Two paradigms dominate the modern software testing landscape, shift left and shift right. These are fueled primarily by the need to accelerate software delivery to keep pace with a more dynamic and demanding digital engagement landscape. Shift left moves testing workloads earlier in the SDLC, leveraging test automation and practices like behavior-driven development (BDD) to foster developer accountability and more comprehensive testing.

Last week members of our service, network and sales teams gathered in Copenhagen to take in software testing best practices at the 2022 EuroSTAR software testing conference. On the ground, in our discussions, and during sessions we picked up on three key themes important to the future of our industry —

If your typical user story looks like: “As a new user, I want to create an account to have an account,” then you might have a problem. As a recent viral Twitter thread from user evangelist and UX pro Laura Klein pointed out a big issue in the QA community: how to write a user story. Product owners are trying to create and execute as many user stories as possible to define requirements and establish acceptance criteria.

While a lot of attention is being paid to cost controls in the context of current market trends, the pressure to reduce software testing costs is not something that changes with economic tides. The reality is that even in a bull market, development leaders — pushed by financial expectations and the costly nature of development — are not only being asked to deliver high-quality releases faster than ever, they’re being asked to tighten budgets.