For so many years the Quality Assurance ideal has dominated software testing. “QA”-flavored software testing often feels like equal parts of Factory School and Quality School thrown together. When I was starting out as a tester, I quickly learned through hard experience that a lot of the popular software testing thought was built around folklore. I wanted results, and didn’t like process police, so I often found myself at odds with the Quality Assurance community. I read writings by Cem Kaner, James Bach and Brian Marick, and worked on my testing skill.

When the Agile movement kicked into gear, I loved the Agile Manifesto and the values agile leaders were espousing, but the Agile Testing community rehashed a lot of the same old Factory School folklore. Instead of outsourcing testing to lesser-skilled, cheaper human testers, testing was often outsourced to automated testing tools. While there were some really cool ideas, “Agile Testing” ideals still frequently felt like testing didn’t require skills, other than programming. I was frequently surprised at how “Agile Testing” thought was attracted to a lot of the old Factory School thoughts, like they were oppositely charged magnets. As a big proponent of skilled testing, I found I was often at odds with “Agile Testers”, even though I agreed with the values and ideals behind the movement. Testing in that community did not always feel “agile” to me.

Then Test-Driven Development really got my attention. I worked with some talented developers who taught me a lot, and wanted to work with me. They told me they wanted me to work with them because I thought like they did. I was still a systems thinker, but I came at the project from a different angle. Instead of confirming that their code worked, I creatively thought of ideas to see if it might fail. They loved those ideas because it helped them build more robust solutions, and in turn, taught me a lot about testing through TDD. I learned that TDD doesn’t have a lot to do with testing in the way I’m familiar with, but is still a testing school of thought. It is focused on the code-context, and I tend to do more testing from user contexts. Since I’m not a developer, and TDD is predominantly a design tool, I wasn’t a good candidate for membership in the TDD community.

The Context-Driven Testing School is a small, influential community. The founders all had an enormous influence on my career as a tester. One thing this community has done is build up and teach skilled testing, and has influenced other communities. Everywhere I go, I meet smart, talented, thoughtful testers. In fact, I am meeting so many, that I believe a new community is springing up in testing. A community born of experience, pragmatism and skill. Testers with different skillsets and ideas are converging and sharing ideas. I find this exciting.

I’m meeting testers in all sorts of roles, and often the thoughtful, skilled ones aren’t necessarily “QA” folks. For example, some of my thought-leader testing friends are developers who are influenced by TDD. Some skilled testers I meet are test automation experts, some are technical writers, some are skilled with applying exploratory testing concepts. All are smart, talented and have cool ideas. I am meeting more and more testers from around the world with different backgrounds and expertise who share a common bond of skill. I’m beginning to believe that a new wave of software testing is coming, and a new skills-focused software testing community is being formed through like-minded practitioners all over the world. This new community growing in the software development world is driven by skilled testers.

This is happening because skilled testers are sharing ideas. They are sharing their results by writing, speaking, and practicing skilled testing. Results mean something. Results build confidence in testers, and in the people who work with them. Skill prevails over process worship, methodology worship and tool worship. I’ve said before that skilled software testing seems to transcend the various methodologies and processes and add value on any software development project. I’m finding that other testers are finding this out as well. This new wave of skilled tester could be a powerful force.

Are you frustrated with the status quo of software testing? Are you tired of hearing the same hollow maxims like “automate all tests”, “process improvement” and “best practices”? Do you feel like something is missing in the Quality Assurance and Agile communities when it comes to testing? Do you feel like you don’t fit in a community because of your views on testing? You aren’t alone. There are many others who are working on doing a better job than we have been doing for the past few years. Let’s work together to push skilled software testing as far as it will go. Together, we are creating our own community of practice. The “second version” of software testing has begun to arrive.