W12 Quality as a Living System

It’s 2025, and the role of quality practitioners has never been more critical or more uncertain. We’re navigating an era where AI-driven development, rapid release cycles, and increasingly complex systems challenge everything we thought we knew about testing. The old ways of working methodically finding defects, writing test cases, and checking boxes aren’t enough of a value proposition to modern delivery teams. The stakes are higher, the systems are messier and more complex, and the cost of getting it wrong is greater than ever.

So, how can we possibly find success?

The answer isn’t just in better tools or more automation, it’s in introspection, understanding how humans think, how systems behave both with humans and with one another, and how our own biases shape the way we interact with these systems both from as a user, and as quality practitioners and developers.

In this immersive workshop, we’ll challenge the traditional approach to software quality & testing by blending psychology, critical thinking, and systems thinking to uncover hidden risks and rethink what it means to build resilient, high-quality software.

Through hands-on exercises and real-world case studies, we’ll explore the following ideas:

• Quality isn’t just about defects—it’s about understanding the humans, systems, and decisions behind the technology
• How cognitive biases shape our understanding of quality and approach to testing and development
• Critical thinking models that provide structured ways to evaluate quality risks and improve decision-making
• Systems thinking concepts that enable moving beyond individual bugs to see why failures happen at a deeper level and stay ahead of them as our environments and our teams evolve
• Applying these approaches can collectively lead to more holistic, resilient, and adaptive quality outcomes

Gwen Iarussi

Gwen Iarussi is a relentless advocate for quality and passionate technologist and engineering leader who's committed her career to improving and shaping the next generation of technology delivery practices.

With three decades of experience in the industry spanning support, quality & testing, enterprise engineering strategy, and SDLC governance across a diverse set of domains including financial services, early and higher education and global eCommerce, she currently serves as VP, SDLC Practice Governance Lead for Zions Bank and is the current President for the Association for Software Testing (AST), a nonprofit focused on building a global testing community and evolving testing methods and disciplines. She is also the Founder of Athena IQ Consulting, where she helps organizations focus and fine tune their approaches to technology transformation and solution implementation. Gwen holds a MS in Information Systems from the University of Utah.

Beyond the professional sphere, Gwen is a Colorado native living in Utah, a born "mountain woman" who would rather be outside exploring nature than just about anything, and an avid amateur photographer and sourdough baker. She is the single mom of two adult kids, two 90 lb rescue pups, and a mustached parakeet named Matisse, who may or may not contribute her own opinions on testing and quality depending on the day.