Speaker Bio:  

T Ashok
Founder and CEO , STAG Software
T Ashok is the Founder and CEO of STAG Software Private Limited, Bangalore, India, a company that specializes in inventing test technologies to deliver boutique test solutions/services to deliver clean software. Passionate about excellence, Ashoks mission is to discover methods to build clean software. At STAG he is deeply involved in architecting Hypothesis-based Testing (HBT), a scientific personal test methodology powered by the defect detection technology STEM.He is an alumnus of Illinois Institute of Technology (Chicago) and College of Engineering, Anna University (India).
Arun Kumar Singh
Vice President (Testing Services), Global IT Business — Wipro
Arun Kumar Singh is responsible for leading the Testing Services for BFSI and Enterprise Vertical in Wipro Technologies. Arun joined Wipro Technologies in Sep 1999. He had played various management roles at Wipro from PM to VP in Design and Development to Testing.It was under his leadership that the BFSI and Enterprise Testing group has contributed in Wipro Testing being recognized as the largest third party offshore testing service provider globally. Arun focused on building a strong team with a testing centric foundation competency, along with domain competencies to address specific needs of different industry verticals. Arun has phenomenal expertise in engaging clients in a consultative communication, reinforcing his role as a industry thought leader.Arun Kumar Singh completed his B.E (Honors Electronics & communication engineering) from REC Tiruchirapalli. Later he pursued his Masters in Marketing Management. Prior to Wipro he worked with AT&T in USA, CDOT & DCM-DP in Delhi. He had donned many roles like Research engineer, hardware design and development, telecom and general application design and development and management at different levels in the organization.
Vaidyanathan Ramalingam
Director - Engineering (Test), Huawei (R&D)
Vaidya has more than 20 Years of exp. primarily in Software Testing with Fortune 100 MNCs, such as Motorola, Nortel Networks ODC, Siemens, Indus EDC, Intel, HP-Mercury Interactive and Huawei (Present). He is Director Engineering (Test), CRD BL at Huawei R&D, Bangalore. He drove Org wide Test CoE, Competency Development Systems (self patent pending), Agile Testing and active contributor in testing industry. He is honorary member of FKCCI, which got established on 1916 by Bharat Ratna Sir M Visvesvaraya and has representation in several Boards & Advisory Committees in Government and Institutions. Vaidya is member of editorial board in ISQT Testing Newsletter, STEP-AUTO International Testing Conference Technical Committee and IEEE. He got several awards to his credit given by HQ & India R&D leadership like Huawei Y2010 Best Organisational Contributor Award; Y2008 Site Award from HP R&D Lab for Quality Center deployment; Winner & presenter at IMEC Tech conference (Y2006) USA for sharing Intel Chipset Systems BKMs; Finalist - Intel Worldwide Software Quality Award (first time from Intel India) from Director – S/w Quality, USA (Y2005); Divisional Recognition “Dual” Awards from VPs – Engineering for Quality Excellence and Delivering E-learning suite with Intel University (Y2005) & Regression Test Sub Project Leadership Award from Program Director-Siemens AG, Germany (2002). He is qualified with M.Tech – IT, B.S. - Information Systems and interested to write a software testing book/articles to promote software testing in India.
Nagarajan Pichumani
Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Softsmith Infotech
Nagarajan, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Softsmith Infotech, has around 18 years of Industry Experience. He began his career in 1992 with the Essar Information Technology, where he quickly ascended the ranks. He then worked with Tata Consultancy Services in the capacity of Project Manager and then also had very successful (overseas) stints with Tandem Computer, US Defense, TRW Experian and Satyam computers. During his career, he has provided consulting and project management services to leading organizations and also has assessed organizations on SEI CMM Certifications. He is known in the industry circles for his strong leadership qualities, a high understanding of testing methodology and an efficient project management skill. He has rich experience in the timely execution of highly demanding technology intensive projects. Nagarajan has a degree in Bachelor of Computer Science & Engineering from the College of Engineering, Anna University, Chennai, India.
A V Asvini Kumar
Chairman and Managing Director, Thinksoft Global
An alumnus of the Osmania University and IIM, Bangalore, Asvini has many years of experience in the IT services business, including 15 years as an entrepreneur. He has successfully pioneered the outsourced independent domain-focused test services model that is followed by Global 500 firms like Citi Group.Asvini has a history of entrepreneurship. He co-founded and ran a startup for 2 years (from 1981-83), before moving to IIM - B for a year to set up and upgrade their student and faculty computing facilities. He subsequently had a 4-year stint with PSI Bull as Product Support Manager handling large clients like ONGC. He then founded Thinksoft with the objective of providing value added IT consulting services, mainly in the areas of requirements testing, documentation and domain consulting. In 1998, his pioneering efforts towards creating an India-based independent test service model was proved a success, when CitiGroup became the first client to use Thinksoft India based test centers in one of its large Global flagship projects. In mid-1998, Asvini reorganized Thinksoft as a company and sure enough, a couple of years later, a UK based venture fund backed Thinksofts growth plans, thus propelling it as a Global player in its chosen area.
