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The software testing business is in the grip of a commoditization trend in which enterprises routinely flip flop between vendors—vendors who are engaged in a race to the bottom on price. This trend introduces perverse incentives for service providers, undervalues skill, and places excessive emphasis on processes, tools, and methods. The result is a dumbing down of testing and the creation of testing services that are little more than placebos. Using examples drawn from three recent projects in the banking industry, Iain McCowatt explores the dynamics of commoditization and introduces a quality model that can be used for framing the value of testing services. As a testing vendor, learn how to pursue a differentiation strategy, shifting the emphasis of the testing conversation from cost to value; as a customer of testing, learn how to make informed decisions about the value of what you are buying; as a tester, learn how to buck the trend and find professional growth.
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Changing the Testing Conversation from Cost to Value
Why testing has become a commodity, and what you can do about it
Iain McCowatthttp://exploringuncertainty.com
@imccowatt
imccowatt
© Can Stock Photo Inc. / frenta
• What this presentation is
• What this presentation is not
Introduction
Project #1
• An opportunity
• Staffing decisions
• Things start to unravel
• Micromanagement, master/slave
• Focus on process, KPIs galore
• And ultimately…
Project #1
GAME OVER
• This wasn’t the first testing vendor
• Nor were they the last
• There will be more
Project #1
• Investopedia:
– When a product becomes indistinguishable from others like it and consumers buy on price alone, it becomes a commodity
Commoditization: Introduction
• More common in the enterprise, particularly in organizations with global buying power
• Endemic in the consulting industry
• May be less common amongst software vendors
Commoditization: Where?
• How to run fast: put one foot in front of the other, quickly
• Who here could win Olympic gold?
Commoditization: Origins
• A lot of people see testing like this:
Commoditization: Origins
Test Plan
Write scripts
Execute Cycle 1
Execute Cycle 2
Execute Cycle 3
Sign off
Commoditization: Dynamics
Perceivedas low skill
Perceivedas commodity
Supply ofcheap testing
Demand forcheap testing
Demand forskilled testers
Supply ofskilled testers
Collaboration
Testingfailures
Negative effectChoice of effect
Commoditization: Dynamics
Vendor B competes on value
Vendor B competes on price
Vendor A competes on value
Vendor A competes on price
Both stand to win long term relationshipsCustomers get better testing
Vendor A: grows market shareVendor B: loses market share
Vendor A: loses market shareVendor B: grows market share
Race to the bottom: short term revenue, short term relationships Everyone loses
• Master/Slave, chilling effects on collaboration
• Information starvation
• Fungibility and economic incentive to juniorize
• Focus on control, process and method
• Demand for skill suppressed
• …and ultimately the projects suffer
Commoditization: Consequences
Project #2
• What’s the problem?
• Your competition can do it cheaper
• No budget!
• If IBM said it, it must be true
• Let’s give it a try
• That was a leap of faith, but…
Project #2
A Happy Client
• A second year, a second release
• A growing portfolio
Project #2
• This was not a commodity testing service.
• But what was different?
Spot the Difference
http://freear.org.uk/nick
• People
– Passion
– Skill
– Creativity
• Relationships and trust
• New ideas, new technologies
• Location
Sources of Differentiation
• Process
• Methodology, branded or otherwise
• Templates and other “accelerators”
• Tools and technology, unless new and unique
• ISO, CMMI etc.
• Just about anything easily replicated or at home in buzzword bingo
NOT Sources of Differentiation
Project #3
• Passion speaks volumes
• The managed service misnomer
• Early conversations, aspects of quality
• Where’s the code?
• Tests as experiments
• Just getting started, but…
Project #3
The Future Looks Bright
• Taking a very different approach predecessor
• Building on a solid relationships
• And pricing? Part of the conversation, but not defining it
Project #3
• We focus on software quality but rarely discuss the quality of testing
• Perhaps a quality model might help?
• This model formed part of the conversation on Project #3…
Reframing the Conversation
A Model of Testing Quality
What can you do?
• Observe vendor behavior: are they interested in you and your problem?
• Do they understand your problem?
• Do they care?
• Do they have any ideas?
• Do they have the skills to deliver?
Customer
• Dare to be different
• Sack the salesmen, consult
• Be prepared to say “No”:
– If they want it cheap, let them go somewhere else
– Don’t follow anyone off a ledge
• Education, education, education
• Shared values => relationship => business worth doing
Vendor
• Empowerment starts with YOU
• Don’t wait to be given a learning agenda
• Learn how to learn
• Learn anything and everything that might help you
• Select, remix, invent
Tester
• Commodity testing isn’t going anywhere: both demand and supply will remain
• Some of us (vendors) are successfully exploiting this to build differentiated services
• This shows there is a demand for something better
• Skilled testers can find fulfilling roles
A Final Word
Questions?