23rd STeP-IN Summit – Careers in Software Testing to Autonomous Testing

 

Today you see a lot many conferences around software testing around the globe - online or offline.

But, in the 2000's, it was a time where the software testers needed a community of their own.  This is when the STEP-IN found its birth on October 2003 in Bengaluru.  The idea of STeP-IN is community building.

As I know, STeP-IN is the India's first Software Testing community.

STeP-IN Summit Journey and 2026

The 1st STeP-IN summit was held in January 2004 at The Leela Palace, Bengaluru.  It was on January 8-10, 2004.  Most of you who are reading this blog post would not have born then.

In 2004, none of these were in our machine -- Selenium, Appium, Playwright, GitHub, npm, GPTs, Slack, Teams, Jira, MCPs, FIGMA and Cloud.  

Software Testing did exist and Bengaluru was the happening place to discuss software testing as an engineering discipline.  

Yeah, automation was being done using commercial tools.  Selenium came to light in 2004.

The 2nd summit in 2005, it came with the theme Software Testing -- An Engineering Discipline.  Did you read the theme of the software testing conference in 2005?

The 3rd summit in 2006,  people came to the summit which had the theme -- Careers in Software Testing.  

The 23rd summit in 2026 is happening on 10th September 2026 with a theme --  Autonomous Testing with Agentic AI: Moving Toward Self-Driving Quality.

Do you see the themes Careers in Software Testing to Autonomous Testing in the two decades?  

What shift is this?  Left or Right or Evolution or Disruption?  I will leave it to you to think what happened and what's happening.  

Today in 2026, the software testing community across the globe is asking "What is the career in Software Testing?".  In the two decades, the software industry is demanding the delivery of software testing in different principles, dimensions, velocity, value,  cost and expectations.

Are you coming to the 23rd STeP-IN Summit?  Continue reading to know the benefits you get attending this summit.

Why You Should Attend STeP-IN Summit 2026?

You have an advantage attending 26th STeP-IN Summit.

1. You are going to be in a place with people who have been testing, and living testing as an engineering discipline since the very first summit.  
• Think about that for a moment.  It is decades of experience.
• And, if you ask, listen and make use of it, there are lessons waiting for you.
2. They have walked, run, sprinted, paused, surfed, swum and marathoned through the sinusoidal waves of disruption in technology, tech stacks, process, methodology, business and money of the software industry.
• And, they not yet stopped after decades.

These people are with the software testing, programming, software engineering, and the software industry in the different roles as consultants, hands-on test engineers to engineering leaders to CxOs.

These are the people who have lived through the disruptions of technology, process and industry's finance.

Spot them.  Network.  Ask.  Listen.  Share.  Collaborate.  Grow.  It is an opportunity!

This collective decades of experience, lessons, questions they been through, failures, success, change, adaption, insights, problem solved, problems living with, solutions, money, disruptions and what not!  These are not autonomous in the software industry.

Also, you will see today's test engineers who are solving the testing and automation problems.

Isn't this huge?  

Don't hesitate! You can still ask the difference between sanity and smoke, test cases, which is better the Selenium or Playwright, should you move to development or not, AI and career, and more that are echoing in you.  You will hear the perspectives which are unheard for sure.

Do not leave the people whom you catch up and network; get what helps you to grow in your career.

More details on the 23rd STeP-IN Summit is here -- https://stepinsummit.stepinforum.org/

I and STeP-IN Summits

I started to attend the STeP-IN summit from 2007, that is, the 4th summit which discussed on theme "The next frontier in Software Testing".

I'm attending this 23rd STeP-IN Summit and curious to listen what is today's frontier in Software Testing when the whole universe as become a lab to experiment the AI and its applications.

The 23rd STeP-IN Summit, 10th Sep 2026, Bengaluru

My expectations are high with STeP-IN and I see it is fair expectations.  I expect the keynote and talks follow the theme of 23rd summit.  When I sit and listen, I want the specifics that I can take back and use them in my practice and work.

Other than this, I'm always curious about TestAutothon.  I go in search of people who involved in it and learn from them what they did and why did they do it that way.

When you spot me, lets network.  Ask what you have.  I will share if I know.  If not, I will learn and ping you later.  Let's catch up!  

By the way, the networking and catch up are not yet autonomous.  It is still human and aided better by the technology assistance.

The STeP-IN Summits and What Happened

Here is how I have seen the STeP-IN for the last 21 years and what it brought in summit to Software Test Engineers and Test Engineering.

If you observe what each of this summit brought, it shows a clear landscape of how the software industry is pivoting the software testing, test engineering, automation and the tech stack around it.  

Has it been a jump race to software test engineers in the course of changes and disruptions?  Ask to the people whom you meet in the summit.

Year	# Summit	What does this STeP-IN Summit bring?
2004	1st	The summit begins
2005	2nd	Testing positioned as an engineering discipline
2006	3rd	Careers in Software Testing
2007	4th	The Next Frontier in Software Testing
2008	5th	Sharing from industry practitioners + academicians + gurus
2009	6th	Tracks introduced
2010	7th	Effect of Software Testing on client, user satisfaction, operational cost
2011	8th	Cloud, Mobile, Customer Experience
2012	9th	GenNext Testing Professionals – Building Leaders in Business, Technology & Management
2013	10th	1,000+ delegates, Next Generation Testing: Learning from the past; Preparing for the future
2014	11th	Testing Now, 800+ delegates
2015	12th	Quality Engineering becomes prominent, DevOps
2016	13th	Global QE in a Digital World
2017	14th	Social Media, Mobile, Analytics, & Cloud integration and testing
2018	15th	Disruptive technology, Data, AI, Blockchain
2019	16th	Intelligent Digital Mesh - QA & Testing, IoT, Wearable
2020	17th	Moved online, COVID
2021	18th	Online, New Normal in Testing, Remote, AI, DevOps
2022	19th	Post-pandemic testing, Post-Pandemic Scenarios in Remote working for Testers
2023	20th	Embrace Change, Drive Success: Navigating a Transforming Landscape
2024	21st	QA → Engineering → Intelligence, A Paradigm Shift-Quality Assurance to Engineering to Intelligence
2025	22nd	AI-Powered Testing: Orchestrating Automation, Agents & Generative AI for the Future
2026	23rd	Autonomous Testing with Agentic AI: Moving Toward Self-Driving Quality

To end this blog post, look at how the STeP-IN summits have travelled in the last two decades.

It has brought all of us to junction of Careers in Software Testing to Autonomous Testing discussions at the 23rd summit.

See you in the 23rd STeP-IN Summit.  It is easy to spot me!