Announcing The 44^th ANNUAL PNSQC

Join us for our April meetup, presented and hosted by PLUS QA in Southeast Portland!
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This month, PLUS QA's own VP Ryan Wilder and Lead Dev Gianni Zamora walk us through how they're building AI solutions that work within their well-practiced manual testing strategies.
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Through a live demo and discussion, you'll see how PLUS QA tackled this challenge by embedding AI capabilities into their existing tools and in-house software, fine-tuning results and workflows to fit the way their teams already worked. Striking the right balance of custom AI tooling amplified the natural strength of manual testing, seamlessly boosting the daily tasks accomplished by project leads and testers without the burden of adopting yet another outside tool.
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It's a practical, human-centered take on AI in QA, expanding what manual testers can do while emphasizing the high-quality human expertise that great testing demands.
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This will be a hybrid meetup, so mingle in person or tune in online. Doors (and virtual lobby) open at 6 pm for a half hour of pre-talk networking.
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Schedule:

• 6:00 - 6:30pm Networking (online included)
• 6:30 - 8:00pm AI-Augmented Manual Testing: Demo & Discussion with PLUS QA

If you have been considering submitting a paper to PNSQC but are not quite sure where to start, this session is for you.

Join your hosts Ying Ki Kwong and Gwendolyn Avington, along with other PNSQC authors, for a one-hour fireside chat designed to demystify the PNSQC paper proposal process, especially for first-time or less-experienced authors.

We will walk through what makes a strong proposal, what reviewers are looking for, and how the process works from abstract to final paper.

You will hear directly from past PNSQC authors, who will share their experiences, lessons learned, and practical advice on turning an idea into a successful submission.
We will also cover:

• What to expect from the Call for Proposals
• How the peer review process supports you through the summer
• Resources available to help you develop your paper
• How to connect with Track Chairs or experienced authors to refine your idea

Most importantly, there will be plenty of time for questions and open discussion.
If you are on the fence about submitting, this is a great opportunity to get clarity, build confidence, and take the next step.
The CFP deadline is April 20. This session might be the push you need.

This event is hybrid; a Zoom link will be emailed and posted as a comment closer to the date, but please note that the talk itself doesn't start until 6:30!

February is right in the middle of peak hiring season, and PNSQC has a couple of speakers lined up to help you land that next role in a very competitive market.

First, Jeremy Elwood will give his talk titled The Paradox of Plenty: A Modern Hiring Story. It's a reflection on finding a job, but told from the employer's perspective: exploring what actually differentiated successful candidates from the rest, why resume screening failed to surface the strongest candidates, and what to look for in a successful candidate. Along the way, it offers concrete advice for everyone: how job seekers can better present their experience, approach take-home challenges, and prepare for interviews; and how hiring managers can ask better questions, design meaningful evaluations, and reduce unnecessary pain in the process. Ultimately, the talk aims not only to surface systemic problems in modern software engineer hiring, but also to offer practical guidance and cautious optimism for navigating (and surviving) the "paradox of plenty".

Heather Wilcox is excited to follow with her talk titled Resume Tips and Tricks, which will go further in depth on how to write a resume that hiring managers will notice, along with other helpful hints for survival in the era of AI. As an experienced hiring manager and job seeker herself, Heather has reviewed hundreds (maybe thousands?) of resumes. She can tell you that the AI and recruiter generated resumes are usually easy to spot and often treated with a certain amount of disdain and distrust. But, at the same time, you need your information to get past the AI screeners and into the hands of a real human. It's not an easy needle to thread, but she's done it and so can you!

Schedule (all times in PT):
6-6:30 PM: Light refreshments (soft drinks, pizza) and networking
6:30-7:30 PM: Talks/Presentation
7:30-8 PM: Q&A and more networking

Thanks to Trimble this month for lending us their space for the evening!

As part of the start of the PNSQC 2026 Call for Papers, we’re excited to invite the community to a full day of free, in-person workshops in Portland. Held the day after the PNSQC Quality Jam, this Free Workshop Day is designed to sharpen practical skills, spark new ideas, and bring the QA community together for hands-on learning and connection.

Join us for an interactive day led by experienced practitioners and thought leaders, featuring two workshop tracks with sessions offered in both the morning and afternoon. Whether you’re strengthening your core testing skills or exploring how AI is shaping modern quality practices, there’s something here for you.

Registration on the PNSQC website is required.

You can register for the full day, or choose only the workshop options that fit your schedule. Space is limited, so we encourage you to register early and help spread the word.

Morning Workshops (8:30 AM – 12:00 PM)

• AI Orchestration: Dual Stewardship with John Cvetko. Explore how humans and AI can collaboratively manage quality, risk, and decision-making in modern systems.
• QA Re-Bootcamp with Heather Wilcox & Bhushan Gupta. Refresh foundational testing skills and examine modern quality practices through engaging, activity-based learning.

Afternoon Workshops (1:00 PM – 4:30 PM)

• Integrate MCP into your workflow with Joe Petsche. We will work with a variety of MCP servers to connect your quality apps and find ways to do your job better and faster. Come with your apps and we will connect in to your scenarios too.
• Writing Practical Test Plans, Fast and Easy with Wayne Roseberry. This workshop teaches a pragmatic, lightweight approach to writing effective test plans—fast.

There will be morning refreshments, and we'll take a group lunch, giving you plenty of time to connect with fellow quality professionals throughout the day.

It’s time to kick off the 2026 Call for Papers with a Quality Jam! This will be an evening of lightning talks to inspire and be inspired for new proposals on software quality — a jam session to get together as a group and hear a variety of perspectives.

The speaker lineup for this year is:

• "Testing the Future: From Testing Code to Testing Intelligence" with Premi Vinayagam from Jama software
• "The OWASP Top 10 Isn’t a Vulnerability List—It’s a Mirror: What 2025 Tells Us About Supply Chain Security" with Caroline Wong
• "Test Plans Made Easy: Saying a Lot By Saying Very Little" with Wayne Rosenberry
• "Data-Driven API Test Case Generation Using AI and Model Context Protocol" with Joseph Petsche
• "Formally Secure Hardware with Rust" with Calvin Deutschbein
• "Lessons Learned in AI Engineering" with Mitch White
• "Software Quality by Example as a Senior Engineer" with Mark Kleinhaus

Make a New Year's resolution to build your career by increasing your quality know-how and skills, and make some new connections with other software quality professionals.

The first hour will provide time for networking and a chance to share some food and drink.

This event is sponsored in part by PLUS QA. PLUS QA makes software testing simple.

This event is hybrid - we'll be returning to the University Place Hotel, and we'll also stream it online, all for free!