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The future of testing

I spent the last week in beautiful Denmark teaching at our offices in Vedbeak. I really like Denmark. The people are absolutely wonderful, the city of Copenhagen is magnificently rich with history, and of course the beer is delicious. Of all the places I have traveled, I must admit Copenhagen is easily one of the top three favorite (and recommended) travel destinations for me. But, let me get to the point.

After a week of training some of the attendees wanted to discuss their career and the future of tester's in general. I think many still believe that testing is a great stepping stone into development roles, but don't see the long term career options available to them as technical individual contributors in the role of testing. So, let me start by stating I believe there are a greater number, and much harder problems to solve in the software testing space than there are in the software development space. Sure, the job title of developer is more sexy and more appealing to many people, but let's face it, most new developers out of university are simply fresh meat who become another cog in the wheel whilst learning the trade. And, the title of "tester" still carries negative connotations for various reasons. However, the fact is the role of testing is more demanding and provides many greater technical challenges as compared to the role of development in today's software organizations. The cost of software testing is still greater than 50% of the product lifecycle. Finding the keys to reduce testing costs and long term maintenance costs by driving quality upstream will surely reap greater rewards over the long haul as compared to the limited profits from any new widget.

So, while I am very optimistic about the future of testing, I am also very concerned. My concern stems from the fact that we have a pool of very talented, highly technical people who possess great skill and determination, yet these people's skills are sometimes bridled by managers who continue to use them as keyboard monkeys on a snipe hunt, or (perhaps worse) tell them to "automate everything" without any strategic planning or direction. I suspect this occurs because there exists some number of test managers in the industry who lack sufficient technical acumen to comprehend the potential of this new breed of testers and who are thus unable to capitalize on their capabilities. I have actually witnessed managers who let (or encourage) their technical people re-invent a wheel by building another duplicate key mnemonic checker, or automated test harness simply to demonstrate the individual's development skills. (What a waste!) I also suspect there are some managers who simply haven't thought through the long term career growth of testers to senior levels and thus can't imagine what benefits a senior tester could provide to the team, or the company.

I love software testing. It is one of the most mentally challenging jobs I have ever had, and forces me to continuously learn new skills and improve on existing skills as technologies change. I also see many possibilities for testing roles in the future such as partnering with developers to ensure the value of unit tests (because we all know that developers don't know anything about testing), determining ways to cut long term maintenance costs, developing tools similar to static analysis tools to drive quality upstream and prevent build breaks, developing test automation for SDKs or that are used by customers to validate complex configurations before the customer rolls out the system into production. Frankly, I don't yet think we know how to capitalize on the skills of our testers, nor do we yet understand the potential benefits that a team of highly skilled senior level testers can provide to the organization in terms of cost savings and improved customer satisfaction. I suspect this occurs because we only think in the scope of the next widget release, not in terms of the next 5 to 10 years.

But, if we don't figure this out, and if we continue to restrict the talent and underutilize the potential of the new breed of testers who possess tremendous knowledge and the technical skills to solve these difficult problems we will return to the days of yesteryear where the total worth of a tester is measured by the number of bugs they find. How pathetic!

Published Sunday, December 03, 2006 3:33 AM by I.M.Testy
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Comments

# re: The future of testing

I am concerned that you take this blanket view towards the progression of testers, this may be true in MSLand however it certainly isn't true where I work.

Not only are senior (as well as novice) testers and test leads considered extremely valuable but also, their training and development is highly prized, equalled only by the drive for progression.

As far as restricting talent and underutilizing potential, again I feel this is a gross generalisation and not an industry view. I have free reign to develop my own processes, scripting methods, planning and management. If I have thought of a potentially better way to do something, not only is it considered to be my right to challenge existing methods, it is almost my duty to do so.

Our roles have already developed into joint relationships with developers to aid with unit testing, our testers are involved from the earliest stages of a project and form a major part of decision making. Our role is viewed as being a customer champion, driving quality forward for the good of all involved. TBH it's very worrying that as part of a 'forward thinking' organisation, you only consider this to be the future, and not the present!

