Sivakumar GanesanThe following are some of my favorite quotes on automation. Most of them talk about automation in general, and most probably made in the times of machines started replacing men and women in the manufacturing sector. In this article, I will try to apply these quotes to test automation.
Favorite quote of all time:
This was a quote from Bill Gates in his book “The Road Ahead” which he co-authored with Nathan Myhrvold and Peter Rinearson in 1996. And, it is one of my favorite quotes on automation. If there is an underlying problem with the process, automation is never the answer. Instead, it will only result in adding more inefficiencies. So, remember this fundamental principle.
From a visionary leader ahead of his time, JFK.
One of the common myths or fear in the software testing community is automation will eventually replace manual testing/testers. This is NOT true. This JFK’s quote from 1963 addresses the concerns of the employees of auto manufacturing industries. The machines replaced the repetitive, manual-intensive jobs in the process line. But this created newer jobs that need human skills. This is applicable for test automation as well. It frees up enough time for testers to do much more productive exploratory testing.
Soon, there may only be 2 types of jobs.
Thomas Preston-Werner said in 2014 that there will only be two types of jobs in the future: people who code computers, and people who get bossed around by computers. If you apply this to software testing, automation has become inevitable. All testers should upskill themselves and start using tools and automation that complement their manual testing.
More force to you…
Anna Callender Brackett, an American Philosopher said this in the early twentieth century. As stated earlier, when automation takes over the mundane, boring repetitive testing tasks, there’s more time for exploratory testing to improve the product’s quality.
Do it Yourself!
In 1964, Herbert Marshall McLuhan, a Canadian educator, philosopher, and scholar said that automation enables us to take care of things in our own hands. Instead of relying on specialists, the advancements in technology and newer tools made it simpler for testers these days to perform advanced tests with a lesser learning curve than ever before. Automation definitely provides additional confidence in the delivered product’s quality.
For more awesome quotes on automation, visit azquotes.
What do you think? Do you have any favorite quotes that can be applied to software testing or test automation? You can leave your comments here or on Twitter @testingchief. You can read my other interesting software testing blogs here.
