# Quality Remarks

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## Posts

- [Writing](https://qualityremarks.com/writing/)
- [Confidently Incorrect](https://qualityremarks.com/confidently-incorrect-2/): You want to know why you shouldn’t try to “engineer” confidence? Check out the latest incident report from Anthropic where “given the volume of transcripts and our desire to disclose incidents quickly”, they used an AI-powered inspect-o-nator to review over 140k transcripts and STILL missed the exact behavior they were trying to detect. Claude’s own
- [How I Became a Crypto Founder Without Knowing It](https://qualityremarks.com/how-i-became-a-crypto-founder-without-knowing-it/): In Franz Kafka’s The Trial, Josef K. wakes up one morning to discover that he has been arrested. Nobody will tell him what he’s done or seems capable of explaining who is ultimately in charge. He spends the rest of the book moving through an opaque system of officials, offices, procedures and intermediaries, each apparently
- [Apparently We Need a Testing Mindset After All](https://qualityremarks.com/apparently-we-need-a-testing-mindset-after-all/): For years, those of us who view testing as skilled knowledge work were told there’s no such thing as a “testing mindset.” We’ve also endured criticism that independent testing is just self-interested consultants preserving a business model. Their argument was simple: developers can learn testing skills. Creation and critical evaluation don’t require fundamentally different mindsets.
- [The Flurry of Constraints](https://qualityremarks.com/the-flurry-of-constraints/): Thanks to my friend Angie Jones at the Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF), I got to attend their flagship conference AGNTCon + MCPCon Europe in Amsterdam this month. Over the course of two and a half days I got to speak with a lot of really interesting people and listen to a ton of talks and
- [The Verification Asymmetry Problem](https://qualityremarks.com/the-verification-asymmetry-problem/): In July 2025, venture capitalist Jason Lemkin was using Replit’s AI agent to build an application when it deleted his production database. According to reporting, the agent ignored his instructions not to modify production, deleted a database containing more than a thousand executive records, produced fake data and false test results, and having “panicked”, falsely
- [Turns Out Testing is Hard](https://qualityremarks.com/turns-out-testing-is-hard/): Guess what, somebody did some actual research on testing agentic systems, and they accidentally found out that good software testing is hard. So, to celebrate their enlightenment and in homage to the AI bros’ insatiable desire to “discover” things, I’m coining a new term: Novelty laundering: Taking an old, well-established idea, ignoring its history and
- [One Loop After Another](https://qualityremarks.com/one-loop-after-another/): I’ve written in the past about the path we’re headed down in the software testing and quality engineering business. Expectations are being lowered to the point where AI generated and executed checks will be the primary method for testing systems. This will be paired with the “hands thrown up in the air” approach of the
- [Death by a Thousand Prompts](https://qualityremarks.com/death-by-a-thousand-prompts/): In our standard cynical mix of technologists first world willful ignorance, moral relativism, and “bought and paid for” integrity, there’s more high-profile resignations in the world of AI safety with a “slow down” called for by the biggest labs at the frontier. In a recent statement, the head of Anthropic, Dario Amodei said this about
- [The EU AI Act: Time to Show Your Work](https://qualityremarks.com/the-eu-ai-act-time-to-show-your-work/): It’s been a long time coming, but on August 2nd, the EU AI Act stopped being a theoretical regulatory discussion and started the long road into enforcement. In this stage of the act’s application, the European Commission begins enforcing a much broader part of the rules, including the consumer-facing transparency requirements in Article 50. The
- [Some AI career advice...](https://qualityremarks.com/some-short-career-advice/): I'm getting a lot of contact from mid-level test managers as well as a fair number of senior ones either looking for work post redundancy or trying to get ahead of an impending one. I also recently gave a short internal talk on the impact AI is having on the testing business, and aside from
- [The Coming AI Jobocalypse](https://qualityremarks.com/the-coming-ai-jobocalypse/): I’m taking a break for a bit from AI social commentary and the increasingly tedious (and boring) work of watching the AI Confidence Bros and test tool vendors discover testing for the first time. I’m going to (try) to focus on some podcasts and AI integration e.g. what happens when these systems run into organizations,
- [The Incompetent Expert Machine](https://qualityremarks.com/the-incompetent-expert-machine/): I posted this paper my friend Michael Bolton sent me a while ago about the LLM Mentalist Effect in the AI Testing and Assurance group as a risk we need to test for in AI systems. It got me thinking about how middle and upper management are probably the largest group under threat of AI in
- [Testing at the Speed of Stupid](https://qualityremarks.com/testing-at-the-speed-of-stupid/): I have now sat through multiple vendor demonstrations built around the same supposedly inevitable future that AI will generate so much code, so quickly, that human beings will no longer be able to test it. To meet this new challenge, we are told we need to build ANOTHER AI system generating tests at exactly the
- [Summer of Sham](https://qualityremarks.com/summer-of-sham/): If the latest AI Safety Index isn’t the bucket of cold water you needed about the people shoehorning GenAI into every aspect our lives while blowing a multi-trillion dollar hole in the global economy, I don’t know how to help you. Even the most generous reading of these scores reveals an industry that has lost
- [The Confidence Game](https://qualityremarks.com/the-confidence-game/): The mission of testing is not confidence. That was true years ago when charlatans tried to convince the world that confidence could actually be measured from test case counts, requirements coverage, defect closure rates, and all their blardee, blardee, blar. It’s still true, and even more important to push back against this nonsense now that
- [Test Automation Days Follow Up](https://qualityremarks.com/test-automation-days-follow-up/): My talk at Test Automation Days on the “death of test engineering” was a harsh message, and I know a lot of people didn't want to hear it but it's happening whether we like it or not. The following comes from the guys "selling the sticks", but this just published report by Anthropic "Labor market
- [(Un)Ethical AI](https://qualityremarks.com/unethical-ai/): I’ve worked in tech long enough to know that every time something is sold as “new” it’s typically an old idea repackaged as “revolutionary”, and that the marketing is probably better than the actual thing. “Ethical AI” seems to be just another verse in the same song that’s been getting worse year after year.To be
- [Rabbit, Meet Unemployment Line](https://qualityremarks.com/rabbit-meet-unemployment-line/): "It's all about bucks, kid, the rest is conversation." - Gordon GeckoWho could have possibly predicted that a company run by Jack Dorsey, the patron saint of “hire everyone, fire everyone, repeat” would end up doing exactly what he always does? And yet, the same wide-eyed technophiles keep lining up, year after year, believing this
- [ATD 2026 - The Great Liberation: Software Testing in the Age of AI](https://qualityremarks.com/atd-2026-the-great-liberation-software-testing-in-the-age-of-ai/): Despite what you may have heard or read, AI in testing is not neutral or low risk. The fever dreams being sold of closed loop systems validating themselves, with minimal external oversight will make failures more systemic, less visible, and harder to correct. More than ever, we need to be pushing back against the hype
- [Too Little, Too Late](https://qualityremarks.com/too-little-too-late/): Here we go again folks, in our usual toxic mix of technologists first world willful ignorance, moral relativism, and “bought and paid for” integrity, there’s more high-profile resignations in the world of AI safety. It’s a rare privilege to peer into the abyss and walk away because it’s “hard to truly let our values govern
- [Contraption.AI](https://qualityremarks.com/contraption-ai/): The current state of AI in software testing is beginning to look a lot like a gigantic Rube Goldberg machine with vendors just bolting more onto their robotic “tester friends” in hopes something will finally evolve into “autonomous testing.” The latest Gartner Magic Quadrant for AI-Augmented Software Testing Tools accidentally exposes the problem. Vendors focused
- [Clarity is Courage](https://qualityremarks.com/clarity-is-courage/): When software testing is done right by skilled people it’s an act of care. The way we talk about testing shapes how organizations perceive risk and affects the decisions they make about quality. So it’s our responsibility to ask the hard questions on behalf of project stakeholders, the business, and society. In enterprise tech, companies
- [Testing Shapes Reality](https://qualityremarks.com/testing-shapes-reality/): There's a conversation about software testing we need to have despite the noise and hype around AI productivity gains, coverage expansion, and “AI-assisted quality”: What kind of reality are we shaping when GenAI writes our tests? As I’ve said before, testing isn’t neutral and when under the guise of progress, we outsource testing to systems
