The Future of Testing in Finance
Paul [email protected]: @paul_gerrardWeb: gerrardconsulting.com
Download from businessstorymethod.com/Intelligent Testing, Improvement and
AssuranceSlide 1
Thank-you
• Thank-you to Dr Richard Sykes and Susan Windsor for allowing me to pick their brains
• This PowerPoint can be downloaded from:
gerrardconsulting.comIntelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance
Slide 3
There have been some negative waves recently• Testing is Dead• Death to the Testing Phase• Testing has contributed little to
quality improvement in the last ten years
• Being a tester is a ‘bad thing’
• Is testing really DEAD?
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance
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My crystal ball
• Changes in our business demand a rethink of testing
• Ten five-year predictions
• Some test lead/manager career suggestions
• It’s personal, partial and fallible!
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance
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“You can fool some of the people all the time and you can fool all the
people some of the time but you can’t fool all the people all the time.”
Abraham Lincoln
“If you are right, you’ll be hailed as a visionary.
If you are wrong, no one will remember”Bill Hetzel
“How did I get myself into this?”Me
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance
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Theme:Changes in our
business demand a re-think of where
testing fits in systems projects
Software product and service companies and user companies are all
affected
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance
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Technology, Hype and How
Innovations Become
Mainstream
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance
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Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance
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Not all innovations make it across the “chasm”
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance
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The Hype Cycle
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance
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Agile, The Cloud and Mobile computing have
made it across the ChasmWhere are YOU in the
Adoption Cycle?
The Cloud
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance
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Software as a Service dominates the growth of public cloud markets
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance
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The industry changes its mind – again• Moving to Infrastructure as a Service
will save some money• The IT Director can glory in the
permanent cost savings for a year – and then what?
• The “Business” will want to take advantage of the flexibility that the move to the cloud offers.
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance
Slide 14
Massive re-architecting of systems and companies – work in progress• Many (most?) public websites will be
replaced by mobile apps – depends on who you talk to
• SaaS will represent 26% of all packaged software (so what?)– To re-architect an installed base of software
and create new systems will be a monumental effort
– The challenges of integration, security, performance and reliability will be daunting.http://forrester.com/rb/Research/sizing_cloud/q/id/58161/t/2
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance
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The Effect on Suppliers
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance
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Out with the old…
• “Old model” hardware suppliers–Motivated to sell more hardware; not
motivated to utilise; requires high labour support
–Motivated to sell new licences (e.g. operating systems); not motivated to sell SaaS; open source.
– Commercial model and company culture relies on this mindset
• Can they change quickly enough? Or at all?• Where are their new markets?
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance
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In with the new?
• New model cloud suppliers– Motivated to sell infrastructure as a service– Have tools in place to manage set-up and tear down
with very little manual intervention; very low labour costs
– Rely on high capacity, utilisation, open source– Motivated to sell flexibility
• Small number of very highly skilled people• A cheaper business model, they can reduce
current costs by 75-90% and still make a profit• Expect prices to fall as competition hots up, but
can the oldies, being late to market, compete?
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance
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“Bottoms on seats” service models• Traditional IT service suppliers -
applies to all IT, not just testing• Operational costs are HIGH (people)• Low technology – high human
support• No incentive to be efficient• High utilisation equals high profits• Moving towards …
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance
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Brains, not bottoms
• High technology – fewer resources• Moore’s law applies – smart people doing more
with less• Companies are used to business process
outsourcing• Development and test is becoming a
commodity supported by lots of tools• Companies may outsource to Service Factories• Their incentive is always to be efficient• Niche specialist skills always in demand.
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance
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Impact on selecting and managing supplier relationships?• Even our contracts and purchasing
processes have to change• Testing has an important role to play
of course.
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance
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A Methodological Shift
From staged, structured projects to iterative and Agile and now, towards ‘continuous delivery’
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance
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Changes ahead
• System users and service vendors moving to new business models based on new architectures
• SaaS is an enabler for very rapid deployment of new functionality onto a range of devices
• SaaS and maturing Agile approaches mean the promise of Continuous Delivery can be achieved.
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance
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And Continuous Delivery is...
From requirement to deployment in 24 hours…
every 24 hours?
