The Overlooked Value of Testing

“Don’t write about the value of testing, they all want to hear and read about AI”

This is based on a recent conversation with one of the SDETs of a Fintech company in the US. For different reasons, the names and the context have been modified, but the message and focus remain.

The Story_

Once upon a time, in the bustling streets of Glue Valley, there existed a Tech company called ‘The Fin’. With its sleek offices adorned with modern art and its founders hailed as visionary geniuses, This company was the talk of the town. Their mission? To revolutionize the way people manage their finances through cutting-edge technology.

At the helm of such a company was the CEO, ‘Ethan’, a charismatic leader with a knack for captivating investors with grand promises of disruption. With each funding round, the company grew, fueled by the excitement of its innovative ideas and the allure of massive returns.

However, in the middle of the fervor of development and expansion, there was one crucial aspect that The Fin overlooked, testing. While their team of developers worked tirelessly to churn out new features and products at breakneck speed, there was little time or consideration given to thorough testing.

In many ways, this was all related to Rick, the Tech Lead, and its testing perception. Rick strongly believed that Unit tests and Code Reviews were good enough for the technology and type of projects they had. This Manager had a saying, “ Speed is what matters! ”

Ethan, the CEO, blindly believed in this manager, as he always managed to release on time and without issues. Fueled by Ethan’s relentless pursuit of growth and innovation, The Fin launched one ambitious project after another, each one promising to revolutionize the financial industry. As you can imagine, as time went on, cracks began to appear in the facade of success.

Customers started reporting glitches in the mobile app, transactions went missing, and one day, a cold black cloud called a “minor security breach”, came down. Despite Rick’s frantic efforts to patch up the issues, The Fin found itself in a downward spiral of customer complaints and negative publicity.

As the problems mounted, investors grew increasingly skeptical, and the once-promising future of this Fin started to dim. Rick, blinded by his perception and ambition, refused to acknowledge the role that inadequate testing played in their downfall.

“It’s just a temporary setback,” he would assure his team, even as the company’s reputation continued to plummet.

Eventually, the inevitable happened, the manager’s reckless disregard for testing caught up with them. A major security breach exposed sensitive customer data, resulting in a wave of lawsuits and regulatory scrutiny. With their reputation irreparably tarnished and their finances in disarray, The Fin was forced to shut down, leaving behind a cautionary tale of what happens when innovation outpaces responsibility, but most importantly, when testing is left behind.

As the dust settled on the rise and fall of The Fin, the tech world was left with a sobering reminder that in the race to disrupt industries and new technologies, the value of testing should never be underestimated.

The Message_

a. There are different levels and types of testing.
Regardless of the project, technology, framework, tools … Make sure you are testing at all levels.

b. Design for Testability.
Your application layers, components, and interactions must be testable.

c. Do not isolate teams.
Integrate devs and testers, the importance of understanding what is being written goes beyond the perception of what should be done. Always look and strive for inclusion.

To Wrap_ Quoting my friend, the SDET of the story!

“ You don’t necessarily feel silo when there is no inclusion, this starts to happen when you notice little things, some call them issues, some findings, and no one follows up or cares about all these things that you found. And so you start to think they don’t bring any value to the team or the business part of it. This is when you start to feel undervalued, in a silo”.