1. Understand the challenges of testing complex systems
2. Introduction to some approaches to testing complex systems

Bill has been a freelance test consultant for over 18 years working mainly on large migration and integration projects as a Test Architect, Manager and Technical Tester Lead. He spends much of his time focusing on helping companies deliver the more technical elements of system and operational testing such as automation, integration, performance and security. He is a regular speaker at testing conferences mainly on technical topics as well as delivering workshops and training courses focusing on security testing in different contexts such as web, APIs and mobile application security.

As testers we are often asked to testing complicated systems but the recent excitement around trends such as Machine Learning, Big Data and IoT (Internet of Things) is leading us down a path towards more and more complex systems. Imagine being asked to test a system that adapts based on the success or failure of previous behaviour or a system where the interactions between the different components leads to emergent behaviour rather than prescribed behaviour.

Complex Systems behave differently to Complicated Systems and generally need different approaches to testing however with much of our testing literature is geared towards testing complicated systems rather than complex systems we as testers are facing an interesting challenge over the next 10 years as the complexity of software increases at an accelerating pace.

In this Bill talk will explore the concept of modern complex and adaptive systems, the testing challenges they pose and based on his recent project work he will offer ideas on how we might approach testing such complex systems