Software testing has a climate impact, there's a carbon footprint also from testing. Of course there's a carbon handprint too, as in most ICT - we get to reduce carbon emission elsewhere by implementing and testing good ICT. But we also need to take care of our own backyard, meaning we need to understand how we can minimize the use of test environments, optimize test sets etc. to use less energy. This slide deck is my keynote presentation from the software testing confererence SANAE.BEER.EX in Bratislava 8.11.2023.

1. Climate Impact of Software Testing
Kari Kakkonen
https://www.linkedin.com/in/karikakkonen/
Dragons Out Oy & Knowit Solutions Oy
SANAE BEER.EX Bratislava
8.11.2023
© Dragons Out Oy & Knowit Solutions Oy 1

2. ROLES
• Knowit Solutions Oy, Director of Training and
Competences, Lead Consultant, Trainer and
Coach
• Children’s and testing author at Dragons Out
Oy
• TMMi, Board of Directors
• Treasurer of Finnish Software Testing Board
(FiSTB)
ACHIEVEMENTS
• Tester of the Year in Finland 2021
• EuroSTAR Testing Excellence Award 2021
• Exemplary DevOps Instructor Award 2023 by
DASA
• ISTQB Executive Committee 2015-2021
• Influencing testing since 1996
• Ranked in 100 most influential IT persons in
Finland (Tivi magazine)
• Great number of presentations in Finnish and
international conferences
• TestausOSY/FAST founding member.
• Co-author of Agile Testing Foundations book
• Regular blogger in Tivi-magazine
Kari Kakkonen, Lead Testing Consultant
SERVICES
• ISTQB Advanced, Foundation, Agile Testing, AI Testing
• Knowit Quality Professional
• DASA DevOps
• Quality & Test process and organization development,
Metrics, TMMi and other assessments
• Agile testing, Scrum, Kanban, Lean
• Leadership
• Test automation, Mobile, Cloud, DevOps, AI
• Quality, cost, benefits
EDUCATION
• ISTQB Expert Level Test Management & Advanced Full
& Agile Tester certified
• DASA DevOps, Scrum Master and SAFe certified
• TMMi Professional, Assessor, Process Improver certified
• SPICE provisionary assessor certified
• M.Sc.(Eng), Helsinki University of Technology (present Aalto
University), Otaniemi, Espoo
• Marketing studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison,
the USA.
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Insurance, banking, pension.
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MORE INFORMATION
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3. A Nordic powerhouse
for digital solutions
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Experts
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Combined turnover 2022
4 business areas
Solutions, Experience, Connectivity and Insight
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Clear vision to accelerate the UN sustainability agenda

4. The book project ”Dragons Out!”
• Mission
• “Software testing brought to children”
• Book
• Author Kari Kakkonen
• Illustrator Adrienn Széll
• Text and illustration rights Dragons Out Oy
• In Finnish, English, Polish, French and growing
• For ages of 10-99
• Free “Dragon lesson in software testing”
presentation under Creative Commons –license
• Translated to 20 languages!
• More info: www.dragonsout.com
• Also other books coming out
4

5. ISTQB GLOBAL PRESENCE
• Number of exams
administered: over 1,2 million
• Number of certifications
issued: 845,000
• In 130 countries

6. TMMi for test improvement in all kinds of testing,
including agile and DevOps

7. Agenda
• Green ICT
• Green Testing
• Testing measures carbon
footprint
• Minimize
carbon footprint
of test environments
• Minimize
carbon footprint
of testing
• What next?
© Dragons Out Oy & Knowit Solutions Oy 7

8. Green ICT
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9. Climate change
• Climate change has been a
major topic in political debate in
recent years.
• The Paris climate conference
(COP21) in 2015 set a target of
limiting global warming to below
1.5°C compared to pre-industrial
levels.
© Dragons Out Oy 9

10. United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

11. Green ICT
“Green ICT is the study and practice of using computing resources
efficiently and effectively with minimal or no impact on the
environment.”
Handbook of Research on Green ICT, B. Unhelkar
“To combat climate change, all viable avenues must be explored, and
the ICT industry must also play a role.”
Green Code, Janne Kalliola
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12. Carbon footprint and handprint
“A carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gases (including
carbon dioxide and methane) that are generated by our actions.”
Nature.org
“A carbon handprint is the opposite of a footprint. It recognises the
actions you take to have a positive impact on the climate, over and
above reducing your own carbon footprint if you do enough of these
they might even outweigh the size of your carbon footprint.”
Go-positive.co.uk
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13. Towards carbon handprint
© Dragons Out Oy & Knowit Solutions Oy 13
Carbon
footprint
Minimize
carbon
footprint
Carbon
handprint