Shishank Gupta
Client Solutions Head, Independent Validation and Testing Services, Infosys
Shishank a multi million dollar testing portfolio spread across multiple locations. During his IT career he has had opportunities to work on software development, re engineering, testing and consulting projects. During this period he has worked on technologies ranging from mainframes, Unix / C++, J2EE, middleware like MQ, TIBCO and databases including Oracle and MS SQL server.He anchored the Independent Validation Solutions Academy, an independent training and KM body within Infosys which won an excellence award in the area of People Development in 2006-07. He has been conferrred excellence awards in the areas of Unit Management and Customer Satisfaction. He has been involved in several forums such as Times of India & Vishweshwariah Technical University and been delivering talks/speeches to evangelize Independent Testing as a rewarding career. He holds a patent for his Test Unit based estimation model. He has authored multiple whitepapers on optimizing testing effort and around creating learning culture and KM in the organization. He has presented papers at International HR Conference, Amsterdam and PMI EMEA Congress, Budapest. His articles titled ‘Maximizing your investments in e-commerce’ was published in the RIS business journal and ‘Domain Based Testing is Here’ in Testing Experience magazine. He delivered a key note lecture at QSIT on ‘Achieving more with less’ in the context of QA organizations. As a leader, his passion is for people, and he believes in creating winning testing teams and taking them along the exponential growth path.
GS Raju
Senior Vice President, Mahindra Satyam
GS Raju has around 25 years of experience in the IT industry. He started his career with TCS in 1982, from then on, he worked with Tata group of companies for 15 years. He, then moved to Perot Systems (formerly HCL Perot Systems), worked for eight years and during the last six years, he was heading software development centre for Perot Systems at Bangalore. He has rich experience in building expertise and growing the practice in Testing, ADMS JAVA/CS & Mainframes. He is instrumental in giving a strategic direction to the testing practice of Mahindra Satyam and TechM. His vision is to see next generation testing services like cloud and crowd emerge as the next outsourcing wave. He has to his credit set up many ODC’s including test center of excellence for fortune 100 companies.Presently he heads Delivery for UK & Ireland Regions and the Testing Businesss. He holds Masters degree in computer science from IIT Kharagpur.
Vijayaganesh Meenakshisundaram
Vice President & Head of Innovations & Solutions, Polaris
Vijayaganesh, is a software testing solutions consultant, currently working with Polaris as the Vice President & Head of Innovations & Solutions for Polaris Application Certification Enterprise (PACE), an independent software testing unit within Polaris. He is currently responsible for exploring new testing solutions and offerings for the PACE practice in Polaris. In the past he had been instrumental in conceptualizing, designing and innovating techniques for functional test management / engineering of enterprise applications for varied customer segments through setting up of Testing Center of Excellence (TCoE). His involvement with TCoE engagements specifically for the BFSI segment of customers has helped Polaris service its clientele with the state-of-the-art solutions for complex, high volume and mission critical application roll-outs. He has been an anchor for the functional testing practice across Polaris. As a practioner in software testing, apart from his work, he has been doing some critical exploration on application testing solutions. Through his acumen in software testing, he has been a key player in growing and expanding software testing business for Polaris. He has presented a paper on Security Testing for Financial Information Systems
Pradeep C
CEO , Edista Testing Institute
Pradeep C (PC as is referred in the market), is a well-known trainer, speaker, and evangelist in the field of Software Testing. In his current role as CEO of Edista Testing Institute – a venture of QAI Global, PC works with organizations to help them solve their Software Testing Workforce Development Problems. Some of the clients that PC works closely with include Deutsche Bank, HCL, Cognizant, Infosys, Siemens, Oracle, Adobe, McAfee, and many others. In all he has a total of 17 years of experience in the fields of Application Development & Maintenance, Software Testing, Software Estimation and Project Management. He is a graduate from BITS Pilani and Wharton School, Penn State, USA.
