Melissa Benua, engineering manager at mParticle, discusses the role that containers play in test environments. She answers questions like: Why do you need containers? How is your team going to benefit from containers? What is the first step in getting started with containers? Melissa provides resources for learning how to make a container and on how containers will aid you in maintaining control over data and code.

Jason Arbon, CEO and founder of test.ai, discusses his goal to test all the world’s apps. Jason also provides insight on a frequent question he faces: When will AI replace my job? He believes that AI and machine learning have already started taking over some aspects of software testing, and that this transition will keep accelerating. Based on available data, Jason predicts which aspects of testing are going to be subsumed by AI, in what order, and in what time frame.

In this interview, Melissa Tondi, senior QA strategist at Rainforest, discusses the foundation you need in order to have a positive introduction for new tools and technologies. She explains why the team leader has to understand what motivates each individual and how to get them excited about their job. Melissa says team members also have to realize that if they are in any way involved in testing software, they are a technologist, so they have to embrace the tools and technology that will continuously improve and streamline repetitive tasks.

In this interview, Bob Galen, principal agile coach at Vaco Agile, talks about the importance of getting rid of silos by breaking down the barriers of “them and us” and becoming “we.” He also discusses the need for agile managers to steer away from a tactical management view toward a more strategic leadership view. That means leading their teams by setting expectations and guidelines and being available to help if needed, but ultimately just trusting their teams to get the job done.