Testing and Quality: Correlation does not equal Causation

•

Feb. 11, 2020

• •

Quality =! Testing
Testing and Quality:
Correlation does not equal Causation
Theresa Neate | Lead QA, REA Group
11 Februar...

About me
Lead QA @ REA Group
DevOps Girls co-organiser & coach
~20 years of “IT experience”
~8 as Lead QA / Practice Lead
...

Tonight
Testing Quality
Building in quality
@TheresaNeate
3

Next SlideShares

Upcoming SlideShare

Testing and Quality: Correlation does not equal Causation

Testing and Quality: Correlation does not equal Causation

Loading in …3

×

Testing and Quality: Correlation does not equal Causation

Feb. 11, 2020

• •

Download to read offline

Presented to meetup : https://www.meetup.com/the-web/events/268161161/

Talk: How often have you heard "Our quality is poor, we need more testing (or testers)"? When you hear this, know that this indicates a fundamental misunderstanding of what testing is or does. Improving or increasing testing does not necessarily lead to improved quality. While testing and quality can be correlated, let's talk about how they are distinct as disciplines and in causality.

Speaker: Theresa Neate is a QA practice lead & developer advocate, who loves lean and agility and advocates for holistic system quality and systems thinking. Her recent experience includes ThoughtWorks, Australia Post’s Digital Delivery Centre and since early 2016 she has been at digital media icon REA Group. You can find out more about her here: https://theresaneate.com/

Director of Engineering

Presented to meetup : https://www.meetup.com/the-web/events/268161161/

Talk: How often have you heard "Our quality is poor, we need more testing (or testers)"? When you hear this, know that this indicates a fundamental misunderstanding of what testing is or does. Improving or increasing testing does not necessarily lead to improved quality. While testing and quality can be correlated, let's talk about how they are distinct as disciplines and in causality.

Speaker: Theresa Neate is a QA practice lead & developer advocate, who loves lean and agility and advocates for holistic system quality and systems thinking. Her recent experience includes ThoughtWorks, Australia Post’s Digital Delivery Centre and since early 2016 she has been at digital media icon REA Group. You can find out more about her here: https://theresaneate.com/

More Related Content

Bezonomics: How Amazon Is Changing Our Lives and What the World's Best Companies Are Learning from It Brian Dumaine

No Filter: The Inside Story of Instagram Sarah Frier

Autonomy: The Quest to Build the Driverless Car—And How It Will Reshape Our World Lawrence D. Burns

Talk to Me: How Voice Computing Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Think James Vlahos

SAM: One Robot, a Dozen Engineers, and the Race to Revolutionize the Way We Build Jonathan Waldman

From Gutenberg to Google: The History of Our Future Tom Wheeler

The Future Is Faster Than You Think: How Converging Technologies Are Transforming Business, Industries, and Our Lives Peter H. Diamandis

So You Want to Start a Podcast: Finding Your Voice, Telling Your Story, and Building a Community That Will Listen Kristen Meinzer

Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are Seth Stephens-Davidowitz

Life After Google: The Fall of Big Data and the Rise of the Blockchain Economy George Gilder

Future Presence: How Virtual Reality Is Changing Human Connection, Intimacy, and the Limits of Ordinary Life Peter Rubin

Live Work Work Work Die: A Journey into the Savage Heart of Silicon Valley Corey Pein

How to Survive a Robot Uprising: Tips on Defending Yourself Against the Coming Rebellion Daniel H. Wilson

Carrying the Fire: 50th Anniversary Edition Michael Collins

Ninety Percent of Everything: Inside Shipping, the Invisible Industry That Puts Clothes on Your Back, Gas in Your Car, and Food on Your Plate Rose George

The Basics of Bitcoins and Blockchains: An Introduction to Cryptocurrencies and the Technology that Powers Them (Cryptography, Derivatives Investments, Futures Trading, Digital Assets, NFT) Antony Lewis

