Hamilton Software Test Professionals Meetup | July 2025

51 participants, 4 local major corporates presenting and 1 great venue. That is what the Hamilton Software Test Professionals community had access to in their latest meetup on Tuesday 29th July 2025.

Hosted for the first time by the great team at CompanyX, our Hamilton Software Test Professionals community meetup took on a ‘Ted Talks’ approach, with the topic being the test processes and tool systems used by local organisations. We were very privileged to have representation from each of CompanyX, Mercury Energy, Gallaghers and Fonterra. All are significant organisations both within Hamilton and New Zealand-wide. All gave excellent overviews of their testing platforms, development environment, test processes and the associated tooling.

• First up, CompanyX gave an excellent overview of the processes and tooling associated with a leading-edge software development consultancy. With bespoke software development ranging from real time digital dashboards through to virtual reality-based training and certification systems, Nicola Brock gave an excellent overview of what pragmatic software quality assurance looks like, and the tooling to support this. Heavily focused on doing what was needed to deliver the expected level of quality to the client at the agreed price point and with an adjustable testing process, Nicola’s presentation was a great start to the event and can be seen here <LINK TO PRESENTATION PDF>
• Mercury Energy’s presentation gave a glimpse at what was inside a complex utility organisation that includes both generation as well as retail business functions. Technically complex, Mercury Energy was a good example of how organisations are using a variety of tools and processes to meet the needs of individual applications within the varying functions inside Mercury Energy. With the recent acquisition of Trustpower’s retail business, Mercury Energy were also working on a consolidation and refresh of their test processes and the associated tooling. Neil Crichton’s presentation was a great ‘historical state / current state / future state’ overview and can be seen here <LINK TO PRESENTATION PDF>.
• Shifting gears from local to supporting a global client base, local (and New Zealand) legend Gallaghers was our next presenter. Needing to support the full range of API & Microservices, Web & Mobile Applications, Desktop and Internet of Things (IoT) platforms across both online services and physical product, Jeewana Perera gave an awesome rundown of the complex mix of testing and SDLC management tools, expertly broken down by the various testing functions and applications that the Gallagher Test Practice was required to support. Jeewana’s presentation is available here <LINK TO PRESENTATION PDF>.
• Easily the most complex of all the organisations presenting, we closed out with Mark Sinnathamby of Fonterra. From the audible gasp when the list of in-use applications was presented through to the overview of how Fonterra was both approaching and managing the process of consolidation for both the in-use applications and the supporting tooling – particularly in the testing environment, Mark’s presentation was a good thought provoking overview of the Fonterra challenges and operating environment, and a great way to close out the formal part of the presentation. A copy of Mark’s presentation is available here <LINK TO PRESENTATION PDF>.

With all the presenters and the audience staying for the post presentation drinks and nibbles provided by TTC Global, this was one of the largest community meetups that I have had the privilege to facilitate. With some of the attendees driving down from Auckland for the event, this was a great community event – and we already have the team at CompanyX keen to host the next one in 3 month's time!!!