This document discusses the need to rethink the role of testers in agile and structured projects. It argues that changes in business demands and development practices are squeezing testers and that many current testing roles and skills may disappear. Specifically, it predicts that half of onshore testing roles will be eliminated in 5 years. It recommends testers focus on more strategic roles like business analysis, requirements management, and assurance rather than traditional testing tasks.

1. Rethinking the Role of Testers in Agile
and Structured Projects
Paul Gerrard
paul@gerrardconsulting.com
Twitter: @paul_gerrard
Web: gerrardconsulting.com
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance Slide 1

2. Theme:
Changes in our business
demand a re-think of
where testing fits in
systems projects
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance Slide 2

3. Health Warning!
I‟m going to generalise quite a lot because I‟m
talking about the market in general.
YOU may be an exception; these trends are
happening outside testing
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance Slide 3

4. (Why) is a re-think
required?
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance Slide 4

5. Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance Slide 5

6. Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance Slide 6

7. gerrardconsulting.com - some stats
• Even after 15 years, the IEEE 829 „sample test
plan‟ is the most popular download on our site
(1434 per month)
• Was it such a good paper or are people stuck in
the 70s/80s?
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and
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Assurance

8. Old style formality hasn‟t advanced
• Countless books available
• 150,000+ certified testers
• Conferences, gatherings, forums, SIGs all over the
world
• But certification seems to have more critics than
supporters these days
– Beginners are put on courses to get the tick-in-box
– Experienced folk don‟t usually have a good thing to say
about certification
– Its an easy target.
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and
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Assurance

9. The new testing squeeze
• Developers are beginning to take test-first,
unit-testing, continuous integration very
seriously (at last)
• Better testing up-front (what we‟ve always
wanted)
– More stable software sooner
– Functional/structural coverage „upstream‟
• But do better developer practices reduce the
demand for system testers?
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and
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Assurance

10. The new testing squeeze 2
• Larger/structured projects treat testing as a
factory process (to be offshored mostly)
• Promoting standards and the certified way is
consistent with factory processes
• But the same old, bad old attitudes prevail:
– Anyone can test, so do it on the cheap
• Offshoring leaves certified, unskilled testers
without a role – maybe its for the best?
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and
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Assurance

11. The new testing squeeze 3
• Some Agile projects squeeze testers out
completely – the developers and product
owners can test, can‟t they?
• More often, testers are coerced into being
eyes/ears of the stakeholder
• This is a good thing but…
– Is it testing? Can our testers, test managers cope?
– Agile testing = Test Assurance in the small?
– A different set of skills are required.
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and
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Assurance

12. Agile is here to stay
• Many people are still waiting for Agile to just „go
away‟ – it won‟t
• A certified generation of testers rely on:
– Having time to do „a good job‟ whatever that is
– Specifications, requirements (available and stable)
– Tabulated test cases, test procedures
– Test design techniques that rely on perfect specs.
– Test management tools that support practices dating
back to the 60s
• But Agile is getting all the attention and it simply
doesn‟t work this way.
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and
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Assurance

13. A methodological shift…
• There seems to be a methodological shift from
staged to iterative and now „continuous‟
• Just as companies seem to be coming to terms
with Agile…
• They are now being invited to consider
continuous „Specification by Example‟ approaches
• Specification by example promotes a continual
process of specification, exampling, test-first, and
continuous integration
• Where does the tester fit here?
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and
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Assurance

14. Specification by example
• SBE promises much:
– Consistent requirements, stories/examples tests and
code for the lifetime of a product
– Extremely rapid end-to-end turnaround – 24hours
– CI is the heartbeat, life-support and early warning
system
• Of course, workflow, user experience and end-
to-end testing are required
• But these can be managed by business analysts,
UX experts and the stakeholder community.
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and
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Assurance

15. The testing „crunch‟
• Testing is being squeezed:
– From the „low-value‟ norm of unskilled teams…
– To upstream, business-savvy, workflow-oriented,
UX-aware testing experts, with new tools
• BAs who can test… or testers who can BA
• How many of the current generation of
testers and test managers will cope with this
change?
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and
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Assurance

16. „The purpose of testing is to locate
defects‟ ?
• This stood us in good stead in the 80sand 90s
• But stakeholders (all of them) know that avoiding
defects is better than finding them
– Standard test approaches are good at providing the
documentation (sort of) but are an inefficient way of
detecting defects
– Exploration is effective but happens at the end
• “Let‟s take requirements more seriously, let‟s get
the devs to test, let‟s offshore the paperwork”
• Testers need to understand they are in the
information business.
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and
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Assurance

17. Predictions
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance Slide 17

18. #1
Half of the current
onshore testing
community will see
their job disappear in
the next five years.
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance Slide 18

19. #2
Business test planning
will become part of up-
front analysis and design
(where it should be)
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance Slide 19

20. #3
Functional unit testing
driven by stories
(mostly)
Structural testing
defined by developers
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance Slide 20

21. #4
Requirements and
business models will
become „executable‟
through stories and
examples
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance Slide 21

22. #5
Some system tests and
most acceptance tests
will be model-driven
(models created by
analysts)
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance Slide 22

23. #6
Business models plus
stories and examples
will increasingly be
„contractual‟
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance Slide 23

24. #7
System Test detailing –
the creation of
executable manual tests
will be outsourced
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance Slide 24

25. #8
Manual system test
execution will be
outsourced (and in the
cloud)
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance Slide 25

26. #9
Maybe half of all
acceptance tests will be
automated in CI…
…forever
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance Slide 26

27. #10
New tools will emerge
that manage
requirements, stories,
scenarios, workflows,
prototyping and testing
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance Slide 27

28. Recommendation
Take a long, hard look at where your
future lies
Which of the following suits you?
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance Slide 28

29. #1
Upstream with
stakeholders and
analysis – providing
testing and assurance
skills to business
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance Slide 29

30. #2
Managing the Business
Requirements
knowledge base;
analysing business
impact of change
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance Slide 30

31. #3
Providing an assurance
function to teams,
projects, and business
stakeholders
(“testmaster”)
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance Slide 31

32. #4
Managing the
information flows
to/from development
teams and the CI
process
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance Slide 32

33. #5
Managing/monitoring
offshore resources who
detail and execute tests
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance Slide 33

34. Shameless Plug
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance Slide 34

35. Business Story
Method™
The Method, to be published in
booklet form in early December,
supports this vision
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance Slide 35

36. Our Story Platform
implements the Business
Story Method
Maelscrum for Agile
Business Story Manager for Structured
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance Slide 36

37. Want to evaluate
Business Story Manager or
Maelscrum?
Visit…
maelscrum.com
businessstorymanager.com
Thanks once again
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance Slide 37

38. Rethinking the Role of Testers in Agile
and Structured Projects
Paul Gerrard
paul@gerrardconsulting.com
Twitter: @paul_gerrard
Web: gerrardconsulting.com
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance Slide 38