Balancing the Crusty and Old with the Shiny and New

In his journeys, Bob Galen has discovered that testing takes on many forms. Some organizations have no automated tests and struggle to run massive manual regression tests within very short iterative releases. Other organizations are going “all in”―writing thousands of acceptance tests in Gherkin. The resulting imbalance in their testing approaches undermines an organization’s efficiency, effectiveness, and delivery nimbleness. Bob shares ideas to bring balance to testing. He explores the choices: manual vs. automated testing, designed and scripted test cases vs. exploratory tests, and thoroughly planned test projects vs. highly iterative reactive ones. Bob describes how to balance traditional test leadership with an iterative and whole team view to add value. And finally, he explores the balance of the gatekeeper vs. leading the collaboration with stakeholders to find the right requirements that solve their problems. Take away a strategic approach to structure your testing and a renewed understanding of how testing fits into a healthy and balanced culture.