My TribeQonf 2026 Experience: Key Takeaways from a Software Testing Conference

The conferences and meetups are like a reflection to me now.  It reflects a lot on personality, mindset and attitude of me and the people who came to it.  

If you sit back and take a breath in silence and then recall the whole happening, it shows you something about you, the people whom you met, whom you did not talk to yet observed, and the ones to whom you did not network at all.  Isn't it?  

And, if you recall the same three days later on reading the posts of people on social media, it gives a different dimension to one's recall and learning.

I could recall such pictures from TribeQonf 2026.  This was my first TribeQonf.  I thank Ashutosh Garg for giving me the space and opportunity to be part of this conference.

In this post, I will share, what was different to me and my takeaways from the talks.

My Preparation and Travel to TribeQonf 2026

As I got an invite, I thanked The Test Tribe for inviting me.  I looked at the venue, date and agenda.  I registered and confirmed I will be there on there on both days and on time.  I did not look at who are the speakers.  I wanted to go, greet, sit, listen, share, unlearn, learn, network, and collaborate with no biases.   I tried my best to be unbiased!

On 10th July, I started from my home at 6:15 am.  I was in the venue by 7:45 am.  I reported and collected my delegate tag.  I'm glad my colleague and peer Sandeep Garg helped me with registration.  I met and greeted Ashutosh Garg after a long time!

On 11th July, I was at the venue by 8:15 am.

I sat in the front row so that I can see any demo well and clear -- this is important to me!  

I made my points that I can visualize at that point in time.

Yeah! I had two or three glasses of tea in the tea break with biscuits -- this was my breakfast for the two days!

I reached my home around 9 pm well and safe.  As I reached my home, I prepared for the next day and what to look for.  Then I moved to other activities at the home.

I saw people travelling from different states other than Karnataka.  I met people from Keralam, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Delhi, Haryana, West Bengal, Odisha, and Kashmir.

The Kashmir girls who had traveled to Bengaluru for this conference made me glad by being part of this conference!  I spoke to them.

TribeQonf 2026

Over 750+ people for a testing conference and travelling to be there is something that I wonder!  On the other hand, the people are paying from their pockets and the offices are paying to their test engineers to attend the test conference -- wow!

All that said, The Test Tribe as a community is growing.  This community did not go away after a a year or two.  I wish, it grows much stronger and fruitful to the Software Test Engineering and Engineering communities.

The Talks and My Takeaways

Surviving and Thinking in an AI-first Company

• Speaker: Sandeep Garg
• My Takeaways
1. The point of S1 and S2 thinking in learning and using the AI aids to do my work.  Making this point conscious in me is important and critical.
2. AI-first: How to survive and thrive?  It is a puzzle:
• Motivation and Perspective
• Thinking S1 and S2
• Modeling Co-existence
• Surviving
• Thriving

He shared how he is doing it with the anatomy of a human brain and what to do with hemispheres of brain, Corpus Callosum, and Synaptic Plasticity.

In my thought, this S1 and S2 should give a direction to one on how to co-model in the learning and practice of any subject and also with the AI-first expectations and decisions.

From AI-Curious to AI-Native: Rewriting the SDLC

• Speaker: Navin Nair
• My Takeaways
1. He shared his so far journey in his org with AI and the software services he offers as a business.
2. Made a point by underlining it -- the services companies are the one who is under pressure with happenings in AI and from the clients demands.
3. The 5 stages of AI maturing and most are stuck at 2.
1. AI-Curious  -- A few staffs are quietly experimenting after office hours.
2. AI-Experimenting -- Pilots done in bits and none knows; does not compound.
3. AI-Augmented -- Every staff as AI in their work and it is standardized.
4. AI-Embedded -- Into the pipeline, and it handles.
5. AI-Native  -- Nobody has actually seen one.

He said, his org is at stage 3 and I see that is sensible.

I Used To Know Who I Was Designing For

• Speaker: Manthan Desai
• My Takeaways
1. This question he asked was enough to me for keeping my senses up and listening
• Think of the last AI feature you tested.  Who were you testing it for?
• A human? An Agent? Both?
• Do you know?
2. He made a point, for the first time, a tester understands the user better than the designer does.  
• Who is this user?
• The deliverable is no longer always a screen.
3. The contract he defined for the Designer and Tester caught my ears sharply.
• Design: I will tell you who we are designing for -- including the users I can't reach anymore
• Tester: I will tell you when the user has changed -- including the ones you never designed for.

