

• A Quality Engineering Introduction to AI & Machine Learning — foundational AI concepts for testers

• AI Agentic Testing: AI-Augmented Testing — how AI agents are changing testing workflows

• Integrating the Model Context Protocol (MCP) into your workflow

• Testing the Next Generation of AI-Based Software — practical challenges of AI systems

• Managers’ Forum: Quality Leadership in the Age of Autonomy — leadership strategies for AI-driven teams

These workshops are designed to be immediately applicable, helping you bring modern practices back to your team the next day.

Register today and be part of the shift toward AI-powered quality engineering (Super Early Bird rate available through June 30)

Introducing Our New Sponsor: Covert Coders LLC

We are pleased to welcome Covert Coders as a Sponsor of this year’s PNSQC conference.

Covert Coders specializes in the responsible application of Artificial Intelligence in software testing. Their work focuses on delivering agentic AI solutions and AI integrations that help teams improve testing efficiency while maintaining control, transparency, and quality. A key part of their approach is the combination of AI-driven capabilities with human review of AI-generated outputs, ensuring safe and reliable adoption of emerging technologies in real-world testing environments.

As organizations increasingly explore AI in their QA processes, Covert Coders supports teams in adopting these tools securely and effectively—bridging innovation with practical governance.

STEM Fair: AI & Software Project Exposition

High school students are invited to showcase their projects in AI, software development, cybersecurity, robotics, and game design in a science-fair style setting. Present your work, demo your ideas, and get feedback directly from professionals in the tech industry.

This is more than a school event, it’s a chance to step into a real conference environment connected to the Pacific Northwest Software Quality Conference, meet industry experts, and see how your ideas fit into real-world software challenges.

Register now and bring your project to life on a professional stage.

PNSQC June Meetup: Tech Talk Team Up with Portland AWS User Group

PNSQC is teaming up with the Portland AWS User Group for our June Meetup at ProFocus Headquarters!

Join us for an evening of networking and technical learning with cloud, security, and quality professionals from across the region.

🎤 This month’s talk:

Trevor Gudeman, Senior Software Engineer at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, will explore how AWS-native tools like CodeBuild and CodePipeline can improve code quality across CI/CD workflows through automated linting, testing, security scanning, quality gates, and more.

📅 Monday, June 15

🕠 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM PDT

📍 Hybrid event: attend in Portland or online

RSVP through Meetup and join us!

Subscribe now

Take advantage of the lowest conference rates before prices increase.

Register for PNSQC 2026

Whether you come for the technical talks, practical insights, community discussions, or hallway conversations with people who truly understand software quality, PNSQC is built for practitioners by practitioners.

Join us for another year of thoughtful conversations, real-world experience, and a community that has been advancing software quality for more than four decades.

Keynotes free to stream: Not ready to commit? Register for free access to the keynote track and decide later.

Attention High School Students: Registration is Open for the 2026 PNSQC STEM Fair!

Do you love robotics, AI, cybersecurity, coding, or game development? Want to show off something you built and meet other students who are passionate about technology?

Join us for the 2026 PNSQC STEM Fair!

Hosted by PNSQC, the STEM Fair gives high school students in the Portland area the opportunity to share projects, explore technology, and connect with industry professionals in a fun and welcoming environment.

Main Events

🤖 Robotics Team Competition
Build a robot and make it dance! Teams will compete on creativity, choreography, technical execution, and entertainment.

🧠 AI & Software Project Exposition
Set up a science-fair style booth to demo your project — whether it’s an AI model, cybersecurity tool, game, app, or another technology project.

What to Expect

• Inspiring keynote speakers from the tech industry

• Student project booths and live demos

• Sponsor and technology booths

• Interactive activities and hands-on experiences

• Awards and closing celebration

At PNSQC, we believe students learn best when they have the freedom to explore, create, and share what they’ve built. The STEM Fair is designed to encourage curiosity, creativity, and future careers in technology.

Register your team or project today:
https://pnsqc.org/stem-fair/

PNSQC 2026 Poster Paper Program

Have an idea, experiment, project, or question related to software quality? Present it at the 44th Annual Pacific NW Software Quality Conference.

PNSQC’s Poster Paper Program is designed for practitioners, students, researchers, and emerging speakers who want to share exploratory or in-progress work in a professional conference setting, no formal paper required.

Accepted poster authors receive:

• 50% off conference registration

• Reviewer feedback before the conference

• Publication credit in the conference proceedings

• Direct access to software quality professionals and hiring managers

Topics can include AI, automation, testing, cybersecurity, tooling, lessons learned, research, and more.

