Keynote
The Era of the Tester
Raymond Kurzweil predicts Moore’s Law extends beyond the exponential growth of semiconductor circuits and influences technological change as well. There is little doubt that technology is changing at an incredible rate and is influencing how we develop and test software. Software complexity is increasing, as is the demand for higher quality. The reemergence of practices with an emphasis on unit testing such as Test Driven Development (TDD) and Agile programming, and new static and dynamic analysis tools are pushing quality upstream. The focus is on defect prevention rather than defect detection. Emerging technologies such as Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) will put new features in the hands of customers almost immediately and the end-users will begin to provide immediate feedback on problems. Distributed development and globalization of services impact the role of the tester as well. Some people pessimistically view these and other changes in the industry as impetuses to eliminate the role of the software tester. However, quite to the contrary the challenges of testing software are much greater today as compared to developing software. But, to meet these challenges the function of the software testing professional will need to increase and expand well beyond traditional roles. The skills and knowledge of software testers will evolve in order to design effective tests for complex systems and perform detailed analysis of data to provide qualified information to the project stakeholders. As Thomas L. Friedman states in The World is Flat: “And that is why the great challenge for our time will be to absorb these changes in ways that do not overwhelm people or leave them behind.” This keynote discusses some of the external influences driving changes in software testing, and highlights critical skills required for success in the era of the tester.
