It is supposed that there was an initial point of time where all the energy of the universe was concentrated at a single point, which was followed by the Big Bang, which then gave birth to the universe as we know it today.

Similarly on the 3rd of December, at the 15th annual Software Testing Conference by QAI and ETI held at Park Plaza, Bengaluru, it seemed that all the energy was wrapped up in a ball, and the opening speakers of Day One did a phenomenal job to get the ball rolling.

Indranil Das, V.P of Ericsson and Rajendra Prasad, popularly known as R.P who is the M.D of Accenture were the keynote speakers to kick start the 15th annual STC organized by QAI and ETI.

Mr.Indranil took a departure from tradition and didn't use a presentation to accompany his opening speech. What he did instead was far more successful in engaging the audience thoroughly: He opened his speech with a joke, moved on to speak about Quality which I will elaborate on, got the audience to watch a video on the importance of Quality testing and the impact if attention is not paid to quality which was so to the point and no nonsense. (I will elaborate on this video as well). A couple more jokes, some fantastic videos, and some brilliant examples (to support his statements) later, he ended the speech to an audience who applauded and approved his whole take on "Quality".

So going back to elaborate on what I promised to. "Quality", he said, "Is it something we're consciously being conscious of, or consciously being unconscious of?" His speech was titled The Q's of Quality, and aptly so for he said that he'd come there with a few questions about Quality rather than with answers. And the questions he asked forced everyone in the audience to stop for a moment and think.

He continued his speech by saying that success may be noticed, but failure is always magnified. Nobody forgets a failure event. The video that followed showed three testing failure incidents of three major companies of the world, and how the failures cost heavily; which could have been easily avoided had Quality been the topmost priority. This holds true not just in testing but also across life, the cost of a failure plus rework is immeasurable as against an initial cost of time and effort for doing it right the first time.

By the time Mr.Indranil got off the stage, the takeaway was clear to everyone in the room: that Quality comes at a price, but the price of not having quality standards met is incomparable to the former. His concluding message was to "Keep it simple". And true to his word, right from the beginning until the end, he'd kept it no nonsense and simple. He not only talked the talk but also walked it too.

What's well begun is half done goes an age old proverb, and the keynote speaker Mr.Indranil Das did a fabulous job of setting the pace for the events that followed. Well begun, indeed.