📅 Deadline: September 22, 2026
Submit your proposal:
https://pnsqc.org/conference/2026/poster/

May Meetup: From the PMI Floor - an honest conversation on AI

Join us for the PNSQC May Meetup on Tuesday, May 26, for an honest and timely conversation about AI, project management, and software quality.

This month’s discussion, “From the PMI Conference Floor: What the PM World Is Saying About Quality, AI, and Getting Work Done Right,” will be led by Jahzeel Ormeño, Founder and Principal Consultant at SimplexityPM. Fresh from the PMI Portland Annual Conference, Jahzeel will share insights into what project managers are really discussing around AI adoption, delivery challenges, and the practices that quietly improve quality before issues ever reach production.

Whether you work in QA, testing, development, leadership, or project management, this hybrid meetup is a chance to compare notes, exchange ideas, and continue the broader industry conversation around AI and delivery teams.

Join us in person at Steeplejack Brewing in Portland or online from anywhere.

📅 Tuesday, May 26 · 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM PDT

We hope to see you there!

Register here:

• Meetup

• Luma

PNSQC June Meetup: Tech Talk Team Up with Portland AWS User Group

PNSQC is teaming up with the Portland AWS User Group for our June Meetup at ProFocus Headquarters!

Join us for an evening of networking and technical learning with cloud, security, and quality professionals from across the region.

🎤 This month’s talk:

Trevor Gudeman, Senior Software Engineer at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, will explore how AWS-native tools like CodeBuild and CodePipeline can improve code quality across CI/CD workflows through automated linting, testing, security scanning, quality gates, and more.

📅 Monday, June 15

🕠 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM PDT

📍 Hybrid event: attend in Portland or online

RSVP through Meetup and join us!

Subscribe now

In 2012, I heard about PNSQC. I hadn’t presented much at conferences and wanted the experience, so I submitted a paper. Luckily, they accepted me.

I got the t-shirt. And I met my paper reviewer, John Burley. We’re still in touch today.

After the conference, I agreed to volunteer. The deal was simple: spread the word about PNSQC. That was my promise in exchange for the shirt. I started posting about the conference on social media and, somewhere along the way, became the de facto social media chair. Then I was an invited speaker, and later invited onto the board. Then I became program chair. Now I’m president.

My friend Moss Drake has been around even longer. He has 15 to 20 PNSQC t-shirts, one from each year, and he wears them with pride. That’s what this conference does to people. It pulls them in and keeps them. Not because of prestige or polish, but because of something harder to name.

I’ve been thinking about that lately. About what it actually is.

I think about it when I think about poster papers. Because the person I was in 2012, nervous, not sure I belonged, hoping my paper was good enough, that’s exactly who this program is designed for. Not just students or first-timers. Anyone who has something worth saying and isn’t quite sure yet how to say it from a stage.

That’s what Poster papers are about.

We’ve had them for years. Some years four. Some years eight. We never pushed them hard. We never put them on the front page or sent a dedicated campaign or wrote about why they exist. They just kept happening, year after year, tucked into the evening networking session, a few people standing next to their work, talking to whoever stopped.

I started thinking recently about why that is. Why something so lightly promoted keeps coming back.

The answer, I think, is that poster papers solve a problem most conferences don’t admit they have.

Most conferences have traditionally offered one way in. You write an abstract and submit it. You get accepted, or you don’t. If you get in, you give a 45-minute PowerPoint presentation at a podium to a room full of people. Then questions. Then done.

But some of the most interesting thinking in software quality doesn’t arrive fully formed. It arrives as a hunch, an experiment, a failure worth understanding, a question that’s been nagging at a team for six months. It arrives in the middle of the work, not at the end.

Poster papers were built for that.

You don’t write a paper or do a formal PowerPoint presentation. You create a visual poster board presentation of an idea, an experiment, a lesson, or a question. You stand with it during the evening session. People stop. They ask things. You answer. The conversation goes somewhere neither of you expected, taking you and your ideas forward. That’s the whole point.

Here’s something I don’t say often enough.

PNSQC is one of the only practitioner software quality conferences in the world that does this.

Academic conferences have had poster sessions for decades. It’s standard practice in academia because researchers understand that knowledge is built incrementally, that half-formed ideas deserve airtime, and that the conversation around a poster is valuable in getting feedback on your ideas.

The practitioner and professional conference world has never followed. I’m not entirely sure why. Maybe because it’s harder to put on a schedule. Maybe because nobody thought their audience wanted it.

