Next up in our Meet the Speaker Series for UKSTAR is Speaker Bryan Jones
Bryan will be presenting the Conversation Track: Head Hacking alongside Sue Atkins
Bryan’s track is titled ‘The Psychology of Testing‘. You can see him at UKSTAR on Monday the 27th February at 4:35 p.m.
How did you get started in software testing?
When I left University (28 years ago) I wanted to get involved in every aspect of IT. I didn’t want to be restricted to just one little area, so I joined a company called GEC Avionics on the Integration Team. That team were involved in all aspects of the Software Design Life Cycle and even the hardware side of things. I loved that experience. I hate missing out on anything (and I’m nosey), so my view of testing has been skewed by that, such that I still believe wholeheartedly in the importance of the involvement of Testing during every phase, right from the earliest point. At that time I was also reading “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance” by Robert Pirsig. It is partially a philosophical treatise on Quality. That fired up my passion for the subject of quality and it keyed in with the work I was doing, reinforcing my enthusiasm for the broader role of Testing. From that moment on I was blessed/doomed to be a tester.
Who inspires you?
I gain inspiration from many sources, often not within software testing, as such. I love anyone that has a detailed, intimate, incisive understanding of their subject, a passion for it and the ability to communicate it well.
Richard Feynman is a classic case of that and I still quote him when talking about Root Cause Analysis. I watch a lot of TEDTalks for that very reason. It provides me with an endless supply of inspiration.
My current source of inspiration in the testing world is actually my colleague and EuroSTAR presenter, Graham Freeburn. His energy and enthusiasm for testing is utterly contagious, but there are so many amazingly good testers out there such as The Bach brothers, Rosie Sherry, Dot Graham, Michael Bolton, Adam Kolawa and so many more. I’m looking forward to gaining even more sources of inspiration during the course of the conference
What do you see for the future of software testing?
I feel that the future of Testing is a fragmented one. There will be many companies that drive forward with sophisticated tools, techniques and automation, and I’m sure that cloud based resources will play a part, but there will still be places where the culture is such old school that manual testing continues. As a people oriented person, I would like to hope that Agile approaches, whether large or small scale, will continue to grow in popularity and with it more rationally considered approaches to Agile testing. There will always be a need for Test Governance and testing expertise.