{"id":8042,"date":"2016-12-23T18:34:40","date_gmt":"2016-12-23T18:34:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.abstracta.us\/?p=8042"},"modified":"2025-05-05T21:21:02","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T21:21:02","slug":"salute-2016-toast-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abstracta.us\/blog\/software-testing\/salute-2016-toast-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"A Salute to 2016 and Toast to 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!-- Go to www.addthis.com\/dashboard to customize your tools --><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-11977\" src=\"http:\/\/abstracta.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/freestocks-vL56-WXyBEk-unsplash-min.jpg\" alt=\"year 2017 picture\" width=\"5184\" height=\"3456\" \/><\/p>\n<p><script src=\"\/\/s7.addthis.com\/js\/300\/addthis_widget.js#pubid=ra-58d80a50fc4f926d\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h1><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #333333;\">Year in Review<\/span><\/h1>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Several of you reading this may be anxious to leave 2016 in the past and some may not (<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I\u2019m looking at you,<\/span><\/i><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"color: #333333;\"> creators of<\/span> <a href=\"http:\/\/venturebeat.com\/2016\/08\/24\/pokemon-go-is-the-most-successful-mobile-launch-in-history-superdata-says\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pok\u00e9mon Go<\/span><\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><span style=\"color: #00b674;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.firstpost.com\/sports\/rio-olympics-2016-the-cinderella-story-of-simone-biles-who-joins-the-pantheon-of-gymnastics-2952334.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Simone Biles<\/span><\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <span style=\"color: #333333;\">and every member of the <\/span><\/span><span style=\"color: #00b674;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/news\/2016\/04\/11\/world-tiger-count-rises-for-first-time-in-100-years\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">global tiger community<\/span><\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #333333;\"> for whom this year was one for the books). Speaking for Abstracta, we will be in the latter camp as this year fostered tremendous growth. In January we welcomed team members to a second office in Uruguay which is still going strong. We even expanded our horizons by working with customers in new industries and strengthening our test training offering by launching <\/span><span style=\"color: #00b674;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/abstracta.academy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Abstracta Academy<\/span><\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #333333;\"> through which, to date, we have certified over 100 new testers across 15 countries. Finally, we are proud to say that the size of the company grew by 25%.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Not only did our company grow, but we attended and spoke at the most events in our history, spanning four different continents, becoming more entrenched in the global testing community. Our COO, Federico Toledo, Ph.D., and I were invited to speak at the <span style=\"color: #00b674;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cmg.org\/event\/performance-capacity-2016-conference\/#\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">CMG imPACt<\/a><\/span> conference in La Jolla, California and what a blast it was to meet so many interesting, passionate individuals about performance! Another highlight of the year is when Federico received the award for the best session at <\/span><span style=\"color: #00b674;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.qatest.org\/en\/index.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">QA&amp;Test Conference<\/span><\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in Spain. And I can\u2019t forget performing demos and raffling out BB-8 Droids alongside BlazeMeter in our shared booth at the O\u2019Reilly Velocity Conferences. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #333333;\">I am very humbled to lead this company that I have watched since it emerged in Uruguay and I am observing that it is really starting to hit its stride in the USA. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is partly due to our supportive clients and partners we\u2019ve gained in 2016 like <span style=\"color: #00b674;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.shutterfly.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Shutterfly<\/a><\/span>, <span style=\"color: #00b674;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.blazemeter.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">BlazeMeter<\/a><\/span>, and <span style=\"color: #00b674;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/newrelic.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">New Relic<\/a><\/span> who have helped us more than they know (among others). Thanks to Shutterfly, we had the pleasure of working alongside their talented engineers and marveled as they conducted cutting-edge performance testing. We also enjoyed collaborating with their team to produce a hit <\/span><span style=\"color: #00b674;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.abstracta.us\/continuous-performance-testing-webinar-shutterfly\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">webinar<\/span><\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">! Besides attending conferences with them, BlazeMeter was instrumental in helping us launch our online JMeter and BlazeMeter <\/span><span style=\"color: #00b674;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/abstracta.academy\/jmeter-performance-testing-certification\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">certification course<\/span><\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Lastly, rocking out to Neon Trees with the CEO of New Relic, Lew Cirne, at their Future Stack Conference in San Francisco was a real treat and we are looking forward to all the opportunities that lie ahead with them. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As for 2017, expect to see us at even more testing and performance-related events, from <\/span><span style=\"color: #00b674;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.meetup.com\/TestingWorkshops\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">local meetups<\/span><\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to <\/span><span style=\"color: #00b674;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/agiletestingdays.us\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Agile Testing Days in Boston<\/span><\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and the Velocity Conferences\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">yet again. We\u2019ll also be charging ahead, developing more courses available on the <\/span><span style=\"color: #00b674;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/abstracta.academy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Abstracta Academy<\/span><\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> platform and plan to add more quality engineers, project managers, business associates, etc to our office in Silicon Valley. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I invite anyone who is interested in getting more involved with Abstracta in any way, from forming a partnership or joining our team to please <\/span><span style=\"color: #00b674;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.abstracta.us\/contact-us\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">contact us<\/span><\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> today! <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #333333;\">May you have wonderful holidays and a safe and happy New Year, on behalf of all of us from Abstracta. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400; color: #333333;\">Cheers to 2017!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Year in Review Several of you reading this may be anxious to leave 2016 in the past and some may not (I\u2019m looking at you, creators of Pok\u00e9mon Go, Simone Biles, and every member of the global tiger community for whom this year was one&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[106],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v14.0.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A Salute to 2016 and Toast to 2017 | Abstracta<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"CEO, Sof\u00eda Palamarchuk, recounts Abstracta&#039;s highlights over the year in her salute to 2016 while looking forward to 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