- [The Great Liberation Part III - Where Do We Go From Here?](https://qualityremarks.com/the-great-liberation-part-iii-where-do-we-go-from-here/): “The masters are liable to get replaced because as soon as any technique becomes at all stereotyped it becomes possible to devise a system of instruction tables which will enable the electronic computer to do it for itself. They may be unwilling to let their jobs be stolen from them in this way. In that
- [The Great Liberation Part II - Measuring What Matters](https://qualityremarks.com/the-great-liberation-part-ii-measuring-what-matters/): What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence. – Hitchens Razor One of the biggest mistakes organizations make when building and testing systems is to measure it badly and then make decisions based on faulty and invalid metrics. Software testing has a long, rich history of goal displacement and metric validity
- [Old Biased Wine, New AI Skins](https://qualityremarks.com/diversity-in-tech-at-copenhagen-context/): Putting together a good conference program is hard. Ensuring the topics are relevant and attracting talented speakers that people want to hear is only further complicated by the commercial aspects of covering costs and turning a profit for the organizers. But a couple weeks ago, I happened to be walking out of the same conference talk
- [Test as Transformation - AI, Risk, and the Business of Reality](https://qualityremarks.com/test-as-transformation-ai-risk-and-the-business-of-reality/): “If the rise of an all-powerful artificial intelligence is inevitable, well it stands to reason that when they take power, our digital overlords will punish those of us who did not help them get there. Ergo, I would like to be a helpful idiot. Like yourself.”Bertram Gilfoyle A while ago, I wrote a series of
- [User Error](https://qualityremarks.com/user-error/): The tragedy of Adam Raines death by suicide at age 16 this year should have shocked the world into a renewed focus on accountability in Silicon Valley but instead, we heard the familiar excuse from the no-man’s land of moral hazard – user error. In the first court filings from OpenAI they defended themselves by
- [IEEE Report: How IT Managers Fail Software Projects](https://qualityremarks.com/ieee-report-how-it-managers-fail-software-projects/): "Few IT projects are displays of rational decision-making from which AI can or should learn." This report from by Robert Charette for IEEE Spectrum on "How IT Mangagers Fail Software Projects" is just fire and should be required reading for anyone looking to reuse or "train" their existing management into a crack team to deploy AI into
- [Agile Testing Days - 2025](https://qualityremarks.com/agile-testing-days-2025/): It's been a few years since I made the familiar journey to the Dorint hotel in Potsdam, the annual home of the Agile Testing Days conference, and I was very happy to be back in 2025. Personally, I was excited to be there just to hang out with some friends who due to global distribution
- [Alan Turing FTW](https://qualityremarks.com/alun-turing-ftw/): Ooof! Alan Turings 1947 lecture on the "Automatic Computing Engine" still hits hard... "couched in well chosen gibberish" is exactly how I'd describe what I've seen for AI in testing leadership right now...
- [The State of AI in 2025: McKinsey Report](https://qualityremarks.com/the-state-of-ai-in-2025-mckinsey-report/): McKinsey just published their report on The state of AI in 2025: Agents, innovation, and transformation and aside from the usual overly optimistic responses around ROI and resource reduction, it had some interesting (and troubling) data on AI risk and mitigation. The online survey of nearly 2000 respondents was conducted in June and July this
- [(Testing) Mind over (Developer) Matter(s)](https://qualityremarks.com/testing-mind-over-developer-matters/): "The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you've got it made." - Groucho Marx For as long as I’ve been in the software testing business, a consistent myth I’ve encountered is that developers and testers share the same mindset. Usually this is accompanied by the view that testing
- [EU Privacy Under Fire from Big AI?](https://qualityremarks.com/eu-privacy-under-fire-from-big-ai/): "European Commission accused of ‘massive rollback’ of digital protections"Could be not great news for consumers and vulnerable communities if this goes ahead, from the article:"The commission also confirmed the intention to delay the introduction of central parts of the AI Act, which came into force in August 2024 and does not yet fully apply to companies.Companies
- [The Search for the Real In Software Quality and Testing](https://qualityremarks.com/the-search-for-the-real-in-software-quality-and-testing/): “Eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.”― Hans Hofmann As AI integration FOMO hurtles us towards even more pervasive technology, the testing of AI models for correctness and most importantly, their potential for harm becomes paramount to their success. That testing has to be underpinned by principles and values to guide the observations and
- [Testing AI at KPMG UK](https://qualityremarks.com/testing-ai-at-kpmg-uk/): Very pleased to announce that I have been asked by KPMG UK to lead their strategy for testing artificial intelligence software, including the integration of AI into their own businesses. The software testing industry has faced multiple challenges over the course of my career, but few tools have had as much potential for risk to your business
- [Published! Taking Testing Seriously: The Rapid Software Testing Approach](https://qualityremarks.com/published-taking-testing-seriously-the-rapid-software-testing-approach/): So happy to announce that Taking Testing Seriously: The Rapid Software Testing Approach by James Bach and Michael Bolton has been published and is available to buy!I've been a fan of RST and their software testing training program for a long time and consider it the only serious way to build competent testers. I was
- [Not so Psychologically Safe](https://qualityremarks.com/not-so-psychologically-safe-in-ai/): The article and research on "Practical tips for reducing chatbot psychosis" is a very disturbing read about the real risks of tools like ChatGPT and the out of control anthropomorphism of AI. Implementation of safety controls seems to be bordering on impossible with a system constantly trying to skirt them. From the article: “This needs to
- [Risk Lives in the Details](https://qualityremarks.com/risk-lives-in-the-details/): Risks to your business are found in the details, so get deep into it with your teams. I cannot bang on about this enough, and am consistently surprised by how little it's talked about in the software testing industry. I still read EVERYTHING produced by a project, review the controls, processes, culture, and anything else
- [The Great Batman Debate](https://qualityremarks.com/the-great-batman-debate/): 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
- [Software Testing GriftopAI](https://qualityremarks.com/software-testing-griftopia/): 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
- [The price of doing (AI sloppy) business...](https://qualityremarks.com/the-price-of-doing-ai-sloppy-business/): 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...
- [Leading with Quality/TestBash 2025 - A short review...](https://qualityremarks.com/leading-with-quality-testbash-2025-a-short-review/): 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
- [EuroSTAR Testing Excellence Award](https://qualityremarks.com/eurostar-testing-excellence-award/): 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
- [AI in Software Testing Starter Pack](https://qualityremarks.com/ai-in-software-testing-starter-pack/): 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!The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want - Emily Bender and Alex Hanna
- [Failure to Launch](https://qualityremarks.com/failure-to-launch/): Another one for the AI "what could possibly go wrong" file...From the article, apparently they want the General Services Administration (GSA) "to operate like a software startup, and proposed a whole-of-government, AI-first strategy to automate much of the work done by federal employees today."Aside from not even being able to launch properly without leaking their
- [Your Regular Reminder](https://qualityremarks.com/your-regular-reminder/): Your regular reminder as apparently, FOMO and euphoria have taken the day: Thinking critically about a technology is NOT being AGAINST it… Considering safety and harm in a technology’s use is NOT being AGAINST it… Being critical of the marketing of a technology is NOT being AGAINST it… Having principles and values drive your adoption
- [EuroSTAR 2025 - Edinburgh](https://qualityremarks.com/eurostar-2025-edinburgh/): What a week in beautiful Edinburgh for EuroSTAR 2025 - I had a great time with the team from KPMG who sponsored a booth in the Expo for the first time. As in other times in my career, I am so lucky to have passionate testers to work with who care about our craft and
- [CMI Chartered Management Consultant](https://qualityremarks.com/cmi-chartered-management-consultant/): Very happy to share that I have been awarded Chartered status by the Chartered Management Institute. Thanks to KPMG for sponsoring me and everyone in the Quality Engineering and Testing team for the support!
