The software testers (“Quality Guardians”) who might put a man on the moon

JFK gave his 1962 “we choose to go to the moon” speech after being assured by NASA that, with the right funding and political support, they could put a man (in a species sense) on the moon by 1970. At the time it was unthinkable, a real head-scratcher. He visited NASA’s Space Centre numerous times to encourage the teams and check progress. On one visit, he stopped a man in the corridor who happened to be a janitor, to ask what he did. The man replied, “I’m helping put a man on the moon, Mr President.”

Everyone – no matter what they do in an organisation – should know, and be recognised, for the bigger purpose they’re working towards. You’ll struggle to find a company on the planet who isn’t chasing the holy grail of successful digital transformation but is this a project or a mindset and approach change that’s required?

Here's the thing about digital transformation - it's a team sport. You need everyone on board, from developers to product owners to testers (yes, I said testers, bear with me). You need to encourage a culture of experimentation and learning, where people aren't afraid to fail (as long as they learn from it!). And you need to make sure that everyone understands the importance of quality and user experience.

Software testers are the unsung heroes of digital transformation, the Quality Guardians if you like. They work tirelessly to ensure that your new digital systems are reliable, efficient, and user-friendly rather than leaving that to your users and customers to point out. They're like the taste testers of the tech world, minus the benefits of being a “Quality Guardian” on Masterchef. Ensuring Quality is a complex and challenging process that requires a combination of technical and analytical skills, as well as creativity and curiosity. Without their vigilance, digital transformation efforts are likely to fail to launch or fall short of expectations.

Consider the Apollo mission. It was a monumental feat of engineering, science, and human endeavour. But it was only made possible by the tireless efforts of the people responsible for quality (anyone who has watched Apollo 13 can testify to the quality of the workaround NASA found and that it actually wasn’t Kevin Bacon’s fault). They believed in the mission, and without quality coming to the fore, the first Apollo mission might have ended up not getting past the nearest diner (excuse the continuous food references, my application to Masterchef is in the post), let alone out of the atmosphere.

Go into most large organisations and you’ll see testers sitting in silos across the business. There will be some in one department, a few in another and sometimes duplicated across different business units. Within these teams, they do a myriad of different things such as testing newly evolved or digitised user and customer journeys across web apps, legacy technology, or even analysing the performance of code before it’s visible to the layman with a user interface. Typically, people chuck stuff at them (in terms of work not physical objects thankfully) – test this, test that. It’s a bit of a thankless task (individual “task” being the operative word), and because they’re dispersed across the business, few people see the real value they bring. They might not even see it themselves. “I’m just a software tester” I’ve heard a few say.

This begs the question how do we ensure software testers are valued for the vital work they do so they can help us deliver the benefits of digital transformation we promised to our business (“with the right funding and political support”)? The answer lies in collaboration and inclusion. They need to be linked to the rest of the business, from the genesis of an idea through creation, release, and evolution so they can feel part of the action and for others to benefit from the added value embedding their quality knowledge can bring.

Unifying your test automation platform, in a way that hasn’t been done before, as part of a broader Business Automation Platform to accelerate and enable this new future way of working is absolutely part of the solution. I see the positive results everyday so let me know what you think. Are software testers in your business marginalised? Are you a tester who doesn’t feel connected to the purpose of your employer? Are you a business or tech leader who wants to embed quality throughout your organisation and would like to discuss some ideas? All views are welcome.