Ok. Itâs old news. But worthy of a long term thread.
We know software testing is not dying a death, donât we? But can we give some reasons why or how it is not?
Here are some to get you going, can you add some to this list�
Over to youâŚ
Software Testing is evaluating a piece of software in order to find problems so that someone can do something about it.
When a programmer compiles a program and looks for build errors or does a code review they are testing.
So we can do it well or we can do it badly, but forever it shall be done.
By working more closely with developers, having conversations instead of waiting for work to reach us, we are helping to reduce the chance of bugs being made from misunderstandings or scenarios not thought about. It then means less bugs are found when code makes itâs way into test, but because we are helping to prevent them from being made in the first place.
so, whilst it may seem less testing is happening, it is simply being done in a way to make it less obvious but more valuable.
I donât think Iâm adding to the list as such, but my opinion is similar to Leeâs reply.
With the focus on quick delivery, testing is changing rather than dying (and is actually more important than ever).
We need to test everywhere rather than at the end.
We need to shift left AND right to ensure that weâre still delivering quality software which is performing as expected for our users.
Dan Ashbyâs diagram springs to mind - https://danashby04.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/model-2.jpg?w=775 from https://danashby.co.uk/2016/10/19/continuous-testing-in-devops/
This is one of the talking topic these days in IT market that âSoftware testingâ is dying. Some people think this way and some are not. Hence at a moment when we are finding top leading Software testing companies are having their primary focus on their QA team. If we talk about manual testing, we can say that manual testing is losing their importance little bit in the top software testing companies in some specific situations due to the wider scope of automation testing tools these days. But, still there is a terrific demand of manual tester in industry.
As we all know if we are starting a career in software testing, then having knowledge of the automation testing tool is big plus as we will definitely get better position in coming years. If we talk about any software application or big product then it wonât be get successful unless tester can test the same. Tester helps the product or application to be refined enough so that it can be of acceptable standard for the end user.
So, the truth behind this question Is software testing dying? is that its not dying. Basically, its transforming and changing as right now every companies wants that all layers of the their application need to be tested simultaneously with each possible scenario and in context, with an end goal of creating a quality product. One of the main reason is that manual testing will never die because the automation testing could not cover all kind of test cases for all the products and application. If any company is adding the new feature in their product then they need manual tester for the better quality of it. Manual Testing is normally the first thing when any functional testing services do to gain information from the system/application developed because all kind of complex testing start with Manual Testing. So the conclusion for this is that software testing is not dying , it just changing and transforming into certain areas.
Hope this information will be helpful for you.
Personally I measure the health of the testing community by numberOfTestBashesPerYear - as this number keeps going up, wellâŚ
The craft has changed, that much is true. We now see a shared responsibility when it comes to writing (automated) tests and as most testing is automated that means testers have to work harder than they might previously to show their value.
I hear âwe donât need testers as we write testsâ which really means unit tests, which isnât the whole testing picture - this is worrying.
I also know that Test Managers are very hard to come by for those companies and recruiters whoâre looking for them (us). Likewise, I think finding strong and experienced testers is hard to come by as many testers have gone on to other roles by the time they get to Senior/Staff level within a business.
as most testing is automated
Not in my neck of the woods it isnât - we have good BDD/Unit coverage on newer projects, but exploratory and requirements-driven testing is a key component in most of our projects.
âI hear âwe donât need testers as we write testsâ which really means unit tests, which isnât the whole testing pictureâŚâ
Too right. I recently had cause to complain to a director of my usual supermarket because they had a customer self-service terminal in-store that worked 100% fine in terms of the code but whose UI was appalling and had so obviously never been reviewed by a human being before release. I pointed out that my usual invoice for the level of report I provided them with was ÂŁ250, but Iâd be happy with ÂŁ15 off my next shop. All I got was a weak excuse and the not-so-exciting news that the system I was complaining about was due to be torn out and replaced with a mobile app inside the next three months.
If Iâd been basing a big purchasing decision on the high-level corporate response and what it told me about the companyâs testing policy, I would have been taking my business elsewhere. Fortunately for them, there are other factors influencing my choice of supermarketâŚ
Iâm working as a software testing consultant and in my point of view, automation can never fully replace all the testing that has to be done. Manual testing is underappreciated and even though there are many automation tools, frameworks, and languages now making their debut, QA would always be important for a better user experience.
Software Testing ainât dying. But where and when you do the testing is changing, because of the expectations of faster delivery to the customers.
As customers want âRight Nowâ solutions, testing should also be âRight Nowâ !
Automation is just part of this transformation story. Processes and methodologies also play a part. (PsstâŚnot just âAgileâ :-P)
Indeed! Software testing is not dying at all. It is rather a very important part of digital transformation. In my opinion, software testing carries all the potential to redefine the technology of the future.
Adding to your idea of merging and overlapping roles, I believe software testing has evolved as a process. Right from the introduction of Agile to DevOps, DevSecOps, Shift left testing, and automation, everything is here to make the process more productive, effective, reliable, and less-consuming.
It just kept evolving and changing over time, I donât think it will ever die. For years, or maybe even decades, people have been saying it testing is dying (in particular the âmanualâ testing) but that never seems to happen.
Testing is dead, long live testing! 