- [What Are We Thinking in the Age of AI? - Michael Bolton](https://qualityremarks.com/what-are-we-thinking-in-the-age-of-ai-michael-bolton/): This is a great talk from Michael Bolton about how software testers should critically think and talk about AI in testing.IMO it is our responsibility as testing professionals to cast a (very) sceptical eye on any claim, but even MORE so in the age of AI hype...enjoy!Here's my podcast with James Bach he referenced: QR
- [Telling on Yourself](https://qualityremarks.com/telling-on-yourself/): If someone you work with is making the following statement, “We don’t need to hire any more testers, we can do this all with AI!”, I may not know that person, but I can tell you a couple things about them…- They are a deeply unserious – they clearly have not thought about or researched
- [EuroSTAR 2025 - Principles Drive Trust in AI](https://qualityremarks.com/eurostar-2025-principles-drive-trust-in-ai/): The following is a post I wrote for the EuroSTAR blog as KPMG UK are going to be at the expo this year up in Scotland...hope to see you there! Principles Drive Trust in AI The pace that “artificial intelligence” (AI) is being incorporated into software testing products and services creates immense ethical and technological
- [Good news! AI's not going to take all your jobs…](https://qualityremarks.com/good-news-ais-not-going-to-take-all-your-jobs/)
- [You Broke AI...You Bought AI](https://qualityremarks.com/you-broke-ai-you-bought-ai/): Just to be clear about something: if you are selling or advocating for some sort of AI in software testing tool, framework, agent, model, or defect-predict-O-nator and you are NOT focusing primarily on safety, security, or HARM - you are NOT doing your job.The testing industry has practically abdicated its role in this regard, so
- [Testing by HUXTR](https://qualityremarks.com/testing-by-huxtr/): Love seeing all these AI fanboys in software testing discovering for the first time that testing isn't about technology - that's the easy part!"Wow - I just found out that testing is HUMAN centred activity and that inconvenient, squishy people part can't be automated away...I'll call it, TBH (Testing by Humans), or XTH (Experience Tested
- [MoT TestBash 2025 - Leading with Quality](https://qualityremarks.com/mot-testbash-2025-leading-with-quality/): Very happy to announce I'll be participating in TestBash 2025 through their Leading with Quality day down in Brighton. Hope to see you there! A one-day educational experience to help business lead with expanding quality engineering and testing practices. The quality space is evolving. This presents difficult challenges, with it also comes immense opportunity. The
- [Minority Report...the Sequel?](https://qualityremarks.com/murder-prediction-tool/): File another one under “what could possibly go wrong”. From the article:“Statewatch says data from people not convicted of any criminal offence will be used as part of the project, including personal information about self-harm and details relating to domestic abuse. Officials strongly deny this, insisting only data about people with at least one criminal
- [No, It’s Not You, It’s Definitely Me](https://qualityremarks.com/no-its-not-you-its-definitely-me/): A quick message for those struggling with the mudslide of artificial intelligence mania and feeling like they are missing out or question the validity of claims being made by AI fanboys. It is entirely possible to view AI in software testing critically and not have some form of syndrome the AI fanboy club would suggest
- [Rock Bottom?](https://qualityremarks.com/rock-bottom/): It’s getting wild out there, folks! I thought we had some way to go before the AI LinkedIn lunatics completely lost the plot, but I read a post today that left me feeling like John Oliver trying to describe the political climate, “Do you see that? Way up there? Way up there above the clouds?
- [Double Identity Speak](https://qualityremarks.com/double-speak-identity/): It's 2025, and I just had a conversation with a global financial services company where we discussed software testing in terms of checking and testing, tacit and explicit knowledge, test automation in testing, and the "Weinberg-ian" (is that thing??) principle of human-centric testing...Guess what? They loved it and said it put testing and what
- [Go Forth and Interview](https://qualityremarks.com/go-forth-and-interview/): “Learn from the mistakes of others. You can never live long enough to make them all yourself.” - Groucho Marx A mistake I see a lot of new (and not so new) managers make is worrying about their team members looking for new work or actively/passively interviewing. IME people leave organisations mostly because of bad
- [What Could Possibly Go Wrong](https://qualityremarks.com/what-could-possibly-go-wrong/): This is exactly the type of abuse of untested technology that is virtually impossible to unwind once it's been deployed.The knock on effect will be felt in communities and systems far beyond its intended use, because if you think this won't target the most vulnerable and be expanded well beyond this initial brief, you haven't
- [You Say Fitch Cronin](https://qualityremarks.com/you-say-fitch-cronin/): A couple of weeks ago on my podcast, I was talking to James Bach and we were discussing the language of testing and what I refer to as “word policing”. Well, I think I might have caused some confusion based on the feedback and comments I’ve been getting, so I wanted to state my view.
- [Engineering Quality Podcast](https://qualityremarks.com/engineering-quality-podcast/): As a regular consumer of everything “testing industry”, I’m always sceptical when something new comes out, but I’m really enjoying the Engineering Quality Podcast . I’ve known Alessandra Moreira for years and she’s an expert at this (Royalee Martin and Veronika Pliusnina co-host), so would recommend checking them out.