We thought our audience wanted it. And we were right.

PNSQC is a nonprofit. We don’t have a commercial agenda shaping the program. Our peer-review process, which makes us the only peer-reviewed software quality conference in the United States, means we’re accountable to the quality of ideas, not how many people go to a sponsor’s booth. That independence is why we built something like poster papers and kept running it even when the numbers were small.

The poster papers enable PNSQC to push and pull content in both directions. Our peer-review process holds technical content to genuine academic scrutiny. That’s a high bar, and it’s intentional. But the same conference that publishes peer-reviewed proceedings also makes room for the experienced practitioner with an idea worth discussing, the student with a capstone project, the emerging speaker who wants to present to a few people before a room of 150, and the researcher with something incomplete but worth putting in front of a real audience. Both exist for the same reason: this community takes ideas seriously, wherever they come from and however complete they are.

The people who tend to find poster papers most useful are not one type. Some are experienced practitioners who did something interesting at work and have a lesson worth sharing, but no appetite for writing a formal paper. Some are explorers with a half-formed idea they want to road-test before committing to it. Some are emerging speakers who want to present to a few people at a time before standing in front of a room of 150. And some are students, with capstone projects or thesis research, or just a question they have been turning over that deserves a real audience. None of those is a lesser contribution. They are just different ones.

This year’s conference theme is Quality in the Age of Autonomy.

I’ve been thinking about what that phrase actually means for a community of people who spend their careers caring about whether software works. AI is changing the shape of work. Automation is handling more of the routine. What matters more now is judgment, interpretation, and the kind of exploratory thinking that doesn’t fit into a test case or a metrics dashboard.

That’s exactly what poster papers are for.

Not the finished result. The thinking in progress. The experiment you ran didn’t go the way you expected. The question you can’t answer yet, but can’t stop asking. The idea you want to put in front of people who will ask hard questions to make it better.

When the tools are getting faster, and the outputs are getting smoother, there’s something worth protecting about the messy human process of figuring things out together. A poster session is one of the few places in professional life where you can show up with something incomplete and have that be exactly the right thing to do.

I’ve watched a lot of poster sessions at PNSQC over the years. Some of the best conversations I’ve had at this conference have happened while standing next to someone’s poster board, a drink in hand, in deep discussion.

One presenter from a few years back told me their poster started as something they weren’t sure was worth sharing. The conversations at the session convinced them it was. The following year, they gave an invited talk based on what they’d learned from those twenty minutes next to an easel.

That’s what this program is for. That’s what this community is for.

I joined PNSQC for a free t-shirt. John Burley is still in my network. Moss is still collecting shirts. And I’m still here, trying to build the kind of conference that pulls people in and gives them a reason to stay.

That starts with making room for everyone who has something worth saying.

As AI systems move from experiments into production, many teams are hitting the same wall: prompts are easy, but systems are hard.

At the Pacific Northwest Software Quality Conference, the theme Quality in the Age of Autonomy pushes us to think beyond demos. If AI is going to interact with real systems such as APIs, data, and workflows, we need something more structured. That is where Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers come in.

MCP is a protocol Anthropic published so that tool integrations are standardized and reusable. Instead of every agent framework inventing its own way to connect to Gmail, GitHub, or a database, MCP defines a common interface. An MCP server exposes tools; an MCP client (your agent) calls them.

In sum, an agent is the thing that decides and acts. An MCP server is a standardized way to give the agent tools and context.

An MCP server can be thought of as a typed, observable, and testable interface between an AI system and the real world. The following five use cases explain why this matters.

1. Tool Execution Layer

MCP servers allow AI systems to safely and consistently use tools such as APIs, command-line utilities, and internal services. Instead of relying on fragile prompt instructions, MCP provides defined inputs and outputs, discoverable capabilities, and controlled execution.

This moves AI from suggesting actions to executing them reliably, which is a critical step toward production systems. A public example is how GitHub has integrated AI into developer workflows with GitHub Copilot. In this model, the AI can run terminal commands, modify files, query codebases, and open pull requests.

From a quality perspective, this represents a significant shift. You are no longer testing text output. You are testing tool interactions and side effects. This raises important questions about failure handling, input validation, permission enforcement, and reproducibility.

2. Secure Data Access Gateway

AI systems often need access to real data, but that introduces risk. MCP servers act as a controlled gateway that enforces permissions, masks sensitive data, and logs access.

