Top 15 QA Influencers to Follow in 2026
QA influencers bring you real testing insights, not just recycled theory. Whether you're refining your automation strategy or rethinking your quality culture, who you learn from matters. This list surfaces the voices worth your attention—practitioners and thought leaders actively shaping how QA teams work, think, and grow.
Top 15 QA Influencers
Below are the profiles of the top QA influencers, covering who they are and the impact they've made in this space.
Maaret Pyhäjärvi
Maaret Pyhäjärvi is Director, Consulting for AI-enhanced Application Testing at CGI, an exploratory tester, programmer, author, speaker, and longtime testing practitioner based in Finland.
Her work treats testing as an active learning…
Maaret Pyhäjärvi is Director, Consulting for AI-enhanced Application Testing at CGI, an exploratory tester, programmer, author, speaker, and longtime testing practitioner based in Finland.
Her work treats testing as an active learning discipline, combining exploratory techniques, programming, collaboration, and increasingly AI-assisted development. She teaches teams to find meaningful feedback at the level where it matters rather than defaulting to one testing approach.
Michael Bolton
Michael Bolton is a consulting software tester, teacher, and founder of DevelopSense. He co-developed Rapid Software Testing with James Bach and has spent decades studying skilled testing.
Bolton approaches testing as investigation…
Michael Bolton is a consulting software tester, teacher, and founder of DevelopSense. He co-developed Rapid Software Testing with James Bach and has spent decades studying skilled testing.
Bolton approaches testing as investigation rather than a mechanical execution of test cases. Through Rapid Software Testing, consulting, teaching, and writing, he develops ways for testers to reason about risk, uncertainty, evidence, and increasingly the challenges of testing AI-enabled systems.
Joe Colantonio
Joe Colantonio is the founder and host of TestGuild, a software testing media and education platform where he covers test automation, quality engineering, DevOps, performance, and AI testing.
Through TestGuild’s podcasts, articles,…
Joe Colantonio is the founder and host of TestGuild, a software testing media and education platform where he covers test automation, quality engineering, DevOps, performance, and AI testing.
Through TestGuild’s podcasts, articles, events, and industry interviews, Colantonio tracks how testing tools and practices change in real teams. His recent coverage puts particular emphasis on AI-driven testing, automation reliability, human review, and the changing quality-engineering stack.
Lisa Crispin
Lisa Crispin is an independent consultant, author, speaker, and co-founder of the Agile Testing Fellowship, known for helping teams build quality into agile development and continuous delivery.
Her books with Janet Gregory…
Lisa Crispin is an independent consultant, author, speaker, and co-founder of the Agile Testing Fellowship, known for helping teams build quality into agile development and continuous delivery.
Her books with Janet Gregory helped establish whole-team approaches to agile testing. Crispin now frames quality holistically across testing, collaboration, DevOps, continuous delivery, metrics, and AI, helping teams shorten feedback loops without sacrificing product quality.
James Bach
James Bach is founder and principal consultant at Satisfice, creator of Rapid Software Testing, and a longtime teacher, author, and advocate for skilled exploratory and context-driven testing.
Bach has spent decades developing…
James Bach is founder and principal consultant at Satisfice, creator of Rapid Software Testing, and a longtime teacher, author, and advocate for skilled exploratory and context-driven testing.
Bach has spent decades developing testing as a skilled, context-sensitive craft rather than a standardized checklist. His work spans exploratory testing, heuristics, product risk, testability, coaching, and computer-supported testing, with recent research extending those ideas to AI development and LLMs.
Keith Klain
Keith Klain is a Director of Quality Engineering at KPMG UK and the voice behind Quality Remarks, drawing on more than 25 years in software quality, testing, risk, and transformation work.
Klain…
Keith Klain is a Director of Quality Engineering at KPMG UK and the voice behind Quality Remarks, drawing on more than 25 years in software quality, testing, risk, and transformation work.
Klain connects testing strategy to business risk and technology outcomes, drawing on experience building quality programs in financial services and consulting. His writing and speaking challenge simplistic automation and AI claims while emphasizing critical thinking, skilled testing, and accountable quality decisions.
Rosie Sherry
Rosie Sherry is founder and CEO of Ministry of Testing, the community behind the MoTaverse, combining decades in software testing with community building, education, research, and events.
Sherry has turned community into…
Rosie Sherry is founder and CEO of Ministry of Testing, the community behind the MoTaverse, combining decades in software testing with community building, education, research, and events.
Sherry has turned community into infrastructure for how testing professionals learn and adapt. Ministry of Testing brings practitioners together around testing, quality engineering, automation, AI, research, events, and professional development, giving QA professionals a shared place to navigate industry change.
Kristel Kruustük
Kristel Kruustük is founder and board director of Testlio, the software testing company she co-founded after working as a tester and winning an AngelHack competition with the original concept.
Kruustük helped build…
Kristel Kruustük is founder and board director of Testlio, the software testing company she co-founded after working as a tester and winning an AngelHack competition with the original concept.