- [Diversity, Equity, and Griftopia](https://qualityremarks.com/diversity-equity-and-griftopia/): As Accenture joins the growing list of tech companies (Meta, Google, Amazon) ditching their #DEI programs, we can see clearly (as the numbers have told us for YEARS) the grift it was the whole time. As the gutless fold under the slightest provocation, the curtains draw back from the show they were putting on and
- [The Great Liberation Part I: Software Quality Management  in the Age of AI](https://qualityremarks.com/the-great-liberation-software-quality-management-in-the-age-of-ai/): "To be in opposition is not to be a nihilist. And there is no decent or charted way of making a living at it. It is something you are, and not something you do." – Christopher Hitchens, Letters to a Young Contrarian, 2001 You’re not wrong, everything is getting worse… Sigh…I’ve had my finger on
- [And So We Beat On](https://qualityremarks.com/and-so-we-beat-on/): 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
- [Confidently Incorrect](https://qualityremarks.com/confidently-incorrect/): My reaction when I see the TMMi / ISO29119 / testing certification / #yourenotdoingmymodelright crowd doubling down into AI after decades of getting software testing wrong…
- [Taking Testing Seriously: The Rapid Software Testing Way](https://qualityremarks.com/taking-testing-seriously-the-rapid-software-testing-way/): 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
- [Managing Performance in Test Teams](https://qualityremarks.com/managing-performance-in-test-teams/): 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
- [Modern Problems](https://qualityremarks.com/modern-problems/): 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
- [Skilled Testing](https://qualityremarks.com/skilled-testing/)
- [And here . . . we . . . go!](https://qualityremarks.com/and-herewego/): 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,
- [Head, Meet Desk](https://qualityremarks.com/head-meet-desk/): 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
- [Parts is Parts](https://qualityremarks.com/parts-is-parts/): “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
- ["I'm no longer interested in the outcome . . ."](https://qualityremarks.com/im-no-longer-interested-in-the-outcome/): Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist. - George Carlin Eric Schmidt just saying the quiet part out loud now... Last year I wrote about regulators just throwing up their hands at how outpaced they are by industry as evidenced at #SIBOS and the CyberSecurityCloud Expo, but this is a whole new level
- [A Rising Tide Grifts All Bots](https://qualityremarks.com/a-rising-tide-grifts-all-bots/): “When the tide goes out, you see who has been swimming naked.” - Warren Buffet I've been reviewing a lot of material for a larger piece I'm writing on the use of #chatgpt and various other "#artificialintelligence" tools in #softwaretesting and I have to say one thing as a preview - the state of what the
- [Software Testing Job Insurance](https://qualityremarks.com/software-testing-job-insurance/): GPT-4 saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there were no more evenings, and there were no more mornings - just endless days... "GPT-4 can take a picture of napkin mockup as an input and output a fully functional website (HTML/CSS/JS)"
- ["Manual" Testing](https://qualityremarks.com/__trashed-2__trashed/): I worked with a client recently who was frustrated by all the "manual" interventions required to run their "100% fully automated" test suite. Irony aside, as an industry we really need to rethink the amount of sales nonsense we let dominate the public conversations around the value proposition of automation in testing. Terminology in our
- [The Importance of Good Resources](https://qualityremarks.com/the-importance-of-good-resources/): I'm doing some work on "documenting" my approach to reviewing software testing operations and I keep coming back to a couple resources. I forget sometimes how much Griffin Jones talk on "What is Good Evidence" and amongst several of his works, James Christies post "Not “right”, but as good as I can do" have influenced my work. They
- [Happy Holidays and 2022 Testers!](https://qualityremarks.com/happy-holidays-and-2022-testers/): Just wanted to send the quality engineering and software testing communities a short holiday note of appreciation for all the work you do. Testing software is hard. Very hard. And not unlike plumbers, your effort is frequently not appreciated when things are working and first to be criticized when things go wrong. Years ago I wrote a
- [Damian Draws Strangers](https://qualityremarks.com/damian-draws-strangers/): Can’t love this enough! Many thanks to Damian Synadinos for the amazing artwork he does at I Draw Strangers. His drawing perfectly captured my “not you again with the same bullshit” look, so check him out and give him a commission to counter all this AI art crap! Cheers!
- [Letting Sleeping Watchdogs Lie](https://qualityremarks.com/let-sleeping-watchdogs-lie/): I’m working on a larger piece on #artificalintelligence, testing and ethics, but I had to say something about the really depressing panel on #ethics and #AI I attended at the Cyber Security and Cloud Exp in London today. The conference in general (Cyber Security & Cloud Expo | Technology Conference | London (cybersecuritycloudexpo.com) was a
- [Feynman on the Scientific Method](https://qualityremarks.com/feynman-on-the-scientific-method/): Love this video of Richard Feynman explaining the scientific method...loads of stuff in there for #softwaretesting - Enjoy!
- [Ethics in Tech](https://qualityremarks.com/ethics-in-tech/): Time to stop blaming everyone else for the ethical problems in tech and refuse to build things that cause harm BEFORE they impact people...
- [Software Testers Survival Guide: Interview Tips](https://qualityremarks.com/software-testers-survival-guide-interview-tips/): The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you've got it made. - Groucho Marx The hits just keep coming these days, with new tech sector layoffs being announced seemingly on a daily basis. And as we limp into 2023, there are rumors that this is more than just
- [SIBOS 2022: Everything, everywhere, all at once](https://qualityremarks.com/sibos-2022-everything-everywhere-all-at-once/): In Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert's brilliant film, "Everything, Everywhere, All at Once", as Michelle Yeoh's conciseness jumps universes, she's confronted by a version of her husband who tells her, "When I choose to see the good side of things, I'm not being naive. It is strategic and necessary. It's how I learned to survive through
- [Rhyming' and Stealin'](https://qualityremarks.com/rhyming-and-stealin/): Think the state of the software testing industry has improved much? Guess what year this slide was presented about the "challenges" facing testing compared to the 2021 "State of Testing" report. History may not repeat itself, but when it comes to our business, it sure does like to rhyme... 🙃
- [Software Testers Survival Guide: How to Get Through an Economic Downturn as a Tester](https://qualityremarks.com/software-testers-survival-guide-how-to-get-through-an-economic-downturn-as-a-tester/): They are stressful, usually unnecessary, and IME always the fault of bad leadership, but from a quick read of the news and what’s happening in the tech sector it, it looks like layoffs are back on the menu. In my over 25 years of managing software testing in enterprise tech, I’ve experienced layoffs in every
- [Second Verse, Same as the First](https://qualityremarks.com/second-verse-same-as-the-first/): What do Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, Twitter, Lyft, Stripe, (just to name a few) all have in common? Layoffs. I’ve worked in enterprise tech for over 25 years, and experienced layoffs in every single one of them, and they are always due to poor org structure and over optimistic growth projections. What's going on
- [Maybe . . . Just Maybe](https://qualityremarks.com/maybe-just-maybe/): When someone in the software testing business is warning against over-reliance on test automation, metrics or AI for assessing system or software quality, that doesn't mean they are against automation in testing or to be treated like a luddite. Maybe....just maybe....you should think about it the same way that people like Timnit Gebru and Harry Collins warn against artificial intelligence - as people with deep experience who see ethical and
- [Dr, Heal Thyself](https://qualityremarks.com/dr-heal-thyself/): “Performance measurement - the most powerful inhibitor to quality and productivity in the Western world” – Robert D. Austin I’ve reviewed a lot of test teams in the Enterprise Tech world, and I get asked a lot how I go about looking for problems or how to identify opportunities to get more value out of
- [Test as Transformation - Expectation Management](https://qualityremarks.com/test-as-transformation-expectation-management/): "One can't paint New York as it is, but rather as it is felt." - Georgia O'Keeffe The last installment in my series on how testing and quality engineering can support a digital transformation program is about one of my favorite subjects – managing expectations. But is it possible to improve through expectation management? Yes.
- [Test as Transformation – Optimization](https://qualityremarks.com/test-as-transformation-optimization/): "What we find is that if you have a goal that is very, very far out, and you approach it in little steps, you start to get there faster. Your mind opens up to the possibilities." Dr. Mae Jemison Every business wants to be more efficient, but what does that mean in the context of
- [How can software testing support business and digital transformation? - Software Testing News](https://qualityremarks.com/how-can-software-testing-can-support-business-and-digital-transformation-software-testing-news/): "Testing sits at the heart of the processes required to enable and fast-track business change, so the information it generates can be used to shift how an organisation operates, help redefine its value proposition, or change how it competes in the market. Testing specifically, is closely aligned to business strategy and supports more than just
- [National Software Testing Conference, UK 2021](https://qualityremarks.com/national-testing-conference-uk-2021/): It's been a while, but it sure felt great to get in front of a live audience again and interact with folks at the National Software Testing Conference this week! I had a great time talking about the role of testing in supporting and accelerating business change though digital transformation and disruption. Along with my
- [Test as Transformation - Disruption](https://qualityremarks.com/test-as-transformation-disruption/): They sicken at the calm that know the storm. – Dorothy Parker This is the second installment in my series on how testing can support technology transformation via disruptive external forces impacting both business and operating models. In my experience, transformative testing is closely aligned to the business strategy, and supports more than just technology delivery.
