I wanted to talk a little about the stretching of test which I don’t think has been highlighted as a real issue that much recently.

We all know that we bugs can be found earlier, or even prevented through code reviews, peer programming or better design documentation, then that’s great – not because it makes our life easier, but because it reduces the risk at go live which is primarily what we also want to do.

However, whilst as testers we can try to build better development processes – it’s pretty hard work and often the fruit of our labour is never tangible.  Because of the cost involved, management can see it as an unnecessary spend.

In addition, because testing is becoming more complex and our platform base is getting larger (IOS, Android, Blackberry and a whole host of browsers etc), more time is also being spent at the end of the test cycle.

Stretch Test

This dichotomy of testing leads to a stretching and a straining of resource – making a difficult decision for the individuals who hold the purse strings and sign-off releases of software.  This is perhaps the driver for the constant improvement required in test – the more for less mantra.

Is there a solution?   Well there is an exhaustive solution to this problem – you simply need more resource to complete the extra-work.  Perhaps you can consider using crowdsourcing or offshoring for the more time-consuming execution whilst your core team focus on analysis and delivering improvements pre-test.

However, in my opinion as testers we are not banging the drum about this problem to senior management who expect the test team to be able to deliver more and more each year – yet don’t take account of the challenges that are faced at the back end of testing, nor recognize the potential benefits from the pre-test work that testers can assist with.