Kruustük helped build Testlio around a problem she knew firsthand: making software testing work better for teams and testers. The company developed a networked approach to real-world quality validation across devices, locations, payments, and user journeys, giving her perspective on QA at global scale.
Alan Richardson
Alan Richardson is an independent software development consultant, trainer, author, and the creator of EvilTester, with hands-on experience spanning programming, testing, automation, and leadership.
Richardson teaches testers to build technical depth rather…
Alan Richardson is an independent software development consultant, trainer, author, and the creator of EvilTester, with hands-on experience spanning programming, testing, automation, and leadership.
Richardson teaches testers to build technical depth rather than treating automation as button-pushing. Through EvilTester, books, courses, tools, and consulting, he works across API and web testing, programming, automation, developer tooling, and AI while continuing to build production software himself.
Bas Dijkstra
Bas Dijkstra is an independent test automation consultant and trainer behind On Test Automation, with nearly two decades of experience across languages, frameworks, APIs, and automation stacks.
Dijkstra argues that automation earns…
Bas Dijkstra is an independent test automation consultant and trainer behind On Test Automation, with nearly two decades of experience across languages, frameworks, APIs, and automation stacks.
Dijkstra argues that automation earns its place by delivering valuable product feedback quickly, not by maximizing automated checks. His consulting and training cover automation strategy, maintainable test code, APIs, security testing, programming practices, and integrating automation into everyday development.
Angie Jones
Angie Jones is VP of Developer Experience at the Agentic AI Foundation, an award-winning teacher and keynote speaker whose career spans software engineering, test automation, and developer advocacy.
Jones has long taught…
Angie Jones is VP of Developer Experience at the Agentic AI Foundation, an award-winning teacher and keynote speaker whose career spans software engineering, test automation, and developer advocacy.
Jones has long taught engineers how to build stronger automation systems, while her recent work explores agentic software, MCP, AI-assisted engineering, and the reliability problems that appear when autonomous systems meet real applications. Her testing background gives her a practical lens on whether AI-generated results can actually be trusted.
Janet Gregory
Janet Gregory is an agile testing author and co-founder of the Agile Testing Fellowship. Her books with Lisa Crispin helped teams bring testing and quality practices into agile development.
Gregory’s work helped…
Janet Gregory is an agile testing author and co-founder of the Agile Testing Fellowship. Her books with Lisa Crispin helped teams bring testing and quality practices into agile development.
Gregory’s work helped popularize whole-team responsibility for testing, agile testing practices, and ways to assess and improve quality systems. Her books, models, and continued writing give QA practitioners frameworks for examining feedback loops, testing, code quality, culture, and continuous improvement.
Jonathon Wright
Jonathon Wright is a CAIO and technology leader and speaker with more than 20 years of international experience spanning automation, emerging technology, AI, and quality engineering.
Wright works at the intersection of…
Jonathon Wright is a CAIO and technology leader and speaker with more than 20 years of international experience spanning automation, emerging technology, AI, and quality engineering.
Wright works at the intersection of quality engineering and emerging technology, connecting automation with AI, cognitive engineering, AIOps, and enterprise transformation. His writing and speaking give technology leaders a view of how QA evolves as intelligent automation moves deeper into software delivery.
Kent Beck
Kent Beck is a software design pioneer, author, and creator of Extreme Programming and test-driven development, whose work has shaped how developers use feedback, testing, and incremental design.
Beck’s TDD and Extreme…
Kent Beck is a software design pioneer, author, and creator of Extreme Programming and test-driven development, whose work has shaped how developers use feedback, testing, and incremental design.
Beck’s TDD and Extreme Programming work made rapid feedback, automated tests, small changes, and continuous learning central to modern development practice. He now extends those ideas into empirical software design and AI-assisted coding, examining which engineering disciplines become more important as coding gets faster.
Richard Bradshaw
Richard Bradshaw is Senior Architect, Quality Engineering at Slalom and a longtime tester, trainer, speaker, and writer known as FriendlyTester, with deep experience in testing and automation.
Bradshaw’s work pushes automation beyond…
Richard Bradshaw is Senior Architect, Quality Engineering at Slalom and a longtime tester, trainer, speaker, and writer known as FriendlyTester, with deep experience in testing and automation.
Bradshaw’s work pushes automation beyond scripts toward useful engineering outcomes. He teaches principles for judging automation by its impact on teams and the business, while his recent hands-on work explores AI agents, AI testing, quality engineering, and how testing roles are changing as AI enters software development.
Selection Methodology
We selected the leaders on this list based on their relevance, demonstrated expertise and impact, professional credibility, and ongoing contributions to the field.
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We look for evidence such as leading meaningful initiatives or delivering notable results within their organizations, developing influential ideas or practices, publishing research or educational resources, speaking or teaching, and other contributions that demonstrate impact within their work or the broader field.
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