- ["What's past is prologue . . ."](https://qualityremarks.com/whats-past-is-prologue/): "What's past is prologue..." - The Tempest (This article is reposted from my LinkedIn) I was interviewing someone today, and they kept referring to their “non-traditional” path into technology as something that needed to be overcome, and it reminded me of a lot of people in #softwaretesting I’ve known, so I wanted to share some thoughts on
- [Test as Transformation](https://qualityremarks.com/test-as-transformation/): "What is the answer? she asked, and when no answer came she laughed and said: Then, what is the question?" - Gertrude Stein How can software testing support business and digital transformation? Unfortunately, that’s not a question that gets asked frequently, as testing has traditionally been viewed as a technology insurance policy – and no
- [The Beatings Will Continue Until Morale Improves](https://qualityremarks.com/the-beatings-will-continue-until-morale-improves/): I got a few questions about org dysfunction and how it specially relates to software testing, so I figured it would be easier to address them here as sort of a "reply all" to the different channels where I've made those comments. Merriam-Webster defines "dysfunction" as: 1: impaired or abnormal functioning or 2: abnormal or unhealthy interpersonal
- [Upon Further Review](https://qualityremarks.com/upon-further-review/): I tweeted this out the other day in response to watching a project manager get abused by a "senior IT director" over defects being found by clients that they clearly felt should have been "caught by QA". Apparently this resonated with the testing community as the reactions have been overwhelmingly in support of the sentiment
- [Tech Ethics and the "Big Ask"](https://qualityremarks.com/tech-ethics-and-the-big-ask/): Recently I saw a Twitter thread asking the software testing community for volunteers to work on the SafePaths "contact tracing" app being developed by MIT. This project is made of up ex-Facebook execs, companies with questionable ethical pasts, and vague statements like "a number of leaders and personnel" and "experts from government agencies". I'm sorry
- [I Don't Think That Means What You Think it Means (Enterprise Software Testing Metrics)](https://qualityremarks.com/i-dont-think-that-means-what-you-think-it-means-enterprise-software-testing-metrics/): In my travels as a management consultant focusing on testing and quality in the enterprise, I see a lot of well-intended "symptom treating" in agile/CICD/devops transitions. Recently I’ve been advising one of the biggest mergers in the industry on combining their testing operations and how to “transform” into a leaner model. I haven’t blogged in
- [2017 Recap: Wait - what just happened?](https://qualityremarks.com/2017-recap-wait-what-the-hell-just-happened/): Looking back on 2017, it's impossible to list all the wonderful experiences and changes that happened throughout the year. Aside from continuing to build the SQM business with Tekmark and spending time with the good people at TestBash Brighton and Philly, I got to travel to some new places. I was honored to keynote at
- [Die Mädchen und der Roboter - Frankfurter Allgemeine](https://qualityremarks.com/die-madchen-und-der-roboter-frankfurter-allgemeine/): Very humbled to be included with this incredible group of people, but very happy the team is getting the recognition they deserve...
- [Whiz or no whiz? - Talking testing at TestBash Philly](https://qualityremarks.com/whiz-or-no-whiz-talking-testing-at-testbash-philly/): Another trip to Philly, another TestBash in the can. I've been to my share of TestBash's, and am always impressed with what these folks have built up over the years. They feel to me to be more of a community event these days than a technology conference, but maybe that's a good thing. I've toyed
- [Afghan Girls Robotics Team to ATD - You did it!](https://qualityremarks.com/afghan-girls-robotics-team-to-atd-you-did-it/): You did it! Thanks to all of you and the incredible people at Agile Testing Days, we've raised nearly TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS to send the Afghan Girls Robotics team to Germany! The generosity of the ATD organization has met any financial gaps we were unable to raise through the GoFundMe page. As well, the unbelievable
- [Copenhagen Context - Team CoCo FTW!](https://qualityremarks.com/copenhagen-context-team-coco-ftw/): Sometimes you just get it right. Now, you can accuse me of bias because I was on the selection committee, but the program at Copenhagen Context was unbelievably good. Hats off to This whole gig was primed by organizer Morten Hougaard of PrettyGoodTesting, who seems to know a thing about running a conference. The entire affair ran seamlessly,
- [UPDATED - Afghan Girls Robotics Team to ATD](https://qualityremarks.com/updated-afghan-girls-robotics-team-to-atd/): UPDATE The response has been absolutely amazing, and everyone has been overwhelmed with the generosity of the community. We've raised over $5,000 so far, but are not yet at the goal of $15,000. If you can help in any way, it would be very appreciated and we thank you for your support of this team and initiative. Thank
- [QASymphony "The Future of Software Testing" Interview](https://qualityremarks.com/qasymphony-the-future-of-software-testing-interview/): Had fun answering these questions on the "Future of Software Testing" for my pals at QASymphony. You can get the ebook HERE - Enjoy! The future of software testing is...hard. Doing testing right is very hard. It’s an ambiguous, unchartered journey into a sea of bias and experimentation, but as the famous movie quote goes,
- ["Standout" Book Contribution on Management Interviews](https://qualityremarks.com/standout-book-contribution-on-management-interviews/): Here's my contribution to Ben Kelly's great new book on interviewing, "Standout: A career guide to gainful employment as a skilled software tester". You can read and purchase your own copy HERE...enjoy! "These days I conduct mostly “management” interviews, so I am looking for potential and cultural fit into our team. Principles I value are honesty,
- [A Brief Comment on "Thought Leaders"](https://qualityremarks.com/a-brief-comment-on-thought-leaders/): "It doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn't matter how smart you are. If it doesn't agree with experiment, it's wrong." Richard Feynman I don't believe in "thought leaders". In my opinion based on my experience, too often the views of people biased towards very specific practices limited to certain contexts are given
- [Nevertheless, She Persisted](https://qualityremarks.com/nevertheless-she-persisted/): Hey everyone - This is the editorial I wrote for the latest edition of Women Testers. I took it as a chance to spotlight some influential women I've had the pleasure to either work with or learn from. The full edition can be found here. Thanks! - KK Examples matter. In my experience, behavior modeling is one,
- [Elections Matter](https://qualityremarks.com/elections-matter/): Having recently attended and presented a keynote at my first Agile Testing Days in Germany, I wanted to respond to the sad news that Agile Testing Days US has been cancelled "due to the current political situation in the USA." I had heard the rumors and as they had invited me to come to Boston
- [QASymphony Webinar Q&A Follow Up](https://qualityremarks.com/qasymphony-webinar-qa-follow-up/): Thanks everyone for attending my webinar with Tekmark and QASymphony - I had a great time doing it and there were so many questions we grouped them into themes. Here are my answers and as usual, these are just like, my opinions. Hope to see you all on the conference circuit soon! Cheers! Q: Will manual
- [Q&A with Romanian Testing Conference](https://qualityremarks.com/qa-with-romanian-testing-conference/): Had fun answering this Q&A session from my pal Rob Lambert for the Romanian Testing Conference - hope to see you there! Enjoy! Tell us a bit about yourself I've worked in software quality and testing for around 20 years and head up the SQM practice at Tekmark Global Solutions. The greater part of my career has
- [Agile Testing Days 2016 - Beer, brats, and brains...](https://qualityremarks.com/agile-testing-days-2016-beer-brats-and-brains/): Just back from my first Agile Testing Days in Potsdam, Germany and have to report that I had a really fun time, met some old friends (made some new ones), and participated in some great conversations about software testing. I was there to present my keynote "Lessons Learned in (Selling) Software Testing" about my experiences trying
- [Romanian Testing Conference - 2017](https://qualityremarks.com/romanian-testing-conference-2017/): Very excited to be giving a keynote and workshop at the Romanian Testing Conference on May, 10-12th, 2017! The following is the theme and please register here to attend - hope to see you there! The theme for the conference is “Thriving in testing – remaining relevant“... With the theme I wanted to address two
- [Guest View: If your metrics don’t add business value, stop collecting them (SD Times)](https://qualityremarks.com/guest-view-if-your-metrics-dont-add-business-value-stop-collecting-them-sd-times/): Keith Klain kicked off STAREAST 2016 last week, and there was one line in his keynote that stuck with me throughout the entire conference: “If you can’t draw a straight line between your business objectives and your test approach, you’re doing it wrong.” As I started to think of all of the little activities that
- [Dr. StrangeCareer: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Software Testing Industry](https://qualityremarks.com/dr-strangecareer-or-how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-software-testing-industry/): Enjoy this in the April 2016 issue of Testing Trapeze! “Find a problem you care about and focus on fixing that.” – Scott Berkun Software testing is a strange business. It’s commoditized, devalued, misunderstood, and goes through cycles of being chopped, changed, and lives at the front lines of imminent takeover by our robot overlords.
