The promises of faster, better, and cheaper testing through automation are rarely realized. Most test automation scripts simply repeat the same test steps every time. Join Ben Simo as he shares his answers to some thought-provoking questions: What if your automated tests were easier to create and maintain? What if your test automation could go where no manual tester had gone before? What if your test automation could actually create new tests? Ben says model-based testing can. With model-based testing, testers describe the behavior of the application under test and let computers generate and execute the tests. Instead of writing test cases, the tester can focus more on the application's behavior. A simple test generator then creates and executes tests based on the application's modeled behavior. When an application changes, the behavioral model is updated rather than manually changing all the test cases impacted by the change.

Software created in regulated industries such as medical devices must be developed and tested according to agency-imposed process standards. Every requirement must be tested, and every risk must be mitigated. Could defects
still lurk in software wrung out by such an in-depth process? Unfortunately, yes. In fact, software defects are a major cause of medical device recalls each year.
However, by supplementing mandated requirements-based verification with session-based exploratory testing (SBT), the overall quality of mission-critical software can be significantly improved. Based on eight studies, David James
describes how to fit targeted exploratory testing into a regulated process. Specifically, David has found that defect discovery is twenty times less expensive through SBT than through formal verification. Applying SBT early,

Lightning Talks are nine five-minute talks in a fifty-minute time period. Lightning Talks represent a much smaller investment of time than track speaking and offer the chance to try conference speaking without the heavy commitment. Lightning Talks are an opportunity to quickly present your single, biggest, bang-for-the-buck idea. Maybe you just want to ask a question, invite people to help you with your project, boast about something you did, or tell a short cautionary story. These things are all interesting and worth talking about, but there might not be enough to say about them to fill up a full track presentation. Use this as your opportunity to give a first time talk or to present a new topic for the first time.

In order for exploratory testing to be perceived as a valuable process by all stakeholders in the organization, we need to make sure the result of that testing-our documentation-is presented with the same professionalism and attention to detail that distinguishes an artistic masterpiece from a paint-by-number kit. David Gilbert discusses the practical steps testers can take to improve the perceived value of exploratory testing in their organizations. He explains how we can apply a consistent, professional, and structured methodology to our exploratory testing and employ processes that will consistently create the level of detailed output that is considered the hallmark of any investigative analysis. Finally, David tells us how better to communicate the value of exploratory tests and document both the process and results of exploration in a way that stakeholders will understand.