This approach avoids embedding secrets in prompts and provides auditability, which is essential in regulated environments. A public example is Microsoft 365 Copilot from Microsoft. Copilot integrates with enterprise data but only accesses information the user is authorized to see, using the Microsoft Graph permission model. Alternatively, FusionAuth’s implementation of OAuth2 is more widely accepted as an industry practice to protect third-party credentials.

In these patterns, the server mediates every data request rather than allowing the model to access raw data directly. This enables data privacy compliance, reduces the risk of leakage, and builds confidence in enterprise AI adoption.

3. Stateful Workflow Orchestration

Real work is rarely a single step. MCP enables multi-step workflows with session state and coordinated actions across systems. This allows AI to handle end-to-end processes rather than isolated interactions.

A public example is Zapier, which enables AI-driven workflows through features like Zapier AI Actions. A user can describe a goal such as processing an email, extracting data, creating a ticket, notifying a team, and logging results. The system then coordinates each step in sequence.

This workflow is stateful because data flows between steps, each action depends on prior results, and the system tracks progress throughout the process. Failures can trigger retries or alternate paths. Without orchestration, AI interactions remain fragmented and unreliable. With it, systems can deliver complete, end-to-end behavior.

4. Domain-Aware Knowledge Interfaces

MCP servers can expose structured domain knowledge such as database schemas, business rules, and data models. This gives AI systems real constraints instead of relying on guesswork.

A healthcare example illustrates this clearly. Clinical systems often use FHIR to represent patient data in structured formats such as Patient, Observation, and MedicationRequest resources. An AI system connected to a FHIR interface can summarize lab results and medications by working within defined data structures and relationships.

This approach reduces hallucination and ensures outputs are valid by design. In domains like healthcare, where accuracy is critical, domain-aware interfaces provide traceability, consistency, and safer decision support.

Another great QA-specific domain-aware MCP interface is Playwright MCP. Combine this with the Browserstack MCP and add in Jira and you have all the components you need for a fully automated AI testing workflow. By stringing together the MCP interfaces a team can integrate AI into the full workflow.

5. Observability and Control

Perhaps the most important shift is that MCP makes AI behavior visible. Systems can log tool calls, trace workflows, and apply controls such as rate limits, approvals, and retries.

A strong example is Datadog, which has begun integrating AI agents with observability data. In this model, AI systems can access logs, metrics, and traces, diagnose issues, and trigger actions such as creating tickets or notifying teams.

This transforms observability into a control plane for AI. Instead of treating AI as a black box, teams can inspect, debug, and improve behavior over time. The system follows a clear pattern: log, understand, act, and verify.

Why This Matters for Quality

For quality engineers, testers, and technical leaders, MCP represents a turning point. We are no longer just testing outputs. We are testing systems of behavior.

MCP enables teams to apply risk-based testing to AI interactions, reproduce failures, benchmark performance across human and AI approaches, and replace intuition with evidence. As AI systems become more autonomous, this level of structure and observability is not optional. It is foundational.

The real challenge for QA is that the outputs and behaviors of these MCP Severs and Agents are largely non-deterministic and unpredictable.

Managing the outputs so that they can be used in test and deployment pipelines is a critical and largely unsolved problem, and an open opportunity for QA to shine.

Not every great idea needs a 45-minute talk.

Some of the best conversations at PNSQC happen around a poster, a drink, and a question nobody has fully answered yet.

Poster papers are interactive, informal, and perfect for:
• work-in-progress ideas
• lessons learned
• AI/testing experiments
• student projects
• first-time presenters
• questions you’re still exploring

No formal paper required, just an interesting idea and a willingness to talk about it.

Accepted poster authors receive 50% off conference registration.

📅 Proposal deadline: September 22, 2026

Submit your proposal: https://pnsqc.org/conference/2026/poster

If you have something worth discussing, you belong here.

Meet Our Gold Sponsor: Keysight Eggplant

We’re excited to introduce our Gold Sponsor, Keysight Eggplant!

Keysight Eggplant provides AI-driven software test automation, performance testing, and monitoring to help enterprise teams validate real user journeys, improve quality, and release faster with greater confidence.

Modern software testing is fragmented, and traditional automation tools often struggle outside the browser. Eggplant helps teams test across web, desktop, mobile, Citrix, VDI, and cloud environments validating applications the way real users actually experience them.

🎮 See Keysight Eggplant in action with their interactive demo:
https://play.goconsensus.com/s3bb8dc1e

PNSQChronicles: Audacious Joy With Anne-Louise Sterry

New episode of PNSQChronicles is live!

“What if the secret to better software and a better life starts with joy?”

