Page - 202 - in The Future of Software Quality Assurance

202 K. van Dam things changing all the time. When they just started putting a shoulder to the wheel with some technical challenge there’s someone at their table inviting them to some refinement or 3-Amigo session because some new insights have popped up and everything needs to be different. Once again! The problem is, this process of continuous changing will remain in the future. I think it will even get worse. Technologyhadmanylimitationsinthepast,but they’revanishingreallyquickly.In thepastyoucouldaskanend-user towait ayearor twobeforeexpectingsomenew functionality. But in 2028 (or really even today already!) when an end-user wants somethingof thesoftware,he/sheexpects it to be there tomorrow.Orpossiblyeven sooner. And if not: there’s always someone else who can make it happen that fast. This means in 2028we IT people need to be even more flexible and more adaptive to change than we are today. And someone needs to make sure the people writing theactualcodecankeep their focuson thecode.Tomakesure thedeveloperknows where to pick the berries and where to hunt a rabbit without constantly having to look over his/her shoulder for some predator approaching, figuratively speaking. And that someonemightverywell be thepersonwe call a software tester today. This means software testers have a lot to do in the upcoming10 years. Because as Darwin stated: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent; it is the one most adaptable to change.” If you still want to be part of the game, if you want to survive in the world of software testing, a software tester should keep learning, training and adapting to change. Even though our very own brain is resisting this. The difference between a 1998 software tester and a 2028 software tester may be comparable to the difference between a ‘common’ soldier andacommando.Asoldier is trainedtodoashe’sbeingtold,acommandohowever is trainedtostayaliveandaccomplishhismissionbyconstantlyadaptingtochange. This doesn’t mean one of these two is better than the other, but it does require a different typeofperson,a different trainingandespeciallya differentmindset tobe acommandoinsteadofa ‘common’soldier.Thesoftware testerof2028mightvery well be thecommando,while thesoftwaredevelopermayremaina soldier. In this (brave?) new world of software development in 2028 I don’t think we’ll still have the job title ‘Software Tester’. The role will be about so much more than just testingthesoftware.Itmightevenbeprobablethat theactual testingofsoftware isn’t the main focus anymore in 2028. Nowadays a lot of manual testing is already being replaced with automated testing. However, as stated before, test automation today is just aboutexecutingpre-programmedcheckson the software. I’mnot sure if we’re there already in 2028, but I do believe artificial intelligence will influence test automation a lot in the future. Which means that in time a computer might actuallybeable toat leastdoasmallamountofactual testingofsoftware insteadof just checking some predetermined things. This would mean that the actual testing of software would become even less important within the job description. So what shall we call this ‘software tester’ in2028?Maybe‘Qualityengineer’?Or ‘Change specialist’? Maybe even ‘Dev Commando’? I personally wouldn’t vote for any of these new job titles. I think in time some new term will pop up describing this new