Paul-Holland

Paul Holland

Principal Consultant

Company: Plato Testing

Stream: A, В

Time: 17:00 - 17:45

Country: United States

Language: English

Talk: The Pothole of Trying to Automate too Much

About Speaker

Paul Holland is a Principal Consultant at Plato Testing in Canada, but he works remotely from his home in Cocoa Beach, Florida. Paul has over 27 years experience in software testing. Prior to joining Plato Testing in March, 2023, he has been a Sr. Test Automation Architect at Saks Off 5th for 1.5 years, a Senior Director of Test Engineering at Medidata Solutions for 4.5 years, and Head of Testing at a small New York based consultancy for 2 years. Previously he spent 2 years as the principal consultant and owner at Testing Thoughts, and 17 years at Alcatel-Lucent.
Paul specializes in adapting testing methodologies to reduce waste, and be more effective and efficient. Finding ways to document only that which needs to be documented. Modifying reporting of test activities to provide actionable information to stakeholders and reduce/eliminate potentially harmful metrics. Paul is one of four instructors of the Rapid Software Testing course, developed by James Bach and Michael Bolton.

Talk: The Pothole of Trying to Automate too Much

Is your company spending a lot of time and effort on an automation strategy while your customers believe that product quality has not improved? Does management see automation as a silver bullet that will save money, increase coverage, and reduce headcount? Do you work for a company where the goal is (almost) 100 percent test automation? Paul Holland discusses issues and problems with these approaches and perceptions about test automation. He provides strong arguments why the “automate everything” approach is not likely to be successful and provides details of an alternative, balanced approach that will generally yield higher quality software. Paul discusses the difference between testing and checking, details five problems that can and do occur in situations where companies try to automate too much, tells real life stories from companies he has worked with, and provides details of a broader, more balanced solution.