Aligning Testing to Quality | Why Didn't You Test That?

00:00 - Intro to Guest, Marcus Merrell.

01:09 - Testing is perceived as a janitorial effort. 

02:56 - When software makes front page news.

03:57 - Have testers made themselves relevant enough?

05:09 - Bring testers to the executive table.

07:04 - Are organisations missing the analysis component of testing?

09:01 - Where's the value add?

09:23 - Persuading organisations to spend time on requirements.

12:24 - Deep trust of colleagues and empowerment of the critical thinker.

13:41 - Beyond "is it done yet".

14:45 - The rarity of error traps.

15:49 - Code coverage pulls focus away from reflecting on real business risk.

17:03 - Solutions - What can people really do?

17:33 - Going beyond the "must deliver yesterday" culture.

18:52 - Proof of quality is bespoke and vertically dependant.

19:54 - Why you must have standards. 

20:43 - Dig into the 20-30 top software delivery metrics by having a blueprint and know how to get there.

23:56 - There's so many good tools our there for QA.

24:30 - The effect of Conway's law taking over.

26:26 - The implications of top down contract-based testing.

29:27 - Going slower to go faster.

31:57 - Automate your system understanding as much as possible.

32:58 - There’s a fetishism around tools over strategy, coverage over risk analysis.

38:44 - Make software development faster and better: automated documention and impact analysis.

40:00 - Master Data Management.

42:00 - Anticipating the EuroSTAR Conference.

43:48 - Getting the most functionality into the fewest number of characters. 

44:37 - In terms of organisational risks, it’s great having a testing capability and team, yet unless somebody’s feeling pain when something blows up, how likely is it they will react?

45:51 - Being mindful and cataloguing everything is the first order, asking what did I miss?

In this episode, Marcus Merrell, Vice President of Technology at Sauce Labs, bring his experience to the Why Didn't You Test That? Podcast! Together with our hosts Huw Price and Rich Jordan, Marcus Merrell discusses the lack of innovation in the testing space over the last 20 years, and why testing should be at the centre of quality efforts. Marcus rejects the idea that testing is a janitorial effort and cost centre, seeing it more as a revenue protection and growth opportunity if utilised properly!

The discussion gets started with a few questions, why is innovation limited to digital testing and model-based testing? How do we get beyond the dogmas and fashions around favouring tooling over business risk?

The takeaway is that focusing just on the common trappings of economically expensive bugs, even with 99% code coverage, it pulls focus away from reflecting on real business risks. This takes teams beyond the "must deliver yesterday" culture.

Software practices require testers to have a seat at the executive level to inform the company about the kinds of risks they’re exposed to, but there’s a rabbit hole syndrome that has freed up a misconception that testers are irrelevant.

The way to combat this is through finding early adopters to incubate, diffuse and prove culture change is an option. In terms of organisational risks, it’s great having a testing capability and team, yet unless somebody’s feeling pain when something blows up, how likely is it they will react? And at a more granular level the conversation needs to be on persuading organisations to spend time thinking about requirements, and quality at the start of the software delivery lifecycle.