Integrity doesn’t matter until it does, and frequently testers conflate compromising on what to do with the information found during testing with a compromise on the integrity of the testing. Over the years I’ve seen this cause a LOT of burnout in testers, as particularly on high profile, politically charged projects it can feel like disagreeing with the outcome of a business decision on risk, defect resolution, etc is a personal attack on your role as a tester.

To be clear – I would never compromise on the quality or integrity of the test approach, execution, or reporting on risk, results, or advice on what to do with that information. As my good friend Michael Bolton has said, lying to my clients is not a service I provide, and there are loads of people in this industry who are more than happy to give (and read) “happy path” reports on passing tests.

As we hurdle towards AI driven testing, more than ever we need professional testers with experience in navigating complex systems and communicating risk. It may seem that there are more than enough bad actors willing to tell companies what they want to hear about software testing, but I’m confident (and IME) eventually they’ll come around to the realisation of the real fight – maintaining integrity in our test approach.