2015-2030 a pre-look back

The following article was written by Herdics Lidar for “IT History”, issue 70, July 2030. It is not clear how the text managed to travel back in time. Reports that Agrajag has something to do with it have not yet been confirmed. Please feel free to send any letters to the editor to me, I will keep them for Herdics.

I can still remember when the advent of so-called mobile apps and devices heralded the end of the classic PC in its former form. What is really retro today was affectionately called the post-PC era back then. No one could have imagined the range of developments that would result. Nobody talks about PCs and smartphones today, except in the IT history channel. The device classes merge seamlessly and so many things have since become “intelligent” and communicate with each other. The only thing that still doesn’t exist is the smart fridge that orders its own food, as promised back then. Instead, there is a wide variety of software in countless products.

The fact that I dedicated myself to the quality of software back then was the right decision. Because without quality, there would never have been this acceptance of the products by the masses. Accordingly, a lot has been and continues to be invested here. The concept of quality has also changed over the years. Whereas in the past it was more about pure compliance with requirements, today it is the epitome of usability and user experience. My work has changed to the same extent. I remember that I used to sit at my desk for hours, preparing test data, specifying test cases, automating some of them and struggling with the test environment. Today it’s completely different. The automation tools relieve me of so much routine work throughout the entire development process that I can concentrate almost entirely on designing new test ideas. Implementing these test ideas is now child’s play and can be done quickly. Back then, I never expected to be able to use so much creativity in my work. Fortunately, I soon started to learn creative techniques and to train myself in this direction. The number of possible training courses in this direction has also grown steadily.

Yes, the work has become much more demanding as a result, but my understanding of my role has also changed. In the past, as “the tester” of the team, I mostly took care of the system or acceptance tests. Today, I use my expertise to support all quality measures throughout the entire course of the project. The teams have internalized the need for quality and enjoy working on it. No more rolling of the eyes when someone suggests ideas for improving quality. I first had to acquire the personal responsibility for this. Where I used to blindly rely on a test concept, I am now responsible like the others. This gives me the freedom to uncover quality problems and develop creative ideas to solve them.

In summary, I can say that my tasks as a tester have become much more demanding, but also more exciting, due to the complexity of the systems and the automation of simple test activities. Over the past few years, I have therefore had to work a lot on my creativity and openness and often dare to look beyond the established test methods. I have also had to take on much more personal responsibility and continue to make a more active contribution to projects.