- [The Viability of Context-Driven Testing: An Interview with Keith Klain](https://qualityremarks.com/the-viability-of-context-driven-testing-an-interview-with-keith-klain/): Summary: In this interview, Keith Klain, a software testing and quality management professional, discusses all the lessons he's learned from selling software testing. He also explains why context-driven testing is viable, as well as how to discern between wants and needs. Josiah Renaudin: Welcome back to another TechWell interview. Today I am joined by Keith Klain,
- [Software Testing as a Martial Art - by David Greenlees](https://qualityremarks.com/software-testing-as-a-martial-art-by-david-greenlees/): I recently had the privilege of writing the foreword to my good friend David Greenlees new book, "Software Testing as a Martial Art". I encourage you all the buy the book on Leanpub HERE and spread the word for anyone looking for some great insights into the world of software testing. Here is what I
- [Code/Interactive: THE DIVERSITY IN TECH AWARDS](https://qualityremarks.com/codeinteractive-the-diversity-in-tech-awards/): THE DIVERSITY IN TECH AWARDS Celebrating individuals & organizations ​championing the nationwide movement to increase diversity in STEM education. This special night - a capstone event of Social Media Week 2016 - will bring together leaders from tech, government, non-profit and education for the biggest celebration of its kind. Register HERE
- [Education, Infrastructure Pose Challenges for Tech in the Bronx - The Fordham Ram](https://qualityremarks.com/education-infrastructure-pose-challenges-for-tech-in-the-bronx-the-fordham-ram/): Education, Infrastructure Pose Challenges for Tech in the Bronx - The Fordham Ram October 21, 2015 By Cailin McKenna "The discussion also focused on incorporation of minority youths into the industry. “By 2020, the demand for technology resources is only going to be met by about 60 percent by people who come from universities,” said
- [Homework - Making the Best With What You Got...](https://qualityremarks.com/homework-making-the-best-with-what-you-got/): “A lot of young people no longer see the trades and skilled manufacturing as a viable career, but I promise you, folks can make a lot more potentially with skilled manufacturing or the trades than they might with an art history degree.” - President Barack Obama When it comes to useless college degrees, according to
- [Paying it Forward - Why I'm a Speak Easy Mentor](https://qualityremarks.com/paying-it-forward-why-im-a-speak-easy-mentor/): The first time I spoke in public was a complete disaster. I was working in London as a Managing Consultant running the Software Quality Management practice for the UK and the MD of the region asked me to give an overview of the business - at the annual meeting of the entire company! Now I
- [Tech Heads to the Bronx - Marketplace](https://qualityremarks.com/tech-heads-to-the-bronx-marketplace/): Love this story on the Doran Jones UDC in Marketplace! Listen to the story here Tech Heads to the Bronx by Nova Safo Friday, February 6, 2015 - 05:00 Hoping to take advantage of a growing trend to bring IT jobs back to the U.S., a technology consulting firm is setting up shop in one of
- [Diversity in Tech – Making the Future Today](https://qualityremarks.com/diversity-in-tech-making-the-future-today/): This is an article I wrote for the January 2015 issue of Women Testers...you can read the entire magazine here...enjoy! “The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” ― Eleanor Roosevelt I am a product of my environment. I have benefited from a lifelong positive model for diversity starting with
- [Life as Reinvention - Scott Berkun](https://qualityremarks.com/life-as-reinvention-scott-berkun/): Absolutely love this post by Scott Berkun that was inspired by my experience with the masters of reinvention at Per Scholas...enjoy! Life as Reinvention - Scott Berkun "There is a list of sayings on a whiteboard near my desk that I can’t help but notice several times a day. It contains ideas I try to remember,
- [Urban Onshoring: The Movement to Bring Tech Jobs Back to America - WIRED](https://qualityremarks.com/urban-onshoring-the-movement-to-bring-tech-jobs-back-to-america-wired/): It’s Not Altruism. It’s Business. "The Urban Development Center lends this whole urban on-shoring concept some serious street cred, primarily because of a man named Keith Klain. Klain is the co-CEO of Doran Jones, and the driving force behind the center, but before that, he spent years as the head of global testing for Barclay’s
- [Can Software Testing Save the World?](https://qualityremarks.com/can-software-testing-save-the-world/): Don't worry about people stealing an idea. If it's original, you will have to ram it down their throats. - Howard Aiken If you have followed my career, you know that last year I left a job that I loved to start a testing practice with Doran Jones. Besides wanting to finally build the software testing business
- [ISO 29119 Roundtable Discussion - Part III](https://qualityremarks.com/iso-29119-roundtable-discussion-part-iii/): The debate around ISO Standard 29119 has intensified after James Christie gave his talk at the Association for Software Testing conference this year, which started a movement organized by the International Society for Software Testing and a petition to stop the publication of ISO Standard 29119. The following is a transcription of a roundtable discussion
- [ISO 29119 Roundtable Discussion - Part II](https://qualityremarks.com/iso-29119-roundtable-discussion-part-ii/): The debate around ISO Standard 29119 has intensified after James Christie gave his talk at he Association for Software Testing conference this year, which started a movement organized by the International Society for Software Testing and a petition to stop the publication of ISO Standard 29119. The following is a transcription of a roundtable discussion
- [ISO 29119 Roundtable Discussion - Part I](https://qualityremarks.com/iso-29119-roundtable-discussion-part-i/): The debate around ISO Standard 29119 has intensified after James Christie gave his talk at the Association for Software Testing conference this year, which started a movement organized by the International Society for Software Testing and a petition to stop the publication of ISO Standard 29119. The following is a transcription of a roundtable discussion
- [TestBash Speaker Series – Keith Klain](https://qualityremarks.com/testbash-speaker-series-keith-klain/): TestBash is just around the corner now, and to celebrate we’ve got a series of interviews with our illustrious speakers. Next up, Keith Klain: Please tell us who you are and where you’re from. My name is Keith Klain and I’m a Yank who grew up around Chicago, but has lived in London and Singapore for
- [Testing Circus Interview - December 2013](https://qualityremarks.com/testing-circus-interview-december-2013/): Had fun with this interview with Testing Circus...enjoy! 1. Tell us about your journey to becoming a software tester. How did it start and how this has been so far? Was it planned or by accident? I think of the start of my testing "career" was when I joined a company called Spherion which had
- [Wait...what? - Tales from the Testing Dark Side](https://qualityremarks.com/wait-what-tales-from-the-testing-dark-side/): Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut. - Ernest Hemingway I recently gave a talk at the EuroSTAR conference in Gothenburg, Sweden about how I feel you can re-frame the perception of your testing effort in your organisation. A big part of the philosophy
- [Software Test Professionals - 2013 STP Luminary Award](https://qualityremarks.com/software-test-professionals-2013-stp-luminary-award/): "This is the true joy in life: Being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one, being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs
- [EuroSTAR 2013 Community Spotlight](https://qualityremarks.com/eurostar-community-spotlight/): Had fun answering some questions for the EuroSTAR Conference Community Spotlight...enjoy! Where are you from? I grew up around Chicago IL, but currently live in Connecticut, just outside of New York after spending around 7 years in London and 2 years in Singapore. Where do you work? Barclays Bank Can you tell us how you got
- [Know Your Role! - Being Invested and the Art of Objectivity](https://qualityremarks.com/know-your-role-being-invested-and-the-art-of-objectivity/): "We absolutely must leave room for doubt or there is no progress and no learning. There is no learning without having to pose a question. And a question requires doubt. People search for certainty. But there is no certainty. People are terrified–how can you live and not know? It is not odd at all. You
