The Automationist’s Gambit

Link to event: https://meet.google.com/uag-mxsh-hza

About the Talk-
In exploratory testing, we intertwine design and execution and learn between tests in a way that changes the next test we perform for more impactful testing. This learning requires agency, a human connection between the two tasks with the power of making decisions at the moment.
In this talk, we extend agency from a person making decisions about the design and execution of tests to making these decisions about the use of automation. When we enter exploratory testing with programming skills, test automation becomes a way of documenting our testing and extending our reach. We can’t explore well without automating; we can’t automate well without exploring. And we need to learn between the tests in a way that changes the next test we perform.
Opening the game with an automationist's gambit is a good option for a solid foundation of testing. We need to talk about the impact of opening to the middle and end game of testing a product as well as building a career with testing emphasis.
The skills the future of the testing craft requires have already shifted. Good testing includes exploring with automation as well as without, intertwined.
Takeaways:

• Importance of agency for great testing
• Test automation as documentation, and its other uses
• End of separation of manual and automated testing

About the Speaker-
Maaret Pyhäjärvi is an exploratory tester extraordinaire with a day-job at Vaisala as Principal Test Engineer. She is an empirical technologist, a tester and a (polyglot) programmer, a catalyst for improvement, a speaker and an author, and a community facilitator. She has been awarded the two prestigious global testing awards, Most Influential Agile Testing Professional Person 2016 (MIATPP) and EuroSTAR Testing Excellence Award (2020), and selected as Top-100 Most Influential in ICT in Finland 2019, 2020, and 2021. She’s spoken at events in 25 countries delivering over 400 sessions. With 25 years of exploratory testing under her belt, she crafts her work role into a mix of hands-on testing and programming and leading and enabling others. She leads TechVoices enabling new speakers, blogs at https://visible-quality.blogspot.fi and is the author of three books: Ensemble Programming Guidebook, Exploratory Testing, and Strong-Style Pair Programming.