State of Testing; Future of Testing

Paul Gerrard, Principal - Gerrard Consulting

Every few years I’m asked to predict the future of testing. It’s not that I have a magical crystal ball. I have just enough hutzpah to stand up, voice some opinions and make some predictions. I was asked to talk about Past, Present and Future of Test Automation in 1996 by Bill Hetzel. When I said I was nervous of predicting the future, Bill said, “If you’re correct, you’ll be a prophet; if you’re wrong, no one will remember – so don’t worry”.

In this talk I’m not going to make many predictions; rather, I’m going to discuss whether Software Development can be called Software “Engineering”. I studied engineering and was a graduate engineer for a couple of years before I got into software. I want to suggest we can’t really call ourselves engineers – yet. But I make some suggestions surrounding process, tools and skills that may help us on that journey