Michael Larsen sits down with internationally acclaimed performer and speaker Anne-Louise Sterry for a conversation about creativity, mindset, and bringing more humanity into tech.

In this episode:

• Why joy is a skill you can develop

• How creativity improves technical thinking

• Breaking routine to unlock your “creative engine”

• Bringing humor, energy, and connection into your work

Anne-Louise has inspired more than 400,000 people worldwide through her unique blend of storytelling, psychology, and music-driven keynote experiences.

🎧 Listen now on PNSQChronicles
🎤 And see Anne-Louise live at PNSQC 2026

May Meetup: From the PMI Floor - an honest conversation on AI

Join us for the PNSQC May Meetup on Tuesday, May 26, for an honest and timely conversation about AI, project management, and software quality.

This month’s discussion, “From the PMI Conference Floor: What the PM World Is Saying About Quality, AI, and Getting Work Done Right,” will be led by Jahzeel Ormeño, Founder and Principal Consultant at SimplexityPM. Fresh from the PMI Portland Annual Conference, Jahzeel will share insights into what project managers are really discussing around AI adoption, delivery challenges, and the practices that quietly improve quality before issues ever reach production.

Whether you work in QA, testing, development, leadership, or project management, this hybrid meetup is a chance to compare notes, exchange ideas, and continue the broader industry conversation around AI and delivery teams.

Join us in person at Steeplejack Brewing in Portland or online from anywhere.

📅 Tuesday, May 26 · 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM PDT

We hope to see you there!

Register here:

• Meetup

• Luma

PNSQC June Meetup: Tech Talk Team Up with Portland AWS User Group

PNSQC is teaming up with the Portland AWS User Group for our June Meetup at ProFocus Headquarters!

Join us for an evening of networking and technical learning with cloud, security, and quality professionals from across the region.

🎤 This month’s talk:
Trevor Gudeman, Senior Software Engineer at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, will explore how AWS-native tools like CodeBuild and CodePipeline can improve code quality across CI/CD workflows through automated linting, testing, security scanning, quality gates, and more.

📅 Monday, June 15
🕠 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM PDT
📍 Hybrid event: attend in Portland or online
RSVP through Meetup and join us!

Subscribe now

Join us October 12–14 in Portland, Oregon, for three days of technical talks, hands-on workshops, networking, and conversations with software quality professionals from across the industry. Whether you attend in person or virtually, PNSQC 2026 offers practical insights, emerging ideas, and real-world experiences from leaders in software quality, testing, AI, engineering, and beyond.

Take advantage of Super Early Bird pricing now available for in-person registrations, along with group, student, and Oregon resident discounts. Virtual attendance options are also available, including live-streamed sessions and on-demand access.

We can’t wait to welcome the community back to Portland for another year of learning, sharing, and connecting. Secure your spot today!

https://pnsqc.org/register/

The Call for Proposals for PNSQC 2026 is officially closed

We want to thank everyone who submitted a talk, workshop, paper, poster, or idea for this year’s conference.

We received an incredible number of proposals covering a wide range of topics across software quality, testing, AI, leadership, engineering practices, and emerging technologies. The program committee is now hard at work reviewing submissions and building this year’s program.

The hardest part is choosing because there are so many strong proposals. We’re grateful for the time, expertise, and creativity our community brings to PNSQC every year, and we can’t wait to share the final lineup with you soon.

PNSQC & PLUS QA: Celebrating a Long-Standing Partnership

PNSQC is proud to recognize PLUS QA as a longtime supporter and sponsor of our community.

Based in Portland, PLUS QA has been delivering 100% onshore software testing services since 2008. Their team of more than 70 U.S.-based analysts supports organizations with functionality, compatibility, accessibility, automation, and e-commerce testing across a wide variety of platforms and products.

With an in-house library of 600+ real devices and experience working with startups, digital agencies, and enterprise teams, PLUS QA helps companies scale quality efforts to meet evolving project demands.

PLUS QA has supported PNSQC for years, and we’re grateful for their continued partnership and commitment to the software quality community.

May Meetup: From the PMI Floor - an honest conversation on AI

Join us for the PNSQC May Meetup on Tuesday, May 26, for an honest and timely conversation about AI, project management, and software quality.

This month’s discussion, “From the PMI Conference Floor: What the PM World Is Saying About Quality, AI, and Getting Work Done Right,” will be led by Jahzeel Ormeño, Founder and Principal Consultant at SimplexityPM. Fresh from the PMI Portland Annual Conference, Jahzeel will share insights into what project managers are really discussing around AI adoption, delivery challenges, and the practices that quietly improve quality before issues ever reach production.

