Testing is, in part, about challenging claims and speaking truth to power. If more testers spoke up— politely, with sound arguments, *in public*—about false claims made by test tool marketers, we could reduce the chance that managers will fall for the hype. Your voice counts.
Mind you, too much effort is being wasted on the kinds of work that can be done by machines—procedural scripted checks. Designing and performing experiments is what testing is all about. We must be able to DO that and DESCRIBE it, and why it’s necessary, or we WILL be replaced.
It’s necessary in some domains because as technology gets more complex and fragile, as businesses become more frantic, and as developers get more ambitious, risk multiplies. Testing must grow up, and testers must broaden their investigative skills to respond to that risk.
Testers must respond to the context—and must remind managers that we cannot do testing like [big rich famous company] because we’re not [big rich famous company]. Besides, what we’ve heard about [BRFC] is only true for part of it, and only what it’s willing to admit in public.
Testing is not about test cases that confirm what we know or hope to be true. Testing is discovering problems that we haven’t recognized yet; revealing unanticipated risk. The more we talk about test cases—artifacts—the more oxygen we give to tool marketers bogusly touting “AI”.
The future of testing is not in designing and coding automated checks. Developers can do that—and should be doing it, to the degree that it helps them work quickly and safely. The future of testing is not in running automated checks; machines can do that.
The future of testing, as usual, is in exploration, experimentation, discovery, investigation, learning, and reporting, all laser-focused on risk and problems that threaten value of products and organizations. “AI” cannot do THAT—and does the machine REALLY learn? Who tests that?
So, testers, I’ve woken up slightly grumpy today. But my message is a call to action, and ultimately a hopeful one. We’ve got to raise our game and skill up. We must be stronger as a craft. If you want help—including help talking to your management—I’m offering it.
