Page - 230 - in The Future of Software Quality Assurance

230 E. van Veenendaal 1 TheFutureofTesting Before looking at answers and solutions regarding the knowledge and skill set requiredfora tester, let’sfirstbrieflylookatwhereweare todayandwhat thefuture of the testingprofessionlookslike(ifatallpossible).MostpeopleperceiveAgileas somethingthat is thecommonwayofworkingaroundtheglobe.However, thereare alsocountrieswere thenumberofpeopleororganizationsactuallypracticingAgile are still aminority.Perhaps these countriesare just “behind”and theywillbeAgile a fewyears fromtoday,but it canalsobe thecase thatAgiledoesnotalwayshavea perfectfit withineveryculture. There are keynotesat international testing conferencesclaiming that testers will soon disappear. According to them, there will be no more, or at least very few, dedicated testers in the near future. Interestingly, numbers from survey reports, e.g. the World Quality Report, show exactly the opposite. Also test certification schemessuchasISTQB ® andTMMi ® arestill showingastronggrowthanduptake. Surprisinglycontradictingtalks, signalsandfacts.Whichof themare true,andwhat is the future for thesoftware testingprofession? InmostwesternsocietiesAgile seemstobeagoodfit.Generallyspeaking, there aremanypeoplewhotendtobecommunicative,liberal,openminded, loveworking in a team and less focused on formalities. Mind you, not all parts of the world andculturesare like this. Evenwithin Europe therearehugedifferences, sometime evenbetweenneighbouringcountries.Agile has shown to delivermanyadvantages over the years, but also in a traditional environmentdelivering a quality product is certainlynot impossible. With all of these opposite and different trends it is quite difficult to accurately predict the future of the testing profession. However, I strongly believe it is safe to state that with the current state of the practice in terms of software quality being delivered and its criticality, the need for testing as a discipline and as a profession will remain (at least for short to medium term). Looking at testing today and tomorrow,there is a firmtendencytowards twomainoptionsfor the tester: • Become a so-called T-shaped person (tester), by changing your attitude and by broadeningyourknowledgeandskills.Knowledgeandskillswill beachallenge in the near future for many testers. It is just not good enough anymore to understand testing and hold an ISTQB certificate. Testers will most often not work in their safe independent test team environment anymore. They will work moreclosely togetherwith business representativesanddevelopershelpingeach other when needed and as a team trying to build a quality product. Besides strong soft skills, it is also expected from testers to have knowledge of the business domain, requirements engineering, scripting, etc. Become a “tester plus”, someone who can test, but also organize testing and support others in testing.A tester that candomuchmore than just test. • Become a test specialist. As products are becoming more and more complex, andare integratedinanalmostopenenvironment,manyso-callednon-functional testingissueshavebecomeextremelychallenging.At thesametimethebusiness,