Whether you work in QA, testing, development, leadership, or project management, this hybrid meetup is a chance to compare notes, exchange ideas, and continue the broader industry conversation around AI and delivery teams.

Join us in person at Steeplejack Brewing in Portland or online from anywhere. Networking begins at 6:00 PM PDT, followed by the discussion at 6:30 PM.

We hope to see you there!

Register here:

• Meetup

• Luma

Subscribe now

You don’t need a finished paper to speak at PNSQC. You just need an idea

Submission deadline: May 4, 2025

Have you solved a tricky quality problem at work? Navigated a painful failure and come out with hard-won lessons? For more than 40 years, PNSQC has been the place where practitioners share those experiences. We’re accepting paper proposals for this year’s conference, and we’d love to hear from you.

How it works

Getting started is low-effort: submit a title and 3–4 sentences describing your idea. If your proposal is accepted, PNSQC will work with you to develop it into a short whitepaper. Accepted papers are peer-reviewed and published in our annual proceedings — a lasting contribution to the software quality profession.

Unlike many conferences, PNSQC papers are peer-reviewed and published in our annual proceedings, contributing to the body of knowledge for the software quality profession.

Who should submit

If you’ve never presented at a conference before, this is a great place to start. PNSQC actively encourages first-time authors, and the paper development process means you won’t be doing it alone.

Meetup recap — April 2025

AI-augmented manual testing: how PLUS QA built MaxAI without disrupting their team

Presented by Ryan Wilder (VP) and Gianni Zamora (Lead Dev) at PLUS QA, Southeast Portland

At our April meetup, Ryan Wilder (VP of Operations) and Gianni Zamora (Software Engineer) from PLUS QA walked us through MaxAI — an in-house tool they built to amplify manual testing without disrupting the way their team already works.

The core philosophy: don’t add another tool to the pile. PLUS QA works with many external clients simultaneously, each with different systems and timelines, sometimes starting testing on a Monday with a Friday go-live. Their answer was to embed AI directly into their existing Test Platform, so testers “come home to PLUS QA” to a familiar, consistent workflow no matter the chaos of the client project.

MaxAI handles the work that doesn’t require human expertise, checking broken links, page titles, image loading, DOM-level issues, freeing testers to focus on the nuanced, experiential testing that AI can’t do. Bugs are filed as drafts first, invisible to clients until a human expert reviews and approves them. As Ryan put it: “Max is our sous chef. We still need a MasterChef to make sure the plate is ready before it goes to the client.”

The tool uses domain-restricted crawling to avoid going off the rails on dynamic pages, GPT-4o for image interpretation, and passes screenshot + selector + DOM snippet as context to improve accuracy. Test cases are exported in a fully editable state, a rough draft, not a final product, so PMs can refine them just as they would anything written manually.

The Q&A surfaced some rich territory: domain knowledge and HIPAA-style rules, localization testing, testing for AI agents as end users, and how to handle the fact that correctness in QA is often subjective. On that last point, Ryan’s take was clear, human experts make the final call, because at least you can ask them why.

On the roadmap: deeper accessibility testing (Ryan was candid that the experiential side, does it feel “scratchy” or “nice” to use a screen reader on this page, is far beyond what AI can assess today), desktop application support via Playwright, and potentially continuous monitoring for clients.

Missed it? The recording will be available on our YouTube channel soon.

Subscribe now

Deadline Extended: Call for Proposals Now Open Until May 4!

The PNSQC-2026 Call for Proposals deadline has been extended to May 4, 2026.

This is your chance to share insights on software quality in the age of autonomy—where AI, automation, and trust redefine how we build and validate systems.

We invite practitioners, engineers, researchers, and leaders to submit and contribute to a community that has advanced software quality for over 40 years.

📅 New deadline: May 4, 2026 — don’t miss it.

Submit here: https://pnsqc.org/cfp/

New Episode of PNSQChronicles – S3E3

Better Together: Humans, AI, and the Next Quality Benchmark

What if the future of testing isn’t humans vs AI… but humans + AI?
In the latest PNSQChronicles, Maaret Pyhäjärvi shares why:
• Creativity is a tester’s hidden advantage
• Exploratory testing matters more than ever
• Better questions → better AI outcomes

The next quality benchmark belongs to those who collaborate with AI.
If this topic resonates, don’t miss PNSQC 2026 in Portland, October 14–16.

📅 TODAY! April Meetup: AI-Augmented Manual Testing (with PLUS QA)

Learn how AI is being integrated into real-world manual testing workflows enhancing human expertise.