Dignity in a Digital Age: Making Tech Work for All of Us Ro Khanna

After Steve: How Apple Became a Trillion-Dollar Company and Lost its Soul Tripp Mickle

The Quiet Zone: Unraveling the Mystery of a Town Suspended in Silence Stephen Kurczy

The Wires of War: Technology and the Global Struggle for Power Jacob Helberg

System Error: Where Big Tech Went Wrong and How We Can Reboot Rob Reich

If Then: How the Simulmatics Corporation Invented the Future Jill Lepore

Liftoff: Elon Musk and the Desperate Early Days That Launched SpaceX Eric Berger

The Science of Time Travel: The Secrets Behind Time Machines, Time Loops, Alternate Realities, and More! Elizabeth Howell

A Brief History of Motion: From the Wheel, to the Car, to What Comes Next Tom Standage

An Ugly Truth: Inside Facebook’s Battle for Domination Sheera Frenkel

The Players Ball: A Genius, a Con Man, and the Secret History of the Internet's Rise David Kushner

Bitcoin Billionaires: A True Story of Genius, Betrayal, and Redemption Ben Mezrich

User Friendly: How the Hidden Rules of Design Are Changing the Way We Live, Work, and Play Cliff Kuang

Lean Out: The Truth About Women, Power, and the Workplace Marissa Orr

Blockchain: The Next Everything Stephen P. Williams

Uncanny Valley: A Memoir Anna Wiener

Testing and Quality: Correlation does not equal Causation

1. Quality =! Testing Testing and Quality: Correlation does not equal Causation Theresa Neate | Lead QA, REA Group 11 February 2020
2. About me Lead QA @ REA Group DevOps Girls co-organiser & coach ~20 years of “IT experience” ~8 as Lead QA / Practice Lead @TheresaNeate @DevOpsGirls theresaneate.com @TheresaNeate 2
3. Tonight Testing Quality Building in quality @TheresaNeate 3
4. Famous last words “Our quality is poor, we need more testers (or testing).” @TheresaNeate 4
5. Spurious Correlations @TheresaNeate 5 https://www.tylervigen.com/spurious-correlations
6. Testing Testing is inspection & feedback (not assurance) @TheresaNeate 6
7. Testing is disciplined https://martinfowler.com/bliki/TestPyramid.html @TheresaNeate 7
8. Minimise your manual testing But make it count Beware “Inattentional Blindness” @TheresaNeate Appropriately involve testing personnel 8
9. Testing should be continuous https://danashby.co.uk/2016/10/19/continuous-testing-in-devops/ @TheresaNeate 9
10. Quality “Quality is value to some person” – Jerry Weinberg @TheresaNeate 10
11. Measuring quality Testing Static Analysis Linting Testability analysis BDD or TDD Continuous Integration Monitoring and Alerting @TheresaNeate 11
12. Improving quality Reacting to the feedback, e.g. postmortems, bug triages, etc. @TheresaNeate “You can’t ‘fix’ people, but you can fix systems and processes to better support people making the right choices when designing and maintaining complex systems.” – SRE Handbook 12
13. Building In Quality @TheresaNeate Let’s take a proactive look 13
14. Building In Quality - ideas @TheresaNeate Work slicing 14
15. Building In Quality - ideas @TheresaNeate Reducing waste 15
16. Building In Quality - ideas @TheresaNeate Flow 16
17. Building In Quality - ideas @TheresaNeate Just Culture 17
18. Building In Quality - ideas @TheresaNeate Collaboration & visibility: Pair programming Pull requests *-driven-development Test coverage Kickoffs 18
19. Building In Quality - ideas @TheresaNeate Systems thinking 19
20. Moral of the story? @TheresaNeate Quality has both a proactive and reactive approach. You cannot test in quality. 20
21. Closing @TheresaNeate “Inspection is too late. The quality, good or bad, is already in the product.” – Deming 21
22. References for this talk @TheresaNeate Slides: theresaneate.com/content Blog: theresaneate.com/writing 22
23. Thank you! @TheresaNeate