Irja is a Quality Engineering Manager with almost 15 years of experience in the industry. She started her professional adventure as a software tester and business analyst, after which she took over the product manager role in the first Croatian unicorn. After a multi-year product adventure, Irja decided to accept the challenge of establishing testing practices and integrating quality from the very beginning of product development. For the past few years, she has focused on modern exploratory testing, developing people, establishing quality engineering practices, process organization, and encouraging healthy collaboration between teams.

Once upon a time, the company said: „Congratulations! The company is going through a major reorganization, and you will lead a new test team.“ Irja did not hesitate: „Finally! Challenge accepted!“. Everything was fine until one fine spring day she received a message from her boss: „Can’t we just automate all the tests and make them green?“.
In this talk „Lead Your Way Into the Future by Managing Up„, Irja will share her experience and how she learned (the hard way) that managing up is a crucial skill for a tester but somehow invisible because no one teaches it to us. She wants to tell you the story and elevate the visibility of those skills so that tomorrow, you can use them to have agency over your work.
How is this presentation related to the practical applicability of software testing and the future in general? This experience report can be practically applied in everyday work and it is not specific for any industry. It is relevant for all professionals, especially testers, who want to be more successful in their work and have an impact on their career development in the future. In the era where more and more test managers are being let go, we have to understand the importance and put more effort into managing our stakeholders and their expectations. I will share some practical tips and explain what worked well in real projects.