Stephen Platten

Principal Consultant

Join my presentation on: Quality in the RAF – and What It Taught Me About Testing

When you work on aircraft that leave the ground with people onboard, “good enough” isn’t good enough. In the Royal Air Force, airworthiness depends on disciplined maintenance records, layered inspection and test regimes, clear no-go criteria, and a culture that encourages reporting near-misses before they become accidents.

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Who is Stephen Platten?

I am an award winning (European Software Testing awards, TESTA) tester and QA, with a passion for test improvement and development. Conference Speaker talking about Stoicism and remaining calm. Relating the topic to software testing while developing the stoic testing approach.

I have worked in most aspects of electronic engineering/software engineering. I have a passion for testing and understanding complex applications, technologies, and projects. I have experience within the defence/utilities/finance/insurance sectors predominantly quality assurance, agile and process improvements for over 18 years.

I also follow the Stoic teachings and philosophy along with groups within testing, education & neurodiversity.

My passion is to always learn and have a growth mindset. I want to be challenged and develop myself personally and professionally. I strive to be the best version of myself I can be by becoming the:

“The best manager, tester, and coach I can be, to be “The Stoic Tester.”

What will Stephen Platten be discussing?

Quality in the RAF – and What It Taught Me About Testing

When you work on aircraft that leave the ground with people onboard, “good enough” isn’t good enough. In the Royal Air Force, airworthiness depends on disciplined maintenance records, layered inspection and test regimes, clear no-go criteria, and a culture that encourages reporting near-misses before they become accidents. Those same principles apply far beyond aviation.

In this fast-paced session, a former RAF aircraft engineer distills transferable quality patterns you can apply to software releases, medical devices, manufacturing lines, or any system where reliability matters. We’ll map aviation practices—checklists, configuration control, redundancy checks, risk classification, and post‑event learning—to practical moves your teams can adopt tomorrow. You’ll leave with three ready-to-use conversation starters to raise the quality bar in your organization.

 
 

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