Software Testing Unleashed - QA, DevEx & Quality Engineering

byRichard Seidl | Software Development & Testing Expert

BusinessManagementEducationTechnology

Software testing is no longer just a phase—it’s the foundation of modern engineering and your ultimate competitive advantage. Welcome to Software Testing Unleashed, the weekly podcast for anyone dedicated to building better software, faster. Hosted by Richard Seidl, renowned expert in software development and testing, this show is your backstage pass to the tools, tactics, and trends defining the next era of Quality Engineering. Whether you are a QA Engineer, SDET, Developer, or Tech Leader, each week we bring you field-tested insights from the brightest minds in the software universe to answer the industry’s toughest questions: - Smart...

Episodes(40 episodes)

The Hidden Risk in AI-Generated Tests and Requirements - Olivier Denoo

Why expert testers will be needed more as AI writes more code What happens to quality when anyone can generate code with a prompt but nobody checks whether it actually works? With Olivier Denoo I talk about why that question puts expert testers in a stronger position than many managers currently assume. We get into the real risk of AI that always sounds right, the edge cases a lost suitcase in Brussels reveals, and why the hardest unsolved problem in testing is still the same one Olivier ran into three decades ago: describing precisely what you want. The skills...

Published: Sep 10, 2026Duration: 21m 22s

Lean Management: Why Problem Analysis Beats Quick Fixes - Nirmala Saneechur

How spending more time on a problem means solving it fewer times Why do we rush to fix problems before we actually understand them? With Nirmala Saneechur I talk about Lean management, what it means to deliver quality at the right time rather than just on time, and why spending a full day understanding a problem is not wasted time. We get into what waste really means in a software project, including the story of 15 features a client never used, and how working in silos creates the kind of back-and-forth that slows everything down. "Waste is anything...

Published: Sep 3, 2026Duration: 21m 16s

The Three Root Causes Behind Most Performance Failures - Rao Dhaligadoo

Slow systems bleed money before they ever crash Slow systems don't just annoy users, they cost companies real money, and most teams only find out when the phone starts ringing. With Rao Dhaligadoo I talk about what it actually takes to catch performance problems before customers do. We get into how a 70 percent CPU threshold can trigger an automated chain of monitoring, ticket creation, and root cause analysis, and why that matters more than it sounds. Rao also shares what it feels like to spend 45 hours in a war room at a bank, watching a CIO walk in at 1...

Published: Aug 27, 2026Duration: 17m 28s

End-to-End Testing: How to Stop the Maintenance Trap - Lilia Gargouri

Why 15 test cases can cover more ground than 500 ever will Forty percent of automation time lost to flakiness and maintenance: that is the reality Lilia Gargouri describes. I talked with Lilia about end-to-end test automation at scale, and what struck me most was how far back the real solutions reach: a single HTML attribute added in 2017 still pays dividends today, simply because the team decided to use it consistently and never change it. We get into the full picture, from how to accurately identify every UI element without XPath gymnastics, to why fifteen well-chosen test cases can outperform five...

Published: Aug 20, 2026Duration: 33m 32s

How Poor API Architecture Makes AI Agents Expensive - Sebastian Małyska

When end-to-end automation is the answer and when it is the wrong question With Sebastian Malyska I talk about what sits behind the APIs testers often take for granted. We get into why REST is still on top but not the whole story, how GraphQL and webhooks fit into the picture, and what actually happens when an AI agent talks to a real system through MCP. There is a practical argument running through all of it: if you understand the protocol layer, you can make smarter decisions about where to test, how to structure automation, and how to avoid...

Published: Aug 13, 2026Duration: 34m 56s

Boilerplate in Seconds: AI Handles Setup, Engineers Handle Logic - Klaudia Dussa Zieger

Not every testing problem needs AI, and knowing the difference matters With Klaudia Dussa Zieger I talk about where language models actually deliver in testing and where they fall flat. We get into the concrete details: why a small function like generating keyword documentation works so well with a standard chat model, why reviews only started working once they switched to a reasoning model, and why one engineer working on embedded legacy code said no to AI help without hesitation. Klaudia also shares the translation use case I found most vivid, turning a cryptic technical defect message into something...

