Sprouting Testing in New Fields
What is blocking us is the perception that our testing skills cannot be applied outside (software) testing. Of course, they can, and often they are exactly what is required for other parts of the organization to grow.
Recently I met an old colleague of mine, (Hi Søren), and as we were talking about what I have been up to, he very quickly summed it up as you are again sprouting test leadership into new fields. And I was indeed. While he was getting a more narrow focus - being a good hands-on tester, I had recently been working with both Disaster Recovery Testing and EU compliance requirements. Something that is not common to explore in the software testing field.
A rare discussion on the matter was this thread:
parwalrahul
Growing out of testing
When we look around in the fields of software testing we see features needing testing and all the mechanics of automation (or not). And the latest fad in tooling - I know. I've been there. Over the years I have experienced how other forms of IT deliveries make a similar great difference for the business:
- The transition of IT services to the cloud
- Migration from home-grown to standard solutions
- How industry compliance is a license to operate (also for the public sector)
- How many more (broader) requirements must be in control
There is more to the world than deploying web apps with shopping charts! There are plenty of messy IT system landscapes in the enterprise and public solutions to spot that merely doing testing of software development activities is no island.
There is more testing happening than what the testers are involved in. What is often blocking us is the perception that our testing skills cannot be applied outside (software) testing. Of course, they can - we can bring problem-solving skills, structure and holistic thinking to the tables outside software delivery teams.
If you are more interested in career progression outside testing do read Chapter 9 in Chapter Software Tester’s Journey, Exploring Career Opportunities and Adventures by Nicola Lindgren and Vernon Richards
Nicola Lindgren
Growing outside testing
I have also experienced how the challenges of the testing as such, is not within the commotion of the act of testing, but rather an organizational challenge. A wise person (and when I remember who I will quote her) recently coined how testing is one of the few fields that is expected to solve the problems outside its field. We often need to solve organizational issues and cultural difficulties even before any real testing work can be done. Sometimes it seems testing is forgotten down under layers of engineering managers.
Some of the business challenges I work with now tap more directly into the company's core and the minds of the CEOs. I work with system resilience and industry regulations - without having them in check, the companies can't operate in the market - or do so with greater risk.
To some extent, my key stakeholder is now the Chief Legal Officer in charge of GRC (Governance, Regulations and Compliance) - not the Chief Technology Officer (of Delivery and perhaps test). The CLO is often more risk averse - leading to more things needing to be in control and tested.
While GRC teams and others already have some form of control over their current work. New requirements are coming their way too - and they are now facing the same challenge software delivery teams had previously: the balance of keeping balance while catching up on the market forces. Having a background in leading testing activities is a key skill to enable the GRC teams to be in control of their requirements.
I'm still leading testing activities - the objects being tested are just some other form of requirements than we are used to. It's the same flower - just in another field. 🌻
