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?