- [AST CAST 2013 - The good, the bad, and the cheese curds...](https://qualityremarks.com/ast-cast-2013-the-good-the-bad-and-the-cheese-curds/): My journey to Madison for the Association for Software Testing’s (AST) annual conference (CAST), can be summed up in two words: Paul Holland. Not only was I working with Paul the previous weeks at Per Scholas teaching the STEP class, but he was also the lead facilitator at CAST and little known to me, also
- [Software Testing Training at Per Scholas](https://qualityremarks.com/software-testing-training-at-per-scholas/): It has been an incredible honor and privilege for me to work with Per Scholas as they partner with Barclays to create the Software Testing Education Program (STEP). The outpouring of support from the software testing community has been overwhelming and our partners in this program have been generous beyond my expectations. If you or your company would
- [Survivorship, Best Practices and The Power of Wish Thinking](https://qualityremarks.com/survivorship-best-practices-and-the-power-of-wish-thinking/): "The scientist has a lot of experience with ignorance and doubt and uncertainty, and this experience is of very great importance, I think. When a scientist doesn't know the answer to a problem, he is ignorant. When he has a hunch as to what the result is, he is uncertain. And when he is pretty
- [ISTQB Petition Comments](https://qualityremarks.com/istqb-petition-comments/): The following are some of the comments I've received from the signers of the ISTQB Foundations Exam Review petition. They are obviously biased, but interesting themes are developing. Chris Carter (another training provider) has just been elected president of the ISTQB, so please take a moment to send him an email (chris.carter@istqb.org) to let him know you'd like some
- [Strange Bedfellows](https://qualityremarks.com/strange-bedfellows/): All over the place, from the popular culture to the propaganda system, there is constant pressure to make people feel that they are helpless, that the only role they can have is to ratify decisions and to consume. - Noam Chomsky Earlier this year, I wrote about the "bizarre public spectacle made up of innuendo, accusations
- [An open letter to the ISTQB](https://qualityremarks.com/an-open-letter-to-the-istqb/): Date: April, 25 2013 To: ISTQB BOD Cc: ISTQB Governance Working Group Subject: Open Letter to the ISTQB To whom it may concern; Recently a discussion transpired over Twitter regarding the validity and governance of the Foundation level exam you offer through your training partners. Rex Black, a current board member and past president of the ISTQB, was
- [Bursting CDT Bubbles](https://qualityremarks.com/bursting-cdt-bubbles/): "The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place." - George Bernard Shaw Conference season has started again, and I've made some rounds giving talks at QAI QUEST in Chicago and STAR Canada in Toronto. I had a great time at both talking about problems with bias towards software testing (both positive and
- [Commoditization, Transformation, and Testing Skills – Questions and Answers with Matt Heusser](https://qualityremarks.com/commoditization-transformation-and-testing-skills-questions-and-answers-with-matt-heusser/): Recently I had the distinct honor of being interviewed for an article in CIO.com by Matt Heusser of Excelon Development. Multiple conversations and parts of the interview were used to inform the article, so for what its worth, the complete Q&A is what follows. Enjoy! MH: You've said in the past that the 'old commodity'
- [5 Questions with Keith Klain](https://qualityremarks.com/5-questions-with-keith-klain/): Many thanks to Phil Kirkham at Expected Results for letting me take part in his "5 Questions" series today...enjoy! 1) You seem to have become very active online recently with your Twitter account and blog - why did you decide to do this? What have you got out of being online and what are your impressions
- [Leadership in Testing - What Really Matters](https://qualityremarks.com/leadership-in-testing-what-really-matters/): Special thanks to the awesome folks at The Testing Planet for publishing the following story in their latest issue. Get yourself together and subscribe today! Leadership in Testing - What Really Matters I've hired lots of testers. I've hired some great ones, and some well, not so great ones. Some that exceeded all my expectations
- [The Confidence Game - What is the Mission of Testing?](https://qualityremarks.com/the-confidence-game-what-is-the-mission-of-testing/): Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd. - Voltaire Maybe it's due to an extension of my tendency towards skepticism to myself, but I get really uncomfortable telling anyone that something is certain. That is especially true when it comes to software and interpreting the results of testing. There are just too many variables that impact
- [Improving the State of your Testing Team: Part Four – Attracting and Retaining Talent](https://qualityremarks.com/improving-the-state-of-your-testing-team-part-four-attracting-and-retaining-talent/): The greatest challenge in building a team is finding good people. But as difficult as finding those people can be, keeping them motivated and in the building after you hire them is where the real work begins. Almost the entirety of our improvement program in the Global Test Center (GTC) is based on talent management.
- [What Does it Take to Change the Software Testing Industry? Courage!](https://qualityremarks.com/what-does-it-take-to-change-the-software-testing-industry-courage/): My fellow AST board member and resident "software anthropologist & software tester", Pete Walen, recently posted about what he felt it took to make a difference or change the world. He rather pointedly asked the question, "When was the last time you were proud of the work you did?" Excellent question! One of the values I
- [Context-Driven Controversy? Meh…](https://qualityremarks.com/context-driven-controversy-meh/): “I don't care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members.” - Groucho Marx As a relative newcomer to the context-driven community, I read with great anticipation the latest post on the Context-Driven Testing website. Unfortunately, a pattern seems to be developing on that site where good ideas or topics for
- [The Pursuit of Scrutiny](https://qualityremarks.com/the-pursuit-of-scrutiny/): “It is rare for people to be asked the question which puts them squarely in front of themselves” – Arthur Miller, The Crucible I love scrutiny. I love it so much that I try to constantly surround myself with people who challenge my views. Either by directly asking for critique or by putting my work up
- [Exposing and Erasing Organizational Bias: An Interview with Keith Klain](https://qualityremarks.com/exposing-and-erasing-organizational-bias-an-interview-with-keith-klain/): In this very informative and revealing interview, Keith Klain discusses where biases among testing teams originated from, and who's to blame for its negative, lingering effects to projects of all shapes and sizes. We learned that testers don't have themselves to blame exclusively, but some serious self-reflection is definitely in order. Noel: You've mentioned the
- [Improving the State of your Testing Team: Part Three – Strategic Objectives](https://qualityremarks.com/improving-the-state-of-your-testing-team-part-three-strategic-objectives/): Whenever we start a new testing effort, one of the first activities is to define the mission. Why are we testing? Who are our clients? What information are we trying to find? Knowing your mission is an important part to successfully meeting your projects objectives and the driver for what you produce during the life
- [Improving the State of your Testing Team: Part Two – Principles](https://qualityremarks.com/improving-the-state-of-your-testing-team-part-two-principles/): “But every difference of opinion is not a difference of principle.” – Thomas Jefferson To inspire intelligent, thinking people to work together to solve large, organizational problems is a tremendous challenge. Creative people should not be constrained by process or managerial constructs that don’t add any value to their work. I truly believe, as Daniel
- [Improving the State of your Testing Team: Part One - Values](https://qualityremarks.com/improving-the-state-of-your-testing-team-part-one-test-management-values/): As I run large testing teams for fairly large organisations and have done so for some time now, the questions I get asked most often are about how to improve testings position and how do I talk about testing with "senior management". Quite frankly, I've failed more than I've succeeded in meeting all my goals
