The world of testers and test managers—like most professions—continues to evolve. Some say the more things change, the more things stay the same; others say that testing as a profession is dying. These divergent views raise compelling questions. Are we approaching the era of minimal defects in which testing is diminished? Or is testing on the brink of becoming the most important aspect of software development as the risk of failure grows exponentially? What role will testers play on development teams? What critical skills will testers need in the future? After taking a hard look at where testing has been, Mike Sowers presents his and others’ views of the key drivers that are shaping the future role of software testers and test leaders. Mike explores how testing is impacted by technology (cloud, mobile, wearables), process (development and testing methodologies), and innovation. He then shares observations on and recommendations for staying competent, competitive, and relevant as a results-driven dev/test team member in your organization.

1. The Future of the Software
Testing Profession
Michael D. Sowers
TechWell
Em: msowers@sqe.com
Tw: MichaelSowers4
Ln: mdsowers

3. Is Testing Dying?
Disagree Agree
PM & Testers 83% 17%
Developers 33% 67%

4. Agenda
● Survey Findings
● Changes
● Methods/tools & Automation
● Product quality
● What’s Ahead?
● The future of the software testing profession
● What are the driving factors?
● Observations/recommendations

5. Agenda
● Survey Findings
● Changes
● Methods/tools & automation
● Product Quality
● What’s Ahead?
● The future of the software testing profession
● What are the driving factors?
● Observations/recommendations

6. Survey Overview
33 Questions focused on:
● The testers role & work
● Changes over the last 12 months
● Key practices & techniques
● Pre & post release quality
● Opinion of the future of the tester role
● Tools used

7. Demographics - 495 Responses

8. Our Testing Roots
Why did you become a tester?
Testing is my passion
What was your first job before getting into testing?
Developer/programmer – 20%
Testing was my first Job – 18%
Business user/analyst – 14%

9. Career Goals
Do you want to continue your career as a tester?

10. Dev Methods & Technologies
Primary life cycle model?
Agile-Scrum - 34%
Agile-Waterfall – 39%
Primary technologies tested?
Web Apps and Web Services
Key Practices:
Automated Testing
Continuous Integration, Delivery & Testing

11. Test Methods & Techniques
Common test approaches

12. How Much Automation?
Unit Integration System Acceptance
Some Limited Some Limited

13. Change in
Number of
Testers
No changeAdded
Testers
Reduced
Testers
46%
19%
31%

14. Primary Changes in Testing
Has your testing role changed?
Majority - No change
How will role change over the next 12 months?
Yes - Become more technical
Yes - Acquire more business skills

15. Pre- and Post Release Quality
Dev Build Quality Up Post Release Defects Down
Increased Unit Testing Improved Testing Focus

16. Commonly Used Tools

17. Current and Planned Certification

18. Testing - Yesterday and Today

19. Agenda
● Survey Findings
● Changes
● Methods/tools & automation
● Product quality
● What’s Ahead?
● The future of the software testing profession
● What are the driving factors?
● Observations/recommendations

20. Truths and Myths
● Testing is a whole-team responsibility
● Testing the idea and the product is good
● Agile and other iterative methods work
● Can’t test quality in – must build it in
● Testing is about risks
● Defects abound

21. Truths and Myths
● Anyone can do testing
● Being a tester is a compromise
● Automation is the magic bullet
● Businesses don’t care about quality
● One approach works universally

24. On The Future of Testing
Role of tester must be transformed:
● Agile changes the tester role
● Testers must become more technical
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Tester should be a skilled role:
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
As long as humans are accountable for
software we will need testing expertise:
89% Agree
77% Agree
91% Agree

25. Testing Remains Critical
Highlights of 2014 Outages
● Drop Box
● Gmail
● Google Services
● Adobe
● Icloud
● Microsoft
Bugs Still Plague Us
● Human Nature
● Increasing Complexity
● Competitive Pressure
● Poor Risks Decisions
● Improved Testing
Techniques

26. The Next Decade - Technology
● Computing everywhere
●The Internet of Things (IoT)
● 3D printing
● Analytics
● Context-rich Systems
● Smart machines
● Cloud/client Computing
● Software defined apps
● Web scale IT
● Risk based security

27. The Next Decade - Testing
● Security testing
● Cloud testing
● Big data testing
● Telematics testing
● Digital commerce testing
● IoT testing
● DevOps
● Service virtualization
● Mobile testing
● Infrastructure testing

28. Today’s Testing Scene - 2015
Key Strengths
● 40 year foundation
● Emerging methods
● Training
● Community
● Sound technology
● Standards
Key Challenges
● Knowledge
● Innovation
● Technology
● Leadership
● Transformation

29. QA & Test Budgets on the Rise
● Testing and QA now represent 26% of total IT
budgets on average
● Up 23% from 2013
● Up 18% from 2012
● The share of testing budgets is expected to reach
29% by 2017.

30. Observations/Recommendations
● The testing profession is NOT dying!
● Agile is here to stay
● Automation is an imperative
● The probability of mobile being in your future is high
● Continual transformation is a must
● There is tremendous opportunity to specialize

31. Four Career Paths for Testers
● Architect of Testing Guru
● Coordinator of Testing Guru
● Automator of Testing Guru
● Business User Testing Guru

32. A Continuum of Test Expertise
Simple
Flexible
Low
High
Low
Less critical
High
Structured
High
Low
High
Mission critical
System Complexity
Development Methodology
Level of Independence
Customer Involvement
Risks
Industry

33. Own Your Career as a Tester
● Keep pace with the transformation and transform!
● Chose a specialty
● Have a personal development plan & roadmap
● Have an industry focus
●Take accountability for growing your expertise
● Creativity/innovation
● Leadership
● Results

34. Invest in Superpowers
● Ambition
● Passion
● Specialization
● Learning
● Derivation
● Creativity
● Interesting
● Storytelling
● Leadership

35. Closing Thought
“As long as people are accountable for software
development there will be a need for skilled
testing roles…”
M.D.Sowers
Thank You

36. Acknowlegements
With sincere thanks and appreciation
to all who have contributed:
● Each of you that have or will continue the conversation
via the TechWell Survey
● Dorothy Graham, Jon Hagar, Matt Heusser, James
Whittaker
● Wayne Middleton, Heather Shanholtzer, Stasi
Richmond
● Lee Copland, Rick Craig, Dale Perry, Rob Sabourin

37. Take the Survey
Add your input to our growing body of
knowledge.
Visit
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/SotTP
to complete the State of the Testing
Profession survey.