Percy Pavri
Chief Manager - Quality Systems, Tata Global Beverages
A Master in Analytical Chemistry by training from Nowrosjee Wadia College, University of Pune, with over 19 years experience. He started as a Research Associate in the R & D Dept, at Colgate Palmolive India. Developed state-of-the art technologies for incorporating Inedible Oils like Castor, Hydrogenated Rice Bran oil, into cosmetic applications, like Soaps & deodorants. Thereafter he moved on to Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages India, Pune, where he moved into the QA field, with operational responsibility for all beverages being produced by the unit. He helped in the implementation of Quality Systems like The Coca-Cola Quality System, ISO 14000, ISO 9000:2000, HACCP. He was the Management Representative, the document manager, Implementation Champion, for these system implementations. Thereafter he moved on to Metro Cash & Carry India as the National Quality Head for Food & Non Food Quality across all functions. He has audited, guided & help upgrade various food manufacturing / processing companies during his Metro tenure.He is currently “Chief Manager – Quality Systems” for Tata Global Beverages limited, Bangalore, primarily working on the Global Food Safety Initiative, GFSI, recognized Food Safety Standard Certification FSSC 22000. He is associated in various ways with the Food Safety Standards Authority of India, Quality Council of India, FICCI, Assocham, for knowledge sharing on various Quality / Food Safety initiatives.
Raghunandan H Venkatram
Head QA, Biocon
Pharmacist with extensive background (15 Years+) in the fields of quality control and quality assurance, manufacturing in pharmaceutical, biopharmaceutical OTC and Oral Care formulations & Contract Manufacturing Management, Clinical Trials Quality Audits of both manufacturing and testing.Worked at Cipla for 1 year and 13 years at GSK prior to joining Biocon.During GSK stint implemented QMS at Pharma, Consumer Division and also at gsk Cainta Manila Philippines.Overseas work experience in manufacturing of pharmaceutical formulations. Well versed with the international quality audit requirements (USFDA, EUGMP, TGA, MHRA,HSA) cGMP (GxP). Currently Heading the QA department since April 2008 having 100+ people reporting and over all responsible for product releases, quality audits, CAPA Management, Customer complaint handling and investigation, Audits (cGMP)of APIs Intermediates and formulations and QA in marketing companies like logistics distribution and clinical trial supplies. Lean Sigma Green Belt certified and actively involved in Statistical Tools, Trained trainer for Computer System.He has done Master of Pharmacy from BITS PILANI – Passed out in 1995 and also B.Pharm Gold Medalist from Mysore university.Raghu is currently pursuing doctorate program on formulation characterization in the area of anti obsess drugs, anti depressants and Gall stone treatment.
Dr. Sukanta Bhatt
Senior Manager - System Integration and Test, Philips Electronics
Dr Sukanta Bhatt holds a Master and a Ph.D. in Mathematics from IIT, Kharagpur. He has total of 20 years of work experience. For six years he worked in academics teaching in engineering colleges in Maharashtra. And he is in the IT industry for last fourteen years – both in development and testing. He worked for 3 years in Computervision/PTC, Pune as a CAD developer. From 2000 to 2010, he worked in Healthcare Imaging Platform in PIC (Philips Innovation Campus), Bangalore – both in software development and testing. He initiated the V&V team in the platform group, developed test strategy and design for many releases. In addition, he was also involved with in-house automated test framework development for white and black box testing. Since Jul 2010, he has moved to Philips Healthcare Pune and working as Senior Manager, responsible for System Integration, Verification and Validation of X-Ray products. Sukanta is a teacher and trainer of many topics in software engg, particularly SW quality engg and management. He is interested in test process improvement (TPI), formal V&V, test framework development and model based testing. He is passionate about increasing the awareness of value of testing among practitioners and fresher. He has spoken in various test conferences like StepInForum, StepinAUTO, QAI, BMA, Yahoo and ITB.
Mukesh Jain
Principal Engineering Manager, Microsoft India R&D
Mukesh Jain in Principal Test Manager in Microsoft India R&D, managing advertising engineering teams in Bangalore, India.He specializes in inventing engineering processes to help manage and deliver high quality software and services. For last 16 years, Mukesh has managed, trained, mentored, and coached hundreds of top professionals in the field. He frequently speaks at conferences and writes on software engineering, project management, quality assurance, testing, global development, and internationalization. Mukesh is author of book “Delivering successful projects” and “Web performance improvement”. He has made invited conference appearances at PMI, CAI, QAI, BZMedia, ASQ, NASSCOM, STeP-IN, SPIN, SEI TSP, SEI SEPG, IEEE, PNSQC, iSixSigma, SQE/Better Software, ICFAI, ISSRE, etc. He is recipient of multiple industry awards namely; QAI’s Project Management Leadership Award (2008), Best Six Sigma Black Belt by iSixSigma (2006), PMI’s Best Paper Award (2005), ASQ’s Quality Laureate award (2002), etc. Has been on the advisory boards for Keynote Systems, PNSQC, IEEE, ISPI, ASQ, SEI & SPIN. At Microsoft he is actively involved in developing innovative engineering methodologies and have led implementation of TSP, Six Sigma and defect prevention and have been awarded Leadership Award, Solution Excellence Award, Innovation Award, Quality of Service focus award.
