Kari Kakkonen presented on the climate impact of software testing and how testing practices can help minimize carbon footprint. Some key points: 1) Testing can measure the carbon footprint of software and help optimize code for lower emissions. Testing practices like test automation and optimized test execution reduce testing time and resource usage. 2) Smaller, more efficient test environments set up earlier in the development process reduce the carbon footprint of testing. Automated test environments that provide faster feedback also help. 3) Prioritizing sustainability in requirements, reviews, and test optimization can lead to easier testing and smaller carbon footprints. Practices like continuous monitoring in production also help optimize resource usage.

1. Climate Impact of Software Testing
Kari Kakkonen
https://www.linkedin.com/in/karikakkonen/
Dragons Out Oy & Knowit Solutions Oy
SEETEST Bucharest
20.9.2023
© 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 and Agile Testing
• A4Q AI and Software 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.
BUSINESS DOMAINS
Wide spread of business domain knowledge: Embedded,
industry, public, training, telecommunications, commerce,
Insurance, banking, pension.
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MORE INFORMATION
linkedin.com/in/karikakkonen/
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3. A Nordic powerhouse
for digital solutions
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Experts
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Combined turnover 2022
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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
© Dragons Out Oy & Knowit Solutions Oy 8

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.
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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
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Carbon
footprint
Minimize
carbon
footprint
Carbon
handprint

14. Green Testing
© Dragons Out Oy & Knowit Solutions Oy 14

15. 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
© Dragons Out Oy 15

16. 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 16
https://www.experimentus.com/sustainable-software-testing

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

19. Quality costs PAFF-model (Feigenbaum)
19
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)

20. Quality costs PAFF-model (Feigenbaum)
with climate impact
20
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)

21. When to apply the climate impact criterion
• In the Definition of Done
• In test planning and design
• In reviews
• In coding and testing
© Dragons Out Oy 21

22. Minimize
carbon footprint
of test environments
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23. Later is more expensive
© Dragons Out Oy & Knowit Solutions Oy 23
https://reqtest.com/general/a-bug-goes-skateboarding-on-boehms-curve/
More time
More test
environments
Larger
environments
Bigger
carbon
footprint

24. Smaller test environments early
© Dragons Out Oy & Knowit Solutions Oy 24
https://reqtest.com/general/a-bug-goes-skateboarding-on-boehms-curve/
Smaller
environment
early
Smaller carbon
footprint

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

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

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

28. Minimize
carbon footprint
of testing
© Dragons Out Oy & Knowit Solutions Oy 28

29. • 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

30. • 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

31. • 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

32. • 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

33. • 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
© Dragons Out Oy & Knowit Solutions Oy 33
Faster tests
Smaller carbon
footprint
https://tieke.fi/en/projects/green-ict-project/ workshops 2022

34. • 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
© Dragons Out Oy & Knowit Solutions Oy 34
Production
monitoring
Smaller carbon
footprint
https://tieke.fi/en/projects/green-ict-project/ workshops 2022

35. • 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 35
Less rework
Smaller carbon
footprint
https://tieke.fi/en/projects/green-ict-project/ workshops 2022

36. What next?
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37. • 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

38. 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 38