WeAreDevelopers LIVE • Dec 2, 2020

Excellent Software Testing

Ingo Philipp

Are your automated testing tools just generating faster chaos? Discover why excellent software testing requires shifting from prescriptive dashboards to human-centric risk intelligence.

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#1 about 4 min

Recognizing testing as a cognitive activity over tool mastery

How testing relies on critical thinking rather than simple test artifact management.

#2 about 2 min

The software testing timeline and regression checking pitfalls

Why repetitive test case execution falls short of true software testing.

#3 about 4 min

Framing testing as an information service to close knowledge gaps

How testing reveals new knowledge to support better product fixing and shipping decisions.

#4 about 3 min

Approaching software quality as a subjective social science

Why testers must navigate cognitive biases and subjective human definitions of quality.

#5 about 3 min

Balancing automated checking with human-centric testing skills

How selective automation supports testing while keeping human evaluation squarely at the center.

#6 about 2 min

Applying context-driven practices across diverse testing environments

Leveraging heuristics and interdisciplinary skills to adapt testing strategies to unique contexts.

#7 about 3 min

Utilizing mental models to evaluate software design and purpose

Creating abstract representations to question specifications and confirm software solves the right problems.

#8 about 3 min

Building a continuous learning culture through collective intelligence

Extracting patterns from mistakes and utilizing diverse team perspectives like pair and mob testing.

#9 about 3 min

Treating software testing as an experimental and undecidable science

Why testing requires falsification and continuous exploration rather than trying to quantify absent bugs.

#10 about 2 min

Evaluating risk profiles through the eyes of different stakeholders

Adopting internal and external viewpoints to comprehensively assess threats to software value.

#11 about 4 min

Cultivating relentless curiosity and skepticism to uncover hidden threats

Challenging deep-rooted assumptions and embracing continuous critical thinking to expose cunning software issues.

#12 about 3 min

Communicating software deviations with empathy to encourage positive improvement

Delivering critical feedback on discovered flaws in a deliberate and non-judgmental manner.

#13 about 3 min

Enabling decisions through comprehensive quality assistance narratives

Replacing meaningless vanity metrics with actionable insights on tested outcomes and remaining constraints.

#14 about 3 min

Summarizing the metaphorical roots of testing excellence

Tracing the synthesized characteristics back to a collective community of inspiring software testers.

Matching moments

2:04 min

Shifting software testing from adversarial gatekeeping to enablement

Steve Upton

Steve Upton · WWC 2024

1:55 min

Adopting a pragmatic approach to reasonable software engineering tests

Golo Roden · WWC 2021

2:30 min

The shifting mindset of modern quality assurance engineers

Alisa Hrustic

Alisa Hrustic · Europe 2026 Virtual

2:18 min

Transforming software quality from assurance to enablement

Ondřej Gróf

Ondřej Gróf · WWC Europe 2026

2:49 min

The evolution of software testing using artificial intelligence

Alisa Hrustic

Alisa Hrustic · Europe 2026 Virtual

58 sec

Cultivating a shared team mindset for software quality

Lilia Gargouri

Lilia Gargouri · WWC Europe 2026

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