Dunedin Software Test Professionals Meetup

While eighteen months is a long time between meetups, the Dunedin Software Test Professionals picked up exactly where we left off in May 2021 from our last meetup (here).

Being that the second meetup took place some 18 months after the first, it was time to take a second look at the current trends and themes in the local testing community. The findings were surprisingly similar - Automation and Certifications / Skills were the dominant themes, as was the relationship between the Software Testing and Software Development professions. New to the 2023 list was the emergence of AI, the impact of AI on the Testing Industry, and the career progression of Software Testing professionals. Missing from the 2021 list was Test Planning Approach.

You can make your own comparisons with both the 2021 Topic List and the 2023 Topic List available.

Our first topic conversation focused on Training and Certification (given that it received 16 votes). Particularly, we focused on the value of the International Software Qualifications Testing Board (ISTQB) certification. Universally, the view was that experience trumps certification. But. Certification acted as a door opener and gave teams a common language to describe what they did and why they did it. Human Resource (HR) functions within recruiting organisations often viewed certifications as a tick list to ‘pass’ candidate profiles. We had one organisation comment that they did go through the profiles that HR discarded to look for people that demonstrated good attributes for testing without the ISTQB qualification 😊. It was agreed there needed to be education of the recruiting function to seek the real attributes that were needed to get a good Software Testing professional – an attention to detail, a confidence to question, and the personality to get on with people and take the gentle approach when letting developers know that their baby just might be ugly.

Running out of (and over) time, there was a quick discussion on Test Automation (5 votes). Across the community, there is a wide set of tools used – Python, Playwright, Selenium, Cypress, and custom-built test harnesses. The progression from Manual Tester to Automation Tester was discussed (self-learning and a good automation framework are a must) as was a side trip into the potential impact of AI on testing and whether testers should be generalists or specialised (UI Testing, API Testing, designated Manual / Exploratory Testing). A wide-ranging discussion with many experiences (different and similar) took place throughout the event.

Being a community meetup, there were lots of opportunity for talking, networking, sharing experiences, and offering suggestions. We had time for that during the registration process as well as immediately after the formal part of the meetup.

All in all – a great second session and we are planning already for our next one in February or March 2024.