Fiona Charles is an absolute legend in the software testing world and I had the honor of sitting down with her to discuss tech ethics, the human side of technology, her adventures with Jerry Weinberg, and her award winning storied career.
Fiona is an encyclopedia of software delivery techniques for communication, risk management, and how to deliver projects with integrity. I’ll do my best to add in all the links to every resource she mentioned so enjoy!
The Ministry of Testing has a great tradition at their conferences called “99 Second Talks” where anyone can get up and talk about anything for 99 seconds. It’s a great way to introduce new things, give speakers an opportunity to get on stage without a CFP, or work out ideas for future talks. I’ve never given a 99 Second Talk, so at TestBash 2025 I decided to give it a go.
I shared a story that if you don’t know me, you probably didn’t realise I went through something this summer that taught me a lot about overcoming adversity, resilience, and picking yourself up from defeat.
This summer I decided to take on my teenaged son in a structured debate about whether or not Batman was an antihero – my position being that Batman IS an antihero.
The grift in the software testing business never ends…
I’ve spent a LOT of time lately reviewing docs, sitting through demos, listening to “experts”, and enduring the bombardment of AI slop being hurled from testing vendors and let me tell you – ain’t nothing new under the sun in our industry.
Testing hasn’t changed. Testing hasn’t fallen behind. Testing isn’t the bottleneck. Testing isn’t actually the problem.
**The problem is a vicious cycle of unsustainable rates of change requiring endless system #enshittification to meet the demands of an increasingly pervasive technology ecosystem run by bonus-driven caretaking management.**
But that hasn’t stopped the AI grift from going into overdrive – selling solutions that don’t exist for problems that aren’t real to people who are quite happily using that as cover to fire people they never should have hired in the first place.
If you work in software testing here’s my advice:
– Learn everything you can about AI and the language being bandied about to figure out your entry into that world to use the “right words”. A LOT of what I am seeing is just old concepts being renamed, redescribed, or just hijacked for marketing purposes. Old wine into new skins…
– Learn about test design, experimentation, exploratory testing, and how to TALK ABOUT RISK. These are the skills that have never gone out of demand and will be super important if any of this AI mess gets to production…
– Learn about the regulatory environment as despite my scepticism about enforcement, there are a whole bunch of new implications of what’s real, who’s at fault, and unasked questions about agency and pushing slop to production…
Every bubble bursts (or at least deflates a little) and as I’ve said before, I don’t think all these “early movers” have an advantage over people taking their time for some critical thinking. Frankly, the testing business doesn’t seem to have a clue right now anyway, so concentrate on core skills, learn the lingo, and watch the firings continue (I’m looking at you test automation engineers)…
Unfortunately, instead of curbing behaviour this will probably just get priced in to using AI slop in your business, just like fines in financial services…
Back at work after spending last week in Brighton delivering part of a workshop on Leading with Quality for the Ministry of Testing and then hung out at Test Bash 2025. I had a great time catching up with old friends and meeting a lot of new people and actually got to listen to the talks which frankly, is a luxury I don’t typically get from being a speaker.
Delivering my part of the Leading with Quality workshop was fun and a little hectic trying to get all the content and discussions into an hour slot, but I think we got there and the feedback has been great (so far). My part was about getting (and keeping) a seat at the table for testers which started with WHY testing doesn’t typically get involved in decisions that affect time, money, or people. Testing is a function of risk management, and the value proposition is context dependent so the quickest way to undermine testing’s credibility (and your own) and common mistakes I see testers make are:
Earlier this month at EuroSTAR in Edinburgh, I was unexpectedly honored with the Testing Excellence Award after being nominated by my team at KPMG. Undeservedly receiving the same award as one of my heroes, Jerry Weinberg, I was also introduced on the evening by one of my mentors and friends Michael Bolton.
As I said on the night, software testing is a team sport, and for over 25 years I’ve been working with some of the best testers from around the globe (12 countries) on countless projects for Fortune 100 companies. One of my most proud achievements in managing the careers of software testers is that my teams have produced a CTO from UC Berkley, 11 Global Heads of QA, 7 Test Directors, 11 Vice Presidents, 2 Global Product Owners, and 2 Heads of Engineering from companies all over the world.
I have also tried to contribute to the software testing industry body of public knowledge through publishing 100s of articles and interviews on Quality Remarks, LinkedIn, and loads of personal and professional journals/blogs. I’ve also had the privilege to present talks and workshops at testing and technology conferences and meetups all over the world on topics including test strategy, managing test teams, and working with C-level sponsorship including: AST CAST, QAI, EuroSTAR, STARCanada, STAR East, KWSQA, BCS, MOT, ATD, RTC, Copenhagen CT, STP Con, QualityJam, NSTC, Tricentis Accelerate, and expo:QA.
My starter pack reading list for AI in software testing…please feel free to add to the list in the comments! We got a lot of work to do friends, being informed is just the start…enjoy!
Ale Moreira is one of my oldest friends in the testing world, we got to know each other when we were elected to the Association for Software Testing Board of Directors together and then hung around in NYC while we worked at various companies and consultancies.
She has always been a fantastic hands-on engineer in testing, and we see a LOT in common when it comes to talking to the business about the value of testing. Her newsletter Road Less Tested is on my list of “must read” testing blogs and she co-hosts the Engineering Quality podcast with a couple of her pals, so listen as we talk selling testing to the business, life after testing “death”, and what it takes to lead quality engineering teams in this brave new world…enjoy!
