Don’t Go Chasing Waterfall is all about my love for modern testing, with a sprinkling of 90s pop references, real-life lessons, and just a hint of righteous frustration. I’m Ashley Smith, an automation engineer, testing evangelist, and all-around curious human, and I want to talk about why testing still feels like it’s stuck in the past in so many “Agile” teams. In my 12 year career I’ve seen waterfall-shaped boards, siloed roles, testing as the “bottleneck”, and my personal favourite “just do it manually”! This talk is about recognising common anti-patterns, pushing for quality to be a team sport, and showing your testers some empathy. Whether you’re a tester, a dev, or someone who just wants things to work, come along and help me shift left, and maybe even shake things up a bit.

Ashley Smith is an automation engineer at CGI, meet-up organiser and Quality Advocate. She’s a familiar face at testing meet-ups, always on the hunt for “what good looks like,” and