14. IT has clear carbon handprint
• All too often we in IT are content that we can help other industries
reduce their carbon footprint
• Let’s move your servers to the cloud
• Let’s create a paperless process
• Let’s streamline how your business process works with this software
• That’s great, but…
• IT also has a carbon footprint – so let’s minimize it!
© Dragons Out Oy & Knowit Solutions Oy 14

15. Green Testing
© Dragons Out Oy & Knowit Solutions Oy 15

16. Green Testing can help
• Testing can’t change the world of ICT on its own
• But
• Testing can measure the climate impact of ICT
• Testing can choose to be as green as it can in its own practices
• Find the green aspect in the testing practices
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17. Sustainable Software Testing
• Optimising Resource Utilisation
• Test Automation
• Performance Testing and Optimisation
• Defect Prevention and Early Detection
• Test Environment Efficiency
• Green Testing Techniques
• Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing
© Dragons Out Oy 17
https://www.experimentus.com/sustainable-software-testing

18. Testing measures
carbon footprint
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19. ISO 25010 quality attributes,
expanded by Climate Impact
Climate impact

20. Sustainability in quality criteria
• Rikard Edgren at the TestEye
http://thetesteye.com/posters/TheTestEye_SoftwareQualityCharacteristics.pdf
• Sogeti at TMap
https://www.tmap.net/wiki/quality-characteristic-sustainability
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21. Quality costs PAFF-model (Feigenbaum)
21
Quality costs are all the costs that would disappear if everything was done right the first time.
Prevention costs
Costs that aim to prevent the creation of defects.
• Quality systems
• Methodologies
• Training
• Understanding customer expectations
• Code reviews
Appraisal costs
Costs that aim to maintain the company
quality level.
• Test planning and execution
• Test management
• Test environments and tools
Failure costs (internal)
Costs to fix defects that are found before
delivering the software to customer and its
users.
• Debugging
• Defect fixes
• Retesting
Failure costs (external)
Costs that occur when defects are found in the
software that the customer has already taken
into production usage.
. • Guarantee costs
• Penalties
• Price reductions
• Product call-backs and disposals
• Image, PR
Investments
Costs
and
penalties
PAFF = Prevention costs, Appraisal costs, Failure costs (internal), Failure costs (external)

22. Quality costs PAFF-model (Feigenbaum)
with climate impact
22
Quality costs are all the costs that would disappear if everything was done right the first time.
Prevention costs
Costs that aim to prevent the creation of defects.
• Quality systems, incl. climate impact of code
• Methodologies
• Training
• Understanding customer expectations
• Code reviews
Appraisal costs
Costs that aim to maintain the company
quality level.
• Test planning and execution
• Test management
• Test environments and tools
• Measurement of climate impact of code
Failure costs (internal)
Costs to fix defects that are found before
delivering the software to customer and its
users.
• Debugging
• Defect fixes
• Retesting
• Testing time and environments
Failure costs (external)
Costs that occur when defects are found in the
software that the customer has already taken
into production usage.
. • Guarantee costs
• Penalties, climate sanctions, CO2 compensation
• Price reductions
• Product call-backs and disposals
• Image, PR
Investments
Costs
and
penalties
PAFF = Prevention costs, Appraisal costs, Failure costs (internal), Failure costs (external)

23. When to apply the climate impact criterion
• In the Definition of Done
• In test planning and design
• In reviews
• In coding and testing
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24. Minimize
carbon footprint
of test environments
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25. Later is more expensive
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https://reqtest.com/general/a-bug-goes-skateboarding-on-boehms-curve/
More time
More test
environments
Larger
environments
Bigger
carbon
footprint

26. Smaller test environments early
© Dragons Out Oy & Knowit Solutions Oy 26
https://reqtest.com/general/a-bug-goes-skateboarding-on-boehms-curve/
Smaller
environment
early
Smaller carbon
footprint

27. • Virtualization • Serverless/FaaS
On-demand test
environments in the cloud Shared
machine
Less carbon
footprint
© Dragons Out Oy & Knowit Solutions Oy

28. • Virtualization • Serverless/FaaS
Automated test environments Faster
environment
setup
Smaller carbon
footprint
© Dragons Out Oy & Knowit Solutions Oy

