So, I believe I have played a role in all areas of the software delivery process during my career. I started out as a config management person, then a developer, I accidently became a manual tester for one project, moved to developer in test, back to development, test management, programme test management and finally head of testing. I Remember one job supporting a global test team at a major stockbroker executing load tests on the command line using LoadRunner in 2001 once code was committed into Visual Source Safe (do in brackets why this job memory is relevant i.e. now THAT WAS A DULL JOB.)
Eventually, around February 2002 I started my own business specialising in Test Automaton, Performance Engineering and Technical Disciplines in Software Delivery. Modern software delivery/automation has been part of my life ever since, and I’ve been driven by helping clients get the most out of their software.
This was one of the reasons I started Infuse, I believe passionately that the automation of software delivery was not only modern, but the only way to deliver. With the time being saved I saw endless opportunities to innovate more, make more money, do more interesting things and generally be more creative.
Sadly, between 2002-2012 the industry really didn’t want to know, most firms were more interested in bums on seats charging models and process factories. Automation was solely for regression testing, and only after major system integrators had rinsed the client’s programme transformation budget with lifecycle deficiencies. These so called ‘granddaddies’ of testing, testing board, and even testers themselves didn’t really understand or trust test automation technology to deliver testing, or arguably technology. Testers were brilliant at what they did though, and that was to find faults in software. The lack of technical disciplines however is one of the reasons why there was/still is friction between testers and developers to this day.
The worst blockers for innovation, faster delivery and automation of the lifecycle were most of the large system integrators sponsored by programme executives that now claim to be innovating delivery. For me, it is nonsense. The blockers have switched from don’t believe the hype to be the ‘circulators’ of hype, due to customers finally catching on to the fleecing they have received over the last few decades.
I started Infuse because we always believed in the hype, we don’t know slow-go manual testing. There are big boring system integrators with low tech testers that do that to scales way better than us. But if you want 30 people to do the job of 100 people at high quality, then we can help you. If you want the job of 100 hundred people done at the cost of 30 people, at the speed of Mumbai traffic peak hour then really, we are not that company. You already probably have them doing your build.
So, now your big system integrator executive from multi-billion, 8000 tester service comes knocking about how they have 2000 performance/automation/DevOps people, and their keyword, page object model framework and pipeline development is amazing, or the career manual tester/manual test manager/manual programme test manager you have had suddenly becomes an automation implementation wizard guiding you on this very important strategy talking about the merits of CSV and columns vs Rows on Excel.
Please don’t believe the hype, this is an engineering discipline which requires business sponsorship, and you really need to consider FULLY all the inputs into do this and you do need to be an expert in this discipline.
Here are 7 key takeaways to consider when looking at your test automation needs today:
So, there you have it, simply put, don’t believe the hype, check the credibility of who is doing this and don’t use it as a simple experience to inflate your value in your next job, because if you are doing it right, you will get that anyway.