Love this on LinkedIn from Michael Bolton where he mentions my interview with Jerry Weinberg in response to the comment: Just because certain visible actions are a part of a process doesn’t mean that they ARE the process. Why is this misunderstanding so common?

His response is fantastic…

“Several years ago, on his Quality Remarks podcast, Keith Klain interviewed Jerry Weinberg. He asked Jerry why some people seemed eager to apply manufacturing models to software testing.

To your question, I’m going to give the reply that Jerry gave: “Because they’re not very smart.”

The people who keep making that mistake simply don’t understand the process. They haven’t even learned to observe and evaluate the visible parts of a process. They don’t consider the tacit knowledge or skills required to perform it.

The problem is compounded by the inability of many people performing the process to describe it accurately and articulately themselves. And THAT’s compounded by the fact that poor observers and evaluators often hire people who aren’t very good at performing or describing the work.

“And so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” —F. Scott Fitzgerald

The good news is that people can learn the skills required to comprehend processes, given motivation, time, study, training, practice, and support.”

Here’s the interview with Jerry…enjoy!

My reaction when I see the TMMi / ISO29119 / testing certification / #yourenotdoingmymodelright crowd doubling down into AI after decades of getting software testing wrong…

Very happy to announce I’ve been honored to contribute a chapter to Taking Testing Seriously: The Rapid Software Testing Way by James Bach of Satisfice and Michael Bolton of Developsense, co-creators of Rapid Software Testing (RST) . Over the course of my career hiring and managing 1000s of testers around the world, RST has been the most valuable training as well as providing a useful language for speaking to management about testing and risk. The chapter outlines a discussion where Michael and I explore my experiences running global teams, the role of testing in managing risk, and what I think it takes to make it as a test manager.

You can pre-order the book for the testers (or anyone) in your life on Amazon now – just in time for the holidays! Enjoy!

Taking Testing Seriously: The Rapid Software Testing Way

“Dive into the world of expert software testing with Taking Testing Seriously: The Rapid Software Testing Approach. This book arms software professionals with the knowledge required to master the Rapid Software Testing (RST) methodology. Written by two co-creators of the RST approach and supplemented by material from respected testers who offer valuable insights, it is an essential read for anyone seeking excellence in the craft of testing.“

Happy to be included in the 244th issue of Software Testing Weekly – thanks, Dawid Dylowicz!

Ahhhh, it’s that familiar time of year when the smell of Performance Reviews and Goal Setting is in the air! I’ve managed loads of testers over the years and get asked to write a lot of feedback for folks. You’ll hear on LinkedIn the popular advice to take ownership for your career and depend on others as little as possible.

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.

Thanks to the fantastic team at EuroSTAR for the great time and a really well run conference. I had a lot of fun catching up with old friends and meeting a lot of new, enthusiastic testers. It was great to be back in beautiful Stockholm and hope to see you all again soon!

Links to the reference material I spoke about in my keynote can be found HERE: (Rethinking Expertise; How Complex Systems Fail; The Secrets of Consulting)

* Special thanks to my friend Michael Bolton for pulling me out of my conference retirement…the trick worked pal 🙂

Very happy to finally be back at EuroStar in 2024. It looks to be a brilliant line up of workshops and talks and I’m very proud to be giving a keynote on “Testing Software in the Age of Transformation”. Here’s a preview of my talk…hope to see you in Sweden!

The Center Left: Testing Software in the Age of Transformation

Ten years ago, I gave a keynote at EuroSTAR on how to overcome organisational bias against the value of software testing. Despite all the advancement in process and technology, our business still struggles with its value proposition and sense of itself.

Through this talk I’ll discuss the principles and practices I’ve employed to successfully sell testing services and manage high performing teams. I’ll also walk through case studies of what has worked when talking about testing and what it can and cannot do for your business.

What you will learn

1. What worked & what didn’t when trying to get software testing valued at an organization, and how to fit actionable plans into enterprise transformation
2. How to help make testing relevant to people by meeting them where they are, & speaking about our business in a way that doesn’t comprise integrity, while still moving things forward
3. Principles and practices, and their relevant sources that have helped me gain trust and respect from my clients in delivering critical high risk programmes

In another failed chapter in the never ending book of “encouraging good behaviour”, the G7 have apparently agreed to a “code of conduct” for companies building #artificialintelligence systems. Per Reuters, “the voluntary code of conduct will set a landmark for how major countries govern AI, amid privacy concerns and security risks…”, now colour me cynical, but I think we’ve seen how this movie has played out before. You don’t need to expend any energy finding the billions being invested for new generative AI and other AI systems, which is only piled on the billions ALREADY spent on systems actively in use.

After a long career of reviewing the various outputs from #softwaretesting: strategies, plans, test cases, #testautomation, etc. I’ve never understood why people think conformance to internal/external standards will affect a better outcome. I realise it’s born out of a fundamental misunderstanding of what happens when you test something paired with strong wish thinking that software testing is analogous to manufacturing. But IME, content is key for #testing artefacts and frankly, I’ve been around long enough to see how all these standards usually give a false sense of security and year after year add to the “#softwarequalitymanagement” certification grift.

So I wasn’t that surprised to witness another leg of the race to the #artificialintelligence bottom in testing with talk of creating #AI to check your test strategies, etc for deviations from your internal or external standards. Apparently, all this investment in #ML and #AI is going to be used as some really, really, expensive rube goldberg machine to #automate the lowest value work in testing!

Some day we’ll get something useful for testing from artificial intelligence, but today is not that day…

(old man shouts at cloud rant over 😉)

“Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist.” – George Carlin

Had a great time talking about business risk with the Ministry of Testing folks and how your approach to testing is probably introducing risk to your business. Check out the whole interview or clips on my YouTube channel…

Enjoy!

#qualityengineering #softwaretesting #riskmanagement #testautomation #testmanagement #softwarequalityassurance

Happy to be included in the 185th issue of Software Testing Weekly – thanks, Dawid Dylowicz!

Had a lot of fun ranting at my friend 🐞 Richard Bradshaw on my Ministry of Testing Ask Me Anything. Hope you enjoy it and LMK if you every want to talk software testing and risk management.

Check it out here: Keith Klain AMA on Risk Management

“Quality is value to some person”. – Jerry Weinberg

Saw this quote misattributed recently, but Jerry Weinberg threw down the gauntlet in his classic book Quality Software Management: Volume 1, Systems Thinking, and the software testing industry has been wrestling with every word in that short sentence ever since. What is “quality”? How do you determine “value”? Who is that “person”?