Recently there was a question on a networking site about the future of software testing. While this is definitely worthy of a long dissertation, here is an attempt to provide a brief summary in blog format...
One could say that we operate on a pendulum in software testing. The 90s saw a swing of the pendulum in the very structured/documented approach to testing, and when that became too cumbersome, software testing began swinging towards the more "agile", less structured direction. It seems that the momentum of this current swing is slowing a bit, however, as people begin to abuse the term "agile" and that the testing discipline will soon begin to swing back in the other direction again.
In the broader sense, however, the future of software testing is strongly linked to automated testing, and how we deal with that. Development is changing and getting more streamlined, and is therefore getting done much faster. Testing will rely on automation to help keep up. If we don't grow the discipline of test automation, however, it won't be able to keep up. Dion Johnson has written a few articles about this, including an column at stickyminds.com called "Automation Déjà Vu...Again!" Check it out. In addition, be on the lookout for a symposium that the Automated Testing Institute is planning that will address the topic of the future of test automation. If you'd like to be kept up to date on the developing symposium, you can get on the mailing list by emailing events@automatedtestinginstitute.com.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