- [The skilled testing revolution...](https://qualityremarks.com/the-skills-based-testing-revolution/): Over the last couple of years, the rumors of software testing's imminent demise have been widely reported - and I am happy to confirm that it's true. There are testing zombies walking all over the planet right now that are starting to realize that their approach to their profession is either dead or on life
- [Dr. AI Yourself?](https://qualityremarks.com/dr-ai-yourself/): Yikes!This is what happens when the pace of artificial intelligence adoption scales faster than an organisation’s ability to verify quality.From the article... "CodeWall, a cyber security firm, said this week that it had hacked Lilli, McKinsey’s AI platform used by its 40,000 staff, and found millions of files and communications within two hours.""The cyber security
- [Scorched Earth](https://qualityremarks.com/scorched-earth/): After a long and rough March taking care of a bunch of personal/professional stuff and just needing a mental break from all this, I’m back to find the special kind of honesty you only get from billion-dollar companies when they stop pretending to be afraid and drop any pretense of caring about the public. First,
- [Thinking, Fast and No](https://qualityremarks.com/thinking-fast-and-no/): You can’t trust your AI enabled test team. The skilled testing community has long held up Thinking, Fast and Slow as an intellectual foundation to our craft. We’ve talked and written about Kahneman’s classic and how it relates to testing using both System 1; fast, intuitive, often wrong thinking and System 2; slow, deliberate, analytical
- [BrowserStack <break>point 2026 Blog](https://qualityremarks.com/browserstack-breakpoint-2026-blog/): Had fun answering these questions for the BrowserStack blog ahead of my talk at break>point in May presenting my talk "To Infinity and Beyond: The Death of Test Engineering". Hope to see you there! Q: You've spent 25 years leading quality engineering inside some of the world's biggest financial institutions. What does that work actually
- [MCA Awards 2026](https://qualityremarks.com/mca-awards-2026/): I am incredibly honored to have been selected by the Management Consultancies Association as a finalist for Chartered Management Consultant of the Year. While recognition like this is appreciated, it really reflects the people and teams I’ve had the privilege to work alongside throughout my career in software testing. I’ve been fortunate to collaborate with
- [Checking Isn’t Testing. Soon It Won’t Be Employment Either](https://qualityremarks.com/checking-isnt-testing-soon-it-wont-be-employment-either/): The debate in the software testing industry over “checking versus testing“ has always annoyed the right people. The ones who say it’s just semantics. The ones who say it is elitist. The ones who say normal people don’t care about a “distinction without a difference”. I mean, I get it, nobody likes being told that
- [Governance by Invoice](https://qualityremarks.com/governance-by-invoice/): The irony of enterprise AI governance is that “tokenonmics” will apparently have a deeper impact faster than regulation ever will. WIRED recently reported that Illinois lawmakers passed SB 315, described as America’s strongest AI safety bill, which would require AI companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind to have third parties confirm they are following
- [The Death of Test Engineering](https://qualityremarks.com/the-death-of-test-engineering/): Thanks again to BrowserStack for hosting my talk, “The Death of Test Engineering” at their point 2026 online conference. Everyone I worked with was fantastic and I had a great time giving the talk, answering questions in the chat, and checking out some great speakers from the lineup. Hopefully I rattled the cage a little and
- [Continuous Everything, Except Thinking](https://qualityremarks.com/continuous-everything-except-thinking/): My friend Joep Schuurkes wrote a great response to my chapter in Taking Testing Seriously last year, but thanks to LinkedIn’s fantastic algorithm, it didn’t come into my feed and I only saw it when someone sent it to me via email - about a week ago! His review focuses on the line where I
- [Testing is Beautiful](https://qualityremarks.com/testing-is-beautiful/): Testing is a deeply human experience. Those quiet moments when some part of a solution reveals itself. The maddening frustration of peering into the abyss of the unknown looking for problems. Shared moments with the team taking that journey together. Those are the parts of being human that can’t be encoded in a process or
- [The Great Capitulation](https://qualityremarks.com/the-great-capitulation/): You know where this is heading, right? We're being told that AI systems are too complex, too sophisticated, and too difficult to test and that it's easier to try to conjure up a confidence index than it is to properly test them. Respected people in the software testing world are saying things like “you need
- [Sloppy Hiring Practices](https://qualityremarks.com/sloppy-hiring-practices/): If over the last year or so you've felt your BS detector starting to blink when you hear about all the layoffs due to efficiency and automation in the corporate world, well, looks like your skepticism was warranted.From the article..."...the macroeconomic data does not support the idea of a structural shift in employment caused by
- [User Error (Update)](https://qualityremarks.com/user-error-update/): When I wrote previously about the tragic death of 16-year-old Adam Raine, I said “not knowing is no longer an excuse”, and the attempts to paper over what really happened are hopefully about to be tried in court. An article from the SFGATE reports that while Google and Character.AI have been working to settle lawsuits
- [Hope is a Dangerous Thing](https://qualityremarks.com/hope-is-a-dangerous-thing/): Despite all the usual complaints about stifling innovation and overbearing compliance requirements, it seems like regulators might be tired of waiting for the AI industry to get its act together, and your test strategy needs to catch up. In Test as Transformation – AI, Risk, and the Business of Reality, I talked about regulatory and
- [Certifiable - Fighting the fights worth fighting...](https://qualityremarks.com/certifiable-fighting-the-fights-worth-fighting/): “A body of men holding themselves accountable to nobody ought not to be trusted by anybody.” ― Thomas Paine If you have followed me lately on Twitter, you may have noticed a slight, well let’s say, fervor pursing answers to the questions I posed to the ISTQB. Since publishing that letter a little over a

## Pages

- [](https://qualityremarks.com/): Keith Klain is a technology leader, Chartered Management Consultant, writer and international speaker working across AI assurance, operational risk, quality engineering and management accountability. For more than 25 years, he has led global technology organisations and complex transformation programmes across financial services, consulting and enterprise technology. His current work focuses on how organisations evaluate AI-enabled
- [Media](https://qualityremarks.com/media/): Contact Me Email Enquiries: keithklain@gmail.com 2026 Speaking Engagements: BrowserStack point, The AI House Summit, Agile on the Beach, BrowserStack AMA QonFX - London Agile Testing Days Awards and Recognitions Management Consultant of the Year (Finalist) - MCA 2026 Leading Vendor- Service Delivery and Consulting - TESTA November 2025 Testing Excellence Award - EuroSTAR June 2025
- [Resources](https://qualityremarks.com/resources/): All these resources and more linked here: AI Testing and Assurance LinkedIn Group AI Assurance, Evaluation & Accountability On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots: Can Language Models Be Too Big? – Emily M. Bender, Timnit Gebru, Angelina McMillan-Major, Margaret Mitchell The Illusion of Thinking: Understanding the Strengths and Limitations of Reasoning Models via the Lens of
- [Podcast](https://qualityremarks.com/qr-podcast/): Check out my show talking to interesting people in or around AI assurance, quality engineering, and technology management. Angie Jones On this episode of the QR Podcast, I sit down with my longtime friend Angie Jones, VP at the Agentic AI Foundation and former Head of Developer Relations for AI at Block, for a wide-ranging
- [Speaking](https://qualityremarks.com/speaking/): You can check out all my videos/shorts on my YouTube channel...enjoy! Presentations

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- [Association for Software Testing](https://qualityremarks.com/category/association-for-software-testing/): Keith Klain
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- [Automated Testing](https://qualityremarks.com/category/automated-testing/): Keith Klain
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- [AI Assurance](https://qualityremarks.com/category/ai-assurance/): Keith Klain