These two questions is pondering in me now when I'm back to desk

1. How should I start looking at the user interactive design for the agents and models?  
2. What is their design interface from where it is being invoked?

Data to Decisions: Semantic Intelligence for Autonomous Enterprises

• Speaker: Dharani Karthikeyan
• My Takeaways
• I'm left with question on, how should I implement the Knowledge Graph and use a model around it to help my research works.

Return to quality: Radical & practical QA career transformation

• Speaker: Sriram C S
• My Takeaways
1. He said, Career Growth = New Skills + New Experience + Business Impact
2. Engineering by definition must make systems obsolete.
3. Engineer to deprecate some aspect of your work.

I'm glad he mentioned the names of his colleagues and their work using AI.  The colleagues whom he mentioned are Tejas, Harikrishnan and Sweta.

Ideas to Impact: 23 Patents, Agent AI, and the Next Decade of Quality Engineering

• Speaker: Mallika Fernandes
• My Takeaways
1. Talk to her and take her inputs when you want to patent your research works.
2. She can give valuable insights from the experience of her approach to patent her 23 works.

The almost right machine: How to test, trust, and ship software built with AI

• Speaker: Jaydeep Chakrabarty
• My Takeaways
1. If it looks correct, interrogate it.  To me this is one part of testing!
2. Locally correct! Is it safe globally?
3. When you review, interrogate and investigate the meaning.  This is one part in how I review!
4. Is the system I'm testing able to understand the context, my input, my intent and what I expect?  This question makes more sense in all eras of the technology disruption.
5. Correctness is not when the code ran!  Did the behavior stayed right in the actual conditions?   To me this is one part of testing!
6. If the tests do not test the situation, the tests tested for syntax.  To me this is one part of testing!
7. The constraints are promises which system should not break.  As a test engineer testing for security and performances, this sounds more logical to me.
8. DONE is observed behavior under the actual conditions.

A practicing test engineer will relate to some of his points easily and acknowledge it.  I liked his one liners -- this is an easiest way to recall what did I hear.  I practice this in my talks.  I could recall these many points because of his one liners.

Beyond Assertions: A Strategic Framework for Testing AI Chatbots

• Speaker: Chandrashekar Patil
• My Takeaways
1. I need to think and work on how to put my work in the shade of Evidence Engineering.
2. I drew a overlapping mental model which compliments the telemetry - behavioral evidence and evidence engineering.
• I will have to work on how to fine tune and scale this mental model.

He said to look beyond the assertions -- Pass or Fail.  I'm glad people of his roles are talking about it in the conferences.

Leading at Scale in the AI Era: Building High-Impact Global Engineering Organizations

• Speaker: Monalisa Behera
• My Takeaways
1. AI transformation is not a technology shift.  It is a cultural shift.

I see, this is a strong point.  If most designated managers and leaders understand this, they can assist their people better.

Scaling Without Breaking: Rethinking Quality in AI-Driven Startups

• Speaker: Priya Nupur
• My Takeaways
1. It was a reiteration to my learning -- I should be able to diagnose and understand when it is a scale problem and not a testing problem.

At one point in time, we engineers will hit this roof.  If I can know it quickly and communicate in time, it serves the team and business.

Ensuring Trustworthy AI: The New Mission of Quality Leaders

• Speaker: Ramya R. Moorthy
• My Takeaways
1. The question to self when testing the AI system -- How to keep the traditional way of testing aside and think how to test this AI systems?
2. People ask for metrics.  What metrics should I know and mutually agree upon with the stakeholders when testing the AI system?

She shared her learning journey of testing and evaluating the AI systems.

Test, then Trust Proportionately - Evaluating AI Systems from a Tester's Lens

• Speaker: Rahul Verma
• My Takeaways
1. Let us focus on what should have been known and what is known.
2. Blind repetition is not testing.
3. Trust should never exceed evidence
4. An AI product is mostly not AI
5. AI did not change what test is. It just made it impossible to pretend.

