Automation Blindness

I look at my young children and think of how lucky I was growing up in the time I did. Children today have no real understanding of how things got to where they are. I think my generation spans a unique time period that will not be seen again. Mind you I am sure all generations say the same about the "youth of today". We saw a time before technology. A time where you didn't expect instant gratification, a time where you had to be home to get a phone call, where you had some privacy behind closed doors and where you had to put some effort in to research subjects in the library instead of asking Google or Wikipedia.

We saw the transition from the old ways through to where it is today and can therefore see and understand the small steps that have incrementally changed the technology to be what we see today. Always on, instant information fed from airwaves and signals linking us all up to each other permanently. The key part of this transition only occurred across a very short period of time and we can see the before and the after and it makes it less like magic and more like science.

Let's now step forward into the world of my children, straight into the way it is today. Why is my Google search taking more than 2 seconds. Why is my game taking more than 5 seconds to load? If only they knew what it was like installing a game using a tape drive or even having to write it yourself before you could play. What is this disc icon thing I click to save my documents? Why doesn't Alexa or Siri know what I am talking about, I only asked a simple question?

Automation BlindnessThe adoption of Test Automation is a great thing for teams wanting to be more efficient and do more with less. Playing with new technology is a great way to enhance the CV and keep things fresh in the workplace. However, I also see Test Automation and new tooling as being akin to the situation my children are in with their technology blindness. Running automated tests can become a Pass Fail exercise without understanding what is happening behind the scenes. You can lose the understanding of what it is doing and why, spending more time on the tool and less on the application being tested. As a result quality can be at risk. The automated test may be well formed, robust, performant and cost effective, but if it is not testing the right thing, in the right way then it is as useful as a chocolate teapot. Maybe even less useful as you will deceive yourself that the quality is fine because the tool says "Passed".

At the end of the day we need to retain a good balance of Manual and Automated Testing. Modern methodologies are all geared up to be quick, fail fast, deliver, deliver, deliver. Let us not forget that sometimes we need to spend a bit longer to get the job done well. Sure we can do it quicker but that is not necessarily better.