Published: Aug 6, 2026Duration: 26m 29s

Shift Your Testing Mindset: From Right Answers to Fast Feedback - Jean-Francois Riverin

A tester on why predicting production failures is impossible With Jean-Francois Riverin I get into a question that bothered him for over 20 years: why are there still bugs in production even when you tested as well as you possibly could? His answer is that software stopped being a complicated problem, like building a bridge, a long time ago. It is now complex, more like medicine or meteorology, and that means the whole idea of finding the right answer through testing is the wrong goal. We talk about what it looks like to switch that mindset, what "safe to fail"...

Published: Jul 30, 2026Duration: 20m 38s

Factor In People and Org to Build Software That Lasts - Vanessa Formicola

Seven patterns that appear in every company, and none of them are purely technical Why do so many software teams end up with the exact architecture they never intended to build? With Vanessa Formicola I talk about the hidden forces that shape technical decisions, and why those forces have far less to do with technology than most engineers want to admit. We get into patterns she calls the kitchen sink, Cirque de Soleil coding, and the monolith constellation, each one a recognizable trap that grows from career incentives, delivery pressure, and organizational culture rather than bad technical judgment. I...

Published: Jul 23, 2026Duration: 25m 19s

Children's Book About Testing That Inspired a Future Tester - Kari Kakkonen

A testing expert explains why no book about testing for children existed yet With Kari Kakkonen I talk about what happens when you explain software testing through a fantasy story for children, where dragons are defects and knights are testers. We get into how the analogy grew into a full world covering functional, performance, usability, and security defects, each mapped to a chapter with its own kind of dragon. Kari describes how he tested the book iteratively with children, teachers, testing professionals, and non-IT readers across four rounds, and how a twelve-year-old at a book fair said she wanted...

Published: Jul 16, 2026Duration: 16m 46s

TMMI Level 5: How Mature Teams Stop Bugs Before They Exist - Zsolt Hargitai

How a process framework tells you where testing breaks down What does it actually take to move from finding defects to preventing them? With Zsolt Hargitai I talk about TMMI, a framework for improving test processes, and why that shift in mindset marks the difference between a team that tests and a team that has genuinely matured. We get into what the maturity levels mean in practice, how a free self-assessment tool on the TMMI website gives you a first impression of where your organization stands, and why the framework holds up across agile, V-model, and DevOps environments alike...

Published: Jul 9, 2026Duration: 16m 31s

ChatGPT Use Cut Student Cognitive Capacity, Study Finds - Graziela Tonin

A professor on what happens when students stop thinking for themselves What does it actually mean to unlearn something, and why does that question matter as much as learning new skills right now? With Graziela Tonin I talk about how universities, companies, and individuals are struggling to find their footing in a world where AI can write code, run tests, and sometimes outperform human decision-making. We get into the research showing that students who offload thinking to AI tools lose cognitive capacity rather than gain it, and what that means for how knowledge should be taught and shared. I...

Published: Jul 2, 2026Duration: 30m 10s

Post-Agile: What Organizations Actually Need Now - Michael Mahlberg

Why copying agile blueprints keeps organizations stuck in place What happens to the teams and organizations left behind after an agile transformation that didn't deliver what it promised? With Michael Mahlberg I talk about why the word "agile" has lost its meaning, how big consultancies pushed companies deeper into rigid structures under an agile label, and what it actually takes to help an organization find its footing again. We get into the question of what genuinely worked from the last 25 years, from fast iterations and real customer feedback to decision-making practices borrowed from outside the agile world entirely. What...

Published: Jun 25, 2026Duration: 25m 11s

Critical Thinking: The Skill AI Cannot Replace in Testing - Tara Walton

Your users will find the bugs if your QA team doesn't. What does a tester actually need right now, when AI tools are everywhere and QA teams keep getting cut? With Tara Walton I talk about why communication and the fundamentals of testing matter more than ever, and why being the best bug-finder in the room means nothing if you can't explain what you found and why it counts. We get into how AI's "toxic positivity" makes critical thinking a skill you have to practice deliberately, and what it means that when you remove QA, your users become your...