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance
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From traditional delivery…
… to Continuous Delivery
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance
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The Deployment Pipeline
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• Automated Unit tests
• Automated Acceptance Tests
• Manual User Tests
Structured … Agile?We are in transition• A re-think is in progress• Adopting new architectures and a more
streamlined approach to development• Requirements half-life of weeks or months• Agile approaches are homing in on continuous
delivery• Kanban-Ichiwichi-Hokikoki-Kamikaze-Driven
Development – Whatever!• A hybrid Agile-Structured process:
– Structured Analysis, Agile Delivery?– That would be SAAD!
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance
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• Re-distributed functional testing• A focus on continuous test and assurance• Service integration replaces system
integration• Non-functional skills, design and test
particularly UX, security, privacy, performance are in demand (‘twas always so)
• The ability to balance competing non-functional requirements in demand too.
What does this mean for practitioners?
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance
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The real squeeze on testing
• From the ‘low-value’ unskilled, downstream test role to upstream, business-savvy, workflow-oriented, UX-aware testing specialists with new tools– Developers absorb the checking – with
tools– Business analysis owns acceptance– New focus on requirements management– Under-skilled testers, relying on clerical
skills to get by will be squeezed out.Intelligent Testing, Improvement and
AssuranceSlide 29
A Redistribution of Testing and not its death - is inevitable.
Board Level Messages
Is testing a Board-Level concern?
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance
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The New Testing: A Wider Resource Orchestration• The creation & delivery of systems with
assurance in this new environment calls for new approaches to development and testing
• Assurance is required across the full life cycle, in an increasingly virtualised environment
• This requires orchestration of people, process & technology throughout the lifecycle increasingly in the virtual.
Testing Through the
LifecycleIntelligent Testing, Improvement and
AssuranceSlide 31
The assurance of outcomes, not just deliverables• Testing assures the quality of deliverables, as
ever• But stakeholders commission systems to
achieve business outcomes
• Confidence in the delivery of outcomes is, for a business, an operational and strategic strength
• Testing should, above all, be about delivering confidence in outcomes.
We Test Systems, not
Just Software
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance
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My Five-Year Predictions
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance
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#150% of in-house testers will be reassigned or outsourced
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance
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#2Business test planning will
become part of up-front analysis and design (where it
should be)Intelligent Testing, Improvement and
AssuranceSlide 35
#3Specification by
Example will become the new
buzzword (includes ATDD, BDD, TDD
etc.)Intelligent Testing, Improvement and
AssuranceSlide 36
#4Developers will
adopt behaviour‐driven
development and new tools
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance
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#5Some system tests
and most acceptance tests will be business model-driven
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance
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#6Business models plus stories will
increasingly become
‘contractual’Intelligent Testing, Improvement and
AssuranceSlide 39
#7System Tests will
be generated from stories or will be
outsourced
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance
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#8Manual system test
execution will be outsourced (and in
the cloud)
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance
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#9Maybe half of all acceptance tests will be automated
in CI……foreverIntelligent Testing, Improvement and
AssuranceSlide 42
#10New tools that
manage the full requirements,
stories, scenarios, workflows, testing
pipeline will emergeIntelligent Testing, Improvement and
AssuranceSlide 43
Some Doors Close, but Other Doors
are Opening
What are the new opportunities for Test Leads
and Managers?
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance
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#1Upstream with
stakeholders and analysis – providing
testing and assurance skills to
businessIntelligent Testing, Improvement and
AssuranceSlide 45
#2Managing Business
Requirements knowledge;
analysing business impact of change
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance
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#3Testmaster: Providing an
assurance function to teams, projects
and business stakeholders
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance
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#4Managing the
information flows to/from the Continuous
Integration processIntelligent Testing, Improvement and
AssuranceSlide 48
#5Managing/monitoring
outsourced/offshore teams who detail and execute tests
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance
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Close
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance
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The phase after development is REWORK, not Testing• Managers will never name this phase
correctly• Testing must align with development, not
follow it• Manual test phase will fade away replaced by:– Up-front test design mostly automated– Integrated with code change and software delivery
• Testers must embrace the change, not resist it• Make that leap across the chasm!
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance
Slide 51
Perhaps testing and the role of
testers can at last mature to what they should be?
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance
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Thank-You
Intelligent Testing, Improvement and Assurance
Slide 53
The Future of Testing
Paul [email protected]: @paul_gerrardWeb: gerrardconsulting.com
Download from businessstorymethod.com/Intelligent Testing, Improvement and
AssuranceSlide 54
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