Will the Test Leaders Stand Up?A personal view

@paul_g

erra

rd

Paul Gerrardpaul@gerrardconsulting.com

gerrardconsulting.com

Agenda

• A Methodological Shift• Five Year Predictions• Some Doors Close, but Others Open• Change Needs Leadership• Will the Test Leaders Stand Up?

A Methodological Shift

From staged, structured projects to iterative and Agile and now, towards ‘continuous

delivery’

Software as a Service dominates the growth of public cloud markets

Massive re-architecting of systems and companies – work in progress• Many (most?) public websites will be

replaced by mobile apps – depends on who you talk to

• SaaS will represent 26% of all packaged software (so what?)– To re-architect an installed base of software

and create new systems will be a monumental effort

– The challenges of integration, security, performance and reliability will be daunting.http://forrester.com/rb/Research/sizing_cloud/q/id/58161/t/2

Changes ahead

• System users and service vendors moving to new business models based on new architectures

• SaaS is an enabler for very rapid deployment of new functionality onto a range of devices

• SaaS and maturing Agile approaches mean the promise of Continuous Delivery can be achieved.

And Continuous Delivery is...

From requirement to deployment in 24 hours…

every 24 hours?

From traditional delivery…

… to Continuous Delivery

The Deployment Pipeline

• Automated Unit tests

• Automated Acceptance Tests

• Manual User Tests

Structured … Agile?We are in transition• A re-think is in progress• Adopting new architectures and a more

streamlined approach to development• Requirements half-life of weeks or months• Agile approaches are homing in on continuous

delivery• Kanban-Ichiwichi-Hokikoki-Kamikaze-Driven

Development – Whatever!• A hybrid Agile-Structured process:

– Structured Analysis, Agile Delivery?– That would be SAAD!

What does this mean for practitioners?• Re-distributed functional testing• A focus on continuous test and assurance• Service integration replaces system

integration• Non-functional skills, design and test

particularly UX, security, privacy, performance are in demand (‘twas always so)

• The ability to balance competing non-functional requirements in demand too.

TestingBDD/Test-Driven)Trusted

Requirements + Stories

Redistributed testing

Functional Requirements

Build (+little testing) but lots of rework

Testing (lots of checking + bugs)

Trusted Requirements +

StoriesTesting

SAVEDTIME

BDD/Test-Driven

The real squeeze on testing

• From the ‘low-value’ unskilled, downstream test role to upstream, business-savvy, workflow-oriented, UX (user experience)-aware testing specialists with new tools– Developers absorb the checking – with tools– Business analysis owns acceptance– New focus on requirements management– Under-skilled testers, relying on clerical skills

to get by will be squeezed out.

My Five-Year Predictions

From 2011Are we half way there?

#150% of in-house testers will be reassigned or outsourced

#2Business test planning will

become part of up-front analysis and design (where it

should be)

#3Specification by

Example will become the new

buzzword (includes ATDD, BDD, TDD

etc.)I was wrong

#4Developers will

adopt behaviour‐driven

development and new tools

#5Some system tests

and most acceptance tests will be business model-driven

#6Business models plus stories will

increasingly become

‘contractual’

#7System Tests will

be generated from stories or will be

outsourced

#8Manual system test

execution will be outsourced (and in

the cloud)

#9Maybe half of all acceptance tests will be automated

in CI……forever

#10New tools that

manage the full requirements,

stories, scenarios, workflows, testing

pipeline will emerge

Some Doors Close, but Other Doors are Opening

What are the new opportunities for Test Leads

and Managers?

#1Upstream with

stakeholders and analysis – providing

testing and assurance skills to

business

#2Managing Business

Requirements knowledge;

analysing business impact of change

#3Testmaster: Providing an

assurance function to teams, projects

and business stakeholders

#4Managing the

information flows to/from the Continuous

Integration process

#5Managing/monitoring

outsourced/offshore teams who detail and execute tests

“I must follow the people. Am I not

their leader?”Benjamin Disraeli

Politician’s view

“The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is

to say thank you. In between, the

leader is a servant” Max DePreeA businessman’s view (Jeeves leadership model?)

“Lead me, follow me, or get out of

my way!”General George

Patton

A soldier’s view

“You don’t lead by pointing and telling

people some place to go. You lead by going

to that place and making a case”

Ken KeseyA radical author’s view

“You don’t need a title to be a leader”

anon

anyone can be a leader (volunteer)

“A leader does not deserve the name unless he is willing

occasionally to stand alone”

Henry A. Kissingerslings and arrows

“The one quality that can be developed by studious reflection and practice is the leadership of men”

Dwight D Eisenhower

Intelligence, imagination and consensus

“I start with the premise that the

function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more

followers”Ralph Nader

now we’re getting there

“Don’t get so far ahead of people that they cannot

follow”

Me

Every now and then, stand still for a while and let

people catch upBecause there’s trouble

ahead(if you don’t want to

collaborate)

Will Test Leaders Stand Up?

Here are the clichés you need to kill and arguments you

need to make

Developers write code; testers test because

developers can’tNo they don’t

End Manual Feature Checking

Let the tools do it all andfree the testers to do

exploration

Testing doesn’t just apply to existing software, at the

endWe test systems, not

software;We test early, we test often but it might not be called

testing

Testing is about measuring achievement, not quality

Align delivery with project goals and risks and you’ve

got a seat on the board

Testers don’t own testing anymore

Be a Testmaster

The phase after development is REWORK,

not Testing

The phase after development is REWORK, not Testing• Test Phase should not exist• Testing must align with development, not

follow it• Manual test phase must be:– Replaced with up-front automated test design– Integrated with code change and software

delivery

• Testers must embrace the change, not resist it

• Make that leap! Stand up!

Will the Test Leaders Stand Up?A personal view

@paul_g

erra

rd

Paul Gerrardpaul@gerrardconsulting.com

gerrardconsulting.com

Thank-YouOur Thinking:businessstorymethod.com

Our Technology:businessstorymanager.com

gerrardconsulting.com