Hosted by PLUS QA, this session features:

• Ryan Wilder (VP, PLUS QA)

• Gianni Zamora (Lead Dev, PLUS QA)

Expect a live demo + discussion on integrating AI into QA tools, refining workflows, and amplifying human expertise.

🗓 Wednesday, April 22 · 6:00–8:00 PM PDT

📍 Portland, OR + Online (Hybrid)

RSVP:

• meetup.com

• luma.com

Subscribe now

New Episode of PNSQChronicles – S3E2

Inside Tesla: The Software-Defined Vehicle (feat. Florian Rohde)

In this episode, Michael Larsen talks with Florian Rohde about the shift to software-driven cars, why features come pre-installed but locked, how over-the-air updates change ownership, and what this means for drivers and the future of mobility.

From Tesla insights to the broader impact on product lifecycle and customer experience, this conversation challenges what it really means to “own” a car.

🎧 Don’t miss Florian’s full talk at PNSQC 2026.

Thinking About Writing a PNSQC Paper?

If you work in software quality or testing, consider submitting a paper to PNSQC. It may feel challenging at first, but it’s a great way to reflect on your experience, structure your knowledge, and share something meaningful with the community.

Watch this short video for inspiration:

Don’t wait too long—the deadline is approaching (April 20)!

https://pnsqc.org/cfp/

Got a Topic? Start with a Meetup

If you don’t have a full conference talk or your idea is better suited for a shorter, more focused format, consider presenting at one of our meetups. It’s a great opportunity to share your insights, try out new topics, and engage with the community in a more informal setting.

Interested? Tell us about your topic and contact us at program@pnsqc.org. We’d love to hear from you and help bring your ideas to the community.

📅 Upcoming Events

April Meetup: AI-Augmented Manual Testing (with PLUS QA)

🗓 Wednesday, April 22 · 6:00–8:00 PM PDT
📍 Portland, OR + Online (Hybrid)

Hosted by PLUS QA, this session features:

• Ryan Wilder (VP, PLUS QA)

• Gianni Zamora (Lead Dev, PLUS QA)

Learn how AI is being integrated into real-world manual testing workflows enhancing human expertise.

RSVP:

• meetup.com

• luma.com

Subscribe now

PNSQC Wants Your Paper

If you are The Visionary

The age of autonomy is here, and the quality community needs your vision to help shape it. If you have bold ideas and groundbreaking perspectives on what quality means in a world driven by AI and automation, now is the time to share them. Submit your paper and let your voice lead the way.

If You Eat, Sleep & Breathe Tech

PNSQC 2026 featured track: “Architecting Autonomy: Tools, Agents, and the Future of Productivity.”

Submit your papers on self-healing CI/CD, multi-agent orchestration, and intelligent tooling. Skip the theory, bring the lessons learned, tradeoffs made, and outcomes we can all apply.

If you are the Engineer Who Lead from the Front

Share your real-world experience in:

• Quality Engineering & Systems Reliability

• Organizational Leadership & Governance

• Testing AI & Intelligent Systems

• AI-Native Developer Tools

No speaking experience required — if it works in the real world, we want to hear it.

⏰ Deadline: April 20, 2026 | 📝 www.pnsqc.org/cfp

📅 Upcoming Events

April Meetup: AI-Augmented Manual Testing (with PLUS QA)

🗓 Wednesday, April 22 · 6:00–8:00 PM PDT
📍 Portland, OR + Online (Hybrid)

Hosted by PLUS QA, this session features:

• Ryan Wilder (VP, PLUS QA)

• Gianni Zamora (Lead Dev, PLUS QA)

Learn how AI is being integrated into real-world manual testing workflows enhancing human expertise.

RSVP:

• meetup.com

• luma.com

• Gmail Mic Drop (2016)
  Google launched a prank button that sent a mic-drop GIF and muted threads. A bug made it replace the normal “Send” for some users leading to accidental mic drops in serious conversations. Disabled within hours.

• The 🚀 Emoji Crash
  A single emoji caused a consistent app crash due to a Unicode handling issue. Temporary fix: no emojis allowed in production.

• The Phantom Mouse
  A “ghost bug” with random clicks turned out to be a low-battery wireless mouse interfering with input. Not all bugs are in the code.

• Burger Emoji Debate 🍔
  Users noticed that Google placed the cheese under the patty in its burger emoji, while Apple (and others) placed it on top. The internet debated which was “correct,” and the discussion went viral—prompting Sundar Pichai to joke that he’d “drop everything” to fix it. A small visual detail turned into a public QA moment.

