Royce Khan

Manoj Kumar Kumar returned to the stage at Testing Talks Conference Sydney today with an awesome talk, “The Rise of AI Agents: Agentic AI in Quality Engineering.” A long-time community favourite and global thought leader, Manoj drew from his deep experience leading Quality Engineering at Cognizant and his influential role on the Selenium Project to deliver a talk that pushed the boundaries of what's possible in testing. He unpacked how agentic AI is evolving from simple automation to intelligent, autonomous systems that collaborate, adapt, and heal themselves, reshaping how we approach software quality. With practical tools, multi-agent frameworks, and context-aware strategies, Manoj Kumar Kumar delivered a bold vision of the future that had the audience captivated. #TestingTalksConference

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Mind Mapping Diagrams: Benefits for Systems Modeling & Requirements Analysis 🔹 Mind mapping offers a powerful starting point for capturing conceptual notions, particularly in stakeholder workshops or discussions with business subject matter experts (SMEs). Stakeholders’ concerns and interests can be captured in a business-friendly representation, and then business analysts can derive requirements, tracing them back to the topics in the mind map, ensuring traceability to the stakeholders' ideas. 🔹 When the traceability is continued through the model, any modeler working at any level, down to database design and coding, can trace back to the stakeholders' concerns. By visually connecting concepts, stakeholders can also see how their ideas are being implemented. 🔹 This visual approach bridges communication gaps between technical and non-technical team members, creating a shared mental model. Starting with mind maps before moving to formal ArchiMate, BPMN, UML, or other notations cuts requirements discovery time by 30% while improving overall quality. The low barrier to entry means everyone can contribute regardless of their technical background. This mind map diagram illustrates the results of a stakeholder workshop on an innovative urban parking initiative. Traceability is demonstrated at the bottom of the diagram, where high-level concepts connect directly to formal requirements using a dependency relationship stereotyped as <<derive>>. The central "Urban Parking System Payments" node branches out to six key stakeholder groups: 🔹 𝐌𝐨𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐬 - Concerned with convenience, availability, time flexibility, and payment methods. 🔹 𝐋𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 - Focused on permit systems, visitor parking, and congestion concerns. 🔹 𝐌𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐬 - Interested in increased foot traffic, customer convenience, and validation systems. 🔹 Payment Processors - Requiring integration capabilities, security compliance, and system reliability. 🔹 𝐏𝐚𝐲𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐫𝐬 - Monitoring operational efficiency, revenue collection, enforcement, and data analytics. 🔹 𝐌𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐩𝐚𝐥 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐥 - Responsible for budget allocation, environmental impact, and revenue generation. The diagram showcases the power of mind mapping in Enterprise Architect by explicitly linking conceptual elements to formal requirements. At the base, two critical requirements are connected via  "derive" relationships: 🔹 Municipal Revenue Reporting  🔹 Dynamic Allocation of Parking Spaces. This visualization demonstrates how mind mapping in Enterprise Architect creates traceability between stakeholder concerns and concrete system requirements, making it an ideal communication tool for stakeholder meetings where business and technical perspectives need alignment. #EnterpriseArchitect #UML #MindmapDiagram #UMLTutotial #RequirementsManagement #SystemSpecification #Requirements #MindMap #ConceptualThinking #StakeholderWorkshops

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Over engineering - you know the term. Automation but at what cost- this is something we have faced, fallen flat and then overcome. We all have learnt a lot and understand that both over engineering and 'just because you have to' kinda automation kills. But, we forget to apply this learning. AI is 'the' thing. But we have to be very cautious while using AI. Listen to this news. 'AI hallucinations ' are for real. Some points we need to understand • Educate yourself in AI • Before applying, go back to the basics. Basics remain the same - Applicability, why or why not, cost involved, risks, review . • Trust your SMEs , AI can't replace them. • Get the work done by AI reviewed and if possible rewritten. • AI is your assistant, Not your boss! • Quality over quantity will hold value. #AI #basicsneverfail #AIhallucinations https://lnkd.in/gnFvtP_r

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Engaged Agility is currently the only SAFe Platinum Partner offering public SAFe courses in New Zealand in 2026. We're kicking off the year with the new, superpowered AI-Enabled Product Owner/Product Manager course on 16-17 Feb. Learn how to plan and execute customer centric products on your Agile Release Train and begin to enable business agility within your organization, as well as how to apply AI in your day-to-day responsibilities, including: Backlog refinement: Use AI-enabled capabilities to identify gaps, refine stories, and generate acceptance criteria. Prioritization support: Leverage data-driven insights to weigh features against business goals and customer needs. Feature discovery: Experiment with AI-assisted ideation to uncover opportunities and spark innovation. Customer connection: Use AI-powered analysis of feedback and behavior data to sharpen understanding of customer needs. Take advantage of our early-bird discounts and register now! https://lnkd.in/eUvUT_hN #agile #newzealand #scaledagileframework #popm #training #AI