:) cheers

Wednesday, December 06, 2006 5:42 AM by Lewis Cameron

# re: The future of testing

Actually my perception is a generalization, but it is not reflective of mmany groups at Microsoft or all companies in the industry. My perspective comes from talking with testers from hundreds of different companies around the globe. Similar to your company Microsoft has many teams in which testers of all levels have joint relationships with developers, review unit tests, debug to line of code, perform root cause anaylysis and develop tools and processes to drive quality upstream.

(BTW...I hope that by "driving quality forward for the good of all involved" you mean driving quality upstream for improved defect prevention.)

However, I consistently hear from many new (and some experienced) testers across the industry (including in a few groups at Microsoft) horror stories such as; individual contributors still hit the proverbial glass ceiling (meaning that promotion beyond a certain level requires moving into lead or management type positions), automation strategies are not organized (or even worse the strategy is 100% automation) and there are often last minute "drop everything and lets bang on this manually because mgt is not confident we are finding enough bugs", and in worse case scenarios highly skilled testers spend the majority of thier time relegated to banging away at the keyboard to find more and more bugs (because some managers still view progress or performance in terms of simple bug count measures).

This is not indicative of all companies in the industry, nor does it necessarily reflect all of Microsoft. However, it does occur. I will also say that some management types view the role of testing and their testers roles through very dark stained glass (meaning they are sometimes out of touch with what really happens) and this is echoed by many individual contributor testers who feel stifled. Now there can be many reasons for this, but the disconnect is no doubt there in some cases.

Obviously there are companies (and teams at MS)that utilize the fullest potential of all their employees, encourage innovation, and seek to conquer challenges such as defect prevention. But, in my role I am exposed to a lot of front line testers across the industry and I can say that many individual contributors do not feel like they have yet achieved the same state of 'tester nirvana' as your company.

So, yes there are companies that are more mature than others, and I hope they read my post and say to themselves, "cool, we're already there." I also hope there are some managers who read this and think to themselves, "How can I or our company better utilize the potential of our employees?" From the testing micro-perspective that means how do we capitalize on the skills and knowledge of testers beyond banging away at the keyboard in search of bugs to 'beat in quality', and do we have a realistic strategy in place that enables project success and also encourages individual innovation.

- Bj -

Wednesday, December 06, 2006 12:57 PM by I.M.Testy

# re: The future of testing

With the eager and passion you contain for software testing, and the fact that you have been to denmark in regards to this. I would suggest and encourage you to come visit us the next time you are here. We need people like you :-)

Cheers,

Anders - BBLsolutions

Tuesday, July 31, 2007 6:05 AM by BBLsolutions - Ensuring software quality

# re: The future of testing

Hi Anders,

Thank you for your kind words. I read your company profile and I admire the way that you, Henrik, and Rune saw a 'hole' in available tools and took the initiative to start your own commpany to solve that problem. I would say our industry needs more people like you...those who see problems as challenges and embark to solve those challenges with meaningful solutions.

I will be in Copenhagen in November, and I would like very much to meet with you.

- Bj -

Wednesday, August 01, 2007 10:17 AM by I.M.Testy

# I. M. Testy : The future of testing

I spent the last week in beautiful Denmark teaching at our offices in Vedbeak. I really like Denmark . The people are absolutely wonderful, the city of Copenhagen is magnificently rich with history, and of course the beer is delicious. Of all the place

Saturday, May 31, 2008 5:45 AM by Dating

# I. M. Testy : The future of testing

I spent the last week in beautiful Denmark teaching at our offices in Vedbeak. I really like Denmark . The people are absolutely wonderful, the city of Copenhagen is magnificently rich with history, and of course the beer is delicious. Of all the place

Friday, June 06, 2008 12:45 AM by Weddings
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