Got a story like this?

📣 PNSQC Call for Papers is open — deadline approaching

Whether it’s:

• a failure that taught you everything

• a fix that saved the system

• or a lesson others shouldn’t learn the hard way

This is exactly what the community wants to hear.

Why submit?

• Peer-reviewed and published paper

• Support and feedback for first-time authors

• Real technical depth (no marketing fluff)

• Travel stipend + Best Paper awards

Bottom line:
If you’ve solved a real quality problem, you already have a talk.

The PNSQC 2026 Call for Papers closes in just one month.

🗓 October 12–14, 2026
📍 Portland, OR + Online

If you’ve been thinking about submitting, now is the time.

Submit your papers

🎙️ PNSQChronicles – Season 3, Episode 1

With Great Judgment Comes Great Responsibility

In the Season 3 kickoff, Michael Larsen talks with Paul Grizzaffi (FreedomPay) about what it means to be a quality professional in the age of AI.

Key idea: Automation is powerful but judgment is irreplaceable.
From hidden AI risks to testing systems we don’t fully understand, the “human in the loop” matters more than ever.

📍 See Paul live at PNSQC 2026, Oct 12–14 in Portland, OR.

Register to Attend

📅 Upcoming Events

Fireside Chat with PNSQC Authors

🗓 Thursday, April 2 · 5:30–7:30 PM PDT

📍 Virtual (Zoom)

Thinking about submitting a paper but not sure where to start?

Join Ying Ki Kwong and Gwendolyn Avington, along with experienced PNSQC authors, for a casual session designed to:

• Demystify the proposal process

• Explain what reviewers are looking for

• Walk through the journey from abstract to final paper

Register for Fireside Chat

April Meetup: AI-Augmented Manual Testing (with PLUS QA)

🗓 Wednesday, April 22 · 6:00–8:00 PM PDT
📍 Portland, OR + Online (Hybrid)

Hosted by PLUS QA, this session features:

• Ryan Wilder (VP, PLUS QA)

• Gianni Zamora (Lead Dev, PLUS QA)

Learn how AI is being integrated into real-world manual testing workflows enhancing human expertise.

RSPV:

• meetup.com

• luma.com

Subscribe now

PNSQC 2026: Keynotes Announced

We’re excited to share the first look at keynote speakers for PNSQC 2026—bringing together thought leaders shaping the future of quality, AI, and software engineering.

🎤 Keynote Speakers

• Jonathon Wright
  The AI Assurance Imperative: Quality Engineering for the Agentic Era

• Paul Grizzaffi
  With Great Judgement Comes Great Responsibility

• Maaret Pyhäjärvi
  Better Together: Humans, AI, and the Next Quality Benchmark

• Florian Rohde
  Inside Tesla: The Birth of the Software-Defined Vehicle and Quality in the Age of Autonomy

🌟 Invited Speakers & Special Guests

• Kristine O’Connor
  Signal Before the Storm: How Quality Intelligence Can Stop Harm Before it Becomes Irreversible

• Anna Sharpe
  My Year of Living with AI

• Millan Kaul (TBA)

• Jason Arbon (TBA)

• Tariq King (TBA)

• Anne-Louise Sterry (TBA)

📣 Call for Papers — Deadline Approaching

The PNSQC 2026 Call for Papers closes in just one month.

🗓 October 12–14, 2026
📍 Portland, OR + Online

If you’ve been thinking about submitting, now is the time.

Submit your paper

📅 Upcoming Events

Fireside Chat with PNSQC Authors

🗓 Thursday, April 2 · 5:30–7:30 PM PDT

📍 Virtual (Zoom)

Thinking about submitting a paper but not sure where to start?

Join Ying Ki Kwong and Gwendolyn Avington, along with experienced PNSQC authors, for a casual session designed to:

• Demystify the proposal process

• Explain what reviewers are looking for

• Walk through the journey from abstract to final paper

Register for Fireside Chat

April Meetup: AI-Augmented Manual Testing (with PLUS QA)

🗓 Wednesday, April 22 · 6:00–8:00 PM PDT
📍 Portland, OR + Online (Hybrid)

Hosted by PLUS QA, this session features:

• Ryan Wilder (VP, PLUS QA)

• Gianni Zamora (Lead Dev, PLUS QA)

Learn how AI is being integrated into real-world manual testing workflows enhancing human expertise.

RSPV:

• meetup.com

• luma.com

Subscribe now