A wave of change is about to hit us. Not only are we not ready, most of are not even aware, says Johan Steyn, Senior Manager: Enterprise Testing, Nedbank.

It continually amazes me how people view software testing. In this day and age many of our colleagues and peers still see our craft as boring. Many think that to become a software tester is to live at the bottom of the Information Tech food chain. The mantra goes: If you have no real skills or ambition… if we need to get you off the bench… let’s make you a tester. Testing is easy, they reckon. You just push a few buttons and the testing tools will do all the rest!

But maybe they have a point. Although it is most certainly not the case for all, I can say that many of the testing ‘professionals’ I have worked with over the years were the laziest bunch of people I have ever met. So maybe we deserve the view that other IT bunnies have of us?

DevOps is no longer a choice

It is also clear to me that many (most?) testers approach their careers as someone who sleeps well, unaware of the gathering tsunami about to hit their lives. This tsunami is DevOps. Try this: put 10 people in a line and ask them all what DevOps is. You will get 10 opinions. DevOps is new, its sexy, everyone talks about it.

DevOps is the way to go. We no longer have a choice. We need to move faster, work better, do things smarter. If organisations want to push change and innovation as they should in order to survive, they have to embark on the DevOps journey.

What will your testing team look like in the future?

Try and imagine what your testing team will look like as you embrace DevOps. Look at the faces around you and the amount of people in your team. There is a good chance that most of your team (perhaps including you) are already redundant. Can you script? Are you a technical tester? Do you know test automation and non functional testing (and by this I do not mean do you know how to use a tool – do you know it in principle, can you talk to it, can you be a thought-leader in your organisation?)

This tsunami is on our doorstep. Forget your 2020 vision, your 5-year plan. We have to change right now! If you have not already embarked on this journey, you are most likely already far behind some of your competitors.

Get ready for the big wave. This is exciting! Read much more. Train yourself much better. Certify more if needed. We can surf this thing and it will be the ride of our lives!

The views expressed in this article are entirely my own. This article does not necessarily reflect the views of any organisations I am associated with.

This post was originally published on LinkedIn. Edited for web by Cecilia Rehn.