I could recall his one liners easily.  This recall helps me to know the intent of his talk.

The best time to get out of testing is now, unless...

• Speaker: Pradeep Soundararajan
• My Takeaways
• Look at the reality!
• When you look at the reality and know the reality, why are you confused?
• Know where you have to work and upskill so that you make sense and contemporary in the consistent waves of the change.

This is one of a well reached talk of Pradeep that I have listened to.  His slides were amazing!  The slides spoke for itself, there was no need for him to speak and say what he wants to say.

He marketed!  Yes, he marketed the reality very well such that it reached the audience.  He is a skilled marketing businessmen.

However, I disagree on his opening points.  He says, one is just a doer if still working on 'How to test'.

Why I disagree?

• To get to the state 'Why to test?' one should cross 'How to test?'
• In fact, there is 'How to test' in the state 'Why to test'.
• I know he did not say literally to skip how to test and don't be a doer.  But, it sounded and can sound that way -- which can be misleading.  His intentions is not to mislead, I know that!
• But, the way he communicated it, it can mislead the people who do not question and think what he is saying!
• We have blind followers!  Note this, I too was a blind follower.  I don't want to be one now.

I don't see wrong if a person is not fitting to the words Escape Velocity and turned to be a Survivor.  These two words are from his talks.  

Why should one be same as someone who is gaining the social media attention and the industry attention?

I share this as a corollary here to why I disagree,

If one has to be alike as the other person, then it is a retry mechanism.  Isn't it?

Is it right to retry a test that is showing a 'fail' tag?  If not, then why to be a Survivor with Escape Velocity to fit into someone else definition?  Isn't that a retry mechanism day on day on a person? 

Am I not contradicting here my testing thoughts by retrying myself to be someone else in the survivors list?

Today, I believe a meaningful life is simple. Stay healthy. Earn enough to support your family. Grow in the direction you choose. If you can do these, you are building momentum and moving forward with purpose.  The challenge is to keep this consistent.  

How do I make this happen for me?  I think on this line rather than gaining the Escape Velocity and Survivor tags.  

I focus on how to make enough money in the right way and a meaningful life while I continue to upskill by being a human and a skilled software test engineer.

That said, what Pradeep spoke is the reality apart from the points with which I could not convince myself for today!

Otherwise, an amazing slides and story telling from Pradeep.  He spoke the happenings with the tech and process, and, what we testers are going through. 

I admire how he markets his stories and ensures it reaches its targeted audience and segment.  

The other couple of talks had one liners in the slides.  Whereas, the whole presentation of Pradeep is one liner -- 'unless'.  He marketed it like a skilled marketing engineer and businessmen.  

I see, the audience can recall his talk summary easily and can tell him about it in the TribeQonf 2027.

QAVE - The Booth of Rebranding

I visited the booth of Qapitol.  I was fascinated by rebranding from 'testing' and 'QA' to the tech solution from an org.

This booth looked different to me.  I see, it takes courage to rebrand as this.  Yet, they do test is what I see with QAVE.  

I will congratulate them on this brave move.

The Summary

The buzz was all about the AI.  

When I started my career, the conferences was all about SAAS, PAAS.  Then, it was microservices, cloud, Agile, Big Data, Mobile, CI-CD, DevOps, and now AI.  In between, I see the Software Test Engineering trying to fit and scale in the ways which the business wants.

How should I scale, upskill, remain contemporary, share my learning, and earn enough money to take care of my family is also the puzzle I'm solving in parallel.

The 5 things I learned at TribeQonf 2026:

1. AI is more of a cultural-shift for first to an organization and a practitioner.
2. Know in which phase you are with AI, and start your practice to level up.
3. The foundations of testing is critical and necessity to test the AI systems.
4. Do you know the interface through which you interact to the AI systems?
5. If you are an engineer what did you deprecate in your last work, and why?  Why deprecate at all?  What happens if it is not deprecated?

What is the next disruption?

I am happy meeting my peers and connecting to the people.  I listened to them.  

I will see you in the TribeQonf 2027 with a better version of me.

Ravisuriya at TribeQonf 2026