Who is Richard Seidl?
Software Quality Expert
Richard “Richie” Seidl is a Software Testing Expert, Agile Quality Coach, and Podcast Host. Over the past 25 years, he has encountered a vast array of software throughout his professional journey: from the good to the bad, the large to the small, the new to the old. He’s experienced software so magnificent it could bring one to tears, and others that make one cringe.
Richie has helped teams and projects in various industries, such as administration, finance, automotive, and logistics, to improve their software quality, implement agile testing, and establish test automation.
Richie is the author of several books on software testing, host of two Software Testing podcast, and an international keynote speaker.
In 2025, he was awarded with the German Prize for Software Quality.
What will Richard Seidl be discussing?
Testing Is a People Business
In 25 years of software projects I learned the hard way: Testing and quality are less about tools than we like to believe and far more about people. And now in the all-over-integration of AI into every corner of the SDLC, we have to focus even more on the most volatile, complex, and high-maintenance component of the system: the human. We live in a time, where tools generate test cases, self-heal locators, analyze risks, and even write automation code. Some predict that testers will soon be replaced by algorithms.
This talk argues the opposite.
AI accelerates what we test and how we test, but the real differentiator becomes who we are as testers and how we deal with people.
The best test strategy in the world fails if you can’t get your team to execute it. The most sophisticated CI/CD pipeline becomes useless if developers see testers as gatekeepers rather than partners. And all the AI in the world won’t fix a team that doesn’t talk to each other.
My journey to discovering this started with failure. Early in my career, I was “that” test manager: The one who tells testers and dev what to do and then wonders why nothing happens.
My turning point came during a project where we had everything: great tools, clear processes, skilled engineers. And we were failing spectacularly. The problems? I talked to the people, not with them. I saw testing as pure QA job not involving developers. I just managed, but was not a quality leader.
That’s when I realized: testing is not a technical activity, it’s a people activity. And that changed my whole way of working.
In this talk I will give you my honest view into the most underrated skill of the tester: The Human Connection. I will share my stories and learnings and some tools for daily life on how to develop this skill.
This session equips testers with a practical mindset shift: understanding quality as a social system, not just a technical one.
