2026-02-13 –, RoboCon
This session traces the four-year journey of the Nice Project QA team from initial Robot Framework adoption to global community building. Using a mountain-climbing metaphor, we reflect on the technical challenges of desktop automation and the pivotal role of international collaboration. We detail our evolution from attendees to "mountain guides" through initiatives like Wrobocon. Attendees will learn how a commitment to open-source communities drives technical excellence and sustainable growth in test automation.
In 2020, the Nice Project QA team began a journey that many test automation professionals will find familiar: selecting a core toolset and establishing a foundation for customer success. While Robot Framework was chosen for its versatility and fit, the project’s increasing complexity—particularly regarding desktop application automation—eventually revealed the limitations of working in isolation.
This talk examines the critical transition from being a localized user of an open-source tool to becoming an active participant in its global ecosystem. Using the metaphor of an arduous mountain climb, we describe the stages of this evolution and the "steep slopes" of technical roadblocks where internal custom libraries were no longer sufficient. We will discuss how these challenges necessitated a search for broader expertise and led to our first engagement with the international community.
Key milestones covered in this session include:
The Discovery Phase: Navigating the early stages of adoption and recognizing when "what got us here won’t get us there."
Community Integration: The impact of international gatherings like RoboCon and how knowledge exchange provides a "mountain hut" for weary teams.
From Climbers to Guides: The strategic shift toward contribution, including joining the Robot Framework Foundation and establishing Wrobocon to foster local expertise.
The Next Summit: well keep it a surprise, join the session and find out.
The narrative emphasizes that technical growth is rarely a solitary endeavor. By sharing the lessons learned from building a local community and contributing to the Foundation, we highlight how collaborative environments improve tool stabilization, CI/CD orchestration, and team resilience. Participants will gain insights into how they can move beyond basic implementation toward active community contribution, ensuring their own organizational "climb" is supported by the collective experience of the industry.
This talks shows the journey of a company from implmenting RF and doing everything by themselvs to gaining the advantige of collaborating with the global communit. New people to RF will discover the possibilities that collaboration brings. Expirienced users can compare their path to the described in the talk, and hopefully it will spatk some discussions about it.
Is this suitable for ..?: Beginner RF User, Intermediate RF User, Advanced RF User Describe your intended audience:-
In-Person or Online talk/workshop?:in-person talk
Hi! I’m Jerzy and I’ve been testing since 2016, automating since 2017 and working with Robot Framework since 2020. I mostly work with web automation but I love tackling all kinds of automation and RF challenges. I also like sharing my knowledge and helping others, both through formal trainings and directly among coworkers, all with a more laid back attitude yet high attention to detail. I also strive to look for potential pitfalls and always try to keep in mind the point of view of new users and make the info more immediately applicable.