The 7th Cambridge Exploratory Workshop on Testing (CEWT) took place to the topic of “Dirty Testing Secrets”. The organisers wanted to know whether there were things that might “horrify” or “upset” when becoming public, and given CEWT is a peer conference, a place for discussion and a friendly environment to explore diverse ideas together, the talk I’ve presented was deliberately controversial. As a disclaimer, the picture I painted obviously will not be true for every context, but might be for some. Also, to leave open for discussion on the day, at this occasion, I did not suggest any answers or action to mitigate the concerns drawn – although I can think of some, and would be more than happy to discuss further!
This was the talk I gave on the day, titled “Testing in Half the Time”:
You want to know a secret?
You want to know a testing secret?
You want to know a dirty testing secret?What about this.
I often thought that …
… half of the time, at least, we testers really are not needed.
… half of the time, at least, all this testing we do really is unnecessary.
… half of the time, at least, a tester in the team might actually endanger good development practices, team work, efficient communication.That sounds tough, right? But please let me elaborate on that.
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The last year was a bit of a journey into pairing for me. Not that I hadn’t paired before and didn’t appreciate and enjoy it. But pairing got amplified in the last year as a more conscious effort and an initiative in the groups I was working with. It took place in different forms, but often would mean (two) people working on something together, as a dedicated session, potentially time boxed (to an hour), where we set ourselves a goal or a mission, did the thing, and debriefed. 
putzerfisch - thoughts on testing 