29. Cheap, affordable test environments
give feedback to the team faster
Faster
feedback
Smaller carbon
footprint
© Dragons Out Oy & Knowit Solutions Oy

30. Minimize
carbon footprint
of testing
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31. Product Vision Requirements Test Design
Coding &
Testing
Test
Automation in
CI/CD pipeline
Monitoring in
production
Minimizing carbon footprint in the value stream
© Dragons Out Oy & Knowit Solutions Oy
https://tieke.fi/en/projects/green-ict-project/ workshops 2022
Shift Left

32. • Target for carbon handprint with the software
• Include sustainability of coding and testing in the product vision
• Require sustainability in requests for proposals of systems
development
• Include energy efficiency in the concept of quality
Climate impact in the product vision
Sustainable
big picture
Smaller carbon
footprint
© Dragons Out Oy & Knowit Solutions Oy
https://tieke.fi/en/projects/green-ict-project/ workshops 2022

33. • Define requirements well enough
• Require energy-efficient code, done with energy-efficient tools
• Consider static data design over dynamic polling
• Minimize the number of features in the product, is MVP enough?
• Review for
• Climate impact
• Testability
• Test automation
Reviewed requirements mean easier tests
Easier tests
Smaller carbon
footprint
© Dragons Out Oy & Knowit Solutions Oy
https://tieke.fi/en/projects/green-ict-project/ workshops 2022

34. • Remove duplicate coverage in the test suite
• Remove unnecessary tests
• Prioritize tests to find defects faster
• Do it for first-time tests and regression tests
• Use
• Test techniques
• Risk analysis
• AI models
Optimized test suite means less tests
Less tests
Smaller carbon
footprint
© Dragons Out Oy & Knowit Solutions Oy
https://tieke.fi/en/projects/green-ict-project/ workshops 2022

35. • Run easy, fast tests first
• Use earlier test results for smarter tests
• Test critical things first, run only needed tests
• Simulate first (APIs, models), only then use real environments
• Use on-demand test environments
Optimized test execution
Smarter tests
Smaller carbon
footprint
© Dragons Out Oy & Knowit Solutions Oy
https://tieke.fi/en/projects/green-ict-project/ workshops 2022

36. • Smaller environments
• Test automation is developed in smaller environments
• Test automation should run first in smaller environments, then in larger ones
• Test automation executes faster than manual tests, resulting in
resource efficiency
• Automate test data creation
Use test automation
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Faster tests
Smaller carbon
footprint
https://tieke.fi/en/projects/green-ict-project/ workshops 2022

37. • Continue testing in production
• Monitor performance, and tune it
• Observe user experience, and tune it
• Measure energy usage of use, compare to energy use of development
Monitor production
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Production
monitoring
Smaller carbon
footprint
https://tieke.fi/en/projects/green-ict-project/ workshops 2022

38. • Shift left means testing earlier, resulting in less rework in coding and
testing
• Early feedback saves time and resources
Use Agile and DevOps
© Dragons Out Oy & Knowit Solutions Oy 38
Less rework
Smaller carbon
footprint
https://tieke.fi/en/projects/green-ict-project/ workshops 2022

39. What next?
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40. What next
• Learn more about Green ICT and Green Testing
• Check how green your testing is – luckily sustainability often goes
hand in hand with good testing
• Testing early
• Agile
• DevOps
• Optimizing test
• Test automation
• Adjust your testing to be greener!
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41. • https://www.knowit.eu/sustainability/
• https://www.exove.com/green-code/
• https://julkaisut.valtioneuvosto.fi/handle/10024/162912 (ICT Climate strategy)
• https://www.experimentus.com/sustainable-software-testing
• https://www.infoq.com/articles/fight-climate-change-software-engineer/
• https://principles.green/
• https://greensoftware.foundation/manifesto
• https://labs.sogeti.com/how-sustainability-testing-helps-reduce-the-carbon-footprint-of-your-it-
landscape/
• https://www.functionize.com/blog/how-green-is-your-testing-softwares-dirty-secret-revealed
• https://www.austriantestingboard.at/aspects-of-sustainable-test-processes/
• https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-08581-4_8
Additional reading

42. Any questions?
Follow and share the Kari’s testing book projects:
• https://www.dragonsout.com
Social media
• Knowit https://www.facebook.com/KnowitOy
• Kari https://www.linkedin.com/in/karikakkonen/
• Dragons Out https://www.facebook.com/DragonsOutOy
Ask questions:
kari.kakkonen@dragonsout.com
© Dragons Out Oy & Knowit Solutions Oy 42