Venkatesh Kovvuri
Director Head of Automation Practice, AppLabs
Venkatesh Kovvuri is the Director, Automation Practice at AppLabs, the world’s largest software testing and quality management company. In his current role, Venkatesh is responsible for driving Automation Center of Excellence across the organization, supporting solution engineering group, defining best practices and driving eTAP (Enterprise Test Automation Platform) initiatives.Venkatesh is a seasoned Architect with over 12 years of IT experience in handling technology solutions and presales in Software Testing and has successfully managed several complex testing projects and architected customized test harnesses for his customers.His areas of expertise include, Optimized Test Design, SOA/Web Services Testing, Framework-based Test Automation and Test Productivity Improvement. Venkatesh has a Computer Science graduation in Engineering from Andhra University.
Anuj Magazine
Software Testing Practitioner, Citrix R&D India
Anuj Magazine is a Software Testing practitioner currently working at Citrix R&D India as Manager, Products (Globalization Services). He likes exploring new avenues and their intersection with Software testing profession such as Handwriting Analysis, Assembly line approach, Six thinking hats etc. He is passionate about Software testing and has been a regular speaker at conferences, such as QAI, STEPin forum, SoftTec etc. and has spoken on several software testing topics. He has written articles in www.stickyminds.com, TheSmartTechie Magazine and frequently blogs
Srinivas Chintha
Director-Product Development, Sabre Holdings
Srinivas is the Director of Software Development leading the Testing, Consulting and Quality initiatives in Sabre Holdings and also heads the Central Automation organization responsible for all TPF product areas. Srinivas in his prior role lead a Product Marketing team in charge of mobility, integration solutions, hotels and site quality.Srinivas has a Masters Degree in Computer Science and an MBA in Marketing from the University of Texas at Dallas, with a Bachelors degree in Chemical Engineering
Manoj Jain
Manager – Software Engineering, CA Technologies
Manoj Jain is Manager – Software Engineering, at CA Technologies, an IT management software and solutions company with expertise across all IT environments. He has been with CA Technologies for more than 5 years and possess over 12 years of IT experience primarily in the area of software testing and sustaining engineering. He has extensively worked with automation tools like Rational TeamTest, Compuware QALoad. HP Mercury QTP, Selenium, Segue SilkPerformer etc. He has successfully delivered many third party testing services (functional/performance) at Singapore & South Korea. Previously, he has worked with Newgen Softwares and Nucleus Softwares based out of New Delhi. He has done his Masters in Computer Applications and currently pursuing Executive MBA from Indian Institute of Management – Lucknow. He is certified Scrum Master along-with ITIL V3 Foundation and Pragmatic Marketing Certification. Manoj regularly contributes to various testing forums and has submitted various white papers to annual conferences organized by QAI and STeP-IN. He has also conducted a session for HydSpin.
Mahesh Venkataraman
General Manager & Practice Delivery Head for Testing Services, Wipro
Over 20 years experience in Information Technology and Services industry in the area of Business management, services delivery, telecom product development, account management, business and technology development in the area of enterprise applications testing and driving innovation initiatives.Also visiting faculty at Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode since 2003.His areas of interest include software testing, service innovation, services strategy, organization building & team dynamics
Krishnappa Umesh
Senior Executive Vice President and Head – Car Program, Mahindra Reva Electric Vehicles
Mr. K. Umesh is a graduate in Mechanical Engineering with an MBA in Operations. Umesh has gathered around 23 yrs of diversified experience so far and currently works as Senior Executive Vice President and Head – Car Program at Mahindra Reva Electric Vehicles.Umesh also heads other functions in Mahindra Reva and they include Quality & Reliability, Validation, Process Management. Umesh and Team are working towards bringing New Generation Electrical Vehicles which are affordable, state of art and reliable for the Indian Market. In his journey of 23 years in the Industry, Umesh Worked in many Automotive and Non-Automotive companies and had the opportunities of learning various aspects of improving the Product Quality and Reliability.Some of the Organizations where he served are M/s Hero Honda Motors, M/s Philips Ltd ,M/s Harita TVS Technologies, M/s Tata Sasken Automotive ElectronicsUmesh has been focusing on a global “Product Creation Process” and a philosophy of overall Validation and Testing to deliver high quality products to the end customer. Umesh has written 7 technical papers in various automotive forums and have also been writing management articles in Major Newpapers like Times Of India – Ascent, Indian Express – Headstart and recently for Deccan Herald-DH Avenues.
Vikram Gudur
Quality Assurance Manager, Sabre Holdings
Vikram is a Test Automation Expert and Consultant with many years of Industry experience on Quality control, Quality Improvement & Quality Management. He is currently working as a “Quality Assurance Manager” for Automated Script Generator [ASG] Tool Development & Central Quality Team specialized in Quality Process & Automation for Legacy Products Regression Testing.Vikram has a Bachelors Degree in Engineering and Mechanical as specialization.