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The power of work design via the SMART* model was a powerful Agile Australia 2025 opening keynote delivered by Sharon Parker. Sharon shared the case for effective, aligned work design because: ⭐ 20% of workers report burnout. Buronout is described as a chronic condition where worker exhaustion can manifest as cynicism, being jaded and potentially depression. ⭐ The new industrial revolution due to Ai is replacing components of roles, rather than entire roles, impacting Mastery and Agency in workers. Sharon recommends designing in the preservation of key skills such as regular train-driving for drivers who work from behind screens, except when they're required to resolve a problem ⭐ Impact of the aging population. Australia needs more people to keep working to achieve our productivity goals. But work is not designed optimally to support aging workers Sharon was able to translate her significant body of research into accessible data: ⭐ Different work personality types need different components of work, to be happy and fulfilled ⭐ work is interdependent and the SMART model applies cross-functionally and with peers ⭐ job-crafting is a powerful skill to ensure greater alignment between what you need and what your work requires I loved learning about the SMART model and can see how it can improve work *SMART - Stimulating, Mastery, Agency/Autonomy, Relational, Tolerable

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The public sector has embraced artificial intelligence (AI), with a new report from CPA Australia suggesting that 40 per cent of public sector employees are accessing open-source AI tools to do their work. However, sound governance protocols are often lacking, or employees are unaware of them. A CPA Australia webinar poll found that just 30 per cent of respondents indicated that their organisation has a policy or has provided guidance on the use of AI tools at work. Alarmingly, 28 per cent reported that no such policy exists and 10 per cent were unaware whether a policy exists. CPA Australia is therefore recommending that public sector organisations should implement fit-for-purpose governance frameworks for the use (AI). Gavan Ord, CPA Australia’s Business Investment Lead, said that while AI has the potential to provide substantial benefits, its adoption in the public sector presents an array of risks, particularly where data sensitivity, transparency and accountability are paramount. Read our media release here: https://bit.ly/4o1ztSf

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💡Move from quarterly planning to monthly planning cycles. Tuesday Alexandra Stokes was a guest at the Agile Perth Meetup to share her approaches and tools for successful Agile transformation without heavy frameworks. She gave quite a few useful tips, one being to avoid quarterly planning and go for higher frequency. In her article (link in comments) she explains why it is wiser and more cost effective to have a monthly planning cadence. The article also provides guidance on how to move away from quarterly planning. A few highlights to lure you into reading the article. Highly reccomended! 👍 ❌Issues with quarterly planning: ▪️Effort & preparation: Teams often spent lots of time preparing for quarterly planning, but fail to truly understand what they’re actually trying to achieve. ▪️Unrealistic expectations: There’s an expectation for the plans to provide certainty for three months, which isn’t realistic given the dynamic nature of work. ▪️Lowballing: To avoid the disappointment of an unachieved plan, teams often begin to water down their plans. ▪️Dependency management: Dependencies are discussed during planning but not addressed outside of these events, leading to inefficiencies. ▪️Timing: Quarterly planning occurs at a time when teams are already deep in delivery mode, hindering their ability to think strategically for the upcoming quarter. ▪️High-level plans: Plans are too abstract, catering more to leadership needs rather than offering practical detail for the teams. ▪️Pressure & theatre: The event often feels like a performance, with pressure to appease leadership, resulting in teams silencing dissent or concerns. ▪️Cost: The time and resources spent on these two-day planning events can be costly and inefficient for the teams. ✔️Benefits of monthly planning: ▪️Adaptability: Monthly planning offers the flexibility to adjust and adapt more regularly, responding to changes as they occur. ▪️Engaged problem-solving: Monthly planning engages team members more directly in the process, ensuring that they contribute to realistic and actionable plans. ▪️Reduced theatre: By eliminating large-scale events, the pressure to perform in front of a crowd is reduced, allowing for more authentic discussions. ▪️Time efficiency: Monthly planning requires less overall team time and is more focused. ▪️Better prioritization: Monthly planning helps teams focus more on ongoing work of what truly matters, reducing distractions and improving prioritization. #AgileTransformation #AgileFrameworks #ScalingAgile #ScalingFrameworks #SAFe #Planning #AgilePlanning #QuarterlyPlanning #PiPlanning #QBR #QuarterlyBusinessReview

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