Published: Jun 18, 2026Duration: 34m 37s

Strategy First: How AI Enters Regulated Medical Labs - Alexis Savkin

How to make AI work in a regulated medical lab, step by step How do you bring AI into a medical lab when the regulatory landscape is still taking shape? With Alexis Savkin I talk about exactly that tension, and the answer turns out to be less about technology than about focus and strategy. We get into why starting with a very specific, measurable problem makes the regulatory side manageable, and how a single-page risk diagram convinced compliance stakeholders faster than any technical pitch. I keep coming back to his point that regulators are not enemies but partners trying...

Published: Jun 11, 2026Duration: 21m 20s

Why COBOL Developers Prefer Writing Tests in Java - Szymon Wałachowski, Bartosz Filipek

When no IBM tool fits, two engineers built their own testing layer What happens when 40 years of custom decisions stack so high that even the standard testing tools from your own vendor stop working? With Bartosz Filipek and Szymon Wałachowski I talk about exactly that situation: a mainframe environment so deep in its own customization that the only way forward was to build one final bridge to the outside world. We dig into how they created a Java-based unit testing tool for COBOL developers, and what surprised me most is that COBOL programmers find it easier to write a...

Published: Jun 4, 2026Duration: 23m 49s

Why Traditional Testing Fails for AI Systems - Dušanka Lečić

From prompt failures to hallucinations: what breaks in AI testing This time I talk with Dušanka Lečić about why testing chatbots breaks everything we know about traditional QA. She explains how chatbot bugs are invisible – they hide in prompts, retrieval logic, and chunks, not in code – and why the same input can produce dozens of valid outputs. Dušanka shares her framework for testing context retention, hallucination control, and accuracy, and reveals why stress testing a chatbot means checking for typos and user frustration, not system load. "For the same input we have a lot of diffe...

Published: May 28, 2026Duration: 24m 17s

Why Testers Are Safe Despite AI Hype - Mitko Mitev

From test planning to defect clustering: where AI already saves you 30% effort This time I talk to Mitko Mitev, about how AI is reshaping our work as testers, without replacing us. Mitko shows exactly where AI tools save real time across test planning, test case generation, and exploratory testing, and why human expertise remains non-negotiable for context, business logic, and validation. We go into the shift from writing scripts to instructing agents in plain language, how ISTQB's new AI syllabi prepare testers for what's coming, and why waiting another year to explore AI might already be too late. <...

Published: May 21, 2026Duration: 24m 21s

How to Build QA Culture in Your Company - Filip Barszcz

Why your stakeholders, devs and PMs all mean something different by "quality" In this episode, I talk with Filip Barszcz about what most companies get wrong when they claim to have a quality culture. Filip reveals why stakeholders, developers, and product owners all speak different languages when they say "quality" and how he translates between them to build actual buy-in for testing strategy. He walks through his playbook for introducing change without burning out the team: small wins first, honesty about short-term productivity drops, and color-coded tables that make executives eager to invest in QA. If you've ever struggled...

Published: May 14, 2026Duration: 29m 18s

Why Quality Engineers Fail at Business Thinking - Marta Firlej

How to prove your testing work in money - before the next budget cut hits In this episode, I talk with Marta Firlej about a topic most testers avoid: money. Marta explains why understanding how your company actually makes money is crucial for QA professionals, and walks through the real costs behind salaries, automation projects, and test activities that stakeholders care about. She shares a practical calculation method to assess whether test automation is worth the investment, and challenges us to translate testing value into business numbers. "That's the goal of every company. Every company, government and...

Published: May 7, 2026Duration: 18m 44s

Building Trust with AI Agents - Henri Terho

How to build trust into AI systems when they constantly change underneath you In this episode, I talk with Henri Terho, senior consultant and AI enthusiast, about why building trust in AI systems requires the same rigor we've always applied to software—just now at a whole new level. Henri explains how AI agents multiply both our successes and our mistakes, why prompting is harder than it looks, and why testers are uniquely positioned to thrive in this shift. We dig into the oracle problem, the communication trap, and why your test suite might soon matter more than your co...

Published: Apr 30, 2026Duration: 20m 42s