What a thoughtful share-various cheers and loud clapping! Actually, I like the point made by the author: Testing seems less like something that is “done” and more like something that changes and grows with context.
For me, I don’t think that testing can be ever finished; however, testing is done when the risks are an understood matter and when there’s enough confidence to proceed. That stop moment, in my case, usually tends to occur when critical risk scenarios have been covered, automation, and exploratory checks show consistently good results, and the potential business impact of current risks can be considered acceptable.
I’d also love to hear from others on how they arrive at their “enough,” this is one call that is so nuanced according to the team, the product, and the deadlines.
In the context of a delivery - I sometimes say, we test until we run out of chocolates. That is - until we are all out of incentives. Money, Being on Schedule, Goodwill - and Timing. Currently I work with a delivery with hundreds of test cases and quite a stakeholder focus. Other contexts could be more stop and ship due to market forces or events - even with uncovered risks. If there is no interest in the testing output, we should stop testing, make the report and move along.
In every non-trivial system landscape there is a “practically infinitive” number of tests to explore. In smaller contexts it might be possible to list all permutations and combinations. So we are always sampling, we can try to model a better ROI for the investment. more here: A Better ROI for testing | Complexity is a Matter of Perspective
The craft is ever-evolving, tools com and go. Methods and frameworks too. Some testes are on the forefront of automation and AI, others just struggle to finish the test cases within sprint. Yes, shift-left and test automation has left a dent in the numbers of classic testers wrangling testcases, but there is still loads to tackle and jobs to be done. The viewpoints changes over time.
On a personal level, recently I’m doing more things outside software testing. Other people over time have become managers or drifted away for other reasons. That’s inevitable. What I try to convey in my writing - blogs and books - are opportunities for growth of the field and in the field.
Testing stops when you have a plan on what to test and you’ve executed that plan whether its written or not. It gets abandoned if you don’t have a plan.
