Mel's Thoughts: AB Testing Podcast #60


  "If you rely only on your eyes, 
your other senses weaken."
― Frank Herbert, Dune

If you haven't heard this specific podcast episode yet, you as a tester, as a developer, as an anything in the software development lifecycle, need to go listen to it.

Alan and Brent are definitely on the right track with this podcast. I have been shifting towards these things they discuss, like using analytics to test data, features, and getting to the root of the what the customer wants.

Customizable interfaces that machines build for people instead of people building specific tools. I've mentioned before that I don't think we will really have GUIs in the next 10 years. With the take over of voice user interfaces, and more APIs being made available in the public domain, the shift will come to the point that businesses will be about serving up information, they won't be able creating log-in features or displaying content. All of that will be scrapped, captured, and optimized by the user and served up however they would like it.

Annoyed with too many graphics, want all text - done.
Think text is too much, you want it to be audio read - no problem.
Want to chat with someone and want video and screen sharing as options - easy.

We are so close to this already. We'll start seeing macro packages that include the ability to enable a login for content. We'll see more integration between apps to where they won't be separate apps, but present as one seamless interface presenting the user features as they see or need them.

This is basically what AB Testing #60 is talking about.

I've touched on similar trends in this blog as well.


Road Bumps To The Bright Testing Future
I think where we will hit some stumbling blocks isn't having testers with creative approaches or ideas as to how to test the application or learn new ways of testing, it will ultimately be a couple of things:

1) Companies lacking a mature development process. They are already unsure about what testers can do for them and we as part of the industry are not making it clear enough.

2) Defining value of being an analyst tester rather than a quality analyst. Start shifting the job to be more systems analyst and less about functional testing.

3) Getting past the idea of what people think you should be doing and defining your job for you.  It's imperative that analysts become better influencers. We'll need to start doing a better job of presenting data to back up issues we are seeing. We'll need to pair more and work with developers to guide them on the tests that need to be written. We'll need to understand analytics, how they are created, what they mean, and where they are lacking. We'll need to understand more about the ecosystem of the software and hardware and focus less on the functional.
"Evolution is a light illuminating all facts